Jazz Articles about Dave Holland

Dave Holland: A Weekend of Bass

by Dave Roberts
May 1, 2001

There may be no instrument that is more vital yet less heralded in a jazz group than the bass. The bass provides much of the rhythmic and harmonic foundation as well as outlining the form. If the bassist is solid, locking in with the drums and piano, everyone else in the group can relax. And often, if the bassist is doing his job correctly, the audience doesn't even notice him. Bass solos are some of the more difficult to pull ...

Stan Getz: Live At The Left Bank

by John Sharpe
October 1, 2000

The story behind how this session came to be is almost as exciting as the recording itself. Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society was formed in 1964 by a group devoted to promoting and preserving jazz in the city. Soon the organization was hosting weekly concerts featuring outstanding local, national, and international jazz performers. In the mid-eighties noted jazz producer Joel Dorn began to follow-up on rumours that these Sunday afternoon concerts had been taped. Well, the rumours were true! Mr. ...

Stan Getz: My Foolish Heart: "Live" At The Left Bank

by AAJ Staff
October 1, 2000

Legendary album producer Joel Dorn has negotiated a canny deal.Hearing rumors about the existence of hundreds of tapes recorded by Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society, Dorn checked it out. The rumors were true. For whatever reasons, the Left Bank Jazz Society was one tough negotiator. The experienced negotiator Dorn has pursued the Society since 1986 to release some or all of its classic tapes for distribution, but to no avail.Now that Dorn has left 32 Jazz ...

Miles Davis: In A Silent Way

by John Ballon
September 1, 2000

Miles Davis was going through exciting musical changes in 1968, listening and playing things which were leading him into the future and into In a Silent Way. His music and lifestyle were being influenced by a wave of new sounds and ideas, and he was responding deeply to the music of James Brown, Sly Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. Having already pushed acoustic jazz to the limits with his mid-Sixties quintet, Miles metamorphosed the new sounds around him, creating a work ...

Miles Davis: In A Silent Way

by John Ballon
September 1, 2000

Miles Davis was going through exciting musical changes in 1968, listening and playing things which were leading him into the future and into In a Silent Way. His music and lifestyle were being influenced by a wave of new sounds and ideas, and he was responding deeply to the music of James Brown, Sly Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. Having already pushed acoustic jazz to the limits with his mid-Sixties quintet, Miles metamorphosed the new sounds around him, creating a work ...

Dave Holland Quintet: Prime Directive

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 1, 2000

During the 1980s jazz was still recovering from the decimation that had taken place the previous decade. The vast wasteland and dead-end streets that fusion and “lite jazz" had left was beginning to turn a tide with the renaissance movement being ushered in by Wynton Marsalis. Unbeknownst to only a select jazz crowd, bassist Dave Holland was nailing solid mainstream jazz to the wall with the great series of albums he would lead for ECM, beginning with 1983's Jumpin' In. ...

Alan Pasqua: Milagro

by Glenn Astarita
March 1, 2000

Milagro is pianist Alan Pasqua’s first date as a leader and a mighty impressive one at that! - Pasqua is an accomplished and much in demand jazz pianist who also shines as a composer on this gem while receiving first-rate support from the all-star rhythm section of bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Pasqua’s “Acoma” commences in the classic piano trio format, as the pianist exhibits his penchant for simply stated melodies along with spurts of ambrosial romanticism augmented ...