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304

Album Review

Dave Holland Big Band: What Goes Around

Read "What Goes Around" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
September 9, 2002

With a musical force like bassist Dave Holland at the helm, it's hard to imagine a group going wrong. But his new big band has a singular problem: too many players. Thirteen musicians, each more than capable, join forces on What Goes Around, which features seven tunes composed and arranged arranged by the man himself. Unfortunately this increase in scale just doesn't translate into much except redundancy. The core quintet (Potter, Eubanks, Nelson, Holland, and Kilson) has repeatedly proven its ...

132

Album Review

Various: Thank You, Joe!

Read "Thank You, Joe!" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 2000

Arkadia has a good thing going for it: tribute albums. Interestingly, Thank You, Joe! is Arkadia's first CD of appreciation extended to a living jazz legend. Previous honorees have included John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Gerry Mulligan.Thank goodness that Arkadia had the insight to honor Henderson. Such a tribute raises the question, however, of how many other living jazz innovators should be honored: Lucky Thompson, Ray Brown, Dave Brubeck, Jon Hendricks, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Horace Silver, Roy ...

167

Album Review

Chip White: Harlem Sunset

Read "Harlem Sunset" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 1, 1999

Harlem Sunset is the impressive debut recording from powerhouse drummer Chip White originally released in 1994 on the Postcards label which is now brought to us by way of Arkadia Records. Here, White shines as a composer, offering a series of compositions that convey an at times, hard-edged tenderness featuring killer support from an estimable bunch comprising saxophonist Gary Bartz, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Steve Nelson bassist Buster Williams and trumpeter Claudio Roditi. The proceedings get off to a furious ...

425

Album Review

Dave Holland: Points of View

Read "Points of View" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
December 1, 1998

British bassist and jazz veteran Dave Holland (b. 1946) has refashioned his ever iconoclastic quintet to feature Steve Wilson's sax and Robin Eubank's trombone interacting with former Quintet partner Steve Nelson's pianistic vibes and Billy Kilson's aggressively sensitive drumming.Holland cites the guiding influence of Duke Ellington in his Points of View. And while there is something starkly modern -- even unique -- in the bassist/composer's conceptions, there really is evidence that the great Ellington has inspired ...

454

Album Review

Dave Holland: Points of View

Read "Points of View" reviewed by Larry Koenigsberg

by Larry Koenigsberg
December 1, 1998

The eight compositions which make up Points of View are so varied that this in itself becomes a hallmark of Dave Holland's style here. Consistency instead comes from the interaction of the players, whom Holland's arrangements give ensemble roles during each other's solos; from the unusual instrumentation, used both for frank exoticism ("Bedouin Trail", “Serenade") and to leaven more traditional compositions with surprise. The soloists are imaginative, and swinging on those tunes where swing is part of the picture. Holland ...