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Charles Rumback, Kuzu and More
There's a slight Chicago flavour to this episode. Drummer Charles Rumback hooked up with noted New Orleans bassist James Singleton for Rumback's latest recording, Cadillac Turns. In an odd twist of strange, Singleton approached a jet-lagged Rumback in a bar in Sydney Australia and said he had seen Rumback playing in a Chicago bar a few nights earlier. Turns out Rumback had seen Singleton there as well, but didn't approach the bassist who has been a favourite of the drummer ...
read moreDave Holland: Uncharted Territories
Bassist extraordinaire Dave Holland's album Uncharted Territories embraces the avantgarde creed of exploration and innovation over chord progressions. Along with master musicians saxophonist Evan Parker, keyboardist Craig Taborn, and percussionist Ches Smith, Holland and crew fashion one sonic twist after the next in a progression of 23 tracks, 20 of which are recorded improvisations. The “double" album allows each of the musicians plenty of room to awe the listener with soundscapes that seem to dissolve and reform. Light ...
read moreFestival International De Jazz De Montréal 2018: Part 2
Part 1 | Part 2 2018 Festival International de Jazz de MontréalVarious VenuesMontréal, Canada July 3-7, 2018 It is always a pleasure to return to Montréal for the festival. This is only my third year, which makes me a relative newcomer; many of the journalists I have met have been regulars for ten or twenty years. But I have always felt welcome, and experienced hands have freely shared their knowledge with me. I ...
read moreDave Holland Residency at SFJAZZ
Dave Holland SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA March 22-25, 2018 Dave Holland took the stage with a smile, an appropriate beginning to a four-night residency at SFJAZZ in San Francisco, California, one which would see him transition from solo to duo to trio to quartet. Holland has created innumerable albums and CDs, including his solo bass recordings Emerald Tears (ECM, 1977) Ones All (ECM, 1993) and Life Cycle (Intuition Music, 1982), a solo ...
read moreCrosscurrents at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor
Crosscurrents with Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain & Company The Michigan Theater Ann Arbor, Michigan November 1, 2017 When it comes to forward-thinking performances and music of the finest lineage, few concert series can rival those presented by the University Musical Society. In tandem with the University of Michigan, UMS recently launched their 139th season. Furthermore, as part of its 24th year of jazz presentations, the organization recently hosted a pair of musicians who both have ...
read moreDave Holland: Consummate Bassist
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in May 1999 and is part of our ongoing effort to archive pre-database material. Bassist Dave Holland brings the flexible structures and varied instrumental colors of his Grammy nominated Quintet to several Michigan locations in the second week of April. On the 7th the group presents an afternoon masterclass at the University of Michigan followed by an evening performance at the Bird of Paradise Jazz Club in Ann Arbor. ...
read moreDan Bilawsky's Best Releases of 2016
Another year is almost in the books. And while there were many things to fret about in 2016, a lack of good music wasn't one of them. A quick look back at the year reminds us that jazz legends remain strong, rising stars continue to rapidly ascend, newcomers are making their presence felt, and the dearly departed are gracing us from the great beyond. I had the pleasure of listening to hundreds of new jazz albums for review consideration this ...
read moreAziza: Aziza
How do you define Aziza? Is it a collective-minded outfit? A supergroup? An offshoot or variant on previous gatherings? An archetype for musical synergy? A nod-in-name to African mythology and spiritual discovery? Yes, it's all of that. But why not avoid the traps and trappings involved with classification and just cut to the chase: Aziza is an artistically headstrong and muscular powerhouse, plain and not-so-simple. Would you expect anything less from the combination of bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist Chris Potter, ...
read moreDave Holland’s Prism at Copenhagen Jazzhouse
Dave Holland's Prism Copenhagen Jazzhouse Copenhagen, Denmark July 10, 2014 In jazz, forming a new group gives the possibility of finding a new musical expression, but it can also be a way of returning to one's musical roots. In the case of bassist Dave Holland's group Prism, it is actually both of these things. The group has brought Holland back in touch with the electrifying fusion that he created with trumpeter Miles Davis on ...
read moreDave Holland: Prism
Two instruments that bassist Dave Holland has rarely incorporated into his projects have been piano and guitar, his only guitar-centric album coming sixteen years after his first release as a leader, Conference of the Birds (ECM, 1973), when he recruited Kevin Eubanks for a particularly powerful set on Extensions (ECM, 1989). It took Holland even longer--nearly a quarter- century, in fact--before piano first surfaced on Pass It On (Dare2, 2008), with the recently deceased Mulgrew Miller, though Holland would subsequently ...
read moreDave Holland: Prism
Bassist Dave Holland first became a leader-on-record with Conference Of The Birds (ECM, 1973), a now-classic outré quartet session. That initial leader date portrayed Holland as a restless seeker, willing and eager to explore the inner workings of group dynamics and the outer reaches of convention, and he's done little to alter that perception of himself in the intervening years. Holland has, with band after band and album after album, continually broadened his outlook, creating a vast and enviable body ...
read moreDave Holland: Prism
Although über-bassist Dave Holland made his bones with one of Miles Davis' early electric bands, the lion's share of the British native's own music has come from the acoustic side of the scale. As such, longtime Holland fans will receive a major shock with their first listen to Prism. Those fans will need open ears and patience; everyone else just needs a volume control that goes to 11. The opening Fender Rhodes vamp on Kevin Eubanks' “The ...
read moreAlbum Showcase
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Jazz Story
By Connie Lansberg
Member since: 2010
As a songwriter and vocalist, I love jazz for the experience of being in the center of intense creativity. It is the most potent form of music for keeping the artist and the audience in the 'now”
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