IMN : Updates for Dave Holland

Barron and Holland are as good as it gets

IMN

April 29th, 2013

From The Washington Post

Kenny Barron and Dave Holland are as good as it gets, but it’s discipline that defines them
By Michael J. West

Not every duet is an “intimate” one. Pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland, two of the finest musicians alive — Barron is an NEA Jazz Master; Holland should be one — have worked together for four decades. But there was little intimacy displayed Saturday night at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater, no knowing, across-the-stage-and-years glances. They focused on their instruments, and the music emanating from that focus was profound and masterly.

Indeed, as if to prove their prowess, the two spent much of the set tying their musical relationship into knots. The opening “Spiral,” one of Barron’s greatest compositions, found Holland as the melodist, his clipped tone resonating against Barron’s dense, often challenging chords. They did something similar with Holland’s overcast ballad “In Your Arms,” but in a tug-of-war context: Barron controlled the melody for most of the tune, but Holland’s walking bass was so assured that it often took the helm without even trying, dragging the audience’s ear back and forth between them.

At the same time, they accentuated each other’s strengths. There was a remarkable rhythmic chemistry on Barron’s carefree “Calypso,” intuitively landing fresh accents together while keeping the Caribbean lilt. Barron’s piano solo, based in the tune’s rhythmic devices, had a whiff of cocktail-jazz to it. But not inappropriately, as Holland understood; when his turn came, he took the same path, rhythmic motifs and all.

To read the full review click here

Holland started at the top, still there 40 years later

IMN

January 28th, 2013

from www.mlive.com

Jazz bassist Dave Holland started at the top, still there 40 years later
By: Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Jazz bassist Dave Holland broke into the business behind the jazz trumpet great Miles Davis.

When you start at the top, they say, there’s no place left to go but down. Except Holland stayed there.

The past 40 years has seen him work alongside Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Betty Carter, all of whom live on only in memory and record collections.

He’s one of the last men standing, and knowing that matters when you hear the Dave Holland Quintet.

To read the full article click here

Dave Holland faz show irretocável em São Paulo

IMN

December 5th, 2012

From Rolling Stone

Dave Holland faz show irretocável em São Paulo
By: ANTÔNIO DO AMARAL ROCHA

O britânico Dave Holland, 66 anos, um dos baixistas acústicos mais aclamados em atividade, que já gravou com Miles Davis nos discos fundamentais do trompetista (In a Silent Way e Bitches Brew), voltou ao Brasil neste mês de novembro. A última vez que esteve por aqui foi em 2006. Nesta oportunidade, depois de uma participação no Festival Canoas Jazz do Mercosul, no dia 25 deste mês, foi a vez de São Paulo recebê-lo para dois shows dirigidos a um público relativamente pequeno no Sesc Belenzinho. Poderia ter acontecido em um lugar maior, visto que os ingressos estavam esgotados já há duas semanas. No show do dia 27, terça-feira, causou estranheza a ausência da bateria no palco. Afinal, estava anunciada a presença do quinteto, mas o que se viu foi um quarteto formado por Dave Holland no baixo acústico, Chris Potter nos saxofones (tenor e soprano), Robin Eubanks no trombone e Steve Nelson no vibrafone e xilofone.

Depois do segundo tema (“Ario”), Holland fez as apresentações, declarou estar muito feliz em tocar no Brasil, se desculpando por não falar português. E pôde esclarecer a transformação do quinteto em quarteto e a ausência do baterista Nate Smith, que não pôde viajar por problemas com o visto para trabalho. Dave prometeu que mesmo com a ausência do baterista, eles iriam tentar fazer o melhor show e que se sentiam livres e à vontade para se adaptar às circunstâncias. E foi o que se viu.

To read more click here

Dave Holland talks about date at the Michigan Theater

IMN

November 14th, 2012

from annarbor.com

Jazz great Dave Holland talks about influences, rare Big Band date at the Michigan Theater

By Kevin Ransom

These days, Dave Holland—one of the greatest jazz bassists / composers of the last 40-plus years, and a true jazz giant—only breaks out his renowned Big Band on special occasions. That’s mostly due to economics: It’s just too costly to take a large ensemble on the road for extended tours.
But, one of those special occasions will be Saturday, when Holland brings his Big Band to the Michigan Theater under University Musical Society auspices.

“Yeah, this is not part of a tour, it’s a one-off,” says Holland. “We try and make it work economically, and I also want to make sure the music is as great as it can be, so I also need to be able to ensure that I always keep the best guys—we’ve had the same personnel in the big band right along. So, the last couple of years, with the economy what it is, we’ve only done a handful of shows a year.”

Holland first formed his Big Band in 2000, but for the last 15 years or so, Holland’s Quintet has been his primary ensemble. But he’s so restlessly creative that, in the last several years, he’s also recorded and toured with his Octet, and done a flamenco record (“Hands,” in 2010, with all-world flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela).

To read the full article click here

Dave Holland: Ottawa's Artist-In-Residence

IMN

June 25th, 2012

From The Ottawa Citizen

The Ottawa Jazz Festival named Dave Holland their first ever Artist-In-Residence this year, knowing he would bring something special to their audience, and Holland did not disappoint. Doug Fisher and Peter Hum from the Ottawa Citizen had rave reviews for each of Holland’s ensembles that played the festival this weekend:

Barron, Holland give fans the ideal musical conversation
Barron and Holland are not only two of jazz’s most accomplished practitioners on their instruments, they are also two of its finest composers, and their musical encounter, spread out over two shows Friday, was an experience to savour.

The two veterans, Barron is 69 and Holland 65, performed deeply felt, in-the-moment music, showing their respect for each other openly in the way they fed off of each other’s ideas and raised an eyebrow in appreciation of a memorable moment.

Thimar creates common ground for Middle Eastern sound, jazz
If the Ottawa Jazz Festival was going to stage any of its dozens of concerts in a church, the Arabic music encounter of oud master Anouar Brahem, saxophonist John Surman and bassist Dave Holland was the one.

The trio, which has recorded and toured off and on under the name Thimar (Arabic for “fruits”) since the late 1990s, performed a haunting set of meditative music, heavily inflected with Arab motifs and melodies and spiritual to its core.

Prism filled air with vivid, visceral music
Dave Holland’s instincts were bang-on.

Weeks before his new quartet Prism would play its inaugural concert in Ottawa, the bassist/bandleader said, “I have an instinctive feeling that there’s going to be some great exchanges between all the people in the band. When I think of it, when I imagine the musicians playing together, I’m getting a very good feeling about that.”

Holland was right to be optimistic about what he, guitarist Kevin Eubanks, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland would pull off. Its world premiere Sunday night on the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s main stage, in advance of a stretch of European concerts, was an exuberant, rock-inflected affair filled with vivid and visceral music.

When the Music and the Moment Come Together (the Dave Holland Profile)

IMN

June 18th, 2012

From The Ottawa Citizen

When the music and the moment come together (the Dave Holland profile)
By:Peter Hum

One day before Dave Holland was to perform at the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway last year, the unthinkable happened.

Last July 22, far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 of his fellow Norwegians by bomb and by bullets. The following night, Holland, the festival’s artist-in-residence, was to give the event’s closing concert.

The mass murder “hit everybody very hard,” the acclaimed bassist and bandleader remembers. “There was some talk about canceling.”

To read the full article click here

What is Jazz to You? Dave Holland & Jason Moran Respond

IMN

May 21st, 2012

From Jazz Promo Services

What is jazz to you? Dave Holland, Jason Moran and others share their thoughts.

Tell us what jazz means to you and enter to win a pair of tickets to a concert in the new SFJAZZ Center!

Our new home, scheduled to open January 2013, will be the first freestanding building in the western United States designed for jazz performance and education. It will also be a crossroads for conversations about the art form. Help shape those conversations now at Are You Listening?

Today we’re posting five new videos with figures from across culture, all sharing their thoughts on the music.

To watch the videos click here

Mr. Dave Holland’s Ottawa Opus

IMN

February 27th, 2012

From The Ottawa Citizen

Mr. Dave Holland’s Ottawa Opus
By: Peter Hum

The acclaimed bassist and bandleader Dave Holland will be the 2012 Ottawa Jazz Festival’s artist-in-residence, performing in three concerts that showcase his versatility in late June.

The 65-year-old British-born, upstate New York-based Holland, who last played in Ottawa in 2009 in Herbie Hancock’s star-studded band, will give two indoor concerts and one outdoor show.

On June 21, Holland is to play duets with New York pianist Kenny Barron in his most traditional and swinging of his three performances.

To read more click here

Dave Holland Octet vs. Mother Nature

IMN

September 6th, 2011

From JazzTimes

Detroit Jazz Festival, Day Two: Dave Holland, Jason Moran, Christian McBride & … Mother Nature!
By: Russ Davis

I was asked by the folks who run the Detroit Jazz Festival to get a little more involved with the various features of the festival this year including being part of the streaming television feature JAZZ PLANET.tv, interviewing artists under the JAZZ TALK TENT, and introducing artists as emcee of some of the live shows. I was honored to have been asked and thrilled to contribute. There is one trade off involved in this though, and that is that I spent most of Saturday, day two of the 32nd’ Detroit Jazz Festival, working on these projects kept me from seeing some of the performances on this blazing hot sunny afternoon.

I missed the Brazilian duo of vocalist Luciana Souza and guitarist Romero Lubambo (luckily I’d seen them in Montreal and they are incredibly charming and supremely musical), up and coming young vibes master Warren Wolf and his back WOLFPAC, trumpeter Sean Jones and Detroiters Geri Allen & Robert Hurst with the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble. I was willing to give up these performances to be part of the other efforts as I most certainly am willing to give back to a festival that has given me so much joy in the past and offers so much more for the present and future. After all, I was all set to introduce the performance by Jason Moran and his band Bandwagon as well as taking in shows by Sun Ra Arkestra, world-jazz pioneers Mandrill and the great Dave Holland and his Octet to top off the evening. That’s until a certain power that is, Mother Nature, stepped in to remind us all that She’s still in charge of things! A massive storm swept through the area with 60 MPG winds, hail, thunder, lightening and incredible rain that washed out the evening’s shows.

Not to be discouraged, Dave Holland decided to take his set to the indoors at the lobby bar of the home base hotel for the festival, the enormous Marriott at Renaissance Center. It was an impromptu event that was only witnessed by those who happened to be walking through the lobby at 10:30 PM. Unfortunately I was not one of them and was not alerted but by all accounts the show was inspired.

As Mike Stratton, the great writer and radio presenter from the area wrote:

“We didn’t want to leave Detroit until we’d played some music for you,” said Holland after the band’s first tune, which started around 10:30 p.m. The Octet is made up of some of the best voices in jazz on their respective instruments: Steve Nelson on vibes (one of several stellar vibraphonists to grace the DJF this year), Nate Smith on drums, Gary Smulyan on baritone sax, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Alex “Sasha” Sipiagin on trumpet, Chris Potter on tenor and soprano sax, Antonio Hart on alto sax and Dave Holland himself on bass. The band opened with Pathway, the title track from their album, and they went on to perform several tracks from that album. Working superbly with form and structure, the unit both grooves and swings, the horns engaging in call and response, the rhythmic tension and release that is nearly carnal in its dynamics. Each player got ample solo space, though Antonio Hart’s snaky recitation built to a thunderous crescendo that gained a huge ovation from a well-lubricated audience. Nate Smith’s start/stop funky solo, playing with time, also got the audience’s approval. And Chris Potter brought down the house with his powerful musicianship.

To read more click here

Dave Holland Quintet at Blue Note Jazz Fest

IMN

July 5th, 2011

From Blue Note

The Dave Holland Quintet featuring Chris Potter, Robin Eubanks, Steve Nelson & Nate Smith performs at the Highline Ballroom as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival. For more information on the Blue Note Jazz Festival, please visit: http://bluenotejazzfestival.com/.

Since its inception in 1981, The Blue Note Jazz Club has been a home for the world’s finest jazz musicians and a cultural institution of New York City. In honor of its 30th anniversary, the Blue Note is expanding its doors throughout New York during the month of June 2011 for the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival. The Festival will feature numerous high-profile acts such as Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti, Nancy Wilson, Bobby McFerrin, Roberta Flack, Brian Wilson, Medeski Martin & Wood, El Gran Combo, McCoy Tyner, Youssou N’Dour, Bill Frisell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Madeleine Peyroux, Chaka Khan, and many more. In addition to holding a special series of shows at the Blue Note, the club will host an outdoor concert at Central Park’s Summerstage and present shows at the Beacon Theatre, Town Hall, BB King Blues Club & Grill, Highline Ballroom, Terminal 5, Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, among many other venues.

Watch the video below or on YouTube.

Playing with Dave Holland is "like riding in a Rolls Royce"

IMN

June 30th, 2011

From The Montreal Gazette

Montreal International Jazz Festival 2011: Dave Holland at Theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts; June 29, 2011
By: Peter Hadekel

Dave Holland’s first two nights at the Invitation Series were a study in contrasts.

On Tuesday the bass virtuoso took the stage at Theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts in the company of veteran New York pianist Kenny Barron for a set of lyrical duets, including several standards. Then, on Wednesday night, Holland’s quintet kicked the doors down at PdA with a high-voltage set of original compositions.

The much anticipated duo with Barron delivered all it promised. The pianist, of course, has the complete toolkit. He’s the consummate accompanist, voicing chords in bright or moody ways, as the fancy strikes him. As a soloist, he’s a forceful bebopper who can step outside the lines when necessary.

Together they shone on standards like The Very Thought of You and You Don’t Know What Love Is. The latter was a tour de force in Barron’s hands, as he upped the ante on each chorus, mixing block chords with bluesy runs.

To read more click here and check out a clip of the performance here.

Dave Holland Explores Varied Traditions

IMN

June 27th, 2011

From The Montreal Gazette

Holland Explores Varied Traditions
Eclectic bandleader loves working with new rhythms and melodic ideas
By: Peter Hadekel

Dave Holland is not just a gifted bandleader, composer and improviser with a huge sound on the acoustic bass. He’s also a voracious student of other traditions.

The British-born bassist recently recorded an album of Flamenco music with Spanish guitarist Pepe Habichuela. At this year’s edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, he’ll be performing in a trio with Anouar Brahem, a Tunisian master of the oud, the stringed instrument that embodies the finest traditions of Arabic music.

This is in addition to Holland’s festival show with veteran jazz pianist Kenny Barron and a performance by his own quintet featuring standouts Chris Potter on tenor sax, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Steve Nelson on vibraphone and Nate Smith on drums.

To read more click here

Dave Holland: Basso Nobile

IMN

May 20th, 2011

From La Scena Musicale

Dave Holland : Basso Nobile
By: Marc Chénard

There’s an old joke that goes like this:

There once was an aging couple that hadn’t uttered a word to each other for years. Family and friends tried to get them talking, to no avail. One day, a musician brought a bandmate to play his bass for them. And—presto! Within seconds, they were chatting away. So it just goes to show you: everyone talks during a bass solo!

But when Dave Holland launches into one of his own, the exact opposite happens: audiences hold their breaths as the sounds seemingly gush out of his double bass, with occasional gasps of wonderment greeting one or another of his virtuosic turns. As one of the most acclaimed jazzmen of our times, his work as composer and bandleader has been duly acknowledged by two Grammy awards, both earned in the last decade. For over 25 years, he has produced a string of sterling releases under his own name, first for the prestigious ECM label, but more recently on his own imprint, Dare2 Records.

A face familiar to Canadian festival-goers, in particular those in Montreal who have witnessed his prowess on numerous occasions, Holland will be gracing our city in late June as an invited guest of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM).

To read more click here

REVIEW Dave Holland Leads Collective Improvisation

IMN

December 13th, 2010

From The Philadelphia Inquirer

Dave Holland Leads Collective Improvisation
By: Kevin L. Carter

Just as a basketball team with two great scorers has a problem – there’s only one ball – so does a big band with lots of great players. Are there enough notes in the room for everyone?

While that’s not exactly a real concern, the presence of so many top-flight soloists in the Dave Holland Big Band brings up a humorous conundrum. “What Goes Around,” which ended Holland’s second Painted Bride set Saturday night, had tenorist Chris Potter and trombonist Robin Eubanks collectively improvising to establish an intense tone for the show’s end.

The solo of grizzled veteran Potter was the penultimate of the night, and it was at the same time mathematically precise and desperately insistent. Even when he played at rapid-fire tempo, his rhythmic ideas and phrasing were exacting. Eubanks, on the other hand, used his trombone to mimic and expand some of his own electronic ideas; the bending of notes and compression of sounds he created with his hands, mouth, and brain were just as impressive – if not more so – as the stuff he’s done with electronic help.

To read the full article click here

Ask Dave Holland

IMN

December 7th, 2010

The second installment of “Ask Dave Holland” is up on Dave’s site now! Here’s a sample of this round’s questions:

“Do you have a regular practice routine that you do, or in what ways to you organise your practice schedule?” – Luke Sellick

I divide my time between technical practice and creative practice. Of course, the two areas overlap and support each other.

Like most musicians I use scales and arpeggios for a lot of my practice material. There are endless variations. I also have a series of exercises that works particular aspects of bass technique. Basically left hand technique, pizzicato and bowing.

The creative practice involves just playing through ideas, sometimes within a given framework and sometimes just in a free association kind of way. I might be working on ideas that relate to music that Ill be playing on gigs. I try to have a focus to my practice and I often have several things that I will be working on at any given time..

“What are the attributes you look for in musicians to play with? Is there any common factor among the musicians you play with?” – Scott Price

I think the fundamental thing is how it feels to play music together. Music is a universal language that has many dialects but In the end playing with other musicians comes down the quality of communication. I like musicians that play with their heart and their head.

To read more click here

Confirmed Tourdates As Of

IMN

May 31st, 2013: Orchestra Hall Detroit, MI USA [Kenny Barron & Dave Holland Duo]
September 21st, 2013: Lyons Stage, Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey, CA USA [Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, Craig Taborn and Eric Harland: PRISM]
October 4th, 2013: MIM Music Theater Phoenix, AZ USA [Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, Craig Taborn and Eric Harland: PRISM]
October 6th, 2013: SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA USA [Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, Craig Taborn and Eric Harland: PRISM]