IMN : Updates for Dave Holland

Confirmed Tourdates As Of May 8th, 2012

IMN

June 22nd, 2012: Studio - National Arts Centre Ottawa, ON, CANADA [Kenny Barron & Dave Holland Duo]
June 23rd, 2012: First Baptist Church Ottawa, ON, CANADA [Anouar Brahem Thimar with Dave Holland & John Surman]
June 24th, 2012: Confederation Park Ottawa, ON, CANADA [Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks, Craig Taborn and Eric Harland: PRISM]
November 17th, 2012: Michigan Theater Ann Arbor, MI USA [Dave Holland Big Band]
January 30th, 2013: Jazz At The Bistro St. Louis, MO USA [Dave Holland Quintet]
January 31st, 2013: Jazz At The Bistro St. Louis, MO USA [Dave Holland Quintet]
February 1st, 2013: Jazz At The Bistro St. Louis, MO USA [Dave Holland Quintet]
February 2nd, 2013: Jazz At The Bistro St. Louis, MO USA [Dave Holland Quintet]

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

Dave Holland Octet Nominated for Grammy

IMN

November 29th, 2010

IMN congratulates the Dave Holland Octet on their Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album Grammy nomination for Pathways! Also nominated in that category are: 54 (Metropole Orkest, John Scofield & Vince Mendoza), Infernal Machines (Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society), Autumn: In Moving Pictures Jazz – Chamber Music Vol. 2 (Billy Childs Ensemble Featuring The Ying String Quartet), and Mingus Big Band Live At Jazz Standard (Mingus Big Band).

For the full list of nominees click here

Dave Holland Finds A New Journey In Flamenco

IMN

November 17th, 2010

From NPR

Dave Holland Finds A New Journey In Flamenco
By: Banning Eyre

British bassman Dave Holland has a resume that reads like a who’s who of jazz. He’s led bands large and small and accompanied legends from Coleman Hawkins to Miles Davis to Pat Metheny. Holland’s newest album, Hands, is the fruit of a three-year collaboration with renowned flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela.

Holland is fond of quoting the great Sam Rivers, who once said, “Don’t leave anything out. Play all of it.” Holland has lived that credo, dipping his toes into blues, pop, even bluegrass. But when Holland first played with Pepe Habichuela in 2007 at a workshop in Spain, he quickly understood that flamenco, the sort of deep flamenco that the Habichuela clan deals in, was music he needed to explore more deeply.

Four members of the Habichuela family play on this record, three of them on guitar. Some go by the name Carmona, but they all belong to a flamenco dynasty that goes back five generations in Granada. Their history, refinement, virtuosity and explosive passion come through on every track.

To read the entire article and listen to a couple tracks click here

Ask Dave Holland

IMN

November 2nd, 2010

From daveholland.com

As I mentioned in my recent email newsletter, we are starting a monthly feature on my blog called simply, “Ask Dave.” I receive quite a few questions about my career and playing music in general via email, and rather than respond privately, I thought I would make my answers available for everyone to read. We will pick several submissions at the end of every month and post the answers here. You can ask questions about my career and music or ask for advice about your playing—anything, really. However, please direct your inquiries about bookings for live appearances or teaching engagements to the appropriate contacts.

If you have questions for me for next month’s feature, you can either pose them in the comments sections of this post or send them to me via email at davehollandjazz@gmail.com.

To read the answers to this month’s questions click here

LIVE VIDEO Dave Holland Tourcoing Jazz Festival

IMN

October 27th, 2010

Enjoy this live video of the Dave Holland Quintet featuring Robin Eubanks from this Tourcoing Jazz Festival.

NPR Calls Dave Holland "A Jazz Bassist's Bassist"

IMN

July 26th, 2010

from NPR

Dave Holland: A Jazz Bassist’s Bassist
By Karen Michel

Jazz bassist Dave Holland is known for the lyricism of his playing, for his mentoring of younger players and for his humility as a bandleader. Holland began his career in England as a teenager and moved to the U.S. on the promise of a gig with Miles Davis. Since then, he’s stayed put on these shores, developing a solid career as a jazz bassist’s bassist and releasing a prodigious stream of albums.

. . .

By the time he was 19, Holland was playing with the house band at Ronnie Scott’s, a legendary jazz club in London, where he got to play with Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins. It was there that his friend Philly Joe Jones helped Holland get his first big gig. That was the night Miles Davis walked into the club.

“As I was getting on the stand for the last set, Philly Joe came up to the bandstand, grabbed my arm and said, ‘Miles has got a message for you: He wants you to join his band,’ “ Holland says. “I said, ‘Come on, you’re kidding me,’ because Philly Joe is a bit of a prankster. ‘No, no, it’s serious.’ “

To read the full article click here

REVIEW Dave Holland Quintet @ Jazz Showcase

IMN

June 17th, 2010

(From The Chicago Tribune)

Dave Holland Quintet – a brilliant band soars

By: Howard Reich
Published: June 11, 2010

It’s difficult to recall the last time a band received a standing ovation at the Jazz Showcase, a tough room that sets exalted standards for those who take its stage.

But the crowd shot to its feet on Wednesday night, after the Dave Holland Quintet finished the first set of a weeklong engagement. There simply was no arguing that one of the most dynamic small units in jazz had performed near the top of its considerable form.

Certainly listeners would have been even more delighted if Holland had brought his octet, which plays robustly on Holland’s latest CD, “Pathways” (Dare2 Records). But the quintet at the core of that recording has been Holland’s primary expressive outlet for years, and he has honed it into an organization without peer.

Just listen to these five musicians working together, Steve Nelson‘s buoyant phrases on vibraphone powered by Nate Smith‘s incendiary drum work and Holland’s tonally resplendent bass lines. Somehow, these three musicians know how to share a rhythmic pulse without getting locked into predictable patterns. The elasticity of their approach to beats and offbeats cannot be taught or mimicked – it’s uniquely theirs, developed through years of performance and several enlightening recordings.

Then there’s the front line, Robin Eubanks‘ full-and-rounded tone on trombone facing off – or partnering – with Chris Potter‘s slightly acidic, slightly abrasive sound on tenor saxophone. When blasting against each other, the musicians produce palpable sonic tension. When working in tandem, they suggest four horns rather than two.

Remarkably, though, the combined force of these five musicians owes not to volume but to musical incident. Rather than bray for all they’re worth, in other words, the players craft multiple melodic lines, these strands interwoven in often delicate and intricate ways. En masse, this band never plays at maximum decibel levels, focusing instead on the luster of its sound and the flow of its ideas.

The Holland Quintet opened its engagement with a tour de force, an extended version of the title track to “Pathways.” Immediately, each of the players announced his intentions, Potter’s heroic tenor solo enriched by Smith’s sharp-edged percussive attacks, Holland’s insistent bass lines, Eubanks’ declamatory trombone shouts and Nelson’s sonorous chords on vibes. It’s not easy to sustain this much energy without playing too fast or loud, but the Holland Quintet somehow did it.

Vibist Nelson attained some of his best work in “Claressence,” his hard-hitting lines and sharply defined accents reminding listeners that he can do much more than fill out ensemble textures. Elsewhere in the set, Nelson shifted from vibes to marimba, bringing out the yin and the yang of his distinctive tintinnabulation.

For those who wondered, the quintet also can produce music of real austerity, as it proved in the most haunting work of the night, “Veil of Tears.” The meditative tone and stripped-down textures of this music left each musician tremendously exposed, to sometimes wondrous effect. Potter’s tenor saxophone never has sounded more mystical or incantatory, while the whispered utterances of the rest of the band showed what carefully controlled ensemble playing is all about.

The quintet closed the set on an exuberant note, but even here, in “What Goes Around” (the title track of a Holland Big Band recording), the entire ensemble – and Eubanks in particular – emphasized musical substance over mere bravura.

No wonder everyone stood up.

To read the article online click here

REVIEW Dave Holland Quintet

IMN

June 8th, 2010

(From Jazz Police)

Written by Marrio Carrington
Thursday, 03 June 2010

The first show of a two night engagement by the Dave Holland Quintet at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis was exceptional and should be considered an appointment concert for one of the two remaining performances at 7pm or 9:30pm on Wednesday, June 2. The Quintet is composed of Dave Holland on bass, Steve Nelson on vibes, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Chris Potter on sax and Nate Smith on drums. There is no need to go in search of excellence as it is on full display with this extraordinary band that has been together for 13 years.

In Holland’s native United Kingdom, there is the awe inspiring Stonehenge. How did the boulders get there? Who put them in that formation? Are they all that remain from the river that may have flowed through there thousands of years ago? Is it a former landing area for aliens? After walking around awhile you just come to accept Stonehenge as one of the wonders of the world. Just like the Dave Holland Quintet.

This sublime band of Holland’s is unquestionably the most wondrous quintet currently performing in jazz and their virtuosity is nonpareil. The musicality of their individual improvisations— which were impressive— was surpassed by their collective simultaneous improvisations that defined harmonic rapture. Compositions were played from several albums and genius was in display all evening. Two of the songs written by Holland were worth the price of admission by themselves—“How’s Never?” from his latest (octet) release, Pathways, and “Prime Directive” from the album of the same name.

The band members were having fun on stage as they were enjoying each others’ performances (smiles of appreciation, nods of acknowledgment, wide-eyed amazement) as much as the audience. Potter is sensational, Nelson is ethereal, Eubanks is fantastic and Smith is fabulous. The manner in which Holland orchestrates his band is ultra cool and you could easily imagine him playing the part of the most interesting man in the world in those Dos Equis beer commercials—“stay musical, my friends.”

I’m not sure what the criteria is for being knighted in England but Holland surely must be given serious consideration. If the standards include significant contributions in your field, give him a check for having played in the bands of Miles Davis as he entered his epochal electric phase (see “In A Silent Way,” “Bitches Brew”). If it’s versatility, give Holland a check mark for being able to contribute mightily as a sideman or leader in a trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet and big band format in his career thus far. If it’s for achieving master status in your chosen profession, continuing to evolve and bringing joy to countless fans around the world for a sustained period of time, give him another check. Sir Dave Holland fits, and if a write-in effort is needed, let’s start a Betty White-style Facebook campaign.

Read the original article here