On Dave Holland, a jazz class, and a detour to Nirvana

Dave Holland by John Whiting

The Dave Holland Quintet was originally scheduled to play the Dakota on January 24-25. Those dates have now been postponed "due to family emergency." An emergency in Holland's family, I'm guessing, because at Drake University in Iowa, where the quintet was booked to play on January 21, Chris Potter's Underground is stepping in. I wish the very best for Holland and his family, and I hope the Quintet is able to rebook at the Dakota before too long. I always enjoy this enormously inventive group: Holland on bass, Potter on saxophones, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Steve Nelson on vibes, Nate Smith on drums. (Note no piano, one of many things that make this quintet remarkable.)

I follow Holland on FaceBook, and earlier today "Team DH" posted a link to a short documentary about him that I hadn't seen. So I just spent 20 minutes learning more about his life and his music. The film made me like and admire him even more.

Lately I've been listening to Holland's first album as a leader, Conference of the Birds (CM, 1972), and also to his newest recording, Hands (Dare2, 2010), with the great flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela. Hands is completely different from anything I've heard Holland do before. According to the liner notes, Holland and Habichuela first played together in 2007 at a workshop in Sevilla, Spain. As Holland says, flamenco music "was a new world to me." The CD is delicious, richly rhythmic and melodic. Although it includes two compositions by Holland ("The Whirling Dervish," originally recorded on the 1995 release World Trio with Mino Cinelu and Kevin Eubanks, and the new "Joyride"), it's not a jazz/flamenco mashup. I just listened to both versions of "Whirling Dervish" back to back, and while the instrumentation is similar--the earlier recording features Eubanks on acoustic guitar (in a virtuosic performance; his lengthy solo starting at the 2:31 mark is pretty amazing)--the feel of the two pieces is very different. (In the flamenco arrangement, Holland takes his big solo starting at 2:31.)