Lionel Loueke & Dave Holland - United

Label: Edition Records, 2024

Personnel - Lionel Loueke: guitar; Dave Holland: bass.

Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke and British bassist Dave Holland continue to hone their craft with distinction on United, a duo project that celebrates the beauty of their musical rapport and the dream of a unified world. The idea for this brew of modern jazz and West African folk emerged after a soundcheck when they were improvising together, resulting in 10 original compositions by Loueke and a fresh rendition of Wayne Shorter’s “United”, which gives the album its title.

The album opens with “Essaouira”, a piece in six where Loueke uses his voice as an extra percussive layer on top of the pulsing guitar texture. “Yaoundé” pays tribute to another African city through an exuberant rhythm and radiant tonal colors. “Chant”, a balladic excursion in 3/4, showcases the duo’s generous musical share, while the immutable “Celebration” bursts with joy, driven by Loueke’s rhythmic staccatos and voice and Holland’s deeply grooving bass lines. Each piece demonstrates the clarity and conviction of their individual perspectives and the improvisations confirm strong points of view.

Unfolding in nine, “Tranxit” brings together the throbbing pulse of Afro-funk and the smoothness of bossa nova, with Loueke’s guitar taking on a high-pitched effect at the forefront. Funk also permeates “Hideland”, where the duo explores variations in pace and feel, with Holland boasting his full-bodied sound, wooing with groovy freedom. “Humanism”, sung in French, reveals exceptional harmonic richness and innate lyricism, creating an alluring fusion of their distinctive sounds.

The duo’s love of odd meter shines on “Strangers in a Mirror”, set in a delicate 13-beat cycle, before concluding with Shorter’s “United”, a wordless 3/4 tune with a refined swing and warmly atmospheric improvisations. With its exotic charm, seamless cohesion, and vibrant musical dialogue, United offers an honest and heartfelt experience, sure to resonate with world jazz enthusiasts.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Tranxit ► 09 - Hideland ► 10 - Humanism ► 11 - United

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Dave Holland - Another Land

Label: Edition Records, 2021

Personnel - Dave Holland: bass; Kevin Eubanks: guitar; Obed Calvaire: drums.

Dave Holland is a mighty bassist who is equally at home in world fusion and post-bop environments as with avant-garde ensembles. Another Land is a blistering fusion work delivered with a new trio that includes the versatile guitarist Kevin Eubanks, a longtime associate whose first collaboration dates back to 1990 (Holland’s quartet album Expansions), and drummer Obed Calvaire, a member of the SFJazz Collective since 2013, who joins him on record for the very first time.

The album’s nine instrumentals - four by Holland, four by Eubanks and one by Calvaire - will keep you engrossed in a kaleidoscopic musical sphere molded with startling emotional honesty.

Eubanks’ “Grave Walker” invites you to cut a rug at the rhythmic consistency of a pungent funky bounce strengthen with thoroughly imposing accents. A calmer passage emphasizes Holland’s lilting phrasing, and then there’s bluesy guitar licks fusing with tenacious rock washes, causing a radiant energy to build up. 

Penned by Holland, the title cut is a soothing charmer grounded in a bass figure that gives a measured pace to the route, fortifying it with modal impression and groove. The acoustic guitar invests in an irresistible folk jazz intonation, precipitating Holland into a picturesque storytelling that stimulates the imagination.

Alluding to a deplorable year, “20 20” kicks off on a sad note, bolstered by a morose arco bass, but soon metamorphoses entirely by juxtaposing Jimi Hendrix-inspired chops with the exquisite curves of the Miles Davis Quintet and the weeping bends of the blues genre. A concluding rocking vamp brings Calvaire’s astute stretches to the fore. The drummer’s compositional traits are fully expressed on “Gentle Warrior”, which, propelled by a bass figure in five, soars into a higher plane with inward funk disposition, African folk magic and an ecstatic, rock-powered guitar solo that evokes… Hendrix once again. 

The funk-rock feast continues with titles such as “Mashup”, which burns with groove before climaxing in a vamp in five, and “The Village”, which seamlessly handles changes of meter.

Holland’s allegiance isn’t to genre but to musical excellence. Whatever the context his group plays in, their sense of unity and enjoyment becomes evident, not just while riding the great themes but also when departing from the written notations to embark on thrilling improvised stories.

Grade B+

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Another Land ► 03 - Gentle Warrior ► 07 - The Village

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Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio - Without Deception

Label: Dare2 Records

Personnel - Kenny Barron: piano; Dave Holland: bass; Johnathan Blake: drums.

Pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland have covered a vast amount of sonic terrain throughout their brilliant careers. On Without Deception, they co-lead a trio that includes the spectacular drummer Johnathan Blake, pairing versatility and musicianship in a collection of originals and shrewdly chosen covers that feels like an expansion of their conversational duo album The Art of Conversation (Impulse! Records, 2014).

Barron-penned “Porto Alegre” opens the album with a lovely bossa groove that relies on Blake’s hot snare tones to make the rhythm even more attractive. Besides revealing a strong unity, the three musicians enchant with personal statements abundant in rich idioms. Carrying something of Jobim, “Until Then” offers another alluring canvas painted with elegant bossa nova colors, while on the title track and “Speed Trap”, also written by Barron, the trio delivers the goods with a different posture. While the former is a winsome 12-bar blues with plenty of blue notes and feel-good trading fours, the latter connects bass and drums in a spiraling swinging verve, and channels streams of cascading piano notes through it. Barron’s flagrant rhythmic figures easily evolve into smart lines that prompt the drummer to respond, and Holland employs irresistible slides and wise interval hops to complement his forward-moving pizzicato.

The post-bop lyricism evinced on Mulgrew Miller’s “Second Thoughts” made me think of that special vibe found on Barron’s staggering album Scratch (Enja, 1985), released 35 years ago and on which Holland also performed. 

Though “Secret Places” waltzes with the poignancy of Bill Evans, it develops with the tender touch of Barron, differing from the groove-centric irreverence of “Pass It On”, a composition by Holland that first saw the light of day on his 2008 sextet album of the same name. Showing off his monster technique, the bassist is both the glue that holds everything together and the booster this music needs to flow ahead. Blake’s terrific wallops and Barron’s linear tangents contribute to the positive effect.

The renditions of Duke Ellington’s “Warm Valley” and Thelonious Monk’s “Worry Later” head straight for their original musical splendor, but the trio garnishes them with their personal traits.

Maturity armors the three vertices of this stretchable musical triangle.

Grade B+

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Porto Alegre ► 02 - Second Thoughts ► 07 - Pass It On

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Dave Holland / Zakir Hussain / Chris Potter - Good Hope

Label: Edition Records, 2019

Personnel - Dave Holland: double bass; Zakir Hussein: tabla; Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones.

The incredible world fusion trio co-led by British bassist Dave Holland, Indian tabla expert and percussionist Zakir Hussain, and American saxophonist Chris Potter is in the active since 2018. When playing in this configuration, these virtuosos are collectively called Crosscurrents Trio and their debut record, Good Hope, is now out on Edition Records. The album comprises eight compositions, three from Holland, three from Potter, and two from Hussain. Each of them are individual, but they perfectly integrate here as a whole, to the point of making us think it could have been composed by only one person.

The combination of Indian classical and Western instrumentation comes immediately to our attention on the opening track, “Zindi”, where Holland and Hussain lay down a sumptuous baseline that serves Potter’s hybrid cooking, naturally infused with post-bop and Eastern seasoning. 

The East-West-minded sensitivity is again strongly present in tunes such as “J Bhai”, delivered with an incantatory three time feel and promoting several shifts in tempo, and “Bedouin Trail”, which, while advancing with hypnotic rhythmic layers at a caravan-like pace, features Potter exchanging bars with his associates. This piece focuses on the traditional folk from South Asia.

Far more Westerner and post-bopper in nature, “Island Feeling” is perhaps the jazziest piece on the record, but can’t surpass the cross-cultural emotions of “Lucky Seven” and the title track. The former, penned by Holland, is an emissary of coruscating energy. Hussain initiates the ride with a complex tabla rhythm, with Holland interlocking a half-Indian, half-funk groove. The spirited, curvy high flies of Potter’s soprano come impregnated with rhythmic figures and chromaticism, with the tune ending in circular movement that emphasizes rhythmic accentuation. In turn, Potter’s “Good Hope” is all about the groove and the richness of interplay. The sidestepping improvisatory maneuvers from bass and saxophone contribute to elevate this piece into dizzy heights.

Good Hope offers a ripe set of music made by masters who bring myriad colors and influences into their playing. By navigating through exquisite series of textures and producing energizing chants, the trio calls up a potential range of beautiful, exotic images with these tunes. Listening to them is a phenomenal experience.

Grade A

Favorite Tracks:
02 - J Bhai ► 03 - Lucky Seven ► 07 - Good Hope

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Dave Holland - Uncharted Territories

Label: Dare2 Records, 2018

Personnel: Evan Parker: tenor saxophone; Craig Taborn: keyboards, electronics; Dave Holland: upright bass; Ches Smith: percussion.

Everyone into jazz knows about the extreme versatility of English bassist/composer Dave Holland, an extraordinary bandleader and valuable sidemen. The ability and competence to play in a variety of settings - from post-bop to free jazz and from solo to big band - with a voice of his own are remarkable.
 
For his new quartet recording, Uncharted Territories, Holland teams up with the adventurous English saxophonist Evan Parker, inventive pianist Craig Taborn and multi-faceted percussionist Ches Smith, both American. This was the first time the latter has recorded with the bassist while Evans first joined forces with Holland in a 1968 free improvisation session for John Stevens/Trevor Watts’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble. On the other hand, Taborn was one of the four musicians on the 2013 Prism CD.

This comprehensive adventure consists of a double record mostly composed of improvised material - in duo, trio, and quartet configurations - selected from a two-day recording session. Except for three scored compositions, they entitled the 23 tracks with a code that indicates the instrumentation, the day they recorded it (Tuesday or Wednesday), and which take.

Smith’s “Thought On Earth”, the opening tune, achieves a state of meditative enchantment. It includes bowed bass, sensitive saxophone melodies, and sumptuous vibes. The quartet then casts around for tension before returning to the primitive form and texture. Prior to weaving percussive tapestries of varied intensities, Smith holds on to vibes until Taborn’s relentless voicings take their place. In turn, Holland brings his pizzicato wonders into the game while Evans’ contemplative lines are replaced with others of an untamed nature. The remaining written material consists of Holland’s tenaciously communicative “Q&A”, which first appeared on his avant/free jazz masterpiece Conference of the Birds, and Smith’s “Unsteady As She Goes”.

If “Piano Bass Percussion T1” (trio configuration, recorded on Tuesday, first take) runs loose and sketchy in its cinematic ambiguity, then “Piano Bass Percussion T2” feels rousing as it continues to burst with a rough-and-tumble beauty until a bass pedal and steady pulse gives it a rest. “Tenor Percussion W2” is a perfect vehicle for Evans’ timbral explorations and Smith’s eerie sounds; “Piano Percussion W3” displays a rock-tinged strength in a brief yet vertiginous passage; “QT12” propagates an acute swing that favors the attractive eloquence of Evans and the twisty, hasty linear notes of Taborn, before shifting in rhythm;  “QW2” also boasts an odd, grooving flux that comes appended with saxophone outcries, intelligent piano work, arco bass abrasions, and cymbal screeches. Moreover, it was great to listen to the gorgeous bass-percussion duets whose tangible grooves had an immediate effect on me.

The entire program, manifesting the individual freedom and collective unity of four confident risk-takers, folds into amorphous figures, passionate interplay, and irregular trajectories pelted with rugged and decorous textures.

       Grade A-

Favorite Tracks:
01 (disc1) - Thought On Earth ► 05 (disc1) - QT12 ► 08 (disc2) – Bass Percussion T1

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Aziza - Aziza (Holland / Potter / Loueke / Harland)

Dave Holland: bass; Chris Potter: tenor and soprano saxophones; Lionel Loueke: guitar; Eric Harland: drums.

Aziza is the name of a brand new jazz supergroup of snappy influence that includes the bassist Dave Holland, the guitarist Lionel Loueke, the saxophonist Chris Potter, and the drummer Eric Harland.
Their self-entitled debut album is a remarkable artistic pearl that exhales both collective creativity and crisp individual improvisations.

It opens with the groundbreaking funk of “Aziza Dance”, a semi-robotic jubilation that features Potter and Loueke in sharp unisons and affirmative solos on top of the groove laid down by the grandiose rhythm section. The inventive guitarist, and author of this piece, whose quirky approach never lets me down, stands out by improvising with aplomb and originality while using a mesmerizing guitar effect.
The predominance of African and exotic rhythms are observable throughout the record. “Summer 15” is emulsified by Potter’s soprano during the initial melody and then tenor for the final theme; “Finding the Light” is peppered by the saxophonist’s in/out concept and Harland’s intelligent rhythm patterns; in “Sleepless Night”, Loueke shows his enormous influence and versatility, singing and opting for guitar distortion to exchange compelling phrases with Potter.

Even if the title suggests a walking bass, don’t expect to find it in “Walkin’ the Walk”, which thrives with an effervescent groove that obeys to a complex meter. Holland, simultaneously leader and team player, clarifies why he is the most desirable bassist on Earth. Potter and Harland channel their energy to provide unflagging verve.
In “Aquila”, the quartet changes the tempo, passing from a 6/8 to a 4/4 in the final section. Most of its flavor comes from Loueke’s aromatic comping. 
An alternative approach was used in the rhythmically acrobatic, “Blue Sufi”, which grabs influence from rock music while occasionally scatters eastern innuendos translated by Potter’s steadfast phrasing.

Using the jazz language as an intermediary, Aziza celebrates different cultures through a consummate liaison. The brilliance of these top musicians translates into a rewarding, nimble album. Indubitably, this is one of the year's best.

Favorite Tracks:
01 – Aziza Dance ► 03 – Walkin’ the Walk ► 08 – Sleepless Night

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