Dave Holland Octet: Pathways (2010 – Dare2 Records)

It’s been nearly four years since bassist Dave Holland has delivered an album based around his enduring quintet of over a decade. Since 2006’s Critical Mass (Dare2), he’s released Pass It On (Dare2, 2008) and The Monterey Quartet: Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey Jazz Festival Records, 2009), both featuring ensembles where, for the first time in his lengthy career, the bassist collaborated with pianists. While both discs were as exhilarating and groove-heavy as anything he’s done, the inherent chemistry of his quintet—powerhouse saxophonist Chris Potter, ever-inventive trombonist Robin Eubanks, harmonically modernistic vibraphonist Steve Nelson and potent drummer Nate Smith—remains something special, whether on its own or at the core of Holland’s big band, last heard on Overtime (Dare2, 2005).

As a happy medium between the smaller, lither quintet and its more expansive big band cousin, the Dave Holland Octet has toured occasionally over the past several years, making a formal release long overdue. Recorded live at New York’s Birdland at the beginning of 2009, Pathways also bucks Holland’s recent trend with a set list culled largely from the past, but with updated arrangements that take advantage of both the ensemble firepower and solo acumen of additional members Antonio Hart (alto saxophone), Alex Sipiagin (trumpet) and Gary Smulyan (baritone sax)—all members of the Dave Holland Big Band and a larger musical family to which the veteran bassist has been consistently loyal over the past decade.
While the modal “Shadow Dance” has been a part of Holland’s repertoire since Jumpin’ In (ECM, 1984), with the bassist’s chordless, horn-driven quintet of the 1980s, it has never grooved quite this hard, thanks to Smith’s ability to be simultaneously frenetic and in the pocket. Nelson’s marimba adds a new dimension to a familiar track that features a lengthy, painstakingly built and ultimately climactic solo from Hart that ratchets up even higher when Holland, Smith and Nelson kick into high gear. Nelson has played “Ebb and Flo” before, on the 1996 ECM quartet date, Dream of the Elders, but with four horns to push the melody and provide egging-on support for its soloists—Eubanks, Holland and Potter’s particularly incendiary tenor spot—Holland’s new, Latin-esque arrangement burns even brighter.
Holland’s larger ensemble arrangement of the riff-driven “How’s Never?”—originally heard in the guitar-centric context of his egalitarian Gateway trio with John Abercrombie and drummer Jack DeJohnette—is intriguing. Even more so is “Blue Jean,” originally a Latin ballad on his World Trio (Intuition, 1995) date with acoustic guitarist (and Robin’s brother) Kevin Eubanks and percussionist Mino Cinelu. Here, in a significantly extended version, it is still a minor-keyed blues ballad, but Holland’s lush, Gil Evans-like horn arrangement creates an expansive context for a Potter’s soulful tenor solo, as he liberally quotes the classic “The Shadow of Your Smile” before passing the baton to Sipiagin, whose flugelhorn solo is a combination of serpentine virtuosity and deeply rooted lyricism.
Despite a preponderance of older material, also including Sipiagin’s knotty, Brazilian-tinged “Wind Dance”—first heard on the trumpeter’s Out of the Circle (ArtistShare, 2007) and, like the original, with vibrant solos from both Sipiagin and Eubanks—there’s new material, too. The set opens with Holland’s 11-minute title track, another Afro-Cuban, modal workout that gives Smulyan an early chance to shine with a solo that swings hard as it weaves new melodies through Holland’s slowly unfolding changes. A lithe yet muscular bass solo leads to a tarter turn for Sipiagin (this time on trumpet) which, as it evolves, reaches into the stratosphere without ever turning brash or harsh. Potter turns to soprano on his own “Sea of Marmara,” a gentle, atmospheric track made all the more ethereal by Nelson’s shimmering vibes and an early segment where lines are passed around the horns like a tag team, but which, like most tracks on Pathways, turns high octane once the solos begin.
John Kelman (All About Jazz)

Track List:

1. Pathways 

2. How’s Never? 

3. Sea of Marmara 

4. Ebb and Flow 

5. Blue Jean 

6. Wind Dance 

7. Shadow Dance 

Personnel:

Dave Holland: (bass)

Antonio Hart: (alto sax, flute)

Chris Potter: (tenor sax, soprano sax)

Gary Smulyan: (baritone sax)

Alex Sipiagin: (trumpet, flugelhorn)

Robin Eubanks: (trombone)

Steve Nelson: (vibraphone, marimba)

Nate Smith: (drums)

Original Release Date: 2010  –  Label: Dare2 Records

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Chris Potter’s Underground – Ultrahang (2009 – ArtistShare Records)

With a consistent line-up since the debut of Underground (Sunnyside, 2006)—where, after alternating between guitarists Wayne Krantz and Adam Rogers, the reed man settled on Rogers as the group’s full-timer for Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside, 2007)—Chris Potter has not only created his most personal and identifiable music to date, but he’s clearly also found the group with which to make it. Potter and Rogers, along with mainstays Craig Taborn (Fender Rhodes) and Nate Smith (drums), work at many levels, and Ultrahang continues to mine similar territory while demonstrating steady growth.
Potter’s penchant for shifting meters—despite being couched in curiously grounded visceral grooves less firmly entrenched in a conventional rhythm section’s more fixed pulse—remains intact on the down-and-dirty opening title track, though he goes for four-on-the floor with the fierier “Rumples,” where the saxophonist and Rogers deliver a knotty, mind-bending theme of near-light speed velocity. Taborn holds down the bottom end—not only by contributing gritty bass lines, but with a disposition towards chordal accompaniment in the instrument’s lower register. Smith is the group’s unshakable yet empathic anchor—tightly locked in with Taborn while keeping his ears open to the rest of his band mates.
Potter’s ascendance as one of his generation’s most important saxophonists may be more the result of his outstanding work with trumpeter Dave Douglas and Dave Holland—especially the remarkable chemistry he shares with the bassist’s longtime trombonist Robin Eubanks—but he deserves equal, if not more, accolades for his own work. He’s one of the few saxophonists alive today who can build lengthy solos that avoid repetition and excess, the one clearly best- suited to carry on Michael Brecker’s legacy. Like the late saxophonist, Potter is uncannily versatile—near-chameleonic, in fact—capable of fitting into virtually any context and bringing a focused intent that can be, in turns, frighteningly powerful and painfully lyrical, as he is, respectively, on the intense “Small Wonder” and a tender rework of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
Taborn’s career has been defined by breadth and a nearly unparalleled encyclopedic knowledge that, like Potter and Rogers, makes him a perfect fit regardless of context. Soloing with relative economy on a gentle arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s balladic “Ladies of the Canyon”—available as a digital bonus track but not on the CD—he morphs easily into the Orient-facing and episodically detailed “Facing East.” Rogers demonstrates equal versatility,despite his own albums, including Apparitions (Criss Cross, 2005) and Time and the Infinite (Criss Cross, 2007), leaning more towards modern mainstream. Here he demonstrates his full breadth, ranging from sharp-toned and obliquely effected punctuations beneath Potter’s solo on the title track to an equally abstruse but edgy solo on the high octane “Boots” and softer side on “Ladies of the Canyon.”
With a group this versatile, there’s little Underground can’t do. Still, it speaks with a clear voice that incorporates elements of M-Base mathematics, funk, fusion, and folkloric pop references into a unique mélange that, based on the trajectory of Underground, Follow the Red Line and, now, Ultrahang, has nowhere to continue but up.
John Kelman  (All About Jazz)

Track List:
1. Ultrhang
2. Facing East
3. Rumples
4. It Ain’t Me, Babe
5. Time’s Arrow
6. Small Wonder
7. Boots
8. Interstellar Signals

Personnel:
Chris Potter  (Tenor Sax , Bass Clarinet)
Adam Rogers  (Guitar)
Craig Taborn  (FenderRhodes)
Nate Smith  (Drums)

Released on une 1st, 2009  –  ArtistShare Records

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