At the pinnacle of his career, Dave Holland has settled into the unassuming role of jazz master. Over the years the multi-award and poll-winning bassist, composer, arranger and bandleader has led two of the most vibrant groups in jazz: the Dave Holland Quintet and the Dave Holland Big Band. In addition, he has collaborated in two of the top jazz collectives of the decade: the ScoLoHoFo quartet comprised of Holland, John Scofield, Joe Lovano and Al Foster and the Herbie Hancock piloted all-star quartet including Wayne Shorter and Brian Blade.
From maestro to maestro, Holland’ s next artistic venture joins renowned flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela and his ensemble in a new project, an inspirational convergence of the boundless jazz vernacular with the spirited passion for flamenco tradition. Mutual respect, admiration and genius brought these two artists together for a series of collaborative concerts in Europe laying the groundwork for a recording and North American tour – creating new airs and sounds for some of the most important pieces in flamenco repertoire. Holland explains, “My idea for doing it was really to enter into the flamenco world. Finding a meeting place is very hard sometimes for two different traditions…I really wanted to treat the flamenco music with respect and not take away from the great stature of that music. I made that clear to Pepe, and I said to him, ‘ Please, would you teach me your music?’ He had written a lot of things, and we started working through some songs and different dance forms. A lot of the music is based on dance forms like the fandango and the seguria and the buleria, and many others. I found I had actually underestimated, if that is possible, the beauty of flamenco music.” Their collaboration proves that when you have music in your heart there are no barriers, neither in language nor style.
A onetime sideman with two titans of jazz, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis (a seminal experience during the trumpeter’ s Bitches Brew era), Holland made his debut as a leader in the early 1970s. He broke in as a leader with Music for Two Basses (1971) with Barre Phillips and Conference of the Birds (1972) with a band featuring Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton. Holland also expanded his work as a side musician to include a diversity of artists such as Bonnie Raitt (Give It Up, 1972), John Hartford (Morning Bugle, 1972) and Lee Konitz (Satori, 1974). In recent years, his recording career continued to flourish, recording such milestone albums as his quintet CD, Extended Play: Live at Birdland (2003) and two Grammy winning big band discs, What Goes Around (2002) and the potent follow-up Overtime (2005). Continuing this impressive creative streak, Holland in 2006 released Critical Mass. This album was the first new studio recording by the Dave Holland Quintet to be released in over five years and marked drummer Nate Smith’ s debut recording with the band. 2008 brought Holland’ s first Sextet release, the critically acclaimed Pass It On.
