Pass It On
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CD Details
Edition: Music CDAudio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2008-09-23
Music Label: Emarcy / Pgd
Product features:
- HOLLAND DAVE PASS IT ON
- The Sum of All Parts
- Fast Track
- Lazy Snake
- Double Vision
- Equality
- Modern Times
- Rivers Run
- Processional
- Pass It On
Music reviews of Pass It On
Music Review: Really, dont pass it on
Rating: 5 Stars
This album is just stellar, and I really mean stellar. It could not have turned out better. Long time fans of Dave will not in any way be disapointed. Newcomers will find deep and interesting while still being wholly accessible. Just great.
This is a slightly different band from last time round. Trombonist Robin Eubanks is still there (and just as smoking as always. Really, how does he do that stuff?), but most everyone else is different. Instead of Steve Nelson on Vibes, we have the jazz giant Mulgrew Miller on piano who is in fine form. Drum prodigy Eric Garland takes over for Nate Smith (Eric as well is just spectacular in general) and alto saxophone player Antonio Hart takes over for the (primarily) tenor player Chris Potter. This was one area that worried me somewhat when I first heard of this album. Chris Potter was a staple of all of Holland's bands, big and small, for many years, and he is by far one of the most gifted sax players on the scene today. The thought of a Holland album without him seemed like almost like blasphemy to me. That having been said, although I may still prefer Potter in general, Hart is a monster of a player and I would struggle to find fault with his laying anywhere here. Just great. Augment the band is trumpet player Alex "Sasha" Sipiagin. The new band works great together. I particular approve of the addition of Mulgrew Miller. Although the vibraphone quintet setup worked for Holland in the past, its really hard to make up for what Miller brings to the mix.
I have written a few reviews before and usually I use a paragraph to talk about a few songs that I particularly liked on the album. I'm not going to do that here, because I cant think of what songs to talk about. Holland (who wrote all of the songs except for the first track) has really hit a groove in terms of writing it seems. Whereas in "Critical Mass" (his last album) I found one or two tracks easily stood above the rest, this album does not have any weak points. The tracks are varied in style, but all incredibly solid. Although some of them sound a bit more standard than last time round, they are perfect vehicles for improvisation on the part of the band members and never sound out of place. Some are more upbeat, some more somber, but they are all excellent and taken as a whole, the result is spectacular.
I cannot recommend this album enough to fans of modern hard-bop. This is probably the best example we will get this year. In overall quality I think it is only surpassed by Charles Lloyd's "Rabo de Nube" for best of this year, though I might classify them slightly differently. Either way, you will not be disappointed by this.
Description of Pass It On
Pass It On features newly-realized arrangements of some potent Holland compositions from past recordings, including "Lazy Snake" and "Equality" (from 1995's Dream of the Elders), the uptempo burner "Double Vision" (from 1984's Seeds of Time), the dynamic, mood-shifting suite "Rivers Run" (written for Dave's former duets partner from the mid-'70s, saxophonist Sam Rivers, and originally appearing on 1988's Triplicate), "Processional" (from 1989's Extensions) and "Modern Times" (from the 1995 Gateway recording, Homecoming). "Some of the compositions that I've written in the past evolve in my mind a little bit over time," says Holland, who is perhaps the most prolific bassist-composer since Charles Mingus. "When we first recorded some of these pieces, they were done in more stripped-down versions with different instrumentation, and I was starting to hear them as being possible for a larger ensemble. One of the advantages of the sextet is that it's still a smaller unit than big band or octet but it also gives you a lot of options in terms of orchestrating and utilizing backgrounds, either from the three horns or if one of the horns is soloing, from the other two horns. So I thought that was a good way to fill out these old compositions and expand on them a little bit where something new could happen. And, of course, this group of people brings some new creative ideas to the pieces." In addition to reinventing those previously recorded pieces, Holland also introduces two new compositions in the buoyant swinger "Fast Track" (based on the chord changes to George Gershwin's "The Man I Love") and the spirited, gospel-tinged title track which carries the kind of jubilant, uplifting feel inherent in the music of the Brotherhood of the Breath led by the South African-born Scottish musician Chris McGregor, an important mentor for Holland in the early part of his career. Eubanks also contributes the stirring, African-flavored opening track, "The Sum of All Parts." Says Holland, "I'm a big fan of Robin's compositions. I've featured him pretty much on every CD that I've done since 1987 and he's been a great asset, not just as a trombonist but as a composer." While Holland has eschewed piano with his long-standing quintet (featuring trombonist Eubanks, saxophonist Chris Potter, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and drummer Nate Smith), he revels in the beautiful voicings and refined touch that pianist Miller brings to the sextet on Pass It On. "Of course, I have played with a lot of pianists over the years, including Hank Jones, Herbie Hancock, and others, but in my own projects I never really conceptualized a group with piano. Mulgrew certainly is within that tradition of great accompanists as well as being a wonderfully original soloist. He is such a rich and deeply-rooted musician in the great tradition of the piano but, of course, is always forward-thinking and forward-moving in his conception. What he brings to the ensemble is something that I'm always looking for, which is that dialogue and communication and interaction between the rhythm section and the horns when they're soloing. So Mulgrew was really the ideal pianist for me. It was a very great honor for me to have him involved in this music." Harland's ability to engage in dialogue with the rest of the musicians throughout the course of a given piece comes directly out of the great tradition of such highly interactive drummers as Roy Haynes, Tony Williams, and Jack DeJohnette, all of whom Holland has played and recorded with. "What Eric does is totally in touch with what's going on in the music and in touch with what I'm playing," says Dave. "Within the group there's always a dialogue going on within the rhythm section. I love that kind of thing. I love the sparring and the back and forth. For me, that's what it's all about. It's not just about a background rhythm section that's just laying down a sort of generic pad for soloists to play on. I like it to be a true conversation where the soloists get really inside the rhythm section."Jazz CDs
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