Another Land (Edition)
Dave Holland
Released May 28, 2021
Jazzwise Top 10 Releases of 2021
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nxGBE0ZD3kRYOoY_HN8glOeBPkvG7rLE4
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7m0f9210yYIhCKDTf9FwnS?si=8K2_91UPQQOkNcnHBXKkDw
About:
Another Land is the new album from the all-star trio featuring Dave Holland, Kevin Eubanks and Obed Calvaire and a power-packed set of originals. This is a potent studio set of fluid themes developed by the band and forged in the furnace of live performance. During the live shows that preceded the recording of Another Land, Dave explains “we were doing a continuous set, once we started we very rarely stopped, we just kept going,”. The Guardian described the shows as a “blues-fuelled inferno summoning the spirit of Hendrix” Throughout his career, Dave Holland has established a reputation for making his bands a proving ground for promising young instrumentalists, but his latest trio is a true all-star assemblage of jazz heavyweights, all established bandleaders and composers, each representing the world standard on their instrument. Released on limited edition double vinyl, CD and hi-res download, this is a power-packed set that reunites Dave with the guitar work of Kevin Eubanks, whose searing, soulful approach was last heard on Dare 2 as part of the Prism project. Eubanks was also key to the muscular quartet that recorded Holland’s seminal 1990 ECM release Extensions, and this new band is yet another example of Holland’s brilliance at building ensembles that are greater than the sum of their formidable parts.
Track Listing:
1. Grave Walker (Kevin Eubanks) 06:59
2. Another Land (Dave Holland) 09:18
3. Gentle Warrior (Obed Calvaire) 08:46
4. 20 20 (Kevin Eubanks) 08:24
5. Quiet Fire (Dave Holland) 04:39
6. Mashup (Kevin Eubanks) 06:35
7. Passing Time (Dave Holland) 08:08
8. The Village (Kevin Eubanks) 08:47
9. Bring It Back Home (Dave Holland) 05:59
Personnel:
Dave Holland: bass & bass guitar
Kevin Eubanks: guitar
Obed Calvaire: drums
Recorded at Sear Sound, NYC September 10 – 11, 2019
Produced by Dave Holland
Executive Producers: Dave Stapleton & Louise Holland
Engineer: Chris Allen
Assistant Engineer: Steven Sacco
Album Artwork by Oli Bentley & Will Hibbert
Photography by Ulli Gruber
Review:
The guitar, bass and drums trio can sit anywhere on a broad stylistic spectrum in jazz, encompassing anything from the improvised fusion of Cream, the tonal variety of Terje Rypdal’s Chaser or the ingenuity of Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life, to the wider palette of 1975’s Gateway where Dave Holland was joined by John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette to make unclassifiable jazz. Holland’s reunion, after a few years’ gap, with his long-time colleague Kevin Eubanks, plus the galvanising effect of drummer Obed Calvaire, makes for trio music every bit as distinguished as those earlier examples, and an album that – owing to its broad stylistic spread – is also unclassifiable. Additionally, it marks Dave Holland’s return to bass guitar on some tracks (notably a piece called ‘The Village’ that opens out into a long almost stream-of-consciousness development) along with some of his best recent work on double bass. His solos on tracks such as ‘Grave Walker’ and ‘Gentle Warrior’ are exemplary. The band fires on all cylinders for ‘The Mashup’ as it does for the second part of ‘Grave Walker’, with precise, driving and often thrilling drumming from Calvaire. By contrast there’s some beautiful single line soloing from Eubanks on ‘Another Land’, and a central unaccompanied guitar piece ‘Quiet Fire’ written by Holland forms the calm, still centre of the album. Another Land repays repeated listening, in that its apparently simple constituent parts, honed by pre-lockdown touring, add up to something exceptional, with new details always waiting to be discovered.
Alyn Shipton (Jazzwise)
