Dave Holland Extended Play: Live At Birdland CD

Dave Holland Quintet: Dave Holland (double-bass); Chris Potter (soprano, alto & tenor saxophone); Robin Eubanks (trombone, cowbell); Steve Nelson (vibraphone, marimba); Billy Kilson (drums).
EXTENDED PLAY was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.
Personnel: Dave Holland (double bass); Chris Potter (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Robin Eubanks (trombone, cowbells); Steve Nelson Quartet (vibraphone, marimba); Billy Kilson (drums).
Recording information: Birdland, New York, NY (11/21/2001-11/24/2001).
Photographer: Moreno Nicoloso.
Shockingly, Extended Play is Dave Holland's first live album for ECM, a label he has been associated with for 30 years! Holland's standing quintet -- featuring trombonist Robin Eubanks, saxophonist Chris Potter, drummer Billy Kilson, and vibes and marimba virtuoso Steve Nelson -- are, according to today's jazz standards, a veteran ensemble. On this Birdland date from 2001, they offer ample evidence as to why they are one of the most highly regarded ensembles in the music today. The material on this double-disc collection is, predictably enough, mostly taken from the band's studio releases. But that's where predictability ends. Virtually everything here is in wonderfully extended form, with only one tune clocking in under ten minutes. Eubanks' laid-back, low-register agility and rhythmic intervention are combined with the wonderfully varied melodic sensibilities of Potter, whose melodic and dynamic palette is equally rich, offering a line that is nearly fathomless in its melodic possibilities and providing the necessary off-the-ground sensibility required to front one of the most compelling, intricately threaded, and texturally diverse rhythm sections in jazz. As evidenced by the sprawling opener, "The Balance," a Holland composition, the band is a seemingly inseparable amalgam of soloists, all gathered around shifting tempos, striated harmonics, and a chromatic prism that offers no edges, but a variety of hues and shades that is startling. While the entire performance is stunning in its diversity and consistency of inspiration, discipline, and sheer vision, other standouts do include the polyrhythmic and lyrical brilliance of "Claressence" and the breathtaking set closer, "Metamorphos." If ever there were a contender for jazz record of the year, for 2003, Extended Play is it. ~ Thom Jurek
With a front line that features saxophone, trombone, and vibraphone/marimba, the Dave Holland Quintet features an immediately identifiable band sound. As for backing, bassist Holland and traps man Billy Kilson provide a push-me-pull-you, supple and responsive rhythm section that is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to accompaniment ideas.
The thing that separates the men from the boys in the world of jazz improvisation is listening--when the performers are paying close attention to one another, the creative horizons are all but limitless. It would be a slight to say this quintet is all on the same page, better to imagine they all bring their knowledge of great art and fine cuisine to bear each time they play together--it's a multi-faceted, heady brew. Holland's compositions are angular but never dissonant, polished but also earthy. The illusion is that these tunes flow effortlessly from this smart ensemble. The truth is that this is one of the best groups in early 21st-century jazz, based on a refined collective sensibility that is savvy and rare.

2cds

JazzTimes (11/03, p.101) - "[I]t confirms what you know and dig about Dave Holland's Quintet as well as it provides some new insights into the group's underlying forces."