TAKE THE "Z" TRAIN

Strength-In-Numbers with the Dave Holland Big Band

Did anybody miss their usual dose of Z Train columns and reviews the past several weeks?

After two-dozen JazzWeek columns, we went on a not-so-short hiatus to concentrate on various publishing projects. Also, we're excited to have just turned in our first full-length novel, an action thriller project we wrote with Sonny Barger. It's in the editor's hands at Wm Morrow and will be released next year.

The title? Dead In 5 Heartbeats.

Meanwhile, we're happy to be back on the Z Train and hope to announce more neat book projects in future columns. During our "down time," we had a chance one night to relax at our usual table 47 at Yoshi's—America's premiere jazz nightspot—and catch a scorching late set by the Dave Holland Big Band. Here's an account of that magical evening.

Everybody is familiar with the expression "strength-in-numbers." It applies to everything from Jazz bands to military campaigns to Sunday afternoon football matches. Creatively, strength-in-numbers can be a tricky proposition. Nothing sounds more dry and boring on Jazz Radio than predictable big band music. With jazz big bands, particularly if you're not an artist exclusively versed in that medium, it takes extra imagination and savvy to mobilize a larger stable of musicians. Too often intimacy is thrown overboard at the expense of added players and beefed-up charts.

Ironically, Jazz's pantheon of Big Band impresarios is also the source of some of the genre's most singular, individualistic characters. Gil Evans. Don Ellis. Charles Mingus. Duke Ellington. Carla Bley. In addition, many great Jazz musicians at certain critical junctures of their careers feel a gnawing urge to adapt their music to the strength-in-numbers and dynamism of a big band. And to be able to see it happen live in these lean economic touring times is something not to be taken lightly.

Bassist Dave Holland has gradually expanded his own live entourage over the past years. He's ballooned from trios to quartets to quintets, and now he's currently on the road this fall with a booming thirteen-piece Big Band. What Goes Around, his latest ECM CD, is an inspiring work to be sure, and when Dave debuted the new Big Band late September at Oakland's Yoshi's Nite Spot, he appeared noticeably confident onstage.

Holland, an Englishman by birth, has all but lost his British accent, presumably from having spent so much of his artistic career in the United States. While we've seen Dave in many electrifying live settings—including his piano-less quintet or with Herbie Hancock's all-star New Standards group—Holland seemed downright relaxed this time around with his 13-piece aggregation. Dressed casually in a red t-shirt and gray slacks, Holland thumped away and, with eyes closed and a mild grin on his face, guided the band and the audience through a few gratifying variations of jazz big band—from the traditional dueling brass and woodwind sections to a more collective free-blowing and experimental approach.

Holland didn't cut any corners touring on What Goes Around. The bandstand featured most of the frontline players who appeared on the record, great names whose solo recordings we've enjoyed over the past five years, including saxophonists Antonio Hart, Mark Turner, Gary Smulyan, vibist Steve Nelson and trombonist Robin Eubanks. The big band format has also afforded Holland a significant opportunity to elevate his considerable arranging skills, something that is often taken for granted when smaller groups take the stage or show up for a recording date.

By the very nature of performing written charts with a large ensemble, the impetus of the evening centered more on Holland's compositions than on individual players or solos. But that being stated, the overlying directive of Holland's big band was to feature as many soloist points of view as possible. Throughout the hour-long set, it was as if all thirteen musicians had the capacity to step up and extrapolate freely at any given moment.

The Holland Big Band resonated its own distinct blend of instrumentation. At thirteen pieces, the arrangements were not overly dense and maintained dexterity. Steve Nelson's vibes assumed the traditional piano role of vamps and counter-melodies, just as he'd done with Holland's previous project, Not For Nothin'. The four trombones, four saxophones and three-trumpet horn configuration gave the ensemble a more robust and less brassy timbre. Physical placement played a crucial part that evening as well. The saxophone section took the front row, followed by trombones, with the trumpet players (augmented occasionally by flugelhorn) in the third and back row. On stage right were the vibes and Holland's bass. Drummer Billy Kilson set up behind the brass and woodwinds and, as a result, adopted a less aggressive role than the standard, sticks-a-blazing, big band drummer. As a result, the instrumentation was warmer and less strident; the material boded more towards rich tonality than overt swing.

As large ensembles go, Holland as conductor/arranger is more in a league with Carla Bley than, say, Gerald Wilson or Maria Schneider. Some of the material originated from ECM quartet and quintet pieces he recorded as far back as the 1980s. Holland's pieces gave lots of latitude for free blowing. "Blues For CM" demonstrated Dave's adaptability to the left-of-center eccentricities of Charles Mingus type changes versus the more conventional changes of, say, the Kenton ensembles of the 1950s. Saxophonist Antonio Hart especially shined on "CM." His reedy yet fat tones portrayed him as if he were a tenor player trapped in the body of an alto saxophonist. Holland's most extended solo that night was also on "CM," and it was as poignantly melodic as it was technically expressive.

The first tune of the set was "Triple Dance," a sprawling thirteen-minute extravaganza that began with some rather interesting musings between baritone sax player Gary Smulyan and the trumpet and trombone sections. In terms of ballads, the evening's prize was "A Time Remembered," a title not included on the current CD. Hart's solo on the main theme conjured up brooding and lonely images of after-hours Manhattan. The arrangements were quality noire, almost Edward Hermann-esque, and offered a sort of Holland meets Taxi Driver scenario.

By and large, while the soloists played pretty "out" most of the night, each horn section was highly disciplined in terms of unison and execution. And drummer Kilson emerged from his shell just in time for the evening's closer, an up-tempo, driving piece entitled "The Razon's Edge."

First conceived back in 1987 then onstage in 2000 at the Montreal Festival International, the Dave Holland Big Band continues on tour into early 2003. Plans are already being made this month to record live for a future ECM release.

So what happens to a musician like Holland when it's time to slim back down to quartets and quintets? Is it a letdown or a logistical relief? Either way, we suspect Holland's music vision will never be the same, now that he has stood the test of strength-in-numbers.