Search - Dave Holland :: Triplicate

Holland and Coleman together were tremendous!

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 01/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I particularly admire the works Dave Holland recorded with Steve Coleman. I'm talking about this album (the only one in trio format), Extensions, Seeds of time, Jumpin' in and Razors edge. I think Coleman found in Holland the perfect bass player for his style, the rich textures he needs beneath his lines and times dismemberment (in particular in this album he gained stimulus even by the DeJonehette extremely beautiful playing). Holland found in Coleman a brilliant, inventive, fluid, creative sax player with a splendid sound and time and a particular love for syncopation. So the albums they made together really stand out in my opinion even considering the recent outputs from Holland's combo. Not that I don't like Potter (the alto sax player now with Holland) simply I prefer Coleman which in my opinion, is the greatest talent among the "young" lions. This album is really something great. They are only three but they seem a full combo, you don't feel the need of a piano player or of another harmonic instrument player (vibe, guitar or whatever). They're so good. The program is various. In particular I really love the blues "Take the Coltrane". And I am particularly grateful for "Segment" the Charlie Parker minor line which they played here with great energy, fantasy and pride. So in the end you have a very modern, post bop album with three marvellous musicians in action (they really listen to each other, they really interplay!) and some reinterpretations of Bird and Trane. Sorry if it's not enough, you see... Don't wait, buy this album which is really something to have absolutly if you love Jazz."

A must for Dave Holland Fans

Jazzcat | 06/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this album a while ago but it's still one of my favorites. The songs are great, especially Blue, a Jack DeJohnette composition and Rivers Run, a Dave Holland tune. There's also a Charlie Parker and a Steve Coleman tune, as well as a traditional song, African Lullaby. The trio format leaves plenty of room for these great musicians to stretch out.Enjoy!"

Consummate postbop playing, but...

Rinaldo | Durham, NC | 10/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I want to like this album more. Perhaps that's because the combination of players seems so right--Coleman had been playing in Holland's group for a few years by this point, and Holland and DeJohnette had played together intermittently for almost two decades. Yet I'm left with a feeling of vague and mild dissatisfaction.



Don't get me wrong: Coleman's lines are sharp and taught, his eighth notes are clean and his tone is tart; Holland is always the thinking bassist, his lines are varied and he often veers away from straight walking for contrast; DeJohnette's drumming is as good as it always is--energetic, nuanced (that incessant snare! that ear for the beautiful sounds possible in the drum set!).



But Coleman's tone is neither too rough-hewn nor too smooth to make him grab your mind's ear. And Holland's bass playing is not solid and heavy enough to be called "groove" playing, nor too acrobatic and unusual to be considered fully in the post-avant garde style. Maybe DeJohnette's the star of the album...But the album itself is too "middle of the road"--it sounds too much like what I'd expect this trio to play like, and that predictable result is itself a disappointment of sorts. The album is a bit "outside" at times, so as to make it intelligent and non-commercial, but it's not so "out" that it would offend genteel ears. Nor is it swinging enough to be a heavy groove album. Some of the problem seems to lie in the compositions: they seem anonymous, nothing about them jumps out to set them apart from the mass of neo-bop acoustic fare of the 1980s. (This is a problem I have with alot of Holland's music from the 1980s).



In closing, I would recommend this to fans of Holland's 80s music, and fans of Steve Coleman. For someone looking for a more tantalizing introduction to either musician's work, I would look elsewhere."