The future of jazz is a 61-year-old, balding, English bloke who plays the edgiest of axes, the acoustic upright bass. He's an unassuming conversationalist, alluding casually to Shakespeare in a charming Midlands accent. In fact, he really seems like the kind of guy who ought to be playing in an aging folk-rock band.
But Dave Holland synthesizes all the talents necessary for a 21st-century jazzman: He's a composer, arranger, big band leader, record label founder and former Miles Davis sideman. Oh, and his quintet is arguably the best band in jazz.
Holland, who will bring an ad-hoc sextet to Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall Feb. 8, successfully combines modern musical concepts-many of which he helped develop in Davis' band from 1968 to 1970-with a strong melodic sense, underlaying catchy melodies with elaborate polyphony that holds up to both the most superficial and the deepest listen.
"I would say on one level certainly there's some complexity in [my music] for the musicians," Holland said in an interview last month. "I think there's this misconception about jazz that you have to understand the theory, but like any other music, it speaks to the heart."
If you really want proof of the bassist's eclectic scope, look no further than his iPod. He stalls when asked what's on it-"I have thousands of songs, so it really depends what I'm feeling like at the time"-but when pressed he divulges what's at the top of his most played list right now: Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba's 2004 Paseo-alongside tracks from the likes of Missy Elliott and Prince.
John Brown, director of Duke's jazz program and himself a bassist, said Holland has until recently been overshadowed by other giants on the upright bass.
"Through his new approach to composition and bass playing, his name has risen to a point where I think it should be," he said. "He has a really introspective, serious approach to composition. It also requires a high level of accomplishment on the instrument, and to be able to move about freely in the music he plays is really impressive."
Holland's quintet has been the cutting edge of jazz this century along with saxophonist Wayne Shorter's band. There's a connection: Shorter and Holland were in Davis' band together and both have turned to acoustic music since. (Shorter's path took a long sojourn in electricity with the '70s fusion powerhouse Weather Report.)
"You know, I don't really weigh one against the other, I don't see them as two competing situations-it's a matter of what setting you feel is most appropriate for the kind of music you want to play," Holland said of the acoustic format. He added that one reason he chose to leave Davis' band was a decrease in opportunities to play the double bass.
"I've really focused on the acoustic bass since then," Holland said. "The acoustic is a very sensual instrument, it vibrates in your hand. There's a direct sonority and you feel it in your hand."
The neck of his bass isn't the only thing Holland holds in his hand these days. For three years, he has also held his own business fortunes with label Dare2 imprint. Forming his own label was something he had wanted to do for years, and when the opportunity for a distribution deal with Verve France arose, he jumped at the chance. The move ended a 33-year stint with ECM Records-a relationship Holland said ended amicably.
"This was not a rejection of ECM but a moving on for me," he said. "It allows me to retain ownership of recorded material, where as you know, in a traditional relationship the label controls the music. And then of course there's the issue of having more control over how the music is distributed and when."
But for Holland, the music is still No. 1. The bassist, whose career started in a teenage musical group, said the idea of belonging to a continuously evolving band like those of Duke Ellington or Davis has always been a major attraction of music for him, and his quintet is one of the longest-running on the scene.
Although the sextet will not supplant his quintet, he said it allows him an opportunity to stretch out. The group features trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, saxophonist Antonio Hart, trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Mulgrew Miller and drummer Eric Harland.
Holland said working with Miles Davis gave him a model for the bandleader's role. Reflecting back on the records Holland cut with Davis-In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Filles de Kilimanjaro, Big Fun and Live-Evil-the bassist said he is struck by how contemporary the music still sounds.
"When I received the Isle of Wight festival DVD [Miles Electric-A Different Kind of Blue], I felt like it could have been recorded yesterday," he said, laughing. "But the way we looked wasn't contemporary-our fashion statement was definitely the '60s."
Holland recorded in a wide variety of settings after leaving Davis, as a member of the fusion band Circle, a solo bassist, a sideman and a leader before finally settling into his stride with the quintet 10 years ago.
"Up to that point I'd really been concentrating on learning about the music, learning the instrument and really looking to see what were the things that were most important to me as a musician," he said. "I really saw myself as an apprentice in the music up to that point. There were some ideas I wanted to play that I didn't think I could play with anyone else."
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