Bassist Dave Holland has a career that spans musical movements. Though it has been well documented that Holland’s big break came as a result of his tenure with Miles Davis circa Bitches Brew, the secret to Holland’s longevity has been that he didn’t allow his period with Davis to determine the course his music would take going into the future. And what a course it has been. The Grammy Award winning, fifty year music veteran out of Wolverhamtpon, England has performed with a number of great artists including Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Betty Carter, Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, Thelonious Monk, and Sam Rivers both as a sideman and band leader. Tonight, he will perform with the Overtone Quartet featuring pianist Jason Moran, drummer Eric Harland, and saxophonist Chris Potter at the University of Maryland College Park’s Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts (go to http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu for more information about the show).
I spoke with the busy musician over the telephone a few days ago, and we had an opportunity to discuss everything from his friendship with the late Sam Rivers to his work with the Overtone Quartet. Though I nervously stammered my way through a few of the questions, Holland was very direct and offered a great deal of information in his responses.
Bridget Arnwine: Your bio states that your musical path embodies the Sam Rivers philosophy of “playing it all.” I know you two played together on your record Conference of the Birds and that he was part of your group Circle…
Dave Holland: No, Sam wasn’t in Circle. That group had Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, and Barry Altschul in it. I worked with Sam for a large part of the 70s right up to the beginning of the 80s in his groups—mostly in trios, but also in his quartet and big band. But most of our touring was in trio format and that was from about 1973 until about 1981, I think.
BA: Ok, I thought I’d read that he was in the group at some point. What impact do you think that relationship had on your music?
DH: Well, it was one of many relationships, of course, but it was a very important one. At that time, Sam’s music really was a totally improvised setting in the small groups. He did a lot of composing for his large ensembles, but the trio was a purely improvisational group. So it meant that every night we had this blank canvas to work with and we really could put anything our imaginations came up with on that canvas. I was in my twenties when I first started playing with Sam, so it gave me a chance as a young to explore all kinds of things. Early on in my association with him he encouraged me to use all of my experiences in the music. I started doing that and the music grew.
BA: So that leads me to my next question. I know you came from England and you had some professional experience before you came to the U.S. to work with Miles Davis. How was it for you transitioning from your experience in England to working with Miles Davis and then going on to work with artists such as Joni Mitchell…
DH: I never worked with Joni Mitchell. I don’t know where that came from…
BA: No, no, no. I’m so sorry, I misspoke. I didn’t intend to say Joni Mitchell’s name. I was thinking of the Herbie Hancock record [River: The Joni Letters was Hancock’s surprise Album of the Year Grammy Award winning recording that featured Hancock and Holland performing alongside saxophone legend Wayne Shorter, guitarist Lionel Loueke, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and several special guest vocalist]. I meant to say Herbie Hancock. Sorry about that.
DH: That’s ok. I just wanted to make sure that we didn’t get any of the information wrong.
BA: I definitely understand. I was wondering how you were able to transition from what you were doing in England to your work with Miles Davis during his Bitches Brew period to your genre crossing work in the70s and 80s to the modern day large ensembles, big bands, quintets, and Overtone? Did working in one arena make you better for the others?
DH: Ever since I started playing music, I’ve been attracted to lots of different kinds of music. I’ve enjoyed working in many different contexts. Back in England, I did things as diverse as working with Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Roy Orbison. I also performed classical music. I increasingly became more and more involved in the jazz part of work. I felt that that was the area of music that really touched me the most. It was the music I felt I needed to play in order to continue my development as a musician. It was a chance for me to express what I’d been feeling.
I had some wonderful experiences in the jazz field in England and I had a chance to play with many musicians- English, American, and other European musicians. I met many of the visiting musicians who were coming from America to England, which is how I first met Jack DeJohnette and many other players. Coming to America was something I was thinking about anyway. That was before I got the offer to come to America to join Miles’s band. It was just an amazing thing that it happened at the very moment that I was thinking I needed to go to New York.
Through your life, the music takes you in many directions. I try to just follow my instincts and the musical needs that I have as a player. I try to follow what resonates emotionally.
BA: You’ve managed to have long lasting relationships with a variety of musicians over the course of your career. In your opinion, what is it about you as a person or you as a musician that makes these sorts relationships possible?
DH: You find that your paths converge and you have shared ideas and shared approaches. There’s the personal element as well as the musical one, and sometimes the musical path diverges but the personal connection still goes on and you remain friends even though you don’t play together as much as you once did. What makes the long-term relationships possible is a continuing growth of the relationship. Just like marriage really. Both parties are developing and you’re sharing a reality that is relevant to you both and it’s also made richer by the differences as well as the shared things. As long as the relationship is producing creative results, then we continue on.
I find that a lot of the long term relationships that do last really give a depth to the music. That’s sometimes hard to get when you just have these super groups that are just put together for one tour. Of course, there are new people I meet that become part of my musical family as well.
BA: What led to the formation of the Overtone Quartet? How did you decide which players you wanted to work with?
DH: This is kind of a musically shared group. We all write music for it. I’ve played with all of these players - Eric, Chris, and Jason- in different situations, and they have played with each other in different situations so there were relationships going on before we formed Overtone. It was a band we all were interested in doing. Chris and Eric and I had been involved in a quartet that featured Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. We did a few gigs with Gonzalo, but that meant the project didn’t go on. But Eric, Chris, and I wanted to continue on with the idea of this quartet. We’d all played with Jason and we all admired Jason’s work. Eric went to high school with Jason, so it goes back that far. It was a perfect completion of the quartet to have Jason with us. We’ve done several gigs over the last few years. We’ve done some touring in Europe and it seems to be a project that’s continuing to grow. We plan on doing a recording sometime in the near future. That’s how it all came together.
BA: You’ve also done some duo stuff with Jason recently, right?
DH: Yes, we’ve played in duo. Jason had an opportunity to do a concert at Cornell University here in upstate New York and he asked me if I’d like to join him for it. We had a great time there. I’ve done some duets with Chris as well. As I said in a previous question you asked me, these are relationships that actually span several years and we find new ways and new settings for ourselves to work in.
BA: If you could describe it, how would you describe Overtone’s music?
DH: That’s a very hard thing to do. Describing any music is very difficult. Music is its own definer. Words are usually inadequate.
Just to tell you what we’re doing, each of us has brought several compositions into the group that we’ll be playing. The range of music that we’re all interested in really spans the history of the music. We’re all very much out of the jazz tradition, but we’re all very much involved in trying to make a contribution to the contemporary dialogue that’s going on musically.
We’re all very big fans of contemporary music and the music that’s going on currently. Elements of that creep into the music. We’ve put this music together out of this patchwork of influences the four of us have had. We’ve all had very different experiences, but we’ve also had a lot of shared experiences. We share a deep commitment to the tradition of jazz and also a commitment to trying to make a contribution to the contemporary development.
BA: Ok, that’s all I have for you. Thanks again for taking the time to speak with me.
DH: Thank you, Bridget. I hope you make it to the concert.
7p7pm show time, Sunday, February 12, 2012; tickets: Regular: $45, Subscriber / UMD Faculty & Staff: $36, Senior Citizen / UMD Alumni Association: $40, Students / Youth: $9
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