Extended Play / Live at Birdland

Dave Holland | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0000A9DYQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,894 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest live recordings ever. Period., October 18, 2003

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extended Play / Live at Birdland (Audio CD)

Jazz of the highest order comes from empathetic communication. Empathetic communication results from technical brilliance subsumed under the auspices of ongoing conversation. This happens optimally only in a continuing group context. The results: music of the highest order--free, swinging, rhythmically challenging, harmonically sophisticated, innovative, multilingual, and just plain beautiful.

Without question, Extended Play provides ample evidence that the Dave Holland Quintet is, simply, the premier jazzband presently on the scene, beating out such standout outfits as the Standards Trio, the Pat Matheny Band, and the Bad Plus. Why?

Personnel. Holland is the premier bassist of his generation. He does it all: composes, produces, anchors, innovates, arranges, leads. And he has surrounded himself with a killer band. Starting with the hugely underrated Steve Nelson on vibes, a player who comes fully into his huge promise in this rarified group setting, Holland has selected players at the absolute top of their respective instruments. Robin Eubanks, an extremely fleet and deft trombonist with a simply gorgeous tone, shines with his glorious colorations and smart soloing. Chris Potter, a glib and nimble saxophonist, solos with uncommon power and presence here. And drummer Billy Kilson simply amazes. Combining uncanny power with uncommon propulsiveness always harnessed and in service to his role as rhythmic ground, he generates hip polyrhythms and a pulse-oriented approach to achieve a rhythmic sophistication that propels the band into daring and unusual places.

Group improvization. This band communicates and interacts as a group at a higher level, with greater ease, and with more original ideas than any other group that comes to mind, save some of Miles's and Coltrane's best bands. These dudes, having played some of this music for more than six years, simply engage in a level of music interaction seldom heard.

Compositional variety and integrity. All the compositions here are group originals, with all but two of the nine from the pen of Dave Holland. Besides a huge variety of styles, the group constantly provides fascinating rhythmic, harmonic, and dynamic contexts to optimally showcase their compositional brilliance, perhaps most fully demonstrated on "Juggler's Parade."

Breadth of expression. This group evokes the entire history of jazz improvization during this session, but without the unseemly slavishness and fawning that too often mars other bands' attempts to reference the Tradition. Perfectly at home with ballads, burners, Latin-tinged numbers, modal music, post-bop, free, and Eastern sensibilities, the band moves in and out of these stylistic universes as if they're the air they breathe.

A certain sense of weight and drama. It's almost as if these guys know that they represent some kind of ne plus ultra expression of contemporary jazz--and they're perfectly willing to take up the mantle, thank you. The sheer chutzpah of their playing, their virtuosity lightly worn, their magnanimity of expression, all contribute to a sense that something beyond the ordinary is going down here.

And it does.

And you shouldn't miss it.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, February 6, 2004

By 

Neil Roseman (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extended Play / Live at Birdland (Audio CD)

It's likely, if you are reading this review, that you already know how good this group is. This record will increase your admiration. If by some chance you are a music fan and don't know the quintet's work, you will be awed.

I have been listening to Dave Holland in one context or another for 30 years now and I am not sure he has hit his peak yet -- but this record is pretty darn close. You can really tell this is a _group_ - they are just so damn tight. Even during the extended improvisation sections they communicate musically at an amazing level.

You also realize that Holland and the group have been able to do something quite rare -- using everything the group knows. From free to the blues -- it's all there and all swings. This is very joyous music.

The playing is uniformly great. But, special mention must be made of Robin Eubanks. wow. His gorgeous sound and amazing solo creativity really shines here.

Just buy it already!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Live Jazz!!!, November 6, 2003

By 

A. Davis "astandavis" (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Extended Play / Live at Birdland (Audio CD)

Dave Holland is on a mission to take Jazz into the upper stratosphere with this new live recording. What else can be said about this group that has not already been said. I'll just add the following: "This is one of the best live Jazz recordings I have heard in years. This group is tightly assembled, yet they are free to explore the full depths of the music. These extended pieces allow plenty of room to develop several magical interactions between the musicians. This is Jazz at its' highest levels." This is another masterful performance from Dave Holland and his Quintet. Jazz is best when experienced live. So close your eyes, turn up the volume, sit back and enjoy this journey. We don't get to travel this way very often.