Customer Reviews

Overtime

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dave Holland has a very distinct way of creating colorful conversations between musicians of exceptional caliber. Witness his Quintet recordings and you can touch, feel and experience the wide open spaces created to allow the band to explore and exchange ideas around the rhythm section. The Big Band preserves this concept but adds brass to color the space between the individual performances. What you end up with is a masterful approach to music that is easily accessible, yet innovative and exciting.

"Overtime" is another beautiful recording from an artist who understands the essence and improvisational beauty of Jazz. This music swings, grooves and stimulates. Just listen to the many exceptional solos from Chris Potter, Robin Eubanks and Antonio Hart. The magic happens at a higher level when they dialogue with each other. These musical conversations sound like two artist soloing at the same time, but if you listen closely, you can clearly hear the conversation and exchange between them. The glue to this entire approach is Billy Kilson's incredible rhythmic abilities. He knows when to push forward and when to back off to let the music simmer. The Chemistry between Holland, Kilson and Steve Nelson is magic. They take turns pushing the other musicians to stellar heights throughout the "Monterey Suite". Observe Kilson mixing it up with Potter and Eubanks on "Bring It On" and again on "Free for All". Nelson sparkles on the Marimba in between the solos. The darting & stabbing brass on "Happy Jammy" sets up a fast-paced swirling Gary Hart Soprano solo that echoes Wayne Shorter's best Weather Report performances. This track comes to a rollicking end that left me breathless. The remaining tracks are strong & cohesive. "Ario" is a lovely ballad with beautiful texture and a great Alto solo from Mark Gross, while "Mental Images" is rhythmic rollercoaster ride from the M-Base school of thought. "The Last Minute Man" reminds me of a soundtrack from a Jazz movie - not too heavy, but a great conversation piece. A nice touch to end this musical experience.

Dave Holland has delivered yet another masterful recording in a career that has been defined by innovation and creativity. He has earned numerous awards for his work over the last five years and this music continues his surge to the front of the Jazz Class. It will be interesting to see how they will follow-up on this recording. "Overtime" succeeds on every level. Well done Mr. Holland! Your work is exceptional. Enjoy!!!!!

Awesome album, showcasing all the greatest Holland strengths. The band is extremely tight and communicative, impressive given the fact that the arrangements are intricate, the time signatures complex. Dave continues to write tunes that are experimental, grooving and catchy, with both the expressiveness and technical challenge of the very best jazz.

Holland's playing is prodigious and seemingly unlimited in imagination and facility, as usual. Hats off to Kilson on drums, who seems to have fulfilled a great deal of his considerable promise on this record. He combines a strong fusion-funk groove with the rhythmic freedom and cymbal-expressiveness of T. Williams and E. Jones, a manic sense of constant motion, split-second free-association and a sense of humor. Not many drummers can play this relentlessly and stay both innovative and tuned-in to the band. I love it, and I'm still trying to count some of those measures!

Listening to Overtime by Dave Holland places me in a very good space. The playing, material and quality of recording are all of the highest order; which still falls short of explaining the incredible delight this cd yields. Theres a magical quality to a lot of the cd's released on the ECM label and this one is no exception. Highly recommended

Awesome stuff. It swings without a hint of self-consciousness or retro sensibility. Holland seems determined to push the big band concept forward rhythmically and structurally, and he succeeds with a record that's both challenging and rockin'. Ellington would've approved, I'd bet.

Some of the tastier big band in town, Holland once again proves how to emulate many styles of approach without seeming the slightest bit redundant or derivative- something I've had to learn the hard way that sounds much easier than it actually is, even when dealing with some of the most seasoned players known.

This is the companion album to What Goes Around, also by Dave Holland's absolutely outstanding big band. The sound here is not different from that amazing record--long, multi-part pieces with extremely advanced harmonics and terrific playing,

But in no way are these albums interchangable. Holland's work on both these sets is so advanced and intreging, you can listen to these back to back for days on end, in awe of his ability to take a sound, and wind endless, facinating permutations.

Basically, these are long pieces, with long intros, and winding middle sections. In music, most parts of a song run in eight bar cycles. Here, one part can take five minutes to unfold--running through many messures before establishing a pattern. As listeners to rock and blues and tradtional jazz, our ears and minds are not trained for Holland's musical mazes. So hearing the compositions unfold can be jarring, confusing, even to music addicts to whom normal cadance is as natrual as breath. The normal instinct is to put this album aside and run to something more comfortable.

DON'T!

THe playing on this is so good, and the music so magnetic, slowly, with incerasingly loving attention, you are able to internalize this new feel, and are drawn in to every nook and cranny of this heart that beats a little different.

This is not a thinking process, but one of absortion. Holland throws in plenty of yummy hooks to grab us. Listen to the end of "Montaray Suite, pt. 2.' There is a bass and drum duel that, frankly, reminds me of Redding and Mitchel on Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9." (What do you think young Dave was listening to all those years ago?) The interplay here is rocky, bluesy, polyrythmic and simply astounding.

These hooks are of course not the sum total of this album, not by a damn sight. But they are a great part of this amazing set.

When you start listening to this, you may not want to continue. But once you continue, trust me, you'll never stop.

I'm a jazz fan and trombone player, and I've enjoyed most all of Dave Holland's recordings since his involvement with Robin Eubanks. Particularly good were the recent Extended Play with a small group, and What Goes Around with a big band. So I actually hunted down this recording, and was looking forward to it.

What a disappointment. Some of the playing is top notch, especially Billy Kilson and Robin Eubanks, but the writing is unmemorable and overwrought, and the band's ensemble work never seems to catch fire. Recommended for drum fans (Kilson is an amazing player) but for anyone else looking for a modern big band recording, I'd advise checking out Maria Schneider, Ernie Krivda, or Bob Mintzer instead.

This is the best big band CD I've heard in quite some time!. The brass section is outstanding and Dave on Bass and Billy Kilson on Drums really keep the music moving! My highest recommendation for any jazz aficionado!

The jazz band directors in the middle and high schools should get these arrangements and add these to their repertoire.

This may be and probably is the best piece of music that I have ever bought! The interactions between the players and the precision while yet seemingly spontaneous is remarkable! I find the changes in tempo and the non repetitious drum beats refreshing.

having heard live mingus, basie, ellington, and a bit jaded about jazz these days...many listeners, that is, of 'that generation' are content staying home listening to old record collections. surprisingly, holland's overtime is the real deal, what big band jazz is about. the cd dragged some on the eubank selection.but overall the sound reaches toward doc severinsen's big band, which isn't bad.