DownBeat October 2001 [antikvár]

ontheiDoat"wlw wlSUNNYSIOE SSCIIOO(Oigipak) street date September 25.2001'A virtuoso singer tl atin idioms can adihat purists of Jazz and pan-Tiire, Souza phrases with then/isdom ofan old s(3Ut" Down Beat'Souza gets to the' )lend of clarity andheart of the material with a rare strenghth" Chicago Sun-Times .lucianasouza.comwww.Sunnyside sunnysidezone.comA year ago in this column, I wrote about the Dave Holland Big Band's triumphant debut performance at the 2000 Montreal Intemational Jazz Festival, and flte bassist's tentative plans to record and tour witii the 13-piece ensemble. I'm happy to write that so far the big band can be called a jazz success stoiy, as it has recorded an album and played several subsequent gigs, as Howard Mandel writes about in Holland's much-deserved cover story (Page 24).At the core of the big | band stand the members of s Holland's working quintetsaxophonist Chris Potter, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibist Steve Nelson and dmmmer Billy Kilson. As a unit, these musicians have ascended to a rarefied impro-visational air, which has not gone unnoticed, as the group has won the top Acoustic Jazz Group category in the past few Down Beat Readers and Critics polls.So after tiie photo shoot for the cover of this issue, I convened a roundtable interview with the bandwithout Hollandto discuss what makes this quintet a magical unit A few of the comments follow, and more can be found at DownbeaLcom.Potter: "Dave's smart enough to realize, like all good bandleaders, that the way to get people to work with you is that you want them to do their own thing. If s not a matter of you ti-ying to tone down their thing. Having everyone's compositions become part of the band's repertoire is obviously a good thing. It encourages aH of us to feel that we have some stake in it If s not just one person's baby. It adds to flie feeling that if s a group."Nelson: "This music is about having fim, and we definitely have fun when playing together. There's a lot of give and take and communication. The main reason Uiat the band is still togetiier is that we'veall played in so many bands. If you add up how many bands we've all played in, I'm sure ifs more than 100 bands. So we're really forging a musical identity. Ifs getting more and more popular, more defined. I'm just glad that we realize that this is a special situation."Eubanks: "Dave heard something in each of us that he wanted. He built the sound of this band with real concepts in mind. One of the reasons why we have an identity is because each person is at the cutting edge of whaf s happening on our instiiunents. When you put that together, and we're open enough to give and take and add to the whole, it tums into a very unique thing. There's still this perception of what jazz is supposed to sound like. This band doesn't sound like that"Kilson: "Dave's so open. My background is more in funk, but he's open to let me incorporate what I'm feeling or wherever I'm coming from. He's very objective musically. I've never had a musical experience Uke this. Ifs like riding a bike. We may not play together for a couple of montiis, but when we come back together, it just feels great Ifs natural." dbbyjason koransky10 October2001 DOWNBEAT