Vicar Street
Sunday night's visit by the Dave Holland Octet unveiled one of the finest jazz groups to visit this city in years. Presented by The Improvised Music Company in association with The Ticket, the octet epitomised quality. With a line-up of Kenny Wheeler (trumpet/flugelhorn), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Antonio Hart (alto/ flute), Chris Potter (tenor/soprano), Gary Smulyan (baritone), Steve Nelson (vibes), Billy Kilson (drums) and Holland on bass, it was packed with musicians abundantly equipped to be leaders in their own right.
To its solo strength the group added some wonderful ensemble playing and writing. The original material, by either Holland, Potter or Eubanks, made adept, deliciously flexible use of the spread of voices offered by the octet, often using counterpoint, either through contrasting riffs or weaving together independent melodic lines, and always keeping the ensemble discourse on the move. With hardly any of it in straight 4/4 this was not easy music, but it was carried off with magisterial aplomb by a band really on top of the demands being placed on it.
At its best, the octet achieved a balance between the written and the improvised which integrated the solo work into the ensemble, setting both off beautifully. This was especially true of the gorgeous encore, Dream Of The Elders, and of Blues For CM, Holland's tribute to another great bassist, which caught the mixture of tenderness and passion of Charlie Mingus's work with, even, hints of a man Mingus admired - Duke Ellington. On this unusually structured blues, Hart, Nelson and Holland were mesmerisingly good.
Equally lovely was Holland's Ballad For Kenny, which exploited the very personal lyricism of Kenny Wheeler (on flugelhorn) against nicely varied backgrounds from the rest of the octet, and contrasted it with an effective tenor solo from Potter, who, not for the last time during the concert, surprisingly echoed Sonny Rollins in his work. He also wrote an untitled piece, another beautiful ballad, which again showed Wheeler's gift for taking his lyricism in surprising directions.
One of the finest moments of the night was Eubanks's A Seeking Spirit. After a rather lengthy introduction by Potter and the superb Kilson, trombone and alto were offset against trumpet, tenor and the big-toned baritone of Smulyan, setting up excellent solos for Nelson, Eubanks and Kilson, with the closing ensembles a memorable blend of the written and the collectively improvised.
If there was a negative about the night - apart from the fact that the concert started 45 minutes late - it was that some solo work, particularly during the second set, went on too long, upsetting the balance between the individual and the collective which is one of this group's many virtues. Overall, though, the concert provided some brilliant music by a band unlikely to be surpassed by any jazz visitors here this year.
