Dave Holland Quintet - Prime Directive

Bassist Dave Holland has always brought top-shelf bands to the stage, and the quintet on Prime Directive is no exception. Saxophonist Chris Potter is on board, replacing Steve Wilson and linking arms with trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and drummer Billy Kilson. Together, the quintet performs phenomenally tight on their complex charts, with Kilson playing matchmaker between the complicated orchestrations and the deceptively simple-sounding melodies. Holland has his customary rumble, packed with precision and a peerless sense of forward direction. Five of the tunes are the leader's, all of them highlighted by ECM records' crystalline production aesthetic. Eubanks and Potter take flighty, heady solos and play unison lines with Nelson's vibes, marking a middle ground that's both a center of focus and a curious light shining back on the rest of the band. Aside from Holland's five compositions, each band member also adds one of his own tunes, making the album at once diverse and remarkably coherent. --Andrew Bartlett Amazon.com

Most satisfying music I've ever heard

I picked up Prime Directive about 5 years ago on impulse. I'd heard of Dave Holland but wasn't familiar with his discography and was not aware of his Quintet.

It's simply the best jazz I've ever heard; I'm listening to it yet again right now. So I idly logged onto Amazon to see what other people were saying about it and saw the comments by several that they had listened to Prime Directive over 50 times and still weren't tired of it. Well, I don't know how many times I've played this CD but it must be in the hundreds I suppose. It's something else.

If you like this album, be sure to get "What Goes Around" also - it's sort of a companion CD. And I like The Dave Holland Quartet's "Extensions" alot too. Holland has also worked with Kevin Eubanks, the guitarist/band leader of The Tonight Show band (trombonist Robin Eubanks is Kevin's brother) on a CD called "The World Trio" which is different from Prime Directive's complex rhythms and instrumentation but also quite good. Once you start listening to Dave Holland, you find you can't get enough of him. May 30, 2006

Brilliant modern jazz

Dave Holland's groups are among the best in jazz today. He combines simple and complex musical elements to create a unique type of jazz. It is full of hypnotic vamps, and there is always a strong rhythmic drive. Even with all of the strange time-signatures, it is not hard to follow the structure of the music. At the same time, all of the players are extremely advanced melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically. Chris Potter, in particular, takes the harmony to the furthest extremes of complexity. But because of the rhythmic strength and the repetitive underlying harmonies, I think even newbie jazz fans could enjoy this album.
There is not a single loser on this album. Every song is catchy and engaging, and most of the solos (especially those of Chris Potter and Steve Nelson) are, for all their complexity, melodic and memorable.
This is the kind of album that you can listen to endlessly without getting tired of it. Indeed, I've listened to the title track alone in excess of 50 times.
If you haven't heard any Dave Holland, or if you are new to modern jazz, this is a great place to start. If you are an experienced jazz fan, this will be a valuable addition to your collection. March 13, 2006

Great place to start with Dave Holland

The studio versions of these songs don't hit the same highs as the versions on Extended Play (see Jugglers Parade) but everything on Prime Directive is excellent and can be played all the way through. Overall a great Dave Holland disc. September 19, 2005

All hail the keeper of the vamps

From Ben Ratliff's review: "As a player on his own, he's become one of the few first-rank freelancers. But as a bandleader during the last 15 years or so, he has created a bona-fide small-band music, as opposed to a music that loosely associates individual players, and there is a stealthiness about it ... The themes on PRIME DIRECTIVE are often cute Monk-like curlicues decked out with contrapuntal arrangements. But the group is really defined by vamps, that old device of repetition and gradual build that comes from African music, then the blues, then Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Latin music; today, it is one of the jazz bandleader's most useful tools, not a diversion or an interlude but the thing itself ... Holland, as bassist and bandleader, is deeply settled into his role as keeper of the vamps."

Yeah but as Mark Pyle already said, the bass is undermiked. An act of misguided self-effacement on Holland's part. Steve Nelson's vibe-werk can't help but remind me at times of Philip Glass's rinky-dink minimalist riffs. But Steve's stuff is actually enjoyable. I'm incredibly relieved that Robin Eubanks chose to execute his stuff on a regular slide trombone instead of taking the easy way out and using one of those crappy-timbred valve trombones. (And I hope I can say that without getting my house haunted by the vindictive ghost of Juan Tizol.) February 3, 2005

Too perfect to emotion

Nel suo famoso saggio sulla musica afro-americana ("Il libro del jazz", edizioni Vallardi), il critico tedesco Joachim Berendt individua una corrente neo-classica nel jazz contemporaneo. Una corrente composta da musicisti che provengono dal free jazz ma che hanno scelto di usare la libertà musicale duramente guadagnata negli anni `60 per rivisitare la tradizione jazzistica, pur incorporando elementi della cosiddetta "world music". In Prime Directive, il quintetto del contrabbassista inglese Dave Holland parte da forme tradizionali per poi sovvertirle sul piano ritmico ed armonico, pur rispettandone l'originaria struttura. Il risultato è un disco tecnicamente impeccabile: ciò costituisce il suo maggior pregio ma anche il suo principale difetto. La perfezione delle esecuzioni e la bravura dei musicisti (particolarmente nei tratti di basso, batteria e vibrafono), lasciano l'ascoltatore impressionato ma non riescono a togliere il sospetto che il tutto sia un po' troppo clinico. For musicians only...
Arthur Cravan January 13, 2004

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