Bassist, composer and bandleader Dave Holland, winner of seven Grammy Awards during the past decade, will release his third album for his Dare2 label, a stellar sextet session called Pass It On. The release date is September 23.
Holland first unveiled the new sextet in early 2006, during a week of showcase presentations at Birdland in New York. Comprised of three horn players-trombonist Robin Eubanks, alto saxophonist Antonio Hart, trumpeter Alex “Sasha” Sipiagin-who have been regular collaborators of Holland’s in his quintet or big band, the sextet also includes pianist Mulgrew Miller and drummer Eric Harland, with whom he’d recorded on only a couple of occasions.
Pass It On features new arrangements of several Holland originals first recorded in the ’80s and ’90s. “Some of the compositions that I’ve written in the past evolve in my mind a little bit over time,” Holland says in a press release, adding that “One of the advantages of the sextet is that it’s still a smaller unit than big band or octet, but it also gives you a lot of options in terms of orchestrating and utilizing backgrounds. So I thought that was a good way to fill out these old compositions and expand on them a little bit where something new could happen. And, of course, this group of people brings some new creative ideas to the pieces.”
Holland plans to take his sextet out for several key appearances this fall: 9/18-20 Regattabar, Boston; 9/21 Yale University, New Haven; 9/24-28 Yoshi’s, San Francisco & Oakland; and 10/8-11 Birdland, New York. (Vibist Steve Nelson, a longtime member of Holland’s quintet, will replace Mulgrew Miller for all except the New York shows.)
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