Dave Holland Quintet


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Oct 4, 2006

jazz

Who says the working band is dead? The core of Dave Holland's current quintet has been together for nearly a decade, and the newest member, drummer Nate Smith, has filled that seat for almost two years. But the band, which has been playing stellar live dates throughout that time, has gone unrecorded for five years while Holland concentrated on his big band. The road-tested group that emerges on Critical Mass (Dare2/Sunnyside) has an easy give-and-take well-suited to the album's relaxed compositions. Live, the soloists spur each other to more fiery displays (Robin Eubanks' trombone is often a show-stopper), but on disc they engage in a more casual conversation. From his stint with Miles Davis in the '60s, Holland picked up a habit of stocking his groups with the best possible players and letting the conglomerate dictate the musical form that results, letting lesser mortals worry about distinctions between inside and out.

Sat., Oct. 7, 7 and 9 p.m., $30, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, www.paintedbride.org.