Just saw Dave Holland Quintet! it was amazing! He plays a real small bass, in fact it looks like a 5/8 or 1/2 size, I didn't pay attention to the pick up, but he had a mic with a gooseneck, I know for sure it was not the AMT, Trinity or AudioTechnica, anyway the sound of the bass wasn't that great, you know Gallien Krueger 112 feeding a 410 Hartke aluminnun speakers (argh!) actually on a second thought considering the equipment he uses the sound was pretty good, I know I couldn't make that work, anyway those guys are out there, I really need to hear something in 4/4 now.

Originally posted by Bijoux
He plays a real small bass, in fact it looks like a 5/8 or 1/2 size

I think he's just a big guy who makes the bass seem small.

Originally posted by brianrost


I think he's just a big guy who makes the bass seem small.


I can confirm this...I saw him at the Jazz Kitchen in Indy a couple months ago playing with Chris Potter and Robin Eubanks, and he towered over both of them. I was up pretty close, and it looked like a 3/4 size axe to me.

Well, I am 6 feet tall, he was a little shorter than I am, I told him what a great concert, he was right next to me, than I went towards the stage to check out his bass stuff, well when I look over the vibes and I see part of the bass I first thought I was looking at the upper bout when in fact I was looking at the lower bout, I am telling you that bass was right in front of me, plus like I mentioned before Dave is probably 5'8" or so and he had most of the endpin out he bass stays pretty straight and the nut was barely above his eyebrow, I have a 7/8 and big 3/4 and a small 3/4, his bass definetely looked smaller than my small 3/4.

Maybe it was a different bass?

It could be, even on the picture at the front desk the bass looked small and the endpin was way out, I was whaching him playing the bass and it seemed like the string lenght could be close to standard, I noticed he was shifting a lot on the lower positions.

I Know this has nothing to do with what ever bass you saw him playing but theres a guy in boston who has one of daves old baases its the one he used on the Ones All album (the solo one) Its a 3/4,s and not a small one at that.

AJ

Holland is mostly definitely not 5'8". I am 6'2" and he is as tall as I--I shook his hand and he gave me an autograph when I saw him back in September.

Originally posted by Peter McFerrin
Holland is mostly definitely not 5'8". I am 6'2" and he is as tall as I--I shook his hand and he gave me an autograph when I saw him back in September.

I didn't want to mention this since I didn't meet him in person, but I'm also 6'2" and he seemed to be about my height....of course, it's difficult to tell because he was on a stage. Chris Potter is definitely on the small side though, which is what gave me the idea that Holland might be making his bass look small, since he made Potter seem small. That said, Potter SOUNDED huge.

Originally posted by Chris Fitzgerald


I didn't want to mention this since I didn't meet him in person, but I'm also 6'2" and he seemed to be about my height....of course, it's difficult to tell because he was on a stage. Chris Potter is definitely on the small side though, which is what gave me the idea that Holland might be making his bass look small, since he made Potter seem small. That said, Potter SOUNDED huge.

Yeah, Potter's not a big guy. But boy howdy does he have a monstrous tone, especially on soprano.

Another thing about Holland: his hands are about the size of regulation Frisbees, if not bigger. I felt like my arm was gonna come off when he shook my hand.

Speaking of size, how about Ritt Henn?
http://www.ritthenn.com/images/CroppedOutsideTray.jpg

Ron Carter got some big hands. I met him at a McCoy Tyner gig, and the handshake reminded me of the thing that came out of the spaceship at the end of "War of the Worlds".

An intresting debate - I think I mentioned something like this after I saw Dave Holland with a chamber orchestra playing a new composition dedicated to him : "Bass Inventions".

I had seats very near the front and it was a sitauation where there was no stage as such but raised seats which went back and up - so when you came in, you walked round the instruments.

So, on the left was Dave Holland's bass and on the right was the bass of the chamber orchestra's bassist - and there was a huge difference in size! Holland's bass was closer in size to the Cellos than the "Orchestral" Double Bass.

He was also using an amp, while the Orchestra (of course) played unamplified - so I mentioned before how the two basses were almost like different instruments - one acoustic and the other virtually an "electric" bass?

Having said that - the stuff that Dave Holland was playing on his bass was incredible - like a concerto - and would probably have been impossible on another instrument. So I'm in no way criticising him - I loved his playing and was hugely impressed.

Just interesting, the differences in instruments...

Damn-
Why not e-mail Holland or post a message @Jazz Corner?
His website can hit from www.jazzcorner.com

He & Robin Eubanks are very cool & usually very prompt in responding, too.

How 'bout The Dave Holland Big Band?

Originally posted by JimK
Damn-
Why not e-mail Holland or post a message @Jazz Corner?
His website can hit from www.jazzcorner.com

He & Robin Eubanks are very cool & usually very prompt in responding, too.



Are you sure? I posted a question there to Dave Holland months ago, about recordings of "Bass Inventions" and got no reply! :(

...probably 'cause he knows you.


:p

You can always try Robin Eubanks in the "Ask The Musicians" forum @
www.jazzcorner.com/speakeasy

Woildn't that seem a bit "personal" or downright rude? ;)


Ermmm, Robin - you know Dave - well how tall is he really and how big is his instrument...exactly!


:D

Dave Holland plays on a small French bass(probably around 120 yrs. old). It is a flatback, and is probably 5/8 to small 3/4. Great sounding bass!

Pics of his quintet from last night...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/jghoddoussi/DSC00311.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/jghoddoussi/DSC00312.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/jghoddoussi/DSC00314.jpg

He's using the same setup described in the first post of this thread, started in 2002.

The actual bass body is smaller, but the scale is the same as a 3/4 DB. It's a normal DB from the bridge-up. It's squished on the lower half of the bass.

Almost looks like a Czech-Ease...

It is a Czech-Ease, I know he plays one on tours mostly at this point.

The setup has been the same for years :

GK MB1** + Hartke 4x10 (aluminum cones)
Retrospec tube DI if I remember well.

The Mic is an AKG 419

I might be off but that's what I remember reading and also seeing last time I saw him play.

I saw him last fall and he was playing the Czech-Ease. Personally, I found his sound kind of muted and dull. The French bass sounds better.

I'm sure with his tour schedule, and the ever-increasing regulations on airline travel, he's willing to sacrifice some tone for the portability of a Czeck-ease bass. I saw him in the Spring '07 and he was using one. I'm sure the hall makes a big difference as well in his amplified tone.

Dave had the guys at Gage make a carved CE for him. No one I spoke to thought it was any better than the plywood ones, and in my opinion half of the point of the CE is the fact that it's plywood and therefore more resistant to abuse, and climate changes, so why bother? Anyway, I get a great amplified tone from mine. So Dave's french bass sounds better...it ought to!

I saw him last fall and he was playing the Czech-Ease. Personally, I found his sound kind of muted and dull. The French bass sounds better.
Concur all around. But he's still slayin'.

A Dave Holland thread that I missed?:hiding:

Anyway...I had the good fortune to play two of dave's basses before he got the small French one; I played the German bass he used for most of the 70's and 80's once, and also another German that was larger that he had briefly before the French bass. His original German bass was nice, somewhat large, but a nice full tone. The other German bass was HUGE. And the sound was HUGE. Playing it was like playing a gorilla. Of course Dave made it sound great.
I have not heard him with the Gage bass yet.

From http://daveholland.com -
Dave Holland's Equipment:

* Small flat back 3/4 French bass
* Thomastik Spirocore strings (orchestral tuning).
* AKG 406c condenser microphone mounted on the inside of the tailpiece so that the capsule is positioned between the feet about 1 inch from the front of the bass, and this goes directly to the house and monitor system.
* Underwood pickup goes through a "Retrospec" tube D.I. that sends one line to the monitors and the house, and one line to my Gallien Krueger MB150E. This has its own 12" speaker and drives a Hartke 410 cabinet.

Has anyone seen this?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g6R0GjY3agU


Oh man, I just watched that twice in a row. Insane.

Absolutely awesome clip from an incredible group. I love their music.

Has anyone seen this?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g6R0GjY3agU


Oh man, I just watched that twice in a row. Insane.

I watch that clip every morning before I start work. Love it!

All good about Dave's bass. Whatever it is, it's awesome. I recently hung with Wilbur Dejoode from Holland and he plays a "Chamber Bass" which, from appearances is a big cello with bass strings. I really dug the sound-- the small body gave a really fast and punchy response. I heard that those basses are super-rare though. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Also, Bijoux, I heard from Ken Walker that those Czech-Ease (sp?) basses are pretty decent too. Thoughts?

Dave Holland plays the Czech-Ease on many of his road gigs and some of his local ones.

hey jazzin

Do you have any other pictures from that night? I happened to be in montreal that night (if that's what the pictures are from) and I went and saw the show with a buddy of mine.


I really want to get a DVD of the concert, because I know it was being televised.

I'm from Northern Virginia, and can't speak french to save my butt. I was just on vacation with some buddies there and found out about the festival at the last minute. I bought tickets at the venue, which I hardly found because the whole festival site was in french and it was terribly slow internet at the cafe near the hostil.


Anyways, it was a really incredible performance. I was in the front row at the first table off to the side. I saw Dave when we got in (we were like the 5th people in, beacause we waited outside for a bit). He's not really that tall... I'm 6'2, and he's for sure shorter than me. Maybe like 5'11.

Who knows.

Check this one out.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HHu6rzmUvFI&feature=related

I think people are talking at cross-purposes in this thread as they are not looking at dates !!! :p

So - when I contributed to this thread last it was in 2002 - Czech Ease basses did not even exist then! ;)

The Bass Dave is playing in the link I posted above , I believe, is the French Bass in question. I had the good fortune to attend some master classes with Dave at the Banff centre for the arts in 1999. He had this Bass with him. He said it was a smaller instrument than he was looking for but he liked it and said he could get around on it easier than his old basses. I think he also said that the basses he used to play sounded good but were too big for him. I met him in person and I'm about 6 feet, I think he was a little taller.
The 3 days Dave was there was definitely the highlight of the workshop! I got to see him play 3 solo pieces, it was unbelievable! He told his life story the first day which was quite interesting. I hope I have the chance to attend more classes with him someday, some of the stuff he talked about was a little hard to grasp at the time. He mentioned using the golden proportion in composition, not quite sure what he meant by that. He also recomended reading Zen and the art of archery (good book) and said you can inject chi into the string. Interesting stuff!

Are you sure? I posted a question there to Dave Holland months ago, about recordings of "Bass Inventions" and got no reply! :(

I've never had much luck with the message boards but I've always been impressed with Dave's prompt responses to any emails I've sent him. His email address is on the www.daveholland.com site. I'd still love his playing if he was a miserable prick but he seems like a very genuinely nice guy.

I find it funny the constant controversy over his height. It seems to come up again and again. I met him once and I didn't get the impression he was over 6'. He did seem to have massive hands.

That was 5 years ago in 2002 I said that! :p

I found that site and the answers to my questions several years ago! ;)

Although there is still no recording of 'Bass Inventions'!! :(

I heard his new sextet tonight, great, great band as always. A few of the heads were a little smooth for my taste but the execution was spot on. Antonio Hart is the new reed player, great as he is in that band he was the weakest link. He still had some great moments and his style is more open than Potter's so the vibes/bass/drums trio shined more than the earlier concerts I had seen. There is a new trumpet player, not real memorable.
Robin Eubanks and Steven Nelson were just amazing. Everything was placed so well by both of them.
The new drummer is way more open and sensitive so things get a lot more free than before. Holland really pushed things out more than he has in recent years. The band was so tight, I don't think it fazed the audience a bit. Dave Holland sounded like Dave Holland, but he seemed particularly fresh and creative.

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but does anyone know if Dave plays Spirocore Weich's or Mittels (mediums)? I really like his tone in those youtube clips, not to mention the playing!

From his website

Dave Holland's Equipment:

* Small flat back 3/4 French bass
* Thomastik Spirocore strings (orchestral tuning).
* AKG 406c condenser microphone mounted on the inside of the tailpiece so that the capsule is positioned between the feet about 1 inch from the front of the bass, and this goes directly to the house and monitor system.
* Underwood pickup goes through a "Retrospec" tube D.I. that sends one line to the monitors and the house, and one line to my Gallien Krueger MB150E. This has its own 12" speaker and drives a Hartke 410 cabinet.

thanks, I saw that- just wondering if he uses the light or medium gauge?

'Orchestral' or 'Orchestra' usually means Mittel.

Thanks!

Saw these guys at the Toronto Jazz Festival on Friday...awesome concert! I don't think they played anything from "Extensions" (my favorite Holland CD), but it was still great, everyone was in top form. One thing that was funny is that Dave was playing an unaccompanied solo for "Veil of Tears", but the loud bells from Old City Hall started chiming partway through, to which he would keep looking up with this confused quizzical look - as if he couldn't understand why a tower bell would interrupt his solo :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v188/Helios1971/holland.jpg