| Dave Holland, Plank-Spanking Funk Meister
Newport Jazz Fest yesterday. The next-to-last show was Herbie Hancock's somewhat-large ensemble: Two singers, Chris Potter on tenor, Lionel Loueke on guitar, Vinnie Collaiuta drumming and Dave Holland on double-bass and Fender. The book went back and forth between vocal-tunes from River and Possibilities, on the one hand, and classic Herbie funk tunes on the other. We're talking about Cantaloupe Island, Chameleon and the opener, Actual Proof.
Herbie Hancock still plays those funk vamps like Herbie Hancock, chock full of risk, musicality and the moment. The sound of H.J. Hancock exploring the minor submediant on acoustic piano is a joy to to behold, even in a context of electric guitar, bass guitar and thundering drums. (That said, the last song of the set was Loueke's Seven Teens in mixed-meter, with DB and it definitely brought the Mwandishi sound to mind. For my personal taste, that was The Shtuff and I will smile through quite a bit of other shtuff to get a taste of The Shtuff from the masters.)
Mr. Holland sounded nice on the plank -- all finger-style, no thumpin' or poppin'. He plays outside the box and very musically, as you'd expect. Forty years of rapport with Herbie shows clearly. He's not trying to be anybody else. He was obviously paying attention to the sound of the instrument -- no annoying fret-buzz and only occasional, purposeful clank-attack. (That was in sharp contrast to Bob Cransaw, Sonny Rollins' plank-meister, whose performance was marred by constant fret-buzz.)
I can't imagine that the decision to play BG again was a straight money-choice for Dave. No doubt Herbie pays well but Dave Holland must make pretty close to top jazz dollar already with his band. Besides, I suspect that Dave has had good and bad times like all of us and if so he's weathered them on DB before, anyway.
So barring that what would prompt Mr. Holland to pick up the tool he has ignored for almost forty years? If Dave wants to say, "Hey, I'll strap it on, this is fun and I want to have fun," well go get 'em, maestro, and good to see you! But I have to wonder about it as a purely musical choice. I saw Scott Colley utterly slay Chameleon with Mr. Hancock, playing DB. Dave sure could have done that too.
What d'ya think?
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"We can give to those who listen to the essence the best of what we are. But to do that, at each stage we have to keep on cleaning the mirror." -- John Coltrane
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