Mark Dresser
Peter Kowald
Heron Moon (Rare Music)
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Onetime Miles Davis sideman and Anthony Braxton cohort Dave Holland, who recorded a set of bass duets with Phillips in 1971, was also fairly early into the water. Emerald Tears (ECM), his first stab at solo from 1977, has just been reissued on CD, and it’s a real ear opener: Holland’s giant, woody sound (“woody” being the sound of choice for bass snobs) and imagination applied to a composition by Braxton, Davis’s oft-played “Solar,” and six other tracks bearing Holland’s signature.
The brand-new Ones All (Intuition) finds Holland less exploratory, playing stunningly on bass keystone Charles Mingus’s “Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat,” John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.” (named for bassist Paul Chambers), a piece called “Three Step Dance” by Glen Moore (bassist in the proto-New Age group Oregon, who played solo on a 1972 Ralph Towner record), a swingin’ “Little Girl I’ll Miss You” by alto saxist Bunky Green, and a handful of originals. The place to start, though, might just be the last track, Holland’s take on the Billie Holiday spirit rouser “God Bless the Child”–he nurses the bluesy melody along, dropping fat notes behind it like crumbs on a country path.
Dresser and cocomposer Lamont Wolfe fiddle around with tape manipulation productively (and often imperceptibly) on “Trenchant”; “Trains” is a humorous piece for tape and bass complete with (you guessed it) train noises. Obviously, Dresser’s not averse to effects; the extra resonance on “Subtonium” echoes some of Iancu Dumitrescu’s astounding compositions for bass. Dresser’s signature extended technique–hammer-ons with both hands, up the neck side by side as if he’s giving the bass a massage–is immediately audible at the start of “Invocation.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): assorted album covers.
