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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Jazz bassist to perform at Buskirk

David Holland has been around.\nThe 53-year-old Grammy-winning bassist has performed with such legends as Thelonius Monk and Stan Getz. For years, he accompanied Miles Davis, collaborating on 14 of his albums.\nHe's bringing his quintet to the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., for a show tonight at 8:30 p.m. Local jazz trumpeter and composer Kyle Quass opens an hour earlier. \n"Almost everyone who played with Miles went on to establish themselves as a frontman," said music professor David Miller, also an active jazz musician. "And David Holland is no exception. He's shown a high level of artistry and distinguished himself."\nBorn in Wolverhampton, England, Holland saw music in his stars from an early age. At the age of 4, he started with the ukele, moving on to the guitar at 10 and then to the bass guitar at age 13. While he briefly took piano lessons, he was essentially self-taught, picking up the popular music of the day from song books and the radio. \nDuring his adolescence, Holland started playing gigs with local bands. Upon first hearing Ray Brown, he took whole-heartedly to the bass and immersed himself in jazz. \n"(Ray Brown's) approach to the instrument was the thing that inspired me initially," he said in a recent interview with Jazz Weekly. "He related to each soloist in slightly different ways and played for their style of playing."\nHolland moved to London at 18 to study at the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama.\nBut he never graduated. Holland was playing a show at a London jazz club, and Myles Davis happened to be sitting in the audience. Davis was so impressed by the young bassist that he asked him to join his band. \nSoon after, Holland found himself in New York City, in the recording studio with Davis for such immortal classics as Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way. \n"It was a great period," he said. "I was young. It was quite a daunting prospect to play with him."\nAfter a frenetic three years with the towering legend, Holland spent the next three decades serving as sideman for several musicians. Highly in demand, he focused his efforts mainly on rythym -- the melodic anchor of complement and counterpoint. Down the road though, his desire to spread his wings got the better of him. He put together the Dave Holland Quartet, which has released the critically acclaimed albums Prime Directive and Points of View.\nSigned by the German label E.C.M., Holland has been able to realize his free-thinking musical vision, which bridges the gap between from and the inspired chaos of improvisation.\n"One of the things about writing for jazz musicians is is that we have to leave it very open-ended in certain ways so that ideas brought in during rehearsals, and performances have room to be included," he said. "So a piece may start off with one particular idea, but I think it is very important for the composer to be open-minded too and to allow the music to grow in different ways."\nAs a band leader, Holland has received his share of laurels, including a 2000 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and Best Acoustic Bassist in Down Beat's Critics Poll for the past two years.\nThe show is part of the Jazz from Bloomington concert series, which has brought national acts like John Scofield and Christian McBride.\n"We're working on promoting original jazz and giving the musicians a hot place to play in Bloomington," said Monika Herzig, president of the group.\nTickets are $16 for general admission, $14 for students and seniors. They can be purchased at the Sunrise Box Office at (812) 323-3020.

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