Dave Holland has ruined everything. Again. Uncharted Territories, the 69-year-old British bassist’s monumental new collaboration with saxophonist Evan Parker, keyboardist and electronic manipulator Craig Taborn and drummer Ches Smith, makes all other improvised music seem woefully inferior. (I could hardly be bothered to write a review of a mainstream album by a highly respected musician for the Kansas City jazz blog Plastic Sax yesterday.) Uncharted Territories is a searing modern masterpiece of room-clearing skronk and heartbreakingly subtle beauty. The musicians extemporaneously play as a quartet and in “every possible subset of duo and trio configurations.” Each of the 131 minutes is stunning. Holland’s 1973 album Conference of the Birds is revered by free jazz enthusiasts. Uncharted Territories is no less magnificent.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
5 comments:
This is good news for my jaded ears.
bgo
Much of this recording is streaming on YouTube and sadly few are listening to it. I am not surprised. Lucky me was exposed to free jazz when I was still a teenager back in the ancient late 1960's.
bgo
The audience may be small, BGO, but the music is immense.
I am fondly recalling recordings Holland made with the late John Hartford. I assume you know which ones I am referring to.
bgo
The late Dan Conn turned me on to that stuff, BGO.
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