Dave Holland Big Band @ Lafayette College

[LWayne]

Last Wednesday, March 9th, my wife and I traveled eastward across Pennsylvania to Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. to catch a performance by the Dave Holland Big Band. In fact, after checking into our hotel on the outskirts of Easton that afternoon, we ran into Dave himself in the hotel lobby! It was great to get an autograph and chat with him before the show and share our enthusiasm for his music.

The line-up of musicians for the concert was the same as on the great, new, CD "Overtime" save for Greg Tardy substituting for Chris Potter on tenor sax.

Apparently, Chris had a prior commitment touring with his new quartet in Europe.

The Williams Center for the Arts, while a smaller sized auditorium, is an ideal setting for such a concert owing to excellent acoustics and great sight lines. While we had seats in the middle section of the third row, there were truly no bad seats in such a cozy venue.

Particular highlights of the show for me were Robin Eubanks’ funky playing on his rhythmic composition “Mental Images”, Dave Holland’s arco bass introduction on “Shadow Dance”, and both Antonio Hart’s alto sax and flute and Steve Nelson’s vibes and marimba adding color throughout the performance.

The music played at the concert represented an event split of songs from the Grammy-winning "What Goes Around" and recent "Overtime" albums. The format of a big band (13 musicians) is always a treat in that you have the opportunity to experience the majesty and power of a larger ensemble, along with the subtle dynamics of group interplay, the inherent ebb and flow, and formidable presence of a big band. Simply put, the songs come alive!

The band played a continuous set for about 1 hour, 45 minutes without an intermission. While the band did not come back for an encore, the audience rewarded the performance with an enthusiastic standing ovation in reward for a fantastic evening of challenging music played by a group at the top of its game. The set list was as follows:

1. The Razor's Edge (What Goes Around)

2. Ario (Overtime)

3. Mental Images (Overtime)

4. Blues for C.M. (What Goes Around)

5. Triple Dance (What Goes Around)

6. A Time Remembered (Overtime)

7. Shadow Dance (What Goes Around)

It was truly a memorable evening.

LWayne