Jazz breaking news: Dave Holland back with Prism and Royal Academy residency
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Revered bassist Dave Holland is set to make a dramatic return to the fray with a fired-up new quartet and album both under the name Prism, featuring a hard-hitting combination of keyboardist Craig Taborn, guitarist Kevin Eubanks and drummer Eric Harland (all pictured left).
Holland’s album is his first for Sony’s newly revived OKeh label, and a preview listen of the album confirms it to be his most visceral recording for many years, recalling the uncompromising onslaught of his work with Miles in 1970, and his own Extensions band in the late 1980s, and features Eubanks’ distortion-laden guitar and Taborn’s twisted Rhodes leading the charge.
The nine-track set concludes with a stunning ballad, ‘Breathe’, which features a sensitive piano intro from Taborn. The band makes their UK debut later this year over two unmissable nights at Ronnie Scott’s on 2-3 November. Holland is also set to be International Artist In Residence at the Royal Academy of Music for the next two years, and among various visits will work with Academy students for a full week in early 2014, including a performance in the Academy’s Sir Jack Lyons Theatre on 22 January.
– Mike Flynn