Dave Holland: Life Cycle-Resolution
Recorded: Ludwigsburg, Germany, November 1982
Rating: 100/100 (learn more)
By the early 1980s, bassist Dave Holland had already cut his teeth with a who’s who of jazz superstars including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz. In the late 1960s, Holland began to play the cello while working with the group Circle. In 1982, he released the album Life Cycle, his first album of unaccompanied cello compositions. As the last section of a five-part suite, “Resolution” is a brilliant example of the capabilities of the modern unaccompanied cello.
Holland begins the piece with an exciting arco passage that calls to mind the compositions of an early influence, Béla Bartók. The arco phrase comes to a sudden halt at 1:05 where Dave switches to pizzicato without losing any intensity. The pizzicato passage easily segues into a bluesy section beginning at 2:39 where Holland fully evokes the textures of the blues with the simple addition of minor thirds. The song captures more emotions than entire albums can, with the cello being the instrument to accomplish such a feat.
Reviewer: Eric Wendell
Tags: 1980s jazz · cello · ecm
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