Not for Nothin' is the long-awaited third release from Dave Holland's quintet of Chris Potter (saxophones), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibes, marimba), Billy Kilson (drums) and Holland himself on bass. Following the success of their previous two albums on the ECM label (Points of View, ECM 1663 and Prime Directive, ECM 1698), this new album retains the formula that has become the group's signature: funky grooves in odd meters combined with energetic soloing and a relaxed approach to harmony.
Unfortunately, however, this third album fails to harness the appeal of its two predecessors. The fanfare-ish opening track, "Global Citizen", is a case in point. Penned by trombonist Eubanks, it begins in a 6+5 meter which metamorphoses into a catchy 4+6+5+4 following a show-stopping Holland bass solo. But on both sides of the transition are simple diatonic melodies which lead nowhere. While intelligence and ability are evident in the improvisation of all members, the album lacks enduring themes which would earn its constituent charts a place in the gigging musician's fake book, or even send a listener away humming. (Perhaps the most inexcusable cut in this respect is Holland's own "Shifting Sands", a bizarre tango in 9/4.)
This is not to say that there isn't a lot to enjoy on this album. One cannot help but be astonished at the ease with which Billy Kilson floats from one abstruse meter to the next, a source of boundless energy for the quintet. Potter's soloing lights up this release much like his contributions to Steely Dan's Grammy-winning Two Against Nature. Eubanks explores and pushes back the outer boundaries of trombone technique, and Steve Nelson is ever flexible as the ensemble's only chordal instrument, masterfully juxtaposing the horizontal with the vertical.
And what about Holland? At 53, he's as insatiable as ever, and he has a clear agenda. As he said in a previous interview, "For me, rhythm is one of the primary things that communicates with people. Even if you can't hear a pitch, you can feel a rhythm, movement and dance - everything that is fundamental to the human condition." Certainly, his latest effort offers a riveting vision of the fundamental.
In a way, his music resembles a fractal: if you take a simple operation, isolate it, put it through a series of iterations and focus in ever closer, you can see just how complex and beautiful the fundamental can be.
The author can be contacted at sekerke@jhu.edu.
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