Why jazz duo Kenny Barron and Dave Holland's new album works
Duet albums seem to be in vogue in jazz at the moment, and among the current crop of new releases, two particularly good ones come from the guitar/bass duo of Jim Hall and Charlie Haden, and the piano/bass partnership of Kenny Barron and Dave Holland.
Barron and Holland have been working together as a unit since 2012, and are now touring in the US and Europe to promote The Art of Conversation. The album comprises four Holland originals in The Oracle, Waltz for Wheeler, In Your Arms and Dr Do Right, plus Barron's The Only One, Rain and Seascape, along with thoughtful takes on Thelonious Monk's In Walked Bud, Charlie Parker's Segment, and also Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington's Daydream.
Barron has recorded with a long list of jazz artists, and brings impeccable taste and flawless technique to each session. Holland got his big break with Miles Davis, who he joined in 1968 in time to play on In a Silent Way; he has enjoyed a busy career, as a star sideman and as a small group and big band leader.
Barron and Holland complement each other, and are familiar with the other's style. "I always love playing with musicians that I can learn from and increase my understanding of the music," Holland says of his pianist partner.
Meanwhile, the Hall and Haden set, an archive release, has many of the same merits. Hall died in December last year and Haden this July, but we can expect record companies to continue posthumously releasing recordings from both.
This set, titled Charlie Haden-Jim Hall, was recorded at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 1990, and was being prepared for release before Haden's death. Pianist Ethan Iverson's liner notes are dated April 2014, and include some comments from Haden about the night.
Haden and Hall first met in 1959, and first recorded together, with Ornette Coleman, in 1972. They shared stages quite often from the 1990s onward, recording to advantage on the 2001 release Jim Hall & Basses. However, this new release is the first concert-length recording of them playing together with no other instruments, and covers a lot of ground from the blues through ballads to both musicians' more avant garde side.