Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Flamenco Quintet feat. Josemi Carmona

Dave Holland (bass), Pepe Habichuela (guitar), Josemi Carmona (second guitar), Juan Carmona (percussion), Bandolero (percussion)

In recent years, the legendary bassist Dave Holland has been playing with the renowned Flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela, making music that radiates power. The solos are breathtaking creating a melting pot of frontiers, languages and styles.
   
The 63 year-old English bassist and band leader Dave Holland has been performing for nearly five decades. It was Miles Davis who discovered him at the end of the sixties when he was playing at Ronnie Scott’s, the famous London jazz club. He then played on Miles Davis’s albums such as Bitches Brew and Big Fun, after which his steps led him from the frontiers of free improvisation to his band work of more recent years. He has worked with many of the great names from Thelonious Monk to Anthony Braxton, from Stan Getz to Cassandra Wilson, from Chick Corea to Pat Metheny and from Bill Frisell to Herbie Hancock. He varies his playing from performing solo to working with big bands. He formed the successful quartet ScoLoHoFo with guitarist John Scofield, drummer Al Foster and saxophonist Joe Lovano. Since 1999 he has been heading a rock-solid quintet with saxophonist Chris Potter, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, trombonist Robin Eubanks and drummer Nate Smith. Holland is a master of tone and rhythm and his music is rich and kaleidoscopic.

Dave Holland met Flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela through a mutual friend, Mario Pacheco, the owner of a record label in Spain. “He thought that we would enjoy playing together, and he was right”, says Dave Holland. “We played our first concert in 2007. There was a great atmosphere and I loved the music we were making. We went on to play more concerts. It really was a moving experience. However, I wasn’t interested in doing a fusion project. You lose something on both sides. I wanted to respect the cultural identity of the music. Pepe had to be my teacher. Pepe is 100 percent flamenco, that’s his world. Mixing my music with his would devalue his music.”

“I obviously knew types of music that fitted with flamenco such as tango, rumba and buleria. However, the deeper you go, the more you discover the complexity of each of the dance forms. You have to thoroughly understand the finesses. I visited Spain three times to get to grips with the music. I wanted to play the music right because I had so much respect for it. It is a much protected art form and it all has to do with the gypsy identity and culture. These people are badly discriminated against. Music is extremely important to them. It goes very deep.”

Pepe Habichuela is a descendant of a great flamenco dynasty, the Habichuelas. He belongs to the generation of Paco de Lucía, Camarón de la Isla, Enrique Morente, Manolo Sanlúcar, musicians who made this art form so popular. He started out in the flamenco grottos of Granada and then landed up in the cafés of Madrid. In the seventies he made two historic recordings: Despegando and Homenaje a D. Antonio Chacón. However, his spirit of adventure soon led him to stray from the well-drawn out paths of the flamenco. He played with free jazz legend Don Cherry and instigated experiments whereby he blended flamenco with traditional Indian music.