by Brian Olewnick Dave Holland didn't pull out his cello all that often, especially later in his career and outside of more freely improvised contexts. That's one reason why this album is such a pleasure but another is the sheer sumptuous richness of his tine and the playfulness of his imagination. The rip-roaring opener is a tour de force of the instruments lower registers, all swaggering attack and deeply romantic emotions. It begins a five part suite ("Life Cycle") that wanders through several emotive states, including bittersweet melancholy, before resolving things with a funky number that recalls fellow cellist Abdul Wadud and even includes a brief snippet of Monk's "Straight, No Chaser." Most of the pieces are performed arco and derive more from a romantic classical tradition than jazz (though that latter approach is certainly present), as in the lovely and elegiac "Sonnet" which sounds almost Bach-like. Along with Wadud's recording By Myself, Life Cycle is a very enchanting solo cello recital and, in Holland's case, a strong picture of a side of his musical genius that even many of his fans may well have overlooked. Recommended.