Holdover is about the experience of expelling an unruly tenant from a shared apartment and the long process that entails. One of the biggest challenges of living in New York City as an artist is having to share apartments. The cost of living is just too high for most to afford their own place. Sometimes you get a roommate who refuses to help maintain the apartment and threatens to stop paying rent. In order to expel them, you need to serve them a notice to vacate. At that point, they become a holdover and have 30 days to leave before the eviction process begins.
This is the other trio piece on the album and features a jagged harmonic rhythm that displaces in the middle of the melody. At the end of the 11-bar form, the melody “holds over” back to the top. There’s a lot of minor-maj7 harmony throughout the piece because of the anguish caused by confrontations with this holdover tenant and knowing that you still have to share a roof until the uncertain point that the legal process ends and they must vacate.
Trumpeter Harry Spencer’s orchestral modern jazz has cinematic scope, inspired here by dissidents throughout history. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 3, 2023