finetune artist: Dave Holland

b. 1 October 1946, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. Holland plays guitar, piano, bass guitar and also composes, but it is as a bass player and cellist that he has made an international reputation. He studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1965-68 and was principal bass player in the college orchestra. On the London scene he worked with John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, Evan Parker, Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes and deputized for Johnny Mbizo Dyani with Chris McGregor's group. In 1968, Miles Davis heard him at Ronnie Scott's jazz club and asked him to join his band in New York. Holland did so in September in time to appear on some of the tracks for Les Filles De Kilimanjaro. He stayed until autumn 1970, appearing on the seminal In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, then he and Chick Corea (who had joined Davis at about the same time as Holland) formed Circle with Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. Circle broke up in 1972 when Corea left, but Braxton, Altschul and Sam Rivers played on Holland's Conference Of The Birds. Holland also played in Rivers' and Braxton's groups in the 70s, as well as in the occasional trio Gateway (with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette). The 1977 Emerald Tears was a solo bass album, and in 1980 Holland played at Derek Bailey's Company Festival, recording Fables with Bailey, George Lewis and Parker.

Listen to Dave Holland at Finetune.

Houdouth
Mazad
Hulmu Rabia
Improvised Piece I
Badhra