Dave Holland

Jazz bassist, born in Wolverhampton, Britain, Holland began studying the bass guitar as a child; older he attended a three-year course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

As early as 1967 he was playing regularly at Ronnie Scott’s, a famous jazz club in London, where he accompanied visiting musicians. He also took part in the London free jazz movement that gathered around drummer John Stevens, appearing on the album Karyobin, a Spontaneous Music Ensemble classic released in 1968.

That same year, Miles Davis and Philly Joe Jones heard him play at Ronnie Scott’s, and Jones told Holland that Davis wanted him in his band (instead of Ron Carter).

Davis left England before Holland could talk to him, and after two weeks Holland received a phone call giving him three days to reach New York for a gig at Count Basie’s nightclub. He arrived the night before, hosted by Jack DeJohnette, and the next day Herbie Hancock accompanied him to the venue. From that time a two-year collaboration with Davis would begin.

Holland’s debut corresponded with Hancock’s last performance with Davis’s group: shortly thereafter he left for a honeymoon in Brazil and was replaced by Chick Corea when illness prevented him from rejoining the group. Holland appears on Davis’ recordings beginning in September 1968, on the album Filles de Kilimanjaro, with Davis, Corea, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams.

His first year with Davis saw Holland playing primarily acoustic bass, and then switching – from 1970 – to electric bass (with frequent use of wah-wah and other electronic effects) in the vein of the ‘electric’ direction imposed on the group by Davis.

Holland was also part of Davis’s stable band, unlike other musicians who appeared only in the studio. The so-called ‘lost quintet’ (Davis, Shorter, Corea, Holland and DeJohnette) worked throughout 1969 but never recorded in the studio and in this lineup.

After leaving Davis’s group, Holland formed the Circlee group with Chick Corea, Barry Altschul and Anthony Braxton and began a lasting partnership with the ECM publishing company. 1972 saw the recording of Conference of the Birds, with Sam Rivers, Altschul and Braxton, Holland’s first album as leader and the beginning of a long association with Rivers.

Holland in the 1970s worked as a leader and sideman with many other musicians: among others Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, and the Gateway Trio with John Abercrombie and Jack DeJohnette. The Gateway trio released two major works in 1975 and 1977, only to reconstitute in 1994 in a session that yielded two more albums. Most of Holland’s work has been with small to medium-sized ensembles (but solo and duo recordings also occur).

In 1980 Holland left Rivers to form a series of quartets and quintets and to work as a sideman for Herbie Hancock and others.

The newest lineup of the Dave Holland Quintet formed in 1997, has won numerous Grammys: its members are Robin Eubanks (trombone); Steve Nelson (marimba, vibraphone); Chris Potter (sax); and Billy Kilson (later Nate Smith) (drums).