Dave Holland
David Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English double bassist, bass guitarist, cellist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States since the early 1970s.
His extensive discography ranges from solo performances to pieces for big band. Holland runs his own independent record label, Dare2, which he launched in 2005.
After leaving Davis’s group, Holland briefly joined the avant-garde jazz group Circle, with Corea, saxophonist Anthony Braxton and percussionist Barry Altschul. This started a decades-long association with the ECM record label. After recording a few albums, Circle disbanded when Corea departed. 1972 saw the recording of Conference of the Birds, with Braxton, saxophonist/flautist Sam Rivers and Altschul– Holland’s first recording as a leader, and the beginning of a long musical relationship with Rivers. The title of the album is taken from that of a 4,500-line epic poem by Persian Sufist writer, Farid al-Din Attar.
Holland worked as a leader and as a sideman with many other jazz artists in the 1970s. On 15 June 1972 he played with Thelonious Monk at the Village Vanguard which was one of Monk’s last concerts. Holland recorded several important albums with Anthony Braxton between 1972 and 1976 – including New York, Fall 1974 (1974) and Five Pieces (1975) – that were released on Arista Records. Holland also recorded duo sessions with saxophonist Sam Rivers and fellow bassist Barre Phillips, and the solo bass album Emerald Tears. Also in the 1970s he appeared with performers including Stan Getz and the Gateway Trio with John Abercrombie and DeJohnette. The Gateway trio released two influential modern jazz albums in 1975 and 1977, and reformed in 1994 for a recording session which yielded another two albums. As a sideman, Holland appeared on rock and pop recordings as well, working with singer Bonnie Raitt on her 1972 album Give It Up.