About Me
Dave Holland was born in Wolverhampton, England, on October 1, 1946. He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the ukelele at age 4, moving to the guitar at 10 and then to the bass guitar at 13. Other than a brief period of piano lessons, in these years he was largely self-taught, learning the popular music of the day from song books and the radio. At 13 he and a few friends formed a band and began playing at the local clubs and dances. By the age of 15 he had joined another band, and as that group was starting to work regularly, he decided to leave school and try and earn a living as a musician. It was around this time that in a search to expand his ideas on the bass guitar, he began listening to jazz and heard on records the great bassists Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. This had a profound affect on Dave and he quickly got a double bass and began practicing with the records. Although he was still working as a bass guitarist, he began going to jazz clubs with his double bass and sitting in with the local jazz players. In the summer of 1963, at the age of 17, he was offered a job playing double bass with a dance band that was working at a holiday resort for the summer season. This was followed by a short tour with a big band that was accompanying the singer Johnny Ray, and then came an offer of a job in London playing music in a restaurant.As soon as he moved to London Dave began studying with James E. Merritt, who was the principal bassist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and teaching at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In the spring of 1964, on Mr. Merritt's recommendation, he applied for admission to a three year program at the Guildhall School and after taking the entrance exam, was admitted in September of that year with a full scholarship.This began a period of intense musical experiences for Dave. By his second year at the school he was the principle bassist in the school orchestra and was also beginning to work with a wide variety of people in the London jazz community. His early jazz work was with bands that were playing in the early New Orleans' style of King Oliver and Louis Armstrong, but he was soon working with many other groups that ranged in style from swing to modern.In the summer of 1997 Dave formed a new group, a quintet that features Steve Wilson, Robin Eubanks, Steve Nelson and Billy Kilson. After an extensive European tour the band recorded an album entitled Points Of View, which was released by ECM in 1998. He also performed with Herbie Hancock's New Standard group and Michael Brecker's Tales from the Hudson band, and participated in Joe Henderson's Porgy and Bess project.Dave Holland has attained a new plateau of public popularity and critical acclaim with his current quintet. Both of the quintet's previous albums, for instance, Points of View and Prime Directive, were Grammy-nominated; the band was voted ..1 Acoustic Jazz Group of the Year in the Down Beat Critics' Poll, Best Combo of the Year in the Bell Atlantic jazz Awards: the Jazz Journalists Association gave its Live Performance of the Year Award and Best Small Ensemble Award to the Holland Quintet, voted Album of the Year and also gave Holland prizes as Bass Player of the Year (twice) and Musician of the Year. Holland has also been ..1 Bass Player in the Down Beat Critics Poll for three consecutive years and in 2000 received an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music. In the midst of this 'awards-bonanza', quintet saxophonist Chris Potter became, at 29, the youngest musician ever to win the Danish Jazzpar prize, Europe's highest honour for a jazz player.The group has made its mark by insisting on being "a group" in an age of all-star projects, and by the time-honored route of going on the road and staying there. Itineraries have taken the unit all over North and South America, Europe and Asia, including a tour of China. Despite the individual members' crowded schedules, each of them makes the quintet a priority. This year, in fact, they've been clocking in thrice with Holland, also appearing as members of his newly formed octet and big band."One of the things that's happening to me as I get older," says Holland, now 53, "is that I'm thinking more and more about using the totality of my experience as a player. Something Sam Rivers said a long time ago has stayed with me: 'Don't leave anything out, use it all.' That's become almost a mantra for me over the years as I've tried to find a way to build a vehicle which lets me utilise the full spectrum which includes the tradition, which includes playing the blues, which includes improvising freely. I love all that music, and there's been a desire to reconcile all those areas, to make them relevant, hopefully, in a contemporary context, as one music."
