Dave Holland

Dave Holland
a.k.a. David Holland

MY FAVORITE THINGS

Dave Holland
Bassist Dave Holland has rarely been out of the public eye since he relocated from Britain in 1968 to join Miles Davis's groundbreaking ensemble. Since then, Holland has played or recorded with virtually every major jazz figure, becoming one himself through a series of his own exceptional recordings --including the 1972 classic CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS and the 2000 release PRIME DIRECTIVE -- and bands that have featured such outstanding players as Steve Coleman, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, and Chris Potter. The bassist against whom all other bassists measure themselves, Holland is also a voracious listener, as Barnes&noble.com's Ted Panken recently found out.

Barnes & Noble.com: When you were in your formative years as a bassist and learning about jazz, were you learning from listening to records in great part?

Dave Holland: There were four records that I bought all at the same time when I was 15.What happened is I was playing bass guitar at this point, and I was looking for more interesting ideas on the bass and so on, and I saw in one of the magazines that Ray Brown had won the polls there. I had never heard of Ray Brown or his music because I was still quite new to listening to jazz, and most of the jazz I was hearing in England was traditional jazz, Dixieland, which was enjoying somewhat of a revival at that time in England. So I went out and bought a couple of records with Ray on them, both by Oscar Peterson. One was called AFFINITY and the other was called NIGHT TRAIN, both on Verve.

BN: Any others?

DH: While I was at the record store I was going through the record collection, and I found two records with a bass player on the front, and they turned out to be Leroy Vinnegar's records, LEROY WALKS! and LEROY WALKS AGAIN, on Contemporary. So I took these four records home and put them on the record player, and that was it. Within a couple of weeks, I'd gone to the music store and got an acoustic bass and started practicing with them.

BN: When you left London, came to the States, played with Miles Davis, were there any bassists in popular music, funk music, and so on who you paid attention to?

DH: I listened to, of course, the James Brown records, and there were a lot of different things going on. Cream, Jack Bruce. Hendrix records. The bass playing was expanding in many areas of music, including what was called "popular music." So I was interested in what was going on there. Of course, the music of Miles was developing, and it incorporated elements from those things. So I was quite curious to see what other bass players were doing.

BN: Your music today incorporates scales and rhythms from around the world in a very interesting, unified way. Could you address some of the other traditions you've studied and incorporated in your music, and perhaps recommend a few recordings.

DH: There's one here called THE SITAR GENIUS OF NIKHIL BANARJEE, recorded in India.I also got interested in African music, and the UNESCO series of records that were put out during that time were a great source of information because there was a lot of analysis on the records as well as, of course, the documentation on the records.

BN: Were you were also into music from Africa?

DH: The Ba-Benzali Pygmies from Central Africa was I think probably my favorite record from that period.[UNESCO COLLECTION: THE MUSIC OF THE BA- BENZELE PYGMIES] Of course, when you say "African music," that's a big subject, so I should be more specific. I got other records at the same time on UNESCO from, for example, the Central African Republic and Nigeria Hausa music. The other thing I got interested in was Tibetan Buddhist music. The reason that I got interested in that was partly because of Coltrane's influence in there. Do you know the OM record that he made? He talked about Tibetan Buddhists. And UNESCO put out a series of Tibetan Buddhist music, which I have also and enjoy very much. I also have some music of Afghanistan, which is on UNESCO. So there were like ten or 12 albums I bought that were on the UNESCO series.

BN: You're coming in off the road; can you tell us four or five things that you were listening to?

DH: Yes. Let me get my CD collection. You've caught me at a good time because my bags are still packed, so I can open my CD case and tell you what's in there. I always have Ellington with me. Lately I've been listening to AND HIS MOTHER CALLED HIM BILL the tribute he did to Strayhorn after Strayhorn died, and THE NEW ORLEANS SUITE. Also, THE FAR EAST SUITE and THE AFRO-EURASIAN ECLISPSE. I've got HIGH LIFE by Wayne Shorter. I've got Kenny Wheeler's new album, A LONG TIME AGO, a brass ensemble on ECM. I've got an anthology of hip-hop and acid jazz called STREET SOUL that's got things from all kinds of different folks on Sony Music Media -- a double album compilation. I've got Bartok's "Dance Suite" and "Concerto for Orchestra" performed by the Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti conducting [London], and "The Miraculous Mandarin" from THE ORCHESTRAL WORKS, VOLUME 1 by the Budapest Orchestra with Ivan Fisher.

BN: A very diverse array of music.

DH: Wait a minute. Hold on. I've got some Baaba Maal, the latest. And I've got ANTHOLOGY OF MUSIC: ARABIC. Om Kolthoum. Do you know her? She's an Egyptian singer who was recording in the 1920s. I was turned on this by Anouar Brahem, who I've been performing with. She's absolutely legendary. She's incredible.