Bass Player: Dave Holland

This transcription is the title track of Dave Holland’s first album on the ECM label. ‘Conference Of The Birds’ featured a pianoless quartet of Holland, saxophonists Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton and drummer Barry Altschul. The music is very ‘free’ but there is structure and composition in there. The interplay between the two horns is exquisite and the whole album bears repeated listening, unlike a lot of the free music of this period.

The specific tune features a beautiful flute duet from Rivers and Braxton and Holland’s lines underneath them are wonderfully sensitive. The tone hasn’t travelled particularly well, despite the reputation that this label has for sound quality, but the solo is intelligently structured. A relatively easy read compared to much of Holland’s output but the solo is perfectly accessible to any competent double bassist.