What pianist Andrew Hill, vibraphone player Stefon Harris, bass player Dave Holland and the experimental jazz rock group Aka Moon all have in common is that they find their inspiration in the layered 'symmetrical' rhythmicality - one of the starting points at the time of sax player Steve Coleman's M-Base collective. During the eighties this group of musicians, including Greg Osby and Cassandra Wilson, went in intensive pursuit of new ways of improvisation, which resulted in countless melodious runs wrapped in a net of complicated and very well-considered rhythms. The strict theories have become quite a bit more moderate, the members of the collective have each gone their separate ways, but the rhythmic patterns are as intriguing as ever. Dave Holland is basically seen as the 'guy who discovered Coleman' and aspires to the same musical goal: freedom in restraint. Holland studied string bass and cello at the famous Guildhall School and at the time performed with classical orchestras, avant-garde musicians like Evan Parker and traditional jazz men like Ronnie Scott, in whose club Miles Davis first heard him play. Davis was the one who caused Holland to be snapped up out of England in the late sixties and since then the sympathetic Briton is considered to belong to the absolute top of string bass players. The trade journal Downbeat recently declared the Dave Holland Quintet to be the best acoustic band, the CD Not for Nothin best CD, Holland himself best bass player and jazz man of the year.
