CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS [:60]

RUFFIN: NOW A JAZZ MOMENT WITH BASSIST DAVE HOLLAND.

Dave Holland: My whole life, I’ve been following the music, you know? And if I see a musical direction I want to go in, I’m pretty determined about it.

RUFFIN: IN 1972, HOLLAND LEFT MILES DAVIS’S BAND AND FORMED HIS OWN: THE DAVE HOLLAND QUARTET. THE GROUP RECORDED CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, AN AVANT-GARDE ALBUM BASED ON A SUFI FABLE.

Dave Holland: And the other thing that I thought about was the idea of birds singing and making music together and the freedom of that. So I just thought it had something to do with the way we make music and the independence of the birds and the freedom they have to sing.

I was really happy because it did what I’ve always hoped records would do, which is document a moment in time.

Excerpt of “Conference of the Birds” composed by Dave Holland and performed by the Dave Holland Quartet, from the album, Conference of the Birds, used courtesy of ECM Records and by permission of Lojac Music Publishing Co. [BMI]