Dave Holland marks 80 with unheard live box set and Aziza tour

Dave Holland turns 80 on October 1. The bassist and bandleader marks it with Freedom Call, a six-LP or 3-CD boxed set of previously unheard live recordings from his Quintet, Sextet and Prism, out next month on Edition Records. An Apple listing puts the release at October 2.

The archive is deep. Holland spent two years with Miles Davis while In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew were recorded. He plays on five of ECM's first 27 releases. He was in Circle with Chick Corea and Anthony Braxton, and made Conference of the Birds with Sam Rivers and Barry Altschul.

He will tour in October and through November with his quartet Aziza, featuring Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke and Eric Harland.

Asked about the years that led him here, Holland has said: "We were all working-class kids and it was music that just fired our imagination." Of Davis, he has said: "I can't say enough about him. It was a very positive relationship."