Dave Holland‘s 80th birthday will fall on Thursday 1 October 2026, and Edition Records is planning a major retrospective set, being billed as ‘the first boxset of Dave Holland’s career’, with the release date currently scheduled for the following day, Friday 2 October.
“Freedom Call is a new 6LP / 3CD box set released on 2 October, bringing together previously unreleased live recordings from three defining ensembles in Holland’s career – Prism, Quintet and Sextet.
“While the release coincides with Dave’s 80th birthday, the focus is very much on the music itself – three distinct ensembles, three chapters of his creative life, and a substantial body of work that has never been available before.”
In the lead-up to the release, a series of exclusive download and streaming singles will be made available.
The first of these is a live recording of “Lazy Snake”, performed by Holland’s celebrated Sextet featuring Dave himself with the late Mulgrew Miller, Antonio Hart, Alex Sipiagin, Robin Eubanks, and Eric Harland. The recording (according to the Edition Bandcamp site) was made at Birdland, NYC in 2014, and is available now exclusively as a download, either from the Edition Store on Bandcamp, or via Qobuz.
“Freedom Call stands as a document of artistic continuity and creative growth. Across these recordings, listeners hear a bandleader committed to developing long-term musical relationships and creating environments where individual voices contribute to a shared identity. The result is a collection that celebrates Dave Holland’s work as a composer, bassist and bandleader, alongside the enduring power of collective improvisation.”
