# Alan Silva

Alan Lee da Silva (born 22 January 1939, in Bermuda) is an American free jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known as a double bassist. He has recorded on keyboards, violin, cello and trumpet among other instruments.

## Biography

Silva was born a British subject to an Azorean/Portuguese mother, Irene da Silva, and a black Bermudian father known only as "Ruby". He emigrated to the United States at the age of five with his mother, eventually acquiring U.S. citizenship by the age of 18 or 19. He adopted the stage name of Alan Silva in his twenties.
Silva was quoted in a Bermudan newspaper in 1988 as saying that although he left the island at a young age, he always considered himself Bermudian. He was raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where he first began studying the trumpet, and moved on to study the upright bass.
Silva is known as one of the most inventive bass players in jazz and has performed with many in the world of avant-garde jazz, including Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Sunny Murray, and Archie Shepp.
Silva performed in 1964's October Revolution in Jazz as a pioneer in the free jazz movement, and for the 1967 live album Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village. Since the early 1970s, Silva has lived mainly in Paris, France, where he formed the Celestrial Communication Orchestra, a group dedicated to the performance of free jazz with various instrumental combinations. In the 1990s he picked up the electronic keyboard, declaring that his bass playing no longer surprised him. He has also used the electric violin and electric sarangi on his recordings.
In the 1980s, Silva opened a music school I.A.C.P. (Institute for Art, Culture and Perception) in Central Paris, together with François Cotinaud and Denis Colin, introducing the concept of a Jazz Conservatory patterned after France's traditional conservatories devoted to European classical music epochs.
Since around 2000, he has performed more frequently as a bassist and bandleader, notably at New York City's annual Vision Festivals.

## Discography
### As leader or co-leader

| Recording date | Album | Label | Release date | Personnel |
| 1968-11-01 | Skillfulness | ESP-Disk | 1969 | With Karl Berger, Dave Burrell, Becky Friend, Mike Ephron, Lawrence Cooke |
| 1969-08-17 | Luna Surface | BYG | 1969 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 1970-12-29 | Seasons | BYG | 1971 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 1971-01-01 | My Country | Leo | 1989 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 1974-09-01 | Inner Song | Center of the World | 1974 | Solo bass, piano, organ, and voice |
| 1978-11-01 | The Shout - Portrait for a Small Woman | Chiaroscuro | 1979 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 1982-06-25 | Desert Mirage | IACP | 1982 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 1986-11-23 | Take Some Risks | In Situ | 1989 | With Roger Turner, Misha Lobko, Didier Petit, Bruno Girard |
| 1993-04-14 | In the Tradition | In Situ | 1996 | With Johannes Bauer and Roger Turner |
| 1998-03-06 | A Hero's Welcome: Pieces for Rare Occasions | Eremite | 1999 | With William Parker |
| 1999-05-29 | Emancipation Suite | Boxholder | 2002 | With Kidd Jordan and William Parker |
| 1999-05-31 | Alan Silva & the Sound Visions Orchestra | Eremite | 2001 | With the Sound Visions Orchestra |
| 1999-10-16 | Transmissions | Eremite | 1999 | With Oluyemi Thomas |
| 2000-12-01 | The All-Star Game | Eremite | 2003 | With Marshall Allen, Kidd Jordan, William Parker, and Hamid Drake |
| 2001-05-24 | H.Con.Res.57/Treasure Box | Eremite | 2003 | With the Celestrial Communication Orchestra |
| 2006-11-01 | Stinging Nettles | Improvising Beings | 2014 | With Lucien Johnson and Makoto Sato |
| 2008-08-28 | Parallel Worlds | Long Song | 2012 | With Burton Greene |
| 2009-08-29 | Crimson Lip | Improvising Beings | 2011 | With Keiko Higuchi, Sabu Toyozumi, Takuo Tanikawa |
| 2011-04-17 | Plug In | Multikulti Project | 2013 | With Roger Turner |
| 2014-07-21 | Free Electric Band | Fortune | 2016 | With Mette Rasmussen and Ståle Liavik Solberg |
| 2014-11-22 | FreeJazzArt | RogueArt | 2014 | With Jacques Coursil |

### As sideman
## Filmography

* 2001 – Inside Out in the Open (2001). Directed by Alan Roth.