The Bill Holman
Big Band
Friday, April 23, 7:30 p.m.
Lawlor Events Center
Legendary composer/arranger/
saxophonist and three-time Grammy winner Bill Holman has also recently been named to the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Each year since 1982, the NEA program elevates to its ranks a select number of living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz through artistic excellence, and the significant development and performance of jazz.
Holman's unique and complex arrangements have long been appreciated by international musicians and critics alike, although he is best known on the West Coast. The Los Angeles Times has said of Holman, who turns 83 in May, “brilliantly creative…” and “his is one of the most original minds in orchestral jazz.” The Jazz Education Journal has written: “Is it any surprise he contributed significantly to the libraries of Kenton, Herman, Gibbs, Basie, Rich, Severinsen, Ferguson, Bellson and Mulligan. Bill Holman has occupied part of the rarefied pinnacle shared by just a few obvious others...”
He took up clarinet in junior high school and tenor saxophone in high school, by which time he was leading his own band. After serving in the U.S. Navy and studying engineering, Holman decided in the late 1940s that he wanted to write big band music and enrolled at the Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles.
By 1949, Holman's career was well underway. After writing for Charlie Barnet, in 1952 he began his association with Stan Kenton, for whom he would compose (and perform) for many years to come. During the 1950s, he also was active in the West Coast jazz movement, playing in small bands led by Shorty Rogers and Shelly Manne and co-leading a quintet with Mel Lewis. During the following decade, Holman expanded his writing efforts, working for bands led by jazz greats such as Louie Bellson, Count Basie, Bob Brookmeyer, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Gerry Mulligan, Doc Severinsen, and others. In addition, he wrote for high-profile vocalists such as Natalie Cole (including her Grammy Award-winning album Unforgettable), Tony Bennett, Carmen MacRae, Anita O'Day, Mel Torme, and Sarah Vaughan.
In 1975, Holman launched the Bill Holman Band; the recording of The Bill Holman Band in 1987 was his first release as a leader in 27 years. Since 1980, Holman increasingly has become more active in Europe, including writing, conducting, and performing extended works for the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, and the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands.
To date, Holman has received 14 Grammy nominations and won three Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement of "Take the ‘A' Train" for Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Orchestra (1987); Best Instrumental Composition for "A View from the Side" for the Bill Holman Band (1995); and Best Instrumental Arrangement of "Straight, No Chaser" for the Bill Holman Band (1997). He was voted "Best Arranger" in the JazzTimes Readers' Poll four times; and received the "Arranger of the Year" award three times in the Down Beat magazine's Readers' Poll and Critics' Poll.
In 2000, the Bill Holman Collection of scores and memorabilia became part of the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection in Washington, DC. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rutgers Jazz Hall of Fame, and in 2008, he was doubly honored: a Golden Score Award from the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers and a place in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Jazz Wall of Fame.
Click here for more information about Bill Holman.
The performance is part of the NEA Jazz Masters on Tour, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, sponsored by Verizon in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Biography provided in part by NEA Jazz Masters.
The Bill Holman Big Band concert is included in the Jazz Fan, Full Festival and Friday passes.
Visit the ticket page for more information. Individual tickets are available online through Tickets.com
The 2013 Reno Jazz Festival is a program of the University of Nevada, Reno and is administered by Extended Studies.
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