Jazz Articles about Bill Holman

Stan Kenton: Salute!

by Jack Bowers
February 16, 2023

Stan Kenton, one of the most renowned and influential bandleaders of the twentieth century, died on August 25, 1979. Fortunately—for the sake of history in general and creative music in particular—Kenton's remarkable legacy lives on, and in a perceptive and open-minded world would endure forever. Even to this day, small but devoted groups of enthusiasts share a wish that some previously hidden array of his material might come to light, satisfiying for the moment their craving for more memorable music ...

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival "Big Band Spectacular" 2017, Part 4-4

by Simon Pilbrow
July 18, 2017

Los Angeles Jazz Institute Festival Big Band Spectacular LAX Westin Hotel Los Angeles, CA May 24-28, 2017 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Roger Neumann's Rather Large Band Roger Neumann has led this happy band for many decades. One current member, trumpeter Jack Coan, was also a foundation member in 1975. They play a repertoire of standards and classic jazz tunes, using the ...

Bill Holman

by Marcia Hillman
January 22, 2010

Bill Holman is a man with many milestones. Known primarily for years of unique and complex arrangements, Holman's continuing and long-running career as a composer and saxophonist reaches another milestone this month when he will be awarded the title of NEA Jazz Master. A California native, Holman took up clarinet in junior high school and tenor saxophone in high school where he was leading his own band. In the late '40s, after a stint in the US Navy and engineering ...

Bill Holman: Hommage & The Lost Bill Holman Charts

by Fred Bouchard
March 12, 2008

Bill Holman Hommage Jazzed Media 2007 Carl Saunders The Lost Bill Holman Charts MAMA Foundation 2007 Bill Holman's varied and florescent career as composer-arranger shines on in the vanguard of a pack of scribes for Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Gerry Mulligan and Woody Herman. Playing tenor through the '50s for Kenton, Charlie Barnet and Shorty Rogers, Holman quit horn for pen in the '60s and ...

Bill Holman Band: Hommage

by Jack Bowers
May 19, 2007

Sometimes it's a matter of perspective. Having attended the concert in May 2006 at which most of Bill Holman's latest album, Hommage, was recorded, I must acknowledge a modest level of disappointment. It didn't seem up to the maestro's usual standards, an opinion I later shared with Graham Carter, head of Jazzed Media Records.

Okay, so I got it wrong. It wasn't the first time, nor will it be the last. Perhaps I was tired and out of sorts that ...

Bill Holman Band: Live

by Jim Santella
July 5, 2005

Recorded at last year's four-day big band tribute to Maynard Ferguson in Los Angeles, this one-hour session comes straight from the hip. Bill Holman, who always communicates with his audience on several levels, introduces each piece and is sure to recognize each of his band's soloists. Make no mistake about it: they're some of the best in the business. It takes three important qualities to run a highly successful big band like Holman's: top-notch musical arrangements, top-of-the-line improvising soloists, and ...

The Bill Holman Band Live

by Jack Bowers
June 18, 2005

The Bill Holman Band Live Jazzed Media 2005

Big band album of the year? It's too early to say, but the first-ever live recording by the superlative Bill Holman Band has earned front-runner status for that honor and will surely be hard to trump. Holman, an acknowledged master in the realm of writing and arranging for large ensembles, already has one Grammy Award in the trophy case (for Brilliant Corners, his ingenious adaptation of ...