Born: May 21, 1927 Primary Instrument: Band/orchestra
Born Willis Leonard Holman on May 21, 1927 in Olive, CA, near Santa Ana, Bill Holman 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 Navy and studying engineering, he decided in the late '40s that he wanted to write big band music and studied for a while at the Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles with Dave Robertson and Dr. Alfred Sendrey. He also studied composition privately with Russ Garcia and saxaphone with Lloyd Reese.
In 1949 he played with the Ike Carpenter Band, in 1951, he was writing for Charlie Barnet, and in 1952 he began his association with Stan Kenton, for whom he wrote and played for many years. During the '50s, he was also 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 in 1958.
In the 60s, he widened his writing associations, and eventually contributed pieces to libraries and recordings of bands led by Louie Bellson, Count Basie, Terry Gibbs, Woody Herman, Bob Brookmeyer, Buddy Rich, Gerry Mulligan, Doc Severinsen and others. He has also written for such singers as Natalie Cole (her Grammy winning “Unforgettable” album, among others,) Tony Bennett, Carmen MacRae, Mel Torme, Woody Herman, Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughn, June Christy and the Fifth Dimension. His arrangement of “Take The 'A” Train” for Severinsen's “Tonight Show Orchestra” earned Holman a Best Instrumental Grammy in 1987.
Holman started The Bill Holman Band in 1975. The band has made three albums, all for JVC: 1988's “The Bill Holman Band”, 1995's “A View From The Side”, for which Holman won a Best Instrumental Composition Grammy for the title track; and 1997's “Brilliant Corners: The Music of Thelonious Monk.” This recording, certainly one of Holman's finest, celebrates both Monk and Holman and will no doubt renew excitement in fans about the possibilities to be found in the big band genre.
Since 1980, Holman has been increasingly active in Europe, writing, conducting and playing lengthy works for the West German Radio Orchestra in Cologne, Germany, and the Metropole Orchestra in Holland, that feature such soloists as Phil Woods, Sal Nistico and Lee Konitz.
