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Red Holloway
James W "Red" Holloway was born in Helena, Arkansas on May 31, 1927 to a mother who played piano and a father who played violin. At the age of five, he and his mother moved to Chicago, where he graduated from DuSable High School and attended the Conservatory of Music. During grade school, Red played banjo and harmonica in school bands. His first musical instrument, a tenor sax, was given to him by his stepfather when he was twelve years old. During high school, he was in the DuSable big band, where he sat next to fellow classmate and reedman Johnny Griffin. By age sixteen, and while still in school, he was hired for his first professional engagement by bassist Gene Wright, who later went on to become a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Red played with Wright's Big Band for three years at the Parkway Ballroom. When Red was nineteen, he joined the Army, where he became bandmaster for the U.S. Fifth Army Band. After completing his military service, Red returned to Chicago and played with Yusef Lateef and Dexter Gordon, among others. In 1948 he was asked by blues vocalist Roosevelt Sykes to join Sykes' U.S. Road Tour. During this time, other bluesmen heard him and subsequently hired him, including Nat "Lotsa Poppa" Towles, Willie Dixon, Junior Parker, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Lloyd Price, John Mayall, and B.B. King. Because of these associations, Red became typecast, perhaps unfairly, as primarily a blues player. During the Fifties, Red continued playing in the Chicago area with such notables as Billie Holiday, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rushing, Arthur Prysock, Dakota Station, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Wardell Gray, Sonny Rollins, Red Rodney, Lester Young, Joe Williams, Redd Foxx, Aretha Franklin,a nd many others. During this same period, he also played road tours with Danny Overbee, Sonny Stitt, Memphis Slim, Lefty Bates, and Lionel Hampton. The public finally became aware of Red during the Sixties as a result of his association with organist "Brother" Jack McDuff. Another member of this band was guitarist George Benson. The band was together from 1963 to 1966 and performed road tours in the States as well as concerts in Europe. Red recorded several albums with McDuff on Prestige, including the hit single “Rock Candy.” In 1967 Red moved to Los Angeles and in 1969 became the coordinator of talent and member of the house band at the famed Parisian Room.
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Red Holloway Quartet: San Diego, February 8, 2011
by Robert Bush
Red Holloway Quartet with Plas JohnsonSaville Theater, San Diego City CollegeSan Diego, CAFebruary 8, 2011 Red Holloway has “been there and done that" when it comes to jazz standards and all forms of the blues. While normally his specialties are both playing the tenor saxophone and belting out blues vocals, a recent fall had left him with an injured left hand. But no worries--he just placed a call to his long time friend, Plas ...
read moreRed Holloway: Go Red Go!
by Nic Jones
For disingenuous reasons Go Red Go! is a good companion for Cy Touff and Sandy Mosse's Tickle Toe which Delmark reissued in 2008. Both albums offer up straight-ahead mainstream jazz of the most worthwhile order performed by men who know the territory inside out. The crucial difference between the two is that while Touff and Mosse worked a neo-swing seam, Red Holloway and friends offer up soul-jazz of a kind that doesn't denigrate the term. Regardless of such differences both ...
read moreRed Holloway: Go Red Go!
by John Barron
Like fine wine, saxophonist extraordinaire Red Holloway seems to get better with age. On Go Red Go!, the octogenarian plays with a fiery intensity that rivals his classic recordings from the 1960s with organist Jack McDuff.
Holloway has always straddled the fence between jazz and blues, having worked with the likes of saxophonist Sonny Stitt and organist Jack McDuff, as well as blues legends Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. This infectious approach is demonstrated here on 12-bar riff tunes like ...
read moreJackie Ryan: You and the Night and the Music
by Joel Roberts
San Francisco-based chanteuse Jackie Ryan has a smoky contralto, an impressively wide vocal range and an actress' flair for delivering dramatic lyrics. That adds up to a winning combination on this collection of love songs. Backed by a top-notch trio of Los Angeles musicians, Ryan delivers straight-ahead performances of 14 mostly familiar romantic tunes. She shows she can swing hard on Cole Porter's “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," sing with deep feeling on a ...
read moreJackie Ryan: You and the Night and the Music
by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
On most vocal recordings, singers are accompanied by their usual band, perhaps with a famous guest sitting in for a track or two. If the singer and band are good, the result is pleasing--but when the singer is excellent, the band is a crackling, long-term trio on its own, and the guest is a legend, it vaults the whole enterprise into an altogether different category.
All of these elements are here, on Jackie Ryan's third release for Open ...
read moreRed Holloway: Coast to Coast
by Andrew Rowan
Two-tenor groups are not new to jazz. They have been a little stream in the music's progression, from pairings like Lester Young and Herschel Evans in the seminal '30s Basie band to small groups like the popular one once led by Johnny Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis, tenors have mixed it up on stage and, of course, in recordings. Kudos to producer Bob Porter for pairing Los Angeles legend Red Holloway with everyone's perennial favorite, Frank Wess. The ...
read moreBrother Jack McDuff: Prelude
by C. Michael Bailey
If you, the gentle listener, were to ever tire of Jimmy Smith following an overdose of the master’s Blue Note catalog, I would direct you to anything by Brother Jack McDuff. A native of Champaign, IL, McDuff cut his teeth with Willis Jackson and Jimmy Forrest and helped a young George Benson get started. McDuff supported Gene Ammons, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and Hank Crawford with his rock-steady time and spot-on bass-pedaling. Prelude is the re-release of McDuff’s 1964 big ...
read moreJazz Face: Red Holloway, 1927-2012
Source:
JazzINK by Andrea Canter
One of the still-active veterans of bebop, saxophonist Red Holloway died on February 25th at age 84. And he went down swinging—he had been touring through September 2011 with the Lionel Hampton All-Stars and, although he had postponed some dates this winter, had some upcoming on his 2012 calendar. Red was best known for his work with Sonny Stitt in the late 70s—early 80s, and more recently with Clark Terry and Kevin Mahogany. He was a favorite among vocalists like ...
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B.J. Jansen Joins Red Holloway, Donald Harrison, James Carter and Azar Lawrence as an International Woodwind Artist
Source:
JM Creative
Red Holloway Concert at Kiener Plaza Canceled
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
The free concert previously announced by St. Louis City Jazz that would have featured saxophonist Red Holloway performing this Friday, August 29 at Kiener Plaza has been canceled. Although as of this writing the show is still listed on the group's Web site, callers to the contact number (314-757-0555) listed on the site are being told that the show is off. When I called, the man who answered what apparently is someone's personal mobile phone said that St. ...
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Red Holloway on Jaijai Jackson's "Woman of Jazz" Radio Show on Xradio.biz at 8PM PST on October 21, 2005
Source:
All About Jazz
Red Holloway talks about his jazz catalogue of music featuring “Coast to Coast," “Keep that Groove Goin," “Standing Room Only" and “Live at the Floating Jazz Festival 95" along with his life and musical journey on Jaijai Jackson's “Woman of Jazz" radio show.
(PRWEB) October 20, 2005 -- Red Holloway has always been an explosive soloist, but when he teams up with another horn player, as he does with fellow saxophonist Frank Wess on “Coast to Coast", the impact can ...
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Red Holloway
Instrument: Saxophone
Born: May 31, 1927
Died: February 25, 2012
