James W. "Red" Holloway (born May 31, 1927, Helena, Arkansas

Helena, Arkansas

Helena is the eastern portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Helena was the county seat of Phillips County until January 1, 2006, when it merged its government and city limits with...

) is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 tenor saxophonist

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

.

Biography

Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old. He graduated from DuSable High School

DuSable High School

DuSable High School was a public high school in Chicago opened in the Bronzeville neighborhood in 1934. It was named after Chicago's first permanent non-native settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. DuSable was built to accommodate the growing Phillips High School in the 1930s. The campus was...

, where he had played in the school big band with Johnny Griffin

Johnny Griffin

John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...

 and Eugene Wright

Eugene Wright

"The Senator" Eugene Wright is an American jazz bassist, best known for his work as a member of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, in particular on the group's most famous album Time Out , with pianist Brubeck, drummer Joe Morello and saxophonist Paul Desmond.Wright, nicknamed "The Senator", had played...

, and attended the Conservatory of Music, Chicago.

He joined the Army when he was nineteen and became bandmaster for the U.S. Fifth Army Band, and after completing his military service, returned to Chicago and played with Yusef Lateef

Yusef Lateef

Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...

 and Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

, among others. In 1948 he joined blues vocalist Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes

Roosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.-Career:Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on...

 and later played with other blues musicians such as Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...

, Junior Parker

Junior Parker

Junior Parker was an American Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth"...

, Lloyd Price

Lloyd Price

Lloyd Price is an American R&B vocalist. Known as "Mr. Personality", after the name of one of his biggest million-selling hits...

, and John Mayall

John Mayall

John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

.

In the 1950s he played in the Chicago area with Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

, Ben Webster

Ben Webster

Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, Jimmy Rushing

Jimmy Rushing

James Andrew Rushing , known as Jimmy Rushing, was an American blues shouter and swing jazz singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.Rushing was known as "Mr...

, Arthur Prysock

Arthur Prysock

Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine....

, Dakota Staton

Dakota Staton

Dakota Staton , also known by the Muslim name Aliyah Rabia for a period, was an American jazz vocalist who found international acclaim with the 1957 No...

, Eddie Vinson

Eddie Vinson

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product.-Biography:Vinson was born in Houston, Texas...

, Wardell Gray

Wardell Gray

Wardell Gray was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.Today often overlooked, Gray's playing displays a unique style, an unmatched tone and a strong presence.-Early years:...

, Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...

, Red Rodney

Red Rodney

Robert Roland Chudnick , who performed by the stage name Red Rodney, was an American bop and hard bop trumpeter.-Biography:...

, Lester Young

Lester Young

Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....

, Joe Williams

Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...

, Redd Foxx

Redd Foxx

John Elroy Sanford , better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son.-Early life:...

, B. B. King

B. B. King

Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...

, Bobby Bland

Bobby Bland

Robert Calvin Bland better known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of the Beale Streeters, and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues"...

 and Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

. During this period, he also toured with Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...

 and Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

. He became a member of the house band for Chance Records

Chance Records

Chance Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1950 by Art Sheridan. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel.Among the acts who recorded for Chance were The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Homesick James, J. B. Hutto, Brother John Sellers, and Schoolboy Porter...

, led by Al Smith, in 1952. He subsequently appeared on many recording sessions for the Chicago-based independents Parrot

Parrot Records (blues label)

Parrot Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1952 by disc jockey Al Benson. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel. The company began operating in earnest in the summer of 1953, and lasted till the middle of 1956. Several Parrot recordings were later released by Chess...

, United

United Records

For "United Records", see United Records United Records was in business from July 1951 to December 1957. It was operated by Chicago businessman Leonard Allen, initially in collaboration with Lew Simpkins...

 and States

States Records

States Record Company was a Chicago-based record label. A subsidiary of United Records, it was in business from May 1952 to December 1957. States focused on rhythm and blues, jazz, and gospel....

, and Vee-Jay

Vee-Jay Records

Vee-Jay Records is a record label founded in the 1950s, specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll. It was owned and operated by African Americans.-History:...

.

From 1963 to 1966, he was in organist "Brother" Jack McDuff

Jack McDuff

"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...

's band, which also featured a young guitarist, George Benson

George Benson

George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....

.

From 1977 to 1982, Holloway worked with Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, recording two albums together, and following Stitt's death, Holloway played and recorded with Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

.

As leader

• The Burner (Prestige, 1963)
• Cookin' Together with Jack McDuff
  Jack McDuff
  "Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
  
   (Prestige, 1964)
• Sax, Strings and Soul (Prestige, 1964)
• Red Soul (Prestige, 1965)
• No tears over you (RH)
• Hittin' the Road Again (JAM, 1982)
• Nica's Dream (Steeplechase, 1984)
• Red Holloway & Company (Concord, 1987)
• Locksmith Blues (Concord, 1989)
• Daydream with T.C.Pfeiler (Tonewheel, 1997)
• In the Red (High Note, 1997)
• Standing Room Only (Chiaroscuro, 1998)
• A Night of Blues and Ballads (JHM, 1999)
• Coast to Coast (Milestone, 2003)
• Something old something new (2007)
• Go Red Go ! (Delmark, 2008)
• Meets the Bernhard Pichi Trio (Organic Music, 2009)

As sideman

With Wade Marcus

Wade Marcus

Wade Marcus was a producer during the 1970s. He composed the music to the film The Final Comedown with Grant Green. He also produced albums by The Blackbyrds, Gary Bartz, A Taste of Honey, The Sylvers, Eddie Kendricks, The Dramatics, Peaches & Herb, Donald Byrd, G. C...

• Metamorphosis
  Metamorphosis (Wade Marcus album)
  Metamorphosis is an album by jazz arranger Wade Marcus, released in 1976 on ABC Records/Impulse! Records. Wade Marcus was a prolific and influential producer during the 1970s, producing album by acts such as The Blackbyrds, Gary Bartz, A Taste Of Honey, The Sylvers, Eddie Kendricks, The Dramatics,...
  
  (Impulse!)

External links

• Red Holloway's official website