Bill Holman

The career of American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader Bill Holman spanned six decades, from the 1950s to the 2000s. Born in Olive, California, on May 21, 1927, Willis Leonard Holman played clarinet before choosing the tenor saxophone as a teenager. After serving two years in the US Navy, he studied engineering at UCLA before turning to music in 1948. He studied composition at Westlake College and made his debut two years later in Charlie Barnet's orchestra (1950-1953) while also arranging for Bob Keane. A partner of Stan Kenton from 1952 to 1956, Bill Holman accompanied Shorty Rogers (1953-1958), composed Invention for Guitar and Trumpet (1952) for Maynard Ferguson (used in the film Blackboard Jungle) and played with The Lighthouse All Stars, Shelly Manne, Terry Gibbs, Gerry Mulligan, Doc Severinsen, Woody Herman, and Buddy Rich. After working with Mel Lewis in a quintet, he formed his own orchestra in 1958 and recorded a series of albums including In a Jazz Orbit (1958), The Fabulous Bill Holman (1959), West Coast Jazz in Hi Fi with Richie Kamuca (1959) and Bill Holman's Great Big Band (1960). He also composed music for the films Three on a Couch (1966), Harper (1966), The Wrecking Crew (1968), Sharky's Machine (1981) and The Marrying Man (1991). In 1962, Stan Kenton's album Adventures in Jazz, on which he collaborated, won a Grammy Award. His career as a musician, composer and arranger continued with a wide variety of artists, including Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Mel Tormé, Chet Baker, June Christy, Manhattan Transfer, Michael Bublé, and Natalie Cole, who won a Grammy Award for the album Unforgettable... with Love (1991). With the Wrecking Crew, the saxophonist accompanied the groups The Association, The 5th Dimension, and The Monkees. Bill Holman composed orchestral pieces for Clark Terry, Count Basie and Terry Gibbs, whose theme “This Could Be the Start of Something” served as the theme tune for Steve Allen's TV show. Bill Holman also appeared on other programs, including The Tonight Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Bing Crosby Show. In 1975, he formed a new orchestra under his own name and recorded several albums, including the Grammy Award-winning A View from the Side in 1996 and Brilliant Corners: The Music of Thelonious Monk in 1998. He also collaborated with European orchestras such as the WDR Big Band (Cologne), the SWR Big Band (Stuttgart), The Norwegian Radio Big Band, and the Metropole Orkest (Amsterdam). Winner of awards from The American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers in 2008 and The NEA Jazz Masters in 2010, Bill Holman died on May 6, 2024, at the age of 96.

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