[Dixielandjazz] Red Holloway R.I.P.

[Justin Au]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  I did not mean to imply that the
blues genre and bebop were all he did.  To the contrary, he was a very
versatile player that could modify his playing style appropriately to fit
whatever genre he was playing.  If he was playing with B.B. King, he would
be a nitty gritty blues player; if he was playing with Sonny Stitt, he
would be a bebop player.  He could have the modern sound of Charlie Parker
or have the infectious, soulful swing of Lester Young.  In other words, he
was whatever he needed to be.

Warning, the next paragraph is a little off topic:

Of course to the mainstream jazz world, Red Holloway is most well known for
the records he did in the bebop era with musicians such as Sonny Stitt,
Clark Terry, Ben Webster, Lester Young, and Dexter Gordon.  He is known as
"one of the last great saxophonists of the bebop era" (Chicago Tribune).
 With that said, these musicians often blurred the sometimes fine line
dividing swing and bebop.  Basie and Ellington did this all the time.  This
begs the question:  Swing can be bebop, but can bebop be swing?  That
topic, while interesting, is not appropriate for discussion on this list.

Getting back to OKOM, Ben Webster was also one of those players who could
change seamlessly from playing trad jazz to swing to bebop.  Clark Terry,
not so much.  When you hear him play with the Jim Cullum Jazz band, his
lines are still very lyrical, but clearly bebop/swing influenced (IMO it
still sounded good, it just didn't fit the trad style).

Sorry for the tangent.  Since it is off topic, please email me privately if
you would like to continue to discuss.

-Justin

On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 1:46 PM, Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bopper?  Sort of, but not quite.  And any jazz misician should be a
> blues player.  Many years ago, in an interview with the "In My
> Opinion" column of the "Jazz Jounal" (I don't remember it as
> "International" in those days), Keith Smith criticized Buster Bailey
> for not being a blues player.
> I have heard Holloway both live and on record, and he always sounded
> OKOM (not trad) to me.  Even Donna, whose tastes are more traditional
> than mine, loved his playing when she heard him at a jazz festival
> (Elkhart?).  In Israel, he played with a swing group, and did not
> sound out of place.
> Cheers
>
> On 26 February 2012 21:34, Justin Au <jtazztrumpet at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Sad news, indeed.  The jazz world has lost another incredible player, and
> > wonderful individual.  I feel privileged to have had the good fortune of
> > playing with him on several occasions here on the California Central
> Coast.
> >  He lived in Cambria for the last 26 years of his life.
> >
> > Despite being a bebop and blues player, he seemed to take a liking to my
> > gypsy band and our occasional psychedelic (you don't hear that word very
> > often nowadays) take on gypsy swing.  We were supposed to have one last
> gig
> > together in February with David Amram, but unfortunately that's just
> after
> > Red had suffered his stroke.  Our next show will probably be a tribute to
> > him - Django style.
> >
> > -Justin
> > San Luis Obispo, CA
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