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Frank Holder | |
|---|---|
 Holder with his Life-Time Achievement Award from The Worshipful Company of Musicians | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1925-04-02)2 April 1925 |
| Died | 29 October 2017(2017-10-29) (aged 92) Carshalton, London, England |
| Genres | Jazz, Latin |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals,bongos,congas |
| Labels | Parlophone, Decca, Pye, London, Esquire, Metronome, Dawn, BBC discs, Mainstem |
Frank Holder (2 April 1925 – 29 October 2017) was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist.[1] He was a member of bands led byJiver Hutchinson,Johnny Dankworth andJoe Harriott.[2]
Frank Holder was born in 1925 inGeorgetown, Guyana, and served in theRoyal Air Force. He sang in forces groups atRAF Cranwell, including a band led by Geoff Head.[3]
Holder played with bands led by Andre Messeder and John Carioca in the late 1940s, appearing with the latter at Churchill's Club in London. He also performed at the Feldman Swing Club (100 Club) in London, owned by the Feldman brothers. Holder recalled, "At Feldman's, a black man would be accepted when you couldn't appear at clubs like the Mayfair or Embassy. Black guys likeColeridge Goode andRay Ellington were welcome, and all that mattered to Robert and Monty Feldman was that you were a musician".[4] At the time, he occasionally worked withVictor Feldman.
In his early years, Holder recorded forParlophone andDecca Records. He was perhaps best known for his work in the early 1950s with the Dankworth Seven led byJohn Dankworth, which often topped theMelody Maker Jazz charts. Holder is also regarded as one of the leading black UK jazz musicians to emerge from the mid-1940s swing dance band movement, having got his big break with a band led byJiver Hutchinson afterWorld War II. In the late 1940s, Holder worked with trumpeterKenny Baker.
Highlights from Holder's Dankworth days include an appearance at theRoyal Albert Hall on the same bill asNat King Cole. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Holder toured, recorded, and performed withRonnie Scott,Tubby Hayes,Don Rendell,Peter King, Dickie Hawdon,Eddie Harvey,Jack Fallon,Harry Beckett,Bill Le Sage,Shake Keane,Ronnie Ross, Coleridge Goode,Hank Shaw,Tony Kinsey, and songwriterDuncan Lamont. He was active in the post-war Latin music scene, including working with the Deniz Brothers.
Holder was represented during the 1950s by theatre impresarioBernard Delfont and Harold Davison. In the middle of the decade, he was approached by British jazz record producerDenis Preston to record calypso music. Holder's records at the ime were issued byPye. In the late 1950s, Kenny Graham and His Orchestra recorded with Holder for Decca. Other recordings from this period include sessions forCab Kaye and a film soundtrack single release called "Nor the Moon by Night" with conductor and arrangerRon Goodwin for Parlophone. Goodwin was working closely with producerGeorge Martin, who was also involved with Parlophone. In 1959, Holder contributed percussion to theJoe Harriott albumSouthern Horizons (1960). Holder worked with drummerPhil Seamen. In the mid-1960s, Holder recorded with Ethiopian musicianMulatu Astatke.
Holder branched out into variety and cabaret performances, appearing in many countries and at London venues such as theLondon Palladium, Lyceum, and Paramount. He often gave his time to charity fund raising events. Later bills were shared withBill Haley and his Comets,Guy Mitchell, andJohnnie Ray. In 1963, Holder appeared at theNational Jazz and Blues Festival at Richmond. In 1964, he was compère for the BBC One seriesCarnival, working withGinger Johnson,Carmen Munroe, and Geoff Love with his Orchestra. That year, he also performed forPeter Sellers andBritt Ekland for their wedding party at the Tiberio Restaurant Mayfair. In 1966, Holder appeared with theBBC Radio Orchestra and in the following year recorded with John Dankworth, featuring the actress singerNadia Cattouse. In 1972, Holder was one of the winners of theCastlebar Song Contest for the folk ballad "Song for Jenny", composed by Sheila Roberts.
In 1974, Holder was invited to sing with theScottish Symphony Orchestra at aRoyal Albert Hall Promenade Concert with soprano Margaret Gale and the BBC Chorus. In 1990 he appeared with theBBC Big Band atFairfield Halls,Croydon. The following year, he played congas and bongos on an album byBarbara Thompson's band Paraphernalia entitledBreathless.
In 1996, he performed as a guest on guitaristEduardo Niebla's albumI Can Fly Now, playing both congas and bongos. He was a member of the Latin jazz bandPaz and was featured on the band's albumSamba Samba (1997) with drummer Chris Dagley. In 2003, he was a guest on the albumCleo Laine andLaurie Holloway,Loesser Genius, with John Dankworth. Performances followed with Steve Waterman's albumOur Delight: A Jazz Odyssey in 2006. Holder also worked withMornington Lockett andDave O'Higgins. O'Higgins appeared on Holder's albumBallads Blues at Bop. Pete Long featured Holder in his Gillespiana Be-Bop Orchestra, a band that paid tribute to the music ofDizzy Gillespie. In 2010, Holder featured on a double bill atRonnie Scott's with vocalistJuliet Kelly. He worked with arrangerNick Ingman and the Fraser-Myers Big Band and for Carlin Music forPaul Williams. In 2011, Holder performed at the gala jazz event A Tribute to John Dankworth and the Big Band at theQueen Elizabeth Hall.
In 2012, Holder teamed up with guitarist Shane Hill to record his final album,Interpretations, featuring Peter King on alto, Dick Pearce on Flugel, Val Manix bass and Noel Joyce kit. Well received by the jazz media, it brought Holder back into the limelight. Later that year, he was interviewed byClemency Burton Hill, and as a result of this interview, appeared in aBBC TwoCulture Show documentary calledSwinging into the Blitz, a programme exploring the history of black music in the UK, beginning in the 1930s. Burton Hill cited Holder as a connection to the early swing musicians such asKen Snakehips Johnson and Leslie" Jiver" Hutchinson. The documentary was commissioned by the BBC to contextualise the black music scene explored in theStephen Poliakoff television dramaDancing on the Edge which portrayed a fictional successful black band leader called Louis Lester.
Holder appeared withPat Smythe,Tony Lee,John Critchinson,David Newton,Neville Dickie, Jonathan Gee,Malcolm Edmonstone,Michael Garrick and Geoff Castle.
In 2012, Holder performed with pianistDerek Paravicini in a show dedicated to the music ofGeorge Shearing. FormerBlue Mink member and Watermill Jazz Club founder Ann Odell was music director and arranger for the show. Lady Shearing endorsed the show. Other guitarists Holder appeared or recorded with include Acoustic Alchemy founder member Simon James, Adam Salkeld and Jim Mullen.
Until the age of 92, Holder was still performing around London. In 2013, Holder was featured in the annual vocal summit of theLondon Jazz Festival withJoe Stilgoe andTheo Jackson. The event represented three generations of UK based jazz singers. Holder also shared his approach to singing and voice preservation in an article forThe Voice Council magazine, published in April 2014. Holder often performed atThe Stables inWavendon with the Dankworth family for their Christmas music parties, working withMark Nightingale and trumpeterGuy Barker. His band often includedStan Robinson on tenor saxophone.
A keen sportsman, Holder played cricket withGary Sobers andWes Hall for charity events. As a young man he was a boxer and sprinter. He was a cousin of actorRam John Holder. Holder died inCarshalton, London, on 29 October 2017.
