Ron Holloway | |
|---|---|
 Tenor saxophonist Ron Holloway during a tour of Russia | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ronald Edward Holloway |
| Born | (1953-08-24)August 24, 1953 (age 71) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz,R&B,blues,funk,rock |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | Tenor saxophone |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Labels | Fantasy/Milestone |
| Website | theronhollowayband |
Ronald Edward Holloway (born August 24, 1953) is an American tenor saxophonist. He is listed in theBiographical Encyclopedia of Jazz where veteran jazz criticIra Gitler described Holloway as a "Hard bear-down-hard-bopper who can blow authentic R&B and croon a ballad with warm, blue feeling."[1]
Holloway is the recipient of 42 Washington Area Music Awards, or Wammies, two of which he received as musician of the year.[2]
He has been a member of theWarren Haynes Band,[3][4]Susan Tedeschi,[5][6]Dizzy Gillespie,[7][8]Gil Scott-Heron[9] andRoot Boy Slim.[10] Since 2014, Ron Holloway has led his own band; The Ron Holloway Band.
Ron Holloway was born to Winston and Marjorie Holloway, avid jazz fans who met while attendingHoward University in Washington, D.C. Holloway recalls his father adding to his collection ofPrestige andBlue Note jazz albums. Holloway's parents, while not musicians, provided a nurturing musical environment for their son.[11] Holloway's father favored the saxophone and trumpet-led albums and particularly enjoyed great horn soloists.[12]R&B-influencedWillis Gator Jackson was easiest to grasp at first, but soon he identified the sounds ofSonny Rollins,[13]John Coltrane, andMiles Davis as his principal influences.[14]
After high school graduation, Holloway practiced 8–12 hours a day and sat in with bands of kinds in jam sessions, which increased his versatility. He became familiar with many genres. In the same week he would often perform with groups in jazz, R&B, funk, rock, jazz fusion, blues, country, and folk.[15][16]
As the Washington D.C. music scene continued to thrive in the 1970s, Holloway joined popular R&B groups the Sounds of Shea and Mad Dog and the Lowlifers.[17]
In 1974, Holloway went to seeFreddie Hubbard in concert and brought an audio cassette tape he'd made while rehearsing to one of Hubbard's recordings. During the intermission he introduced himself and played the tape for Hubbard. After hearing the tape, Hubbard invited Holloway to come back and play with him that Sunday night. He did so and at the end of the performance Hubbard extended an open invitation to sit in with him whenever Hubbard was in town.[10]
The next year,Sonny Rollins conducted a clinic at Howard University. Backed by arhythm section composed of local musicians, Rollins invited the young horn players onstage. Holloway joined him on Rollins's "Playin' in the Yard". After his solo, Holloway received a standing ovation from the audience. Rollins and Holloway remained in touch afterwards, becoming good friends.[18] The friendship and respect between the two ran both ways. Rollins has been equally generous in his praise of Holloway over the years and has mentioned him in several interviews as one of his favorite young tenor players.[19][20]
Holloway admired Rollins' "....sense of organic construction, ambidextrous timing, humorous quotes, supreme swagger, infectious personality, individual choice of notes, note displacement, keen sense of drama, staccato punctuations followed by virtuosic runs, worrying a single note, a very personal tonal texture, unique use of smeared notes and more."[21]
In the summer of 1977 a new club opened and the performers included Rollins, Hubbard andDizzy Gillespie. Holloway approached Gillespie's dressing room and as he had done with Rollins, brought a tape with him- this time of his performance with Rollins. After Gillespie listened to the tape, he asked Holloway if he had brought his horn, to which Holloway confessed he hadn't because he was concerned about appearing presumptuous. Holloway found himself performing with Gillespie all week. Afterwards, he had a standing invitation to sit in with the band.[10][22][23]
In 1979 Holloway sat in with Dizzy Gillespie atRonnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, England. Holloway continued to sit in with Gillespie well into the 1980s. On June 6, 1987, he performed with a large group of musicians honoring Gillespie atWolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.[24]
In 1979 Root Boy, Holloway and the rest of theSex Change Band participated in a film entitledMr. Mike's Mondo Video which was written byMichael O'Donoghue ofSaturday Night Live.Mondo Video was not broadcast as NBC deemed it "sick"[25] whileSpin later referred to it as "A TV pilot too dangerous to air."[26]
In the early 1980s, Root Boy and Holloway made cameo appearances in a film made by the D.C. area comedy group known as The Langley Punks, for their Travesty Films group. Holloway recorded four albums with Root Boy and at least three 45's: "Too Much Jawbone" with "Xmas at K-Mart" on the flip side, "The Meltdown" backed with "Graveyard of Losers" and "Dare to Be Fat" onI.R.S. Records. Holloway was a member of several Root Boy configurations from 1977 to 1987.[27]
Holloway's tenure withRoot Boy Slim overlapped with two other groups. The first was a local funk band calledOsiris. Holloway first met Osiris Marsh in 1979 and found their influences included bands with eclectic tastes ranging fromParliament-Funkadelic,Earth, Wind, and Fire, andSly and the Family Stone. In addition, Osiris was interested in the culture of ancient Egypt and African Americanroots music. The members of Osiris were Osiris Marsh on lead vocals, Tony Jones and Tyrone "Ty" Brunson on bass guitars, Maceo Bond on keyboards, Brent Mingle on guitar, Jimmy "Sha-Sha" Stapleton on percussion and Holloway on tenor and soprano saxophones.
Marsh, who wrote or co-wrote the majority of the band's songs with Bond and Brunson, produced an independent studio album on the band's own label, Tomdog, titledSince Before Our Time in 1978. In 1979,Warner Bros. Records picked it up, remixed and repackaged it. Another album,O-Zone onMarlin Records, met with similar reviews and faced the same overall inability to overcome the dance floor fever that enticed many funk and soul listeners towardsdisco as the 1970s came to an end. Holloway played with Osiris from 1979 to 1981.[28]
In November 1981 Holloway visited a landmark D.C. club;Blues Alley, where he had been told jazz drummerNorman Connors would be performing. He brought his horn and upon arriving spotted Connors and introduced himself. With an invitation from Connors, he sat in on the next set, getting a good response from the audience. Afterward, Holloway was approached by singer andspoken word artist,Gil Scott-Heron, who complimented him and extended an offer to join his group, the "Amnesia Express".[29] In February 1982 Holloway played his first concert with Scott-Heron atThe Bottom Line in New York City with fellow saxophonist and Amnesia Express co-founderCarl Cornwell.[30] The press appreciated his contributions as well, commenting on his performance in several reviews.[31][32] It happened that, early in 1982, Holloway was on board when filmmakerRobert Muggedocumented Scott-Heron's concert at the Wax Museum nightclub in Washington, D.C. The film is calledBlack Wax.[33] Holloway found his playing evolving while in the band, commenting, "I got so many things together on my horn while playing with Gil. It was really a valuable period of self discovery." Holloway was a member of Scott-Heron's group from February 1982 until June 1989.[29]
Though he was a member of Scott-Heron's group during this period, Holloway continued to appear with Gillespie whenever he would perform in D.C.[34] In June 1989 he was sitting in with Dizzy atBlues Alley.[35] During the intermission, Gillespie sent his manager to find Holloway. Gillespie surprised Holloway with the statement he was in need of a sax player. Holloway accepted and found himself touring the world with Gillespie, performing for audiences that varied from club capacity[36] to popular American television shows which included theJohnny Carson andArsenio Hall shows.[37][38] During his time with Gillespie, Holloway recorded two albums with the trumpeter;The Symphony Sessions on Pro Arte[39][40][41] andDizzy Gillespie – Live! at Blues Alley on the Blues Alley label. He also played the top jazz and music festivals[42][43][44][45] theaters, and concert halls[46] around the world with Gillespie.[10] Holloway was a member of Gillespie's quintet from June 1989 until his death on January 6, 1993.[47][48]
In the fall of 1993, Holloway recorded an album and sent the demo to his mentor, Sonny Rollins. Rollins, then forwarded the recording toFantasy Records and Holloway was signed toMilestone Records, one of Fantasy's subsidiary labels, within a week's time.[49] To date, Holloway has released four albums on Fantasy's Milestone Records label[50] and another on the Jazzmont label.[51][52]
In 2015, Holloway formedThe Ron Holloway Band, a funk jam band centered around Holloway's multi-female vocals and Holloway's sax playing. The band debuted at the 2014 Mad Tea Party[53] in Hedgesville, West Virginia, and shortly after performed atThe Peach Music Festival in Scranton, PA. RHB was joined by surprise special guestsWarren Haynes andDerek Trucks at Peach, the first of many concert sit-ins from members ofThe Allman Brothers Band,Gov't Mule, andTedeschi Trucks Band.
Members of The Ron Holloway Band have includedJenny Langer (vocals), Rodney Dunton (drums), Christopher Brown (bass), Rachel Ann Morgan (vocals), Justin Gillen (guitar), Cory Belcher,Cody Wright, Wes Lanich (keys), Rod Gross (drums), Amanda Lynne (vocals), Barry Sherrard (drums), Noah Pierre (bass), Joe Poppen (guitar), and Barry Hart (drums).
Holloway metDerek Trucks in 2002 aboard Trucks' tour bus just outside the entrance to Rams Head Onstage, in Annapolis, Maryland. Trucks surprised him with his vast knowledge of various musical genres. Holloway has since performed with Trucks many times as a guest ofThe Derek Trucks Band andThe Allman Brothers Band, toured with both theSusan Tedeschi Band (of which Holloway was a member) and the band co-led by Trucks and Tedeschi for a couple of summers, "Soul Stew Revival".[54][55]
On September 30, 2004, Little Feat were scheduled to open for theAllman Brothers Band atNissan Pavilion inBristow, Virginia. Holloway was to accompany Little Feat. Aside from Little Feat, Holloway found himself in the company of the two featured guitarists inThe Allman Brothers Band. This was the first time he had heard the band with its current lineup. Warren Haynes invited Holloway to sit in with the band and at the close of the concert, he performed on one of the classic tunes made famous by the band; "Southbound".[56] Haynes invited Holloway to appear withGov't Mule afterward at the9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and they performed two consecutive nights on October 27 and 28, 2004 before a packed house, recording both nights.The next year, in the summer of 2005, guitarist Jack Pearson and Holloway toured with The Allman Brothers Band, filling in for an ailing Warren Haynes.[57][58] It was the beginning of many performances where Holloway appeared with The Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule, playing theBeacon Theatre in New York City, Nissan Pavilion inBristow, Virginia, theWanee Festival inLive Oak, Florida,[59]Merriweather Post Pavilion inColumbia, Maryland,[60]Warner Theatre (Washington, D.C.)[61] andThe Warren Haynes Christmas Jam,[62][63][64]which Haynes hosts annually, inAsheville, North Carolina.
In January 2010, Gov't Mule hosted their first "Gov't Mule Island Exodus" in the same resort in Negril, Jamaica that Holloway had visited with Little Feat. Over the course of the four nights, Gov't Mule performed three evening concerts,Grace Potter and the Nocturnals played three shows and Warren Haynes played a solo set. Guesting throughout wereDJ Logic (turntables), "Mean" Willie Green (drums) and Holloway (tenor sax).[65]
In October 2005 Holloway finally heardblues andsoul singer,Susan Tedeschi perform with her own group atRams Head Live! inBaltimore, Maryland. Tedeschi and Holloway met previously a couple of years before while guesting with her husband, Derek Trucks, at theWanee Festival and a show atThe Birchmere, (in suburban Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.). After renewing their acquaintance and performing that night, Tedeschi invited Holloway to join her band. For the next few years, the band toured across Europe[66][67] and extensively throughout the United States, playing major festivals,[68]concert halls,[69] theaters[70] and clubs. Tedeschi, along with her band have also appeared onLate Night with Conan O'Brien[71] and have been seen on countless local news spots as they toured across the United States. Along with the airplay her recordings receive, Tedeschi has performed live many times on radio stations across the country, includingNPR.[72]Holloway was a member of Tedeschi's band for four years.[73]
In February 2009, Warren Haynes began work on a solo project at Pedernales Studio, inAustin, Texas, withGordie Johnson as co-producer and engineer. The recording featuredGeorge Porter Jr. on electric bass,Ivan Neville on keyboards, Raymond Weber on drums,Ian McLagan on additional keyboards,Ruthie Foster on vocals and Holloway on tenor saxophone.[74][75] The resulting album,Man in Motion, was released on May 10, 2011, on theStax/Concord Music Group label.[76]
The debut of The Warren Haynes Band took place during the 22nd AnnualWarren Haynes Christmas Jam, which was held at theAsheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina on Saturday, December 11, 2010.[77][78] The group line-up was; Warren Haynes (lead vocals/guitar), Ivan Neville (keys/vocals), Ron Johnson (electric bass), Terence Higgins (drums), Ruthie Foster (vocals) and Holloway (tenor saxophone).[78][79] After the release ofMan in Motion, Holloway joined Haynes, Higgins, Johnson, and keyboardist Nigel Hall for an extensive tour.
Having been introduced toGregg Allman while playing with The Allman Brothers Band, Holloway encountered his son, Devon Allman at the Iota Club & Cafe inArlington, Virginia, on March 31, 2009, when Devon's bandHoneytribe performed there. Allman contacted Holloway when his band,Honeytribe were preparing to record their second album and had need of a saxophone player. Holloway traveled toMemphis, Tennessee, and spent two days recording with the band atArdent Studios[80] for Honeytribe's sophomore release;Space Age Blues. The CD was released in October 2010 to positive reviews.[81][82][83]
Summer 2023, played with Gov't Mule during Dark Side of the Mule tour
| Year | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Slanted | Fantasy/Milestone |
| 1995 | Struttin | Fantasy/Milestone |
| 1996 | Scorcher | Fantasy/Milestone |
| 1998 | Groove Update | Fantasy/Milestone |
| 2003 | Ron Holloway & Friends Live at Montpelier | JazzMont |
| Year | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | The Symphony Sessions | Pro Arte |
| 1990 | Dizzy Gillespie Live! at Blues Alley | Blues Alley Music Society |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
