The original article, written by me, appeared in JAZZ JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL in August 1989. It is used with permission.
Bill (Willis) Holman's beautiful house is tucked away in the Hollywood Hills, within easy reach of the Union buildings in Vine Street where he rehearses his big band, mostly on Thursdays.
I recall unfounded rumours about his general health. Contrary to those rumours I found him in excellent health and approaching his music with as much humour, enthusiasm and wit as ever.
Many will remember Holman for his contributions to the Stan Kenton and Count Basie libraries and for three outstanding albums, a break of 30 years from recording, and then a convincing reminder of his craft in the WORLD CLASS CD on the JVC label that preceded the current release.
He has many film scores to his credit and, not surprisingly is still in great demand as a composer and arranger. He also finds time to make regular visits to Europe, working with the best broadcasting bands.
His writing is unique. He has an ability to liberally scatter the strands of an idea within an arrangement, creating new and exciting forms, flying off at thrilling, initially illogical tangents. MOON OF MANAKOORA on the WORLD CLASS album is an excellent example. Who would have thought!
Many times I have had the privilege of sitting through concerts and rehearsals, hearing scores of new arrangements being performed faultlessly by the cream of the West Coast. I have marvelled at the raw excitement of the band and the soloing skills of the late Bob Cooper, Lanny Morgan, Pete Christleib, Bob Summers and many more.
Remarkably this unique experience is controlled by a barely perceptable twitch of an index finger, nod of the head and a quiet smile of satisfaction - this is as close as Willis gets to histrionics.
The band's library is well into the hundreds and relatively few of the arrangements are published. Although there are thousands of good school bands in the USA, perhaps only a hundred or so are capable of playing the majority of the music he has written so the usual publishers were not interested in such a small potential turnover. This situation has improved dramatically recently and BOB CURNOW OF SIERRA MUSIC is now adding more and more of Holman's work to his excellent catalogue (see my home page link ).
Until the world class session, Holman hadn't recorded with his own band for 27 years or so. For some of that time he didn't even have a band, but existed as a composer and arranger for hire.
We move into the first person for Bill Holman's own words.....
I never felt that I had the energy to put a band together and keep it going. then some friends of mine found me a copyist. This was in 1975, and Bill McKay, one of the co-owners of Dontes (late lamented LA jazz venue), said I could have a string of Sundays if I could get a band together.
I've got a copyist, I've got a gig... what more do I need !
Once I got into it, I found that more the most part, the band sort of takes care of itself. The guys get their own subs for rehearsals, so there isn't that telephoning which I saw as a hurdle, I wasn't looking forward to that.
I had the band for a number of years and hit on various people to record. Only one person expressed an interest, then something got in the way of that. Then someone else suggested that the only things he could use in a big band were 10 four minute charts in the style of 1964 Woody Herman. I said GREAT...., I really dug those records too, but it was not 1964. I was and am getting into more introspective things, getting away from the hysteria of the big bands and doing something just a little more thoughtful.
When people hear the term 'big band' it always conjures up something from the past. People have great memories of the bands of the thirties and forties - they get bugged because we don't play music like that. Then there are those who say that big bands went out years ago and never want to hear another as they're all the same!
It all seems to be predicated on what the big bands were, not what they are now or, what they can be. It's kind of a sore point with me. I'm not talking about my own work, it's the dance bands from the big band era.
A lot of people want to get copies of the things I recorded in the fifties and things I wrote for Kenton, which is fine by me. As far as I know there has never been any dispute about recording any of it. As the arrangements have been published it's not illegal to use them, but I think it's bad form not to speak to me first. I know one band around town was advertising as if we (the arrangers), were writing for the band, without saying they were using our past hits.
Even now a lot of people just know me for the Kenton association, they don't know me for anything I've done since. It was a good period.... being in that band was great not only for being in the band but for meeting all those other people - Konitz, Rosolino, Conte, Stan Levy... all those good people. Actually I would rather have had my band playing all that stuff, but having a band like Kenton's was more advantagious at the time. The charts I wrote were strictly for Kenton, not for my own band. I wrote a couple of things before I joined the band, but they didn't really work out.
The CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTS album was the big turnaround for Stan, because it was the closest to an out and out jazz record he ever made. The band he had in 52/3 had great soloists. There was a bit of a tug-of-war within the band. they wanted to play all out shouting, swing style. Stan wanted us to play straight eighth notes and the two conceptions didn't really come together very well.
There were times when Stan turned the band over to Bill Russo. I remember once at the Blue Note In Chicago when he was not there, we got out this Mulligan chart which had been in the book, but Stan was not playing it because he wasn't too fond of it. We rehearsed for about an hour in front of an audience - it was great.
By 1955 when guys like Al Porcino and Mel Lewis were in the band. Stan had really turned over the conception of the band to Porcino. He had the band playing really close to the jazz band feel. I would have realised that the thing was out of my hands and said, " now who's band is this?" I think this is what Stan must have done. He sort of changed the book all around, got rid of some of the people... and so it was his again!
After I left the band, he would still get in touch with me if he had something in mind or wanted me to do a piece. If I had time I would do it.
About my writing... I didn't go through a period of copying other people's charts, and I've not done commercial material where people have told me how or what to write. I don't really know how to write like other people.
In the fifties, music had that lightness and daintiness which perhaps came from Mulligan's Quartet and early Shorty Rogers. Everyone seemed to be going that way. I had a quintet with Mel Lewis in 1958. One of our aims was to try and get rid of that sound and have an east coast sounding band. It didn't happen that way, but that was our aim.
I've obviously listened to Basie and Ellington, but I've never conciously sat down after listening to Hobnail Boogie and tried to write something like that. Of course I listened to the radio in the forties, when all the bands were on for hour after hour. I suppose I must have assimilated some of that. I recall trying to write a chart like Manny Albam one time after hearing the Barnet Band in '49. Most of the time I just start off not really knowing what... just starting off!
A lot of jazz writers are not conciously concerned with form. The best have an intuitive form in their heads. Even if they write a stream of conciousness type of chart, it will have form because of the way they are thinking. I do it conciously, which has been one of the governing principles of (classical) music for centuries. Not only ' form' in classical music but the idea of Form with a capital 'F' which informs the whole piece. Not necessarily a sonata form or a rondo, but the fact that any piece has shape and leads you where you want to go, so that you can listen to it intelligently. It should keep you advised of where you are, and remind you of things that have passed.
I think about the use of motifs and re-orchestrating. the climax is very important. It has to be led to and gotten away from - and sometimes in a jazz band chart, for the sake of the climax, you will need another idea. Sometimes I return to the beginning or go off into a big ensemble in which the harmony might be the same. Improvising on that harmony may be different. this is another quality I try to get into the music... that it sounds improvised. I think the ideal jazz chart would be improvised if you could control it some way.
On the WORLD CLASS album, JUST FRIENDS has a long improvised line, the whole thing is supposed to sound like a jam session with a piano taking a few chords and so on. I suppose this is a fair example of what I mean. It certainly can cause an interesting rehearsal when subs are in.
I have no idea how many charts I have written. So many different things, chart after chart when I was doing pop music in the sisties. You'd do a couple of charts in an afternoon and never remember them afterwards. Except the ones that got famous like AQUARIUS for the FIFTH DIMENSION and those things. It was sort of fun, but when I got back to writing band music I was appalled to think how hard that was.
There are certain charts I am particularly proud of: WHAT'S NEW for Kenton, and a quartet I did for Shelly Mann's group in the fifties. Actually I did hear it again recently and perhaps I don't like it as much now as I did.
We rehearse every Thursday whether or not we have a gig coming up. Since Donte's closed... not so many gigs. Since the MOONLIGHT in Sherman Oaks developed its Tuesday night big band policy we get to play there every once in a while.
I loved the WORLD CLASS album. It was everything I wanted it to be, except on the previous albums the music was written for the record date and the first time I heard it performed was at the recording. On WORLD CLASS we had been playing the music for 10 years so the thrill of the newness had gone.
I was wondering if they would still sound fresh to the people who hadn't heard them, but as we usually play to a relatively small community, it should not have been a problem.
I listen to other writers and performers with great interest. I always have my eye on Bob Brookmeyer to see what he is doing. I'm always badgering him for tapes from his broadcasts. He's doing a lot of other things, but his jazz band writing is always in front of everyone else. Rob McConnell has done some really fantastic things with his arranging,, the voicing, the ensembles he does, the imagination, constant modulating, lots of surprises.
As I write (2/3/2001) as far as I know Willis is in great shape, still rehearsing and enjoying the successful release of the latest CD. I am fortunate to have seen the CD performed at the Moonlight in L.A. Nothing is lost, the live performance and the CD performance are entirely compatible.
My best wishes to Bill Holman
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Most recent revision 4th February 2000
Copyright © 1997 John Killoch