May 21, 1927 – May 05, 2024

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Arranger, composer, bandleader, and tenor-saxophonist Bill Holman passed away on May 5, 2024 at the age of 96.

Willis Leonard Holman was born on May 21, 1927 in Olive, California, a small town in Orange County.

Holman started playing the clarinet in junior high school and, while in high school, switched to tenor and formed his first band.

He served in the U.S. Navy during 1944-46, studying mechanical engineering which he later continued at UCLA.

Holman also enrolled at the Westlake College Of Music, studied privately with Russ Garcia and Lloyd Reese, and worked with the bands of Ike Carpenter and Charlie Barnet (1950-52), contributing arrangements for Bob Keene.

He gained attention for his playing and particularly his writing for the Stan Kenton Orchestra during 1952-54 where his complex yet swinging charts contrasted with those of the more classical-inspired Bill Russo.

Starting with “Invention For Guitar And Trumpet,” Holman would contribute occasional arrangements to Kenton for the next quarter-century.

While he was an excellent tenor-saxophonist and would record some worthy sessions through the years, the focus shifted to Holman’s writing abilities.

Holman, who became a busy studio musician, wrote for the big bands of Woody Herman, Harry James, Buddy Rich, Terry Gibbs, and Count Basie, for virtually every West Coast jazz figure, pop groups, singers (including Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable album), European orchestras, television shows and films.

Holman led his own big band on records starting in the late 1950s, and in 1975 formed the Bill Holman Orchestra, rehearsing once a week, performing at special concerts and jazz festivals, and recording a series of highly-rated and exciting albums.

Bill Holman’s arrangements, which were sometimes happily overcrowded, always swung and were both challenging to musicians and accessible to listeners.

Other than Terry Gibbs, Holman was the last major surviving West Coast jazz artist of the 1950s.

From 2011, here is the Bill Holman Orchestra (with the leader conducting and pianist John Campbell featured) performing his reworking of “Just Friends.”

-Scott Yanow

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