Doc Holladay

Biography

Doc Holladay

Baritone saxophonist Marvin "Doc" Holladay is a unique musician who has enriched his professional jazz performance career through his active involvement with world music. His full warm sound has earned him the respect and admiration of many of the world's top musical personalities.
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Holladay has toured the world with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the J.C. Heard Orchestra and Dizzy Gillespie's Orchestra in the past decade. The tour with Dizzy Gillespie took place during the summer of 1988. The Gillespie Orchestra played to standing room only audiences around the world including three major eastern U.S. cities and eight European countries. Throughout the tour, Holladay provided an ongoing source of energy. His artistic dexterity was often praised by critics and musicians alike.

Holladay is known internationally for his strong, no-nonsense playing style. His is also respected as a master of improvisation on the instrument made immortal by Harry Carney and recently brought into renewed prominence by Pepper Adams and Hamiet Bluiett. But it is Holladay's versatility that has led him to play with numerous big bands, combos, and some of the best know musicians in the business. A partial list of musical organizations Holladay has worked with includes the Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Quincy Jones Orchestras, the Duke Ellington Alumni Orchestra, and as a charter member, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

In addition, he has recorded or performed, while a free-lance musician in New York City, with notables Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Billy Eckstine, the Al Grey-Billy Mitchell Sextet, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Jack McDuff, Benny Carter, Duke Pearson, Gerald Wilson, Jimmy Smith, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and countless others.

Holladay placed in the 1961 Downbeat critics poll in the Baritone Sax New Star Deserving Wider Recognition category. Since then, Holladay has continued to garner acclaim by continuing to perform, teach and expand his horizons.

Marvin Holladay was reared in Kansas in close proximity to the now famous Kansas City jazz scene. He earned his undergraduate degree in music education from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma and then went on for a stint in the Army. While in the Army, Holladay trained and performed alongside Pepper Adams, Cannonball and Nat Aderley, and others who came up through the jazz ranks of the military. After a successful twenty year career as a professional working musician, he enrolled at Yale University as a special graduate student, then continued to pursue studies for a PhD in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Holladay's research concentrated on the musics of West Africa, with emphasis on West African flutes and percussion instruments. Holladay has been the Director of Jazz and World Music Studies at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan for the better part of the last two decades.

Holladay is as multifaceted on his instruments as he is in conception. In addition to baritone sax, he is equally proficient on bass clarinet, oboe and English horn, and a full array of saxes, clarinets, flutes and African wind and percussion instruments. His approach to jazz has been called "at once natural and spiritual;" his music "sophisticated, uncluttered, unencumbered music that is truly created, not forcibly produced."

What others have to say...

"In the field of jazz I know of no one more qualified to spread the message of this indigenous artform than Mr. Holladay. He's well familiar with all phases of this music. His mastery of the instrument is in the same league with top purveyors of that instrument: Harry Carney, Heywood Henry, etc."
--Dizzy Gillespie, Musician/Composer

"I've known Marvin Doc Holladay since he was a member of the Stan Kenton Band, and have admired him ever since as a big toned, highly competent baritone saxophonist. I think he's a wonderful jazz performer, and the longer I know him the bigger his sound gets. I've seen him in action as a jazz educator of comparable ability. Because of these facts in addition to his love for the music and sincere devotion to the preservation of jazz in its noblest form, I hereby most highly recommend Doc Holladay in any capacity. "
--Frank Foster, Leader, Count Basie Orchestra

"Marvin Doc Holladay is a superb musician, a marvelous baritone saxophone player with a quality of sound that we don't hear anymore: very creative and imaginative in concept and thought. He is also an excellent educator whose rapport with students is exceptional. His understanding of this artform is deep, and his love for music infectious."
--Sam Rivers, Musician/Composer

"He personifies the combination of the natural and the intelligent - the natural ability to play plus the mind behind it. His vision of where he stands amongst other musicians and listeners is down on the ground. He knows exactly why, and where he's coming from. On his instrument - the baritone saxophone - he's one of the greats."
--Manny Albam, Composer/Arranger

"In my book he is one of the truly great people in our profession. I have had the pleasure of working with Marvelous Marv on may important musical occasions."
--Clark Terry, Musician

"Mr. Holladay has been know to me on the highest level of musicianship for over 30 years. I can vouch for his intelligent, knowledgeable and dedicated approach. He is also a real gentleman to work with and know."
--Ed Shaughnessy, Musician

"Doc Holladay is one of the most unique baritone players to come up since the grandfather of baritone saxophone - Harry Carney. He's the only player that holds up to the tradition."
--Richard Davis, Musician/Professor

"Marvin Holladay is an outstanding artist who forms a bridge of knowledge and understanding between the musics of Africa, Europe and the U.S. His virtuosity as a modern jazz master and his ability to organize, educate and inspire make him an ideal person to work with."
--David Amram, Musican/Composer

"One of the most literate, experienced and professional players in any musical discipline, Holladay is a jazz musician who has reached near legendary status, and whose activities are as noteworthy as any player in the country. A swinging effusive musician, this is one Doc who is always in."
--Michael G. Nastos, Ann Arbor News 

For more information, call 404-894-9600.

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