Willis Leonard Holman (born May 21, 1927), known also as Bill Holman, is an American songwriter, conductor, composer/arranger, and saxophonist working primarily in the jazz idiom.
Although he has performed and recorded as a tenor saxophonist, Holman is best known as an arranger, one of the finest in jazz history. Through his acquaintance with Gene Roland, Holman was auditioned by Stan Kenton and hired as a tenor sax player around 1951. Holman beg...
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Willis Leonard Holman (born May 21, 1927), known also as Bill Holman, is an American songwriter, conductor, composer/arranger, and saxophonist working primarily in the jazz idiom.
Although he has performed and recorded as a tenor saxophonist, Holman is best known as an arranger, one of the finest in jazz history. Through his acquaintance with Gene Roland, Holman was auditioned by Stan Kenton and hired as a tenor sax player around 1951. Holman began to write for Kenton's band, and by 1954, he was contributing so consistently that the Kenton band of this era is now known unofficially as "The Holman Band".
Kenton was apparently attracted to Holman's ability to integrate counterpoint and dissonance in subtle yet distinctive ways, and for his knack for making the usually-unswinging Kenton band "swing" in its own particular fashion. Holman became Kenton's chief arranger, and wrote much of Kenton's late 1950s repertoire; including one of Kenton's penultimate albums, "Contemporary Concepts"....
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