Major Holley

Main Holley was most widely known for utilizing the Slam Stewart trademark of singing together with his bowed bass solos, although he sang together while Stewart vocalized an octave above his bass. Usually, Main Holley (referred to as “Mule”) was an excellent supportive bassist. He originally performed violin and tuba, but turned to bass while playing in Navy rings. He used Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald within the middle- to past due ’40s, and in 1950 do some duet recordings (hardly ever reissued) with Oscar Peterson. Over time doing work for the BBC in Britain, he toured with Woody Herman (1958), used the Al Cohn-Zoot Sims quintet (1959-1960), and proved helpful within the studios, furthermore to showing up on some jazz recordings and developing a stint with Duke Ellington (1964). Main Holley trained at Berklee (1967-1970), freelanced in NY, and documented with everyone from Roy Eldridge as well as the Lee Konitz non-et, to Quincy Jones; he also met through to two information with Slam Stewart.