Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ronald Edward Holloway was born on August 24, 1953 in Washington, D.C. to parents who met at Howard University and were avid jazz fans. He got his initial introduction from his father who favored saxophone and trumpet led albums and would add to his collection of Prestige and Blue Note jazz albums. Though he started with R&B-influenced Willis Gator Jackson it wasn’t long before he identified the sounds of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Miles Davis as his principal influences.

After high school graduation, Holloway routinely practiced 8–12 hours a day, sat in with bands of all kinds and jam sessions, becoming familiar and performed with jazz, R&B, funk, rock, jazz fusion, blues, country and folk music groups. During the Seventies he had the great fortune to meet, play a tape of a performance and get standing invitations to play with anytime they were in town from Freddie Hubbard, Sonny rollins and Dizzy Gillespie. The latter would invite him to sit in with him at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, England, an association that lasted well into the Eighties.

Straying from jazz Ron would move into funk and go on to become a member of Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band, Osiris, Gil Scott-Heron’s band Amnesia Express, and Dizzy Gillespie’s band, remaining a member until Dizzy’s passing in 1993. That same year he recorded his debut album as a leader on the Milestone label.

He would go on to perform and tour with Derek Trucks, the Allman Brothers, Susan Tedeschi, Gov’t Mule, and is currently a member of The Warren Haynes Band and leader of The Ron Holloway Band.

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