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Major Holley (July 10, 1924, Detroit, Michigan
Michigan

Michigan is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Anishinaabe language term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
 - October 25, 1990, Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood, New Jersey

Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 23,868....
) was an American jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 upright bassist.

Holley played violin and tuba when young and started playing bass while serving in the Navy. In the latter half of the 1940s he played with Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players....
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
, and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Jazz royalty" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century....
; in 1950 he and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec, Order of Ontario was a Canada jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty....
 recorded duets, and he also played with Peterson and Charlie Smith as a trio.

In the mid-1950s he moved to England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 and worked at the BBC.






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Major Holley (July 10, 1924, Detroit, Michigan
Michigan

Michigan is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Anishinaabe language term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
 - October 25, 1990, Maplewood, New Jersey
Maplewood, New Jersey

Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 23,868....
) was an American jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 upright bassist.

Holley played violin and tuba when young and started playing bass while serving in the Navy. In the latter half of the 1940s he played with Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. He is considered one of the first bebop tenor players....
, Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
, and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Jazz royalty" and the "First Lady of Song", is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century....
; in 1950 he and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, Order of Canada, National Order of Quebec, Order of Ontario was a Canada jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty....
 recorded duets, and he also played with Peterson and Charlie Smith as a trio.

In the mid-1950s he moved to England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 and worked at the BBC. Upon his return to America he toured with Woody Herman
Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , better known as Woody Herman, was an United States jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band band leader....
 in 1958 and with Al Cohn
Al Cohn

Al Cohn was an United States jazz saxophonist and arranger/composer....
/Zoot Sims
Zoot Sims

John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an United States jazz tenor saxophonist and soprano saxophonist.He was born in Inglewood, California, California. Growing up in a vaudeville family, Sims learned to play both Drum kit and clarinet at an early age....
 in 1959-60. A prolific studio musician, he played with Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
 in 1964 and with the Kenny Burrell
Kenny Burrell

Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an United States jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians....
 Trio, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins , nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was a prominent jazz Tenor saxophone.He is commonly regarded as the first important and influential jazz musician to use the instrument: Joachim E....
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an United States jazz composer and alto saxophone born in Chicago, Illinois. Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings....
, Roy Eldridge
Roy Eldridge

Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an United States jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the Swing Era and a precursor of bebop....
, Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand is a France musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist of Armenians descent.Legrand has composed more than two hundred film and television scores, several musicals, and made well over a hundred albums....
, Milt Buckner
Milt Buckner

Milt Buckner was an United States jazz piano and organist, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was orphaned as a child, but an uncle in Detroit taught him to play....
, Jay McShann
Jay McShann

Jay McShann was an United States blues and swing pianist, bandleader, and singer.Nicknamed "Hootie", McShann was born James Columbus McShann in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma....
 and Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones

Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. , is an United States music Conductor , record producer, musical arranger, film composer and trumpeter. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991....
 in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1967 to 1970 he taught at the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, founded in 1945, is an independent music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students and a 2008 faculty of approximately 500....
.

Holley was noted for singing along with his bass solos, a technique Slam Stewart
Slam Stewart

Leroy Eliot 'Slam' Stewart was an African American jazz double bass player whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher....
 also used. Holley and Stewart recorded together on two albums in the 1970s.