Holly Holmes
Jazz Vocalist/Lyricist/Arranger/Teacher
Urbana, IL
contact:
jazzme@hollyholmes.com
217-474-5401
webpage:
www.hollyholmes.com
Artist Statement:
Holly Holmes unites several passions in hopes of inspiring and challenging listeners on an intimate level. Founded in the jazz tradition, one can hear in her live and recorded music Brazilian song and Portuguese language, lyrics inspired by the American folk and acoustic music tradition, and inventive improvisation. Equal parts Carmen McRae, Cassandra Wilson, and Brazilian-born Elis Regina, Holly Holmes is a jazz musician not to be missed.
Biography:
Holly grew up in a household filled with all sorts of music but remains the sole family member to follow the artistic muse. She remembers afternoons assembling puzzles or coloring pictures while albums by Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, or Steely Dan filled her ears. This early interest in music was fostered through middle and high school music programs in Wisconsin who continued to expose her to the greats in jazz music.
Holly's influences include instrumentalists and vocalists from the jazz tradition like Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Jim Hall, John Abercrombie, and Brazilian-born Jao Gilberto and Rosa Passos. Unlike some jazz musicians, Holly also has a love for the acoustic and rock music traditions and looks for inspiration from artists like Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith and many others.
Her debut album, the Climb, reflects Holly's varied influences including Brazilian music, refreshing arrangements of jazz standards, and jazz-tinged covers of popular songs. She is particularly fond of penning lyrics to modern instrumental jazz standards as demonstrated by Wayne Shorter's Fee Fi Fo Fum, and Pat Metheny's delicate ballad the Road to You. Perhaps most remarkably, Holly puts the jazz back in jazz singer with her imaginative improvisation and interaction with her bandmates. As well as being the bandleader and arranger for the album, Holly used her experience from three years of audio engineering
coursework and recording studio employment to serve as her album's co-engineer, co-mixer, and producer.
Holly earned a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz studies from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2000. In the fragile fall of 2001, Holmes was awarded an internship with the jazz programming department at Washington DC's prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. There she assisted with the Dr. Billy Taylor radio series as well as working as an audio engineer for other live performances featuring Nnenna Freelon, Kurt Elling, Freddy Cole, and many others. In 2003, Holly traveled to Brazil as guest vocalist of a student and alumni jazz quintet representing WMU. The success of the tour inspired her to plan a return trip in order to study Portuguese language and the guitar. In June 2004, Holly was awarded an Emerging Artist Grant by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo to help make this happen. Holly spent six months living with Brazilian families in Salvador and Belo Horizonte, Brazil and there became fluent in Portuguese.
Since returning to the Midwest, Holly has played throughout Illinois, southwest Michigan, northern and central Indiana, and in Ontario, Canada. She plans to continue her professional studies in the fall of 2006 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Should all go to plan, she will be the first vocalist to graduate from UIUC with a Master of Music in Jazz
Performance.
Performance History:
2006 and past performance venues include:
Kalamazoo Valley Museum
International Association of Jazz Education Conference 1998
Union Cabaret and Grill, Kalamazoo, MI
Amway Grand Hotel, Grand Rapids, MI
LopLop's, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada
Cab's Restaurant, Glen Ellyn, IL
An Die Musik, Baltimore, MD
Peaboady Conservatory, Baltimore, MD
Iron Post, Urbana, IL
Urbana Golf & Country Club, Urbana, IL
Zorba's, Urbana, IL
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL
Limestreet Cafe, Springfield, IL
Robbie's, Springfield, IL
Jim's Bistro, Peoria, IL
VIV Wine Bar, Bloomington, IL
Concerts on the Canal series, Indianapolis, IN
Club LaSalle, South Bend, IN
the Livery, Benton Harbor, MI
Samples of Work:
Holly's debut cd, the Climb, can be purchased at
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hollyholmes