SRI Records and SRI Jazz

Legendary Vocalist Johnny Holiday

Isn’t Just “Clowning Around” With Flutist Sam Most

He’s Made the Album of a Lifetime

In the long, glorious history of “best-kept secrets”, Johnny Holiday holds a very special place. One thing he has learned in his 60+ years as a vocalist is that talent can take you only so far. You’ve still got to find the magical intersection of Timing and Luck on your own. At an amazingly young 85, the Chicago native has done all he can to find that elusive location--the combination that will allow him to reach the audience that he, music critics, radio personalities and stars like Sammy Davis, Jr. have believed for years is out there waiting to discover him. With the release of Clowning Around, his SRI Jazz debut with master flutist, Sam Most, Holiday has at last found his perfect vehicle. Now it’s up to the world to hop on board for what promises to be the musical ride of a lifetime.

KLAC radio personality, Bill Stewart, in his liner notes for Holiday’s highly acclaimed Japanese release, Blue Holiday, said, “In Hollywood, where singers (and I use the term loosely) are a dime a dozen, Johnny is called a ‘singer’s singer!’ That in itself is the greatest compliment an artist can get from his own craft.” When the late iconic lyricist Sammy Cahn first heard Holiday’s demos in the 90s, he asked Johnny in his uniquely understated way, “Where the !!!%&*#!!! have you been?” Sammy Davis, Jr., no stranger to world class vocalists, became a big Holiday fan after hearing him sing at Chicago landmark, Chez Paree and, as Johnny remembers, “called me onstage and introduced me.”

The over-the-top respect that Johnny Holiday has garnered over the years from his industry peers hasn’t yet been reflected by his commercial impact, but he’s patiently bided his time, keeping his voice in world-class shape through daily vocalizing, exercises, singing scales and a grueling regimen of cardio-vascular workouts. The albums he recorded in the 50s are the stuff of legend. Johnny Holiday Sings, the 1954 record made for Dick Bock’s Pacifica label, impressed everyone who heard it, but never got exposed to a public who was just getting its first taste of the emerging and all-absorbing new cultural phenomenon called rock and roll. Capitol Records tried to recast Holiday (a tenor turned baritone) into a belter (a-la Johnny Ray or Frankie Laine), but the experiment didn’t work because that’s not what Johnny was—or is.

Similarly, his discs in 1957 (with arranger Russ Garcia for Kapp Records); in ‘58 (with Marty Paich for Mode Records) and in ‘59 for the Contract label, came and went without a great deal of public fanfare, though critics continued to marvel at Holiday’s richly passionate vocals and ability to make a lyric his own. Johnny toured Sweden in 1960 as a featured performer with a septet of Count Basie All-Stars led by Joe Newman but made only occasional appearances in Vegas and some of the prestigious nightclubs on the major market circuit. Though he wasn’t getting the attention so many industry insiders had predicted for him, he steadfastly refused to abandon his dream, opting instead to keep his foot in the show biz door by joining a Hollywood animation studio as a film and sound editor, becoming the voice for cartoon characters in the popular “Sinbad the Sailor” and “Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse” series and displaying his versatility as light and sound director for Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’66.

America Online, in its review of Blue Holiday, noted that Johnny’s voice “…has a sensibility that’s quite human and personal—which almost makes us feel like we’re hearing (him) speak the lyrics as private musings, locked up in some corner tavern long after closing time…a nice saloony feel.” That intimacy characterizes the haunting, smoky ballads and brisk up-tempo selections on Clowning Around. Holiday’s signature vocals are enhanced dramatically by the ineffable contributions of flutist (and alto saxophonist) extraordinaire, Sam Most. Like Holiday, Most (himself a boyish 78) has been on the jazz scene since for decades. In the late 40s he began honing his considerable chops in the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey (’48), Boyd Rayburn and Don Redman. 

He began his extensive recording career in the 50s, releasing work on the Prestige, Vanguard, Debut and Bethlehem labels (his Prestige and Debut output has been re-issued by Xanadu). After a two year stint with the Buddy Rich Orchestra, Most, an Atlantic City, NJ native, moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and became a much sought-after studio musician. He’s worked with a who’s who of jazz greats, including Dorsey, Rich, Louis Bellson and Red Norvo. Sam was the subject of a 2001 documentary, “Sam Most, Jazz Flutist.” Most and Holiday have been friends “forever”, but Clowning Around matches the two world-class performers as collaborators for the first time. The result is a compelling musical tete-a-tete, a recording that promises to bring them the spotlight they so richly deserve.

© 2009 SRI Jazz