One of the few jazzmen whose surname would be of more than passing interest to real estate agents, Bobby Holmes was active in several historic bands of the '20s and '30s. While jazz listeners are sure to drive by this Holmes on cruises through the early constructions of Louis Armstrong, or vintage lanes in the old King Oliver neighborhood, the minor nature of the musical front porch and a non-existent historical backyard have resulted in a largely forgotten address. Better known is Charlie Holmes, another multi-instrumentalist on reeds who was active around the same time. The two are not related.

Bobby Holmes was born around 1910, perhaps a bit earlier. He became known professionally in the late '20s as a member of the Fess Williams band. The discographical traces -- more than a dozen recording sessions -- begins around this same time. Holmes retained a bond with Williams and was back in his band in 1931, but in between pulled off an historic summer tour with King Oliver and blew in a combo organized by drummer Willie Lynch. Like a patch of mushrooms, there is a large cluster of recording activity which grew out of Louis Armstrong's big band in 1930, a job that Holmes followed with stints in the Mills Blue Rhythm Band and drummer Chick Webb's ensemble. For several years beginning in 1934, Holmes was in the reed section of the Tiny Bradshaw band, playing alongside the famed Duke Ellington sideman Russell Procope, among others. While some of these peers continued their careers with Ellington and other top orchestras, Holmes seems to have closed his professional shutters, making his last known recording in 1937.

Like Procope, Holmes' main axes were clarinet and alto saxophone. Holmes also played the tenor and soprano models during his career and appears to have done a bit of work on the banjo and maybe even the guitar as well. Shadowy words such as "maybe" appear because of the nature of some of these credits, some of which source from liner notes on cheapjack reissue product. In one set of credits, our man Holmes is listed as playing all of the above plus drums, hinting at the presence of a typesetter who had a handful of instrumental credits left over and didn't want to take them home in his lunchbox. It is possible there was another Bobby Holmes in this same period who played banjo and guitar, however this theory would mean that there were two people with the same name in the King Oliver band, a situation that most likely would never have existed simply because it would have irritated the bandleader. This jazzman, or these jazzmen, should not be confused with Bobby Helms who sang Jingle Bell Rock. A Bob Holmes recorded on percussion and keyboard in the '70s -- this could be the guy who got one vote in a 1998 New England Jazz Hall of Fame contest, but it could also be the reed player. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi