It Takes All Kinds for This Jazzman

Name any kind of jazz-related music and you can pretty well bet that Red Holloway’s played it.

The 65-year-old saxophonist, who plays tonight through Sunday at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach, has done it all from blues to bop and swing.

Earlier this week, he flew in from Vienna where was recording with an Austrian group called the Mojo Blues Band, playing boogie-woogie.

“It wasn’t any problem for me” he said. “I started doing the blues with Roosevelt Sykes and Memphis Slim well before I became a full-fledged jazz man. Funny thing was that those Austrian guys played pretty good. They really got the feeling of that early blues style.”

The trip was only one of many Holloway has taken from his cozy home in Cambria. Last summer he made five round trips to Europe, and this year he’ll probably do the same. On any given journey, he may be found romping through contemporary jazz with Art Farmer, organ blues with Brother Jack McDuff or hard-driving, be-bop-oriented mainstream jazz with his own groups. In the past, he’s performed with everyone from Jimmy Dean and John Mayall to Sonny Stitt and Harry Edison.

“I like to be versatile,” he explained. “But I get my real challenge from playing with people I admire.

“Working with Horace Silver at Catalina’s in Hollywood a few weeks ago, and with Dizzy Gillespie on one of those jazz cruises, those were two of the highlights of my career, because working with guys like that proves to me that I can work with the best.”

Holloway has never achieved major name visibility himself, but his big, blustery tenor sound and crisp, articulate alto sax lines have been universally praised. When he played with the Playboy All-Stars at the Hollywood Bowl in June, his solos provided the brightest moments in an otherwise chaotic set by an ensemble that included Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry and Jimmy Smith.

At Maxwell’s, Holloway will be performing with the Jim DeJulio Trio in an easy environment that will allow him to stretch out on standard ballad and be-bop numbers.

“It’s the kind of gig I like,” he said. “We’ll play some good tunes that the audience will recognize, and then I’ll get a chance to show the kind of improvising I can do.”

What he looks forward to most about the appearance, however, is only peripherally associated with the music.

“You know, I moved up to Cambria because it was the only place I could find a house I could afford that was near the ocean, because at heart I’m a real water lover,” he said. “The nice thing about Maxwell’s is that it sits right there on the pier, and I find that very conducive to good thinking, good atmosphere and good music.”

Red Holloway and the Jim DeJulio Trio play tonight through Sunday at Maxwell’s, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. Show times tonight: 8 and 10. $4 plus $7 food-drink minimum. (714) 536-2555.