Who Was Joe Holiday?

June 08, 2023

Who Was Joe Holiday?

The beauty of jazz is its vast territory. No matter how many years you listen to this music, you invariably come across artists who will be new to you. The delight of new discoveries is largely the result of foreign labels releasing jazz that has been overlooked, forgotten or newly unearthed. No label does this better than Fresh Sound in Barcelona, Spain. I find gems largely by combing through discographies. There, I come across names of musicians who haven't received much exposure or I wasn't aware of previously. Invariably, Fresh Sound has put out recordings by them.

One of these musicians was Joe Holiday, who was born Joseph Befumo in Sicily in 1925. His family emigrated to the U.S. the year he was born and settled in Newark, N.J. Holiday's father played the clarinet, which Holiday mastered as a child. He switched to the tenor saxophone in his teens and emulated Lester Young, who he'd found by listening to Count Basie on the radio. Holiday's first big break came after taking a day job at a haberdashery shop. After striking up a conversation with a wealthy man who came into the store, the man invited him to play at his house in front of a number of recording industry executives.

The party led Holiday to a recording offer from King Records. In June 1951, he recorded four sides for King's Federated subsidiary. At year's end, he recorded New Sounds From Newark for Prestige.

In 1953 and '54, Holiday recorded Joe Holiday and His Band for Prestige, with a crackerjack New York ensemble: Idrees Sulieman (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Earl Warren (as), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Johnny Acea (p), Franklin Skeete (b) and Max Roach (d).

These sessions are just half of a terrific CD collection of Holiday's band years issued by Fresh Sound some years back called Holiday for Jazz. Holiday clearly was well-regarded as a player and leader. You didn't pull in these kinds of sidemen unless you were pretty exceptional yourself.

And Holiday was. The second album on this Fresh Sound release is Holiday for Jazz (Decca). Recorded in 1955 and '57. The 1955 session featured Blue Mitchell (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Duke Jordan (p), Wendell Marshall (b), Osie Johnson (d) and Ernie Wilkins (arr). The 1957 session included Art Farmer and Thad Jones (tp), Eddie Bert (tb), Joe Holiday (ts), Cecil Payne (bar), Duke Jordan (p), Addison Farmer (b) and Carmen Peppe (d).

The music throughout is bouncy, and the arrangements swing, while solos are smart and rich in tone. Holiday liked Newark and spent much of his career there at a time when many musicians at his level moved to Los Angeles. In New York in the 1950s, he accompanied Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington at Birdland. In 1954, he performed four shows a day for seven days with Billie Holiday at the Apollo Theater.

In the early 1950s, Holiday recorded Latin music and had hits with This Is Happiness and Serenata, both in 1952. His Serenata arrangement was picked up by his Newark friend Vaughan, who had a hit with it. But in my research, I found that Holiday viewed the musician's life as tough. He told the Palm Beach Post in 1997 that to add income, he had hand-painted silk ties and sold them. He also took up painting, mostly abstract expressionist pieces but there were sailboats, clowns and musicians. In the 1960s, he was an arts and culture consultant for Newark.

In a feature in Florida's The Stuart News in 1997, journalist Laura Kelly wrote "Holiday was known as The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit and played all the jazz clubs and even bigger venues—from Symphony Hall in Boston to a night at Carnegie Hall with about 30 jazz greats like Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz and Max Roach, all playing a benefit for Charlie Parker's family after he died." Much of the local work and paydays dried up as the music changed through the decades. [Photo above of Joe Holiday]

n 1988, Holiday relocated to Port St. Lucie, Fla., after years of living there during the winter months. At least in Port St. Lucie, there were aging fans who loved 1950s jazz and the artists Holiday knew well and played with at clubs and on records. [Photo above of Joe Holiday]