On a recent Friday late-night at Bistro at the Bijou a friend and I enjoyed a great jazz combo while sipping beverages. For me, Ben Maney on keyboards provided the main attraction, but my attention was drawn to the saxophone player. Trying to wrap my head around how a person can play two saxophones simultaneously, I said something to my friend, who said the player had quite a history, including playing with some of the best Memphis artists in the late sixties and seventies.
We were introduced and made plans to have a conversation later. I knew the 74-year-old Marcel Holman would be interesting. The twists and turns on this earth that have brought him to this place went far beyond what I could have imagined. Then gentle, unassuming, soft-spoken man who sat at my table at Java has seen and experienced more than most of us ever will and he shows no sign of slowing down.
Born in New York City, where his father, who was a World War II veteran, was stationed with the Navy. His mother worked as a tailor and played piano in their church. The family returned home to Memphis while he was still very young and that’s where he spent most of his life. The family is mostly from north Mississippi and his mother grew up in Sledge, Mississippi where she attended school with Charlie Pride.
The musical roots run deep in the family, as his maternal grandfather was a vocal instructor. His mother (who still plays for her church at age 96!) insisted that each of the four children take piano lessons and he thinks his lessons started around fourth grade. I asked him why she didn’t teach them herself and he said, “There was a great music teacher that she wanted her to teach us.” E.L. Cole (Elizabeth) taught music at the high school and also taught privately. In addition to the young Marcel Holman, she taught Booker T. Jones (Booker T. and the M.G.s) and Knoxville’s own (he’s ours now) Donald Brown.
“I always knew I was going to be involved in music in some way. When I got to middle school band, I took up the saxophone.” He started on alto saxophone and continued to play in the band through high school. The band director “had a lot of community influence with music.” He knew the groups and connected players. Harry Winfield (middle school) and Walter Martin (high school), both encouraged music at the community level.” The Barkays were performing, as well as Booker T. and the M.Gs.
He started his first band in Junior High, and they called themselves “The Falcons,” until they learned of another group with a similar name and Mr. Winfield suggested they change to “The Wildcats,” which they maintained into the mid-1970s. “We played with a lot of Stax artists: Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, a group called the Soul Children. We also did some things with the Barkays. When they were touring with Otis Redding, we were the house band at a Memphis club called the Hippodrome on Beale Street. Everybody who came to the Hippodrome, we played for them unless they had their own band.” They played behind artists like Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, and Chuck Berry.”
When he graduated, he began college at what is now Memphis State, intent on obtaining a biology degree. But there was a large detour. During summer break from school he received a very low draft number and was drafted. On tour with the band, he flew back to Memphis when he got the notice. He was inducted into the Army in the summer of 1970 and assigned to infantry, and sent for a tour in Vietnam in 1971. As infantry, he would have been sent to the front.
Fortunately, a musician friend of his had just returned and told him the army was desperate for musicians to entertain the troops and suggested he tell them he played saxophone. He requested and was assigned to Special Services and entertained all the troops from each branch. He agreed that music saved his life. “I was an infantryman and the percentage rates of being a casualty were high.”
He returned to college at Memphis State receiving his bachelor’s degree with a double major in Music Theory and Music Composition. He worked as a clerk for the IRS while in school, then got a job with the U.S. Postal Service after graduation. He worked for the postal service for 30 years. When the youngest of his two daughters decided to attend UTK in 2001, the family decided to move to Knoxville. His wife got a job as band director at Bearden Middle School and, months later, when he could get a transfer with the postal service, Marcel joined them here. He said they had visited this end of the state often and liked it here.
Through all the years, Marcel continued to play in bands and write music. He wrote “contemporary, jazz, classic R&B, Gospel, whatever the assignment was. In the late seventies and early eighties, he served as arranger for two albums for the Barkays on Polygram. He wrote some music for the Barkays, and the song “Too Hot to Stop,” which he arranged, was used to open the movie Superbad. He wrote original music and arranged W.C. Handy’s music for “Down on Beale, The Life of W.C. Handy,” which played Off-Broadway in Joseph Papp’s Shakespearean Theatre and the Richard Allen Cultural Center. He reconnected with Donald Brown when he got to Knoxville, which he said was one of the motivations for moving here. They played together at places like Sassy Anne’s, and he began to play more jazz.
Never one to sit still, when Marcel finished his postal career, he decided it was time to return to his early interest in science. He earned an associate’s degree from Pellissippi State and a bachelor’s degree from UT. He finished with a Master of Science in Biomedical Nutrition from the University of Tennessee. He finished the first degree in 2006 and completed his M.S. in 2023. His intention was to complete a Ph.D., but he had a health event that damaged his vision and was advised to discontinue working in a lab. He formed an LLC for research and continues that as a consultant.
He continues to perform and says that part hasn’t changed. He plays “two to five times a week” either in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, or elsewhere. As he has for most of his career, he’s sitting in for someone or backing someone up. “Basically, I’m a sideman, that’s why you never hear of me.” You might not hear “of” him, but you will notice him if you listen when he’s on stage. His next stop downtown will be for the Sunday brunch at Stir in the Old City, December 22 from 10 am to 2:00 pm. Check him out when you get the chance. He’s a special player and a very special person.