NOW, A JAZZ MOMENT...

MUSIC:

Kissing Bug
CD: In a Jazz Orbit
Originally released 1958, 1985 VSOP Records

Bill Holman: You hear about guys keeping a pad by their bed so that they can wake up in the middle of the night and put something down. I never do that. I get this idea and say well it'll be great and next morning I've forgotten it. (laughs)

NEA JAZZ MASTER BILL HOLMAN CAN'T POINT TO ANY PARTICULAR PROCESS HE FOLLOWS WHEN COMPOSING...

Mostly it's saying, I have to write this, so I go and sit down there and suffer until it starts happening. I can get something that is really terrible and I can alter a few notes here and there. And pretty soon it starts to make some sense. And it might suggest another fully formed line that does make sense. But it's really a tortuous process that I've never been able to explain satisfactorily to a guy that's trying to learn how to write music.

MUSIC:up and fades

THIS JAZZ MOMENT WITH COMPOSER, ARRANGER, AND SAXOPHONIST BILL HOLMAN WAS CREATED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.