Neptune Holloway
teacher (piano)
Neptune Holloway was a Detroit preacher who gave piano lessons, classical ones among them, to many young Detroit musicians; Barry calls him the first teacher of his circle, which included Harold McKinney and Dorothy Ashby.
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What Barry says
Barry names the preacher Neptune Holloway as the first teacher for Detroit youngsters like himself, Harold McKinney and Dorothy Ashby. He taught a good many of them, and some, Barry among them, took classical lessons from him.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶102Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶158Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶6
Barry remembers seeing a photograph of Holloway’s pupils that he thinks shows Dorothy Ashby, himself and Harold McKinney. These lessons came before his time hanging out with the players on Detroit’s west side.
Holloway was the start of Barry’s classical study, which went on with Mrs. Lipscomb and then with Gladys Dillard, alongside Tommy Flanagan. His mother, by contrast, gave him the church music.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶160Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶102
Barry enjoyed the name, calling it quite a name. Perhaps in the 1980s, he found out Holloway was living in Indianapolis and phoned him, mentioning his mother, Bessie Harris, but the old man, given his age, did not remember him.
In his own words
the first teacher for us in Detroit like Harold McKinney and, Dorothy Ashby – our first teacher was a preacher. His name was Neptune Holloway. Had a heck of a name – Neptune Holloway.
I found out he was in Indianapolis, and I called him, and I said, “do you remember me?” ... He didn’t remember, because he was of that age, you know. He taught a lot of us in Detroit.
we all took lessons from a preacher named Neptune Holloway. He taught quite a few of us.
Classical was with Neptune Holloway and Mrs. Lipscomb, which was in a private home.
Every mention
0 moments in the recordings, 0 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
In the interviews and notes
Asked whom he studied with as a schoolboy, Barry says the first teacher for him, Harold McKinney and Dorothy Ashby was a preacher, Neptune Holloway, who taught many of them; he later tracked Holloway down in Indianapolis, but Holloway did not remember him.
Barry says they all took lessons from the preacher Neptune Holloway, some of them classical lessons, and recalls a picture he believes shows Dorothy Ashby, himself and Harold McKinney.
Asked whether his mother also taught him classical piano, Barry says his classical lessons were with Holloway and Mrs. Lipscomb, and then with Gladys Dillard together with Tommy Flanagan.
In the DownBeat feature Barry says he studied classical piano with a preacher, Neptune Holloway, from whom many of the Detroit youngsters took lessons.
De Lima lists Holloway among the teachers of Barry’s early years and among the Detroit musicians whose teaching shaped him and the church-rooted Detroit sound. He also counts McKinney and Ashby as teachers, though Barry names them as fellow pupils of Holloway.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶687Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶1345Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶102