Dan Hollis

Dan Hollis was born in a small house in a small rural community in middle Tennessee. His father was away in the Army when he was born, and his mother was doing whatever needed to be done to hold house and home together for five children, the youngest of which was Dan.

As fortune would have it, Dan’s mother contracted the rubella virus when she was three months pregnant. The result was that Dan was born with congenital cataracts and enough nerve damage to qualify him as legally blind.

When time came to enroll Dan in school, local educators had no clue as to how his education should be handled, so he was subsequently referred to The Tennessee School for the Blind for his primary and secondary education. His parents took him and left him there for the first time on September 1, 1949.

Dan’s aptitude for music showed itself at an early age, and his course of study began to build around music as early as the third grade. He began piano lessons and became a member of the school band, playing the E flat alto horn the first year. The band director switched him to trombone the second year in spite of the fact that the horn was actually taller than he was when they both stood flatfooted on the floor.

In the seventh grade, Dan became a member of a traditional jazz band organized by some of the older boys in the concert band. This is the point where his musical career really began.

The ensemble started with seven pieces, and by the time Dan reached his senior year the number dwindled to three. The older members of the band graduated, and there were no replacements available who had an interest in jazz.

In his senior year, Dan became a member of the Nashville Musician’s local and began playing professionally. Through the interest and kindness of some well known Nashville musicians, he went to Memphis to begin his college career in the fall of 1962 well prepared to use his music as a means of helping to support himself through college.

In the 1960’s, Dan worked as a sideman and led his own group in Memphis, in addition to doing recording sessions both as a trombonist and a keyboard player in the booming rhythm and blues market.

Dan came to Texas first as a teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, and then went to The University of North Texas where he pursued a Doctor Of Musical arts degree for a while.

He returned to Tennessee for some time to teach in a community college, but eventually returned to the North Texas area where he has spent his life to this point in time. Dan became e member of the famed Levee Dixieland band in 1971. He was away from the band for a couple of years teaching, but eventually returned and began playing jazz with Tommy Loy and the levee band subsequently to become “Tommy Loy And The Upper Dallas Jazz Band.” After the Levee closed in 1974 During this time, Dan also worked with other band leaders and spent much of his time accompanying female vocalists.

Sometime in the 1980’s, Dan and Donnie Gilliland met on some gig in some place at some time, and neither of them can remember where or when anymore.

When Jack Allday formed a band, which he called “Swing Shift” in the middle 90’s, he offered Dan and Donnie the chance to work together on an infrequent basis (who works together frequently in the music business) and they both jumped at the opportunity. They found that they had the same roots and the same love for all kinds of jazz, and thus began an enduring friendship.

Dan’s professional career has spanned the decades from the 1960’s to the present, and in spite of the time spent in customer service or technology training (survival) he has spent his life either as a working musician or as a music teacher.

At present, he still plays with “Swing Shift”, and performs on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at The Windedale Tavern on Greenville Avenue. Buy XenicalBuy Xanax Buy Phentermine mp3 players Buy Phentermine mp3 player Buy Cheap Phentermine Penis Enlargement Cialis Buy Cialis