Redd Holt born 16 May1932

Isaac "Redd" Holt (May 16, 1932 – May 23, 2023) was an American jazz and soul music drummer. He was the drummer on the album The In Crowd which earned the Ramsey Lewis Trio critical praise and the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance. 

Holt was born in Rosedale, Mississippi, on May 16, 1932, and raised in Chicago. He attended public schools in Chicago and received advanced musical instruction at the Chicago School of Music in the early 1950s. He got the nickname Red because when he played in certain sunlight as a child, his hair and light-toned skin took on a reddish colour. Holts interest in drums and percussion began as a child, and Holt bought his first drum set when he was a sophomore at Crane Technical High School. He graduated from high school in 1951 and attended the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago. 

Ransey Lewis Trio

Holt enlisted in the United States Army in 1954 and served in a tank unit whilst stationed in Germany, where he played with a military band, and upon his return worked with the Ramsey Lewis Trio, alongside Young, from 1956 to 1966, with which he created the hit singles "Hang on Sloopy" and "In Crowd."  Holt spruced up his name, too, from “Red” to “Redd” — to catch some of the mojo associated with comedian Redd Foxx, who gigged alongside the trio for a time. Whilst with Lewis Holt also recorded with Earl Bostic and James Moody near the end of the 1950s. 

                                    

In 1966, Young and Holt split with Lewis due to financial and creative difficulties and formed their own group, Young-Holt Unlimited, which went on to achieve commercial success as an instrumental soul band. 

Their band's biggest hit was released in November 1968 as "Soulful Strut" credited to Young-Holt Unlimited and it became a gold record No. 3 hit in the United States and went to No. 1 in Canada. Another successful single was “Wack Wack," which was used in the movie Harriet the Spy and various other movies and commercials. It was after the group's dissolution in 1974 that Holt continued on as Redd Holt Unlimited, playing under this name into the 1990s, and worked in jazz education in Illinois. 

As a jazz educator, Holt has been active for many years in Urban Gateways, a nonprofit organization that provides multicultural performing, visual and literary arts programs for children, teachers and parents in the Chicago area. Holt acts as an arts ambassador to school children to help improve the quality of their education by exposing them to his music and engaging them in creating, appreciating, and reflecting on his art form. In the 1980s, Holt attended Kennedy-King College to study radio and television. He endorsed Ludwig drums, and the company’s founder, Bill Ludwig, designed a custom drum rack to hold Holt’s congas—an innovation that would become the standard in drum shops around the world. 

He founded the Gumption Artist Workshop, which was active from 1980 to 1985, and played internationally, including at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival and in Singapore in the late-1980s and early-1990s. Holt spent much of the 1990s playing with various musicians, including Young, during week- long stretches, gigging in Asia, in places like Singapore and Jakarta. Holt has received various awards and honors including the Jazz Master Award from the Midwest Arts, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Indianapolis Radio Sounds of Jazz, and Grand Master of Time Award in 1997 from the Jazz Institute of Chicago and the DuSable Museum of African American History. 

For 20 years, Holt also played with a trio at the East Bank Club in Chicago. The studio sessions produced a vinyl LP named, It's A Take! on the Treehouse Record label with eight full-length jazz standards. He continued to perform regularly until the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Mr. Holt played in the backyard of the Arlington Heights home of Tim O’Neil, who invited hundreds of his neighbors and turned the space into a “mini Ravinia.” 

He died in Chicago, Illinois from complications associated with lung cancer, on May 23, 2023 (aged 91). His music has been sampled more than 200 times by hip-hop artists such as De La Soul, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Rock & CL Smooth. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, The History Makers, Chicago Sun Times & Pitchfork)