April 7, 2025
On Friday, April 11, Oakland University will celebrate the 50th anniversary of World Music at OU with a special concert presented by the OU African Drum and Xylophone Ensemble - Akwaaba, and the OU Steel Band – Pan-Jumbies. The program will also feature internationally renowned steel pan artist Andy Narell.
“Like Marvin ‘Doc’ Holladay, who started our program, Andy Narell is a pioneer of World Music Studies in the U.S.,” said Mark Stone, professor of music and coordinator of world music at OU. “While Doc introduced his jazz students to traditional African music, Narell has introduced generations of American percussionists to the steel pan.”
Narell recorded his first of 16 albums in 1979 and has never looked back. He’s spent the past 39 years exploring the possibilities of the steel pan in contemporary music, and is equally known as a jazz improviser and steel band composer. As a bandleader and soloist, he has played hundreds of concerts and jazz festivals throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa.
“We are grateful to the Judd Family Endowed Fund for sponsoring Narell’s weeklong residency,” Stone said. “Through our Global Arts Study Abroad course, Professor Patrick Fitzgibbon has led three trips to St. Lucia, where OU students have studied with Narell. This is also our third time hosting Andy Narell as a guest artist at OU and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our World Music program.”
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| Mark Stone and Marvin "Doc" Holladay |
The World Music program at OU was first established by Marvin “Doc” Holladay in 1975. Holladay was hired at Oakland University in 1972 to establish the Jazz Studies program and came to OU following two decades as a professional performing artist, including work with jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Stan Kenton, Thad Jones, and Ella Fitzgerald.
“In fact, Dizzy gave Doc copies of his entire big band library to start OU’s first jazz band,” Stone said.
Before coming to OU, Holladay also studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. He had returned to school specifically to study African music and pursue research exploring the African roots of jazz. At Wesleyan, he worked extensively with Ghanaian master drummer Abraham Adzinyah. Once Holladay had established the jazz program at OU, he invited Adzinyah as a special guest artist in 1975 to help his budding jazz students understand the art form’s African roots. In addition, OU purchased a set of Ghanaian drums from Adzinyah, which became the foundation of the university’s World Music Studies program.
While Holladay sadly passed away on November 25, 2024 at the age of 94, his legacy lives on.
“In creating the jazz and world music programs at Oakland University and introducing me to the Baha’i Faith, Doc profoundly shaped my life,” Stone said “We are all much richer for having known him and for having walked this path with him.”
Stone, together with OU alumni, faculty, staff, and members of the Baha’i community, is organizing a memorial event this summer to celebrate Holladay’s life. It will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 at Varner Recital Hall.
“Doc had many beautiful stories that he enjoyed repeatedly sharing,” Stone said. “The story I’ve been thinking of since his passing is of his solo album, ‘Wings for the Spirit,’ recorded in the basement of the Baha’i temple, north of Chicago. He was deep in the zone during the first recording of the day, but something had gone wrong with the equipment and it didn’t get recorded. Doc told me that it was the greatest, most elevated music he had ever played. However, he believed it just wasn’t meant to be recorded and that he would hear this lost music in the Abha kingdom once he departed this world. I know Doc is now listening to that music.”
The 50th anniversary celebration of Oakland University’s World Music program will take place at 8 p.m. in Varner Recital Hall. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.