When you mention the name HOLLE THEE MAXWELL, you have mentioned a name that is respected all over the world. She IS "THEE entertainer's entertainer" and IS better than she has ever been before! Musically, this lady has done it all, traveled the world and knows everybody that is somebody and is equally well known by those same somebody's.
HOLLY MAXWELL was born HOLLE THEE MAR CLARO DE' MAXWELL; she is now HOLLE THEE MAXWELL. She sang her first song professionally at the age of five years young. Unlike many other artists, she gives all due respect and credit to a higher spiritual power for creating her parents, Marcellus and Eula Thee Gladys, her main inspiration to start music with classical piano and singing opera. She learned to sing in German, French and Italian.
To this date, Holle THEE is the only American of African descent to have been presented in concert, at the age of 12 years young, at Chicago’s Lyric Opera House; she was presented by noteworthy Reverend Dr. Lena McLin and her mother, Eula Thee.
Holle THEE holds two masters degrees in music, one from the Roosevelt University Chicago Musical College, Chicago, Illinois, and the other from the world-class Julliard School of Music, New York, New York.
Holle THEE was the first and only singer to perform a live show in flight aboard a 747 TWA Jet going from Chicago to Costa Del Sol, Spain in 1972 to sing for President Franco.
During her long-term relocation to Los Angeles throughout the 1970s and 80s, Holle THEE replaced Tina with the legendary Ike Turner Review and was the only vocalist that toured with the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith, with whom she worked for years. She went on to reside in Paris, France for over a decade, eventually establishing The Maxwell Cafe. She currently resides in Chicago.
We are the roots of Chicago and have been for decades. From classical, opera, jazz, big band, jazz, blues, to hip hop and rap, we are the creators of songs, jingles, symphonies, recordings, performances and education that uplift our beautiful City of Chicago. Black Musicians Matters because we have engaged local impact for audiences, students, academic scholars, teaching faculty, community leaders, public officials, and healing practitioners throughout the world.
The curtain on our stages have not gone up, the doors to our schools have not opened, the lights in our clubs have not been turned on and Black Musician throughout Chicago have been silenced because of the pandemic. The lack of touring, teaching, recording and performing has caused our music community to suffer inequity and weakened our ability to be financially stable and to provide for our families.
I have launched Black Musicians Matters to create a movement in Chicago to recognize the equity needs of black musicians. I aim to elevate Black voices within the Chicago community and create a dynamic platform for those that deserve to be heard.
out now!
Holle THEE Maxwell recounts the many years she spent in the company of Ike Turner during his period of self-facilitated seclusion (also known as his “fifteen-year party”), his brief prison stay where he kicked his drug habit, and his eventual return to prominence as the successful and influential musician he was born to be. Freebase Ain’t Free tracks the intersecting and intertwining of these two kindred spirits, their mutual ups and downs and the arc of their inexplicably dynamic relationship.
FEATURED 04
February
2022