Starting at about the age of 14,
Abe Bolar was playing bass in a variety of local combos around Guthrie, OK. Within a few years he had gone completely professional and relocated to Oklahoma City, with a music scene that was twice as lively and fives times as rowdy. In the early '30s, the bassist eased into the lineup of the famous
Blue Devils band of Kansas City, a launching pad for all manner of heavyweight classic jazz activity. In
Bolar's case this meant an invitation to New York City, where he began gigging with trumpeter
Hot Lips Page.
An important page turned for
Bolar in 1940, literally, as in bassist
Walter Page, who put
Bolar to work as his substitute in the
Count Basie band, basically a graduate course in timekeeping.
Bolar also played regularly with the fortunate
Lucky Millinder during this period and became more active as a freelance entity at recording sessions. The bassist also developed something of extreme value on the Big Apple jazz scene, as in a regular long-term gig. A combo formed with pianist Benton Heath and several other sidemen wound up with a booking at the New Gardens club that lasted nearly two decades. Whether this engagement left a positive impression or not on the bassist is up for grabs, since his reaction to the end of the gig was to leave full-time music and become a taxi driver. His wife is pianist Juanita Bolar. ~ Eugene Chadbourne