Hollis Gentry III earned legendary status among San Diego jazz musicians yet never gained wider recognition beyond the Southern California region. Born in Corpus Christi, TX, in 1954, he moved with his family to San Diego at age five. He took up the saxophone in fourth grade and, at fifteen, launched the funk band Power alongside classmate Nathan East, who later became a premier jazz, R&B, and pop session bassist. Power disbanded after opening a 1972 show for Cannonball Adderley, after which Gentry spent most of the decade as a sideman for trumpeter Bruce Cameron. He earned a master’s degree from UC San Diego in 1980 and co-founded the smooth jazz group Fattburger, leaving after its 1985 debut album, One of a Kind. Gentry subsequently started his own band, Neon, and toured with smooth jazz guitarist Larry Carlton and pianist David Benoit. His only solo release, the 2001 album For the Record, preceded his return to a reunited Fattburger for the 2003 album Sizzlin’. A late-2004 automobile accident inflicted severe facial damage and a shattered jaw, ending his performing career, though he kept composing until his death on September 5, 2006.
