BIOGRAPHY

"I think for what we´re doing – instrumental music or jazz-rock – it´s gotta be live for it to have the exciting edge...Music that is focused on players and soloists is always going to come across better when it has that live feeling on it." A.H.

Adam is simply one of the most innovative musicians alive. He is a perennial poll-winner in the Fusion category for Pulse! magazine's year-end Top Ten listings. "Keyboard" magazine named him one of the top 10 players in the world, "Down Beat" lauded his "killer groove" and compared him to Jan Hammer - and even the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post" have praised Adam's live shows.

Born on February 15, 1958 in New York City, Adam is the son of Elektra Records founder, Jac Holzman. Adam grew up in California and started classical piano lessons at age 12, but his main influences were "The Doors", Leon Russell and Dr. John. He started getting into progressive rock and jazz-rock during the late 70s, which in turn led to a growing interest in jazz.

"First I was influenced by group like "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" or "Yes". When I heard Chick Corea, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Billy Cobham I got completely turned on to jazz." he says today. "But I only started getting serious about jazz harmonies when I was in my late 20s. Even today there are still some gaps in my jazz knowledge. But I do not consider my musical role to be a keeper of jazz traditions. I try to make entertaining music today, influenced by rock, jazz-rock, funk and a lot of other styles and ideas."

One of his first big jobs was a new recording of the opera "Carmina Burana" by composer Carl Orff, led by Ray Manzarek of the "Doors" and produced by Philipp Glass. He then played with various groups including the group "Fents", which Adam co-founded before coming to the attention of singer Randy Hall.

Miles Davis first hired Adam for some keyboard work for "Tutu" and then as second keyboarder for the live tour that followed. While Miles Davis hired and fired musicians at an enormous rate during these years, Adam Holzman actually stayed for almost 5 years. "I must have done something right", Holzman says today."I was so nervous in the beginning - I didn't think I would survive the first tour." He must have done a lot of things right, since Miles later promoted him to "musical director", when Robert Irving left the band in 1988.

After one more year Adam moved on - to work with Michel Petrucciani, who asked him in 1989 to join him for a cooperation to which he also contributed several compositions.

"I couldn't resist the challenge, because it gave me a chance to expand in several ways - both as a writer and as a player, since the live shows were much less structured than Miles shows."

During the early 90s, Adam also worked for Chaka Khan, Robben Ford, the band "Kelvynator" and many others. At this time he was also preparing his solo career, which started with "In A Loud Way", when it was released in the USA in the fall of 1993.

Parallel to this he also founded a steady live band, which was originally called "Mona Lisa Overdrive" (inspired by William Gibson's novel). Because of copyright reasons, the name was later changed to it's current name "Brave New World". The first lineup of the band included bassman Steve Logan and drummer Van Romaine.


Read entire article in German (pdf file)

During 1994 the band changed before a tour of Germany and Poland. It included Aaron Heick (Sax, ex-Chaka Khan Band), Freddy Cash (Bass, formerly with "Arrested Development" and Mark Ledford) , Juju House (drums, ex "Chaka Khan Band" and "Arrested Development", drummer on the legendary recording "Slave To The Rhythm" of Grace Jones) and guitarist Mitch Stein, who performed for Tania Maria, David Sanborn and Chaka Khan (among others).

In 1995 Adam appeared in the US with Brave New World and continued occasionally performing with Michel Petrucciani - but was also a member of Wayne Shorters group, which toured worldwide in fall of 1995. While Wayne Shorter got very mixed reviews on this tour, many reviewers lauded Adam as one of the outstanding musicians in the backing band.

From 1997-2000, Adam recorded and toured with the late, great sax player, Grover Washington. Over the past several years of the new millenium, he has continued working with his own band, Brave New World, releasing Jazz Rocket Science in 2005 and 4 live cd recordings as part of the "Alive" series. Adam has also been producing new Miles Davis projects for Sony and continues to play side gigs with Droid and the Jane Getter band.

As a hobby, Adam also draws cartoons and you can check out his cool and highly successful "create a custom comic" service at bigfuncomics.com. He is married to guitarist Jane Getter and they have a son, Russell, who was born in 1994.

Adam also has a cool little website, Jazz-Rock.com.



ADAM HOLZMAN DISCOGRAPHY
keyboardist, composer, producer

Miles Davis  "Tutu"   Warner Brothers

Miles Davis  "Live Around the World"   Warner Brothers  (also produced)

Miles Davis  "The Complete Miles in Montreux"   Sony/Montreux Sounds
(20 CD set)  (also wrote liner notes)

Miles Davis  "Live in Munich"   Pioneer DVD  (also wrote liner notes)

Miles Davis Tribute  "Endless Miles"  N2K Encoded Music

Miles Davis  "The Cellar Door Sessions" (produced w/ Bob Belden) Sony

Grover Washington Jr.  "Soulful Strut"   Columbia

Grover Washington Jr.  "Breath of Heaven"   Columbia

Grover Washington Jr.  "Prime Cuts"   Columbia

Wallace Roney     "No Room For Argument"   Stretch Records

Wallace Roney     "Prototype"    HighNote Records

Wallace Roney     "Mystikal"    HighNote Records

Adam Holzman & Brave New World   "Jazz Rocket Science"  (also produced)
Nagel Heyer Records

Adam Holzman & Brave New World   "The Big Picture"  (also produced)
Escapade Music

Adam Holzman  "In A Loud Way"  
Blue Note/Manhattan

Adam Holzman   "Overdrive"   (also produced)  
Lipstick Records

Adam Holzman Band   "Manifesto"  (also produced)  
Lipstick Records

Adam Holzman & Brave New World   "Rebellion"  (also produced) 
Big Fun Records

Michel Petrucciani   "Music"   Blue Note

Michel Petrucciani   "Playground"   (also arranged)    Blue Note

Michel Petrucciani   "Live"     Blue Note

Steps Ahead   "Vibe"   (co-produced with Mike Manieri)  NYC Records

Lenny White   "Present Tense"   Hip Bop Records

Anton Fig    "Figments"     Planula Reords

Mahavishnu Project  “Return To The Emerald Beyond”  Cunieform Records

Ray Wilson   "Change"      Inside/Out Records

Jimi Hendrix Tribute  "Live in Stuttgart"  DVD

"The Faculty"   soundtrack album    Sony    (produced by Kevin Shirley)

Steve Louw  "Blues to Black"  Sony/South Africa   (produced by Kevin Shirley)

Supa Group   "Supa Group"  Sanctuary Records   (produced by Kevin Shirley)

Sponge    "Sponge"    Sony    (produced by Kevin Shirley)

Jane Getter    "Jane"    (also produced)   Lipstick Records

Jane Getter    "See Jane Run"   (also co-produced)   Alternity Records

Jason Miles   "Miles To Miles"  Narada Jazz / EMI

Cesare Dell’Anna    “My Miles”    11/8 Records

Holly Cole   "Strawberry Fields"  (produced)  Part of Capitol Records Beatles Tribute

Teo Macero Project        Teo Records

Charles Fambrough   "Keeper of the Spirit"    Audioquest

Bob Belden Ensemble  "When Doves Cry - Music of Prince"    Capitol

Bob Belden Ensemble  "Straight to your Heart - Music of Sting"   Capitol

Bob Belden Ensemble   "Puccini's Turandot"  Toshiba/EMI

Northsound new age CDs:

"Big Cats"     Northsound   (produced & composed)     

"Creatures of the Night"     Northsound  (produced & composed)

"Walking Workout"       Northsound   (produced & composed)

Twana Rhodes "Through The Night"    Nagel-Heyer   (produced)

Kim Plainfield & Lincoln Goines   "Night and Day"    EFA / Metalimbo

Tom Browne   "R'N'Browne"   Hip Bop

Big Horns Bee   "BHB2"   Sony/Japan

Taka Niida  "Life In The Big City"   Pony Canyon/Japan

Jason Becker Tribute   "Warmth in the Wilderness 2"  Lion Music

Francis M'Bappe, FM Tribe   "Need Somebody"   FM Groove

Section 31   "Time Traveller"   Soulsearch Music

Robin Kenyatta    "Blue Robin"   Jazzdance  (also produced)

Ray DeTone  "Strange World"   Dancetone Music

Mark Muller   "American Home Cooking"  Know Budget Records

Abstract Truth   "Get Another Plan"   Streetwave Music

Randy Hall   "Love You Like A Stranger"   MCA

The Fents   "The Other Side"  (also produced)   Passport Jazz

The Fents   "First Offense"  Big Fun Records  (produced by Paul Rothchild)

Ray Manzarek   "Carmina Burana"  A&M Records
(Classicalrock version produced by Philip Glass)

Ed Maguire   "Jasmine"   TruSpace Records

Bob's Book Club  "Bob's Book Club"   Walks Alone Records

Norman Dozier  "Norman Dozier"  Atlantic Records

Adam Holzman & Brave New World  "Alive" Series of ‘bootleg’ live albums:

"#1Live In Europe '96-97", #2"Live In Germany 2001", #3"Live in New York",

#4"Live in Paris 2002"   Big Fun Records

Authentic Sound Effects  Volumes I, II, & III  Elektra Records (digital version)