My review of Adam Holzman's The Deform Variations, today at All About Jazz.
He's been Steven Wilson's keyboardist of choice (and rightfully so) since the British progressive rocker first hit the road in 2011, after years fronting Porcupine Tree, in support of the Kscope artist's first two albums as a solo artist—2009's Insurgentes and 2011's Grace for Drowning. But while Adam Holzman continues to work with Wilson to this day—appearing on two subsequent studio albums, 2013's The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) and the recently released Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), as well as the limited edition live album Catalog | Preserve | Amass (Headphone Dust, 2012), the more widely available full concert document Get All You Deserve (2012) and 2013 EP Drive Home—the 57 year-old keyboardist (who looks considerably younger) is far from new to the scene...or high profile gigs.
Beyond first coming to attention on Miles Davis' Tutu (Warner Bros., 1986) and subsequent touring with the legendary jazz trumpter, Holzman has, in addition to occasional albums with his own bands including Brave New World, recorded and toured with other artists of significance including Wallace Roney (appearing on albums including two of the trumpeter's HighNote releases, 2004's Prototype and 2005's Mystikal), Bob Belden, and Holzman's wife, guitarist Jane Getter. But it's his work with Wilson over the past four years that has likely garnered him the most attention of his career outside the jazz world...and yet, the idea of a progressive rocker like Wilson bringing musicians with jazz and/or classical backgrounds (both applying to Holzman) isn't particularly new; in fact, dig back to the roots of the genre and you'll find that many of its most prominent artists were trained in other disciplines, but wanted to bring those disciplines into a rock context.
It takes special musicians to be able to work with whatever Wilson throws their way, and Holzman has proven, album after album and tour after tour, that there's a reason he continues to be recruited by Wilson. The Deform Variations is but one case in point. A series of 27 miniature solo piano improvisations based on Grace for Drowning's gorgeous ballad "Deform to Form a Star," Holzman's 40-minute album of expansions and extrapolations on that song's theme is further evidence that neither Holzman nor any other member of Wilson's band, for that matter, approach Wilson's music as if it were in a glass box. Every night Wilson's band performs this tune in concert, Holzman is afforded a brief opening solo that clearly demonstrates that no two shows are alike. While it may surprise some jazz purists, The Deform Variations demonstrates the same kind of "drawn from the ether" improvisational élan that would appeal to fans of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock—if they are open-minded enough to consider an album of piano solos culled from a progressive rock song and tour.
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Originally Posted by battema
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