2/13/99, by Drew Wheeler

"WE'RE PROBABLY one of the only couples in history that has a romantic moment over Alan Holdsworth," said Adam Holzman of his marriage to Jane Getter.

"When we first got married," he recalled, "Jane would go down to the car and she'd be waiting for me. She'd have some music going. I'd run out to the car and jump in and she'd be blasting Scott Henderson or something like that. I never had a girlfriend in my past who was a total jazz-rock fan."

Holzman is well-known for his tenure with Miles Davis, touring and playing on such albums as Tutu and Miles Around The World. His (usually electronic) keyboards have also been heard on Bob Belden projects saluting the music of Sting, Prince and the classic Blue Note artists, as well as on projects with Michel Petrucciani, Grover Washington, Jr. and Steps Ahead. Holzman released three solo albums in the '90s: In A Loud Way (Manhattan), Overdrive (Lipstick) and The Big Picture (Escapade). He recently appeared at last year's all-star Miles Davis alumni concert celebrating the launching of Jazz Central Station's milesdavis.com, which was later released by N2K Encoded Music as Endless Miles: A Tribute To Miles Davis.

Guitarist Getter studied with John Scofield, Chuck Loeb and Jack Wilkins, and had been a harmony and music theory student of pianist Jim McNeely. Some of her earliest gigs were with Wilkins, as well as a diverse roster that includes Jack McDuff, Michal Urbaniak, Joe Lovano, Kenny Barron, Leon Thomas, Slide Hampton and Richie Beirach. She received the 1991 ASCAP Gershwin Award for Music for Theater or Dance for her composition "Red Earth Jane Suite" and received national exposure in the Saturday Night Live band over the 1995Ð96 season. Getter's solo debut album Jane, released last fall on Lipstick Records, was chiefly produced by Holzman. The disc features such established talents as Victor Bailey and James Genus, but also a very young drummer named Russell Getter Holzman (now aged four and 1/2), whose contributions are admittedly free-form. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Holzman and Getter met in New York the summer of 1990 through a mutual musician-friend visiting from Los Angeles. "He and I were hanging out, and we were going to go out to eat," Holzman recalled. "And he said he met this cool girl over at Mike Stern's apartment the other day and he wanted to invite her. So he called up Jane and we met at this restaurant. Jane, you wanna pick up the thread there?"

"Well, he called," she continued, "and I wasn't really interested in meeting this guy for dinner, but something told me I should go" "…because you wanted to meet his friend" prompted Holzman. "…yeah, something like that," said Getter with a laugh. "So we met at this restaurant. When we were sitting around eating dinner, this guy was telling me about all his equipment and trying to impress me with all his equipment and Adam is sitting there, being very quiet."

"Waiting for this guy to run out of steam," said Holzman. "I'm not saying a word, but I ordered about $150 worth of sushi and I'm sitting there eating, trying to quietly impress her, y'know." "And then it kind of quietly slid out that he played with Miles," Jane explained. "And I was like, 'You played with Miles? I must've seen you play with him.'"

When the three headed uptown for a Hiram Bullock show, their compatibility was already becoming evident. "The guy that introduced us, he was a nice guy, but he was a little bit uptight," said Holzman. 'We went up to see Hiram, and Hiram is like party music. He plays a lot of great stuff, but he does a lot of great covers as well -- Beatles tunes and stuff like that. So Jane and I were sitting there, Adam Holzman rockin' out, partying. We had drinks in our hands -- it was like a cartoon of people partying. And this guy was sitting in a chair, kind of off to the side with his arms folded, saying 'I wish Hiram played more of his own material.' So Jane and I were definitely hitting it off and this guy was definitely turning into the third wheel. When we all had to head back downtown, it was one of those Woody Allen kind of scenarios where it just turns out that, like, "Well, I guess you get dropped off first, since we're going downtown…' So we let him out on 23rd St. and me and Jane headed downtown. Of course, nothing happened that night, but I just wanted to have her to myself for about five minutes."

"So then he asked me if I wanted to come over and work on a demo," said Jane. "He'll demo-up one of my tunes for me, and I was like 'Oh really? Okay, sure.' So I went over and he put together this amazing demo of one of my tunes. I'd never really heard my tunes demoed up like that. It sounded really great. And then he went out on the road for like five weeks, and left me with this demo to listen to…"

"…to sort of chew on" said Holzman. They were married the summer of the next year. Together, they formed the band No Soap Radio, with bassist Freddy Gash and drummer Rocky Bryant. ("We gigged kind of regularly when we formed that project," said Holzman. "It's tapered off over the last couple of years. But the band, in theory, still exists.")

Getter played in Urbaniak's band Urbanator, for which she co-wrote the song Hopscotch with drummer Lenny White. She did some arranging for White on his album Present Tense, as did Holzman, who also played keyboards for the date. Getter contributed the song Road Town to Holzman's album In A Loud Way, and has played guitar on his Manifesto and The Big Picture. "Every CD of mine you pick up, there's songs written about her or for her," Holzman said. "The song Janeway on Manifesto was sort of inspired by a combination of Jane and Star Trek. I have a song called Jane Guitar -- instead of Jane Getter." (Holzman said that Getter has a song entitled Up And Adam)

Since they seem so involved professionally, I wondered if there was a point at which they stop being a couple and start being more professional musicians.

"Does our relationship change when we get into band-mode?" clarified Holzman. "We've been told that as far as married couples, we're some of the easiest to work with. That sometimes married couples -- usually the wife is a singer -- rehearsals can be a real nightmare. I've heard that from other musicians. So I'd say we're pretty straight up. We naturally agree on almost 90% of things dealing with music, anyway, which makes things a lot easier."

"We do," confirmed Getter. "We have very similar musical tastes." "And the fact that Jane is a very strong instrumentalist Ñ we're relating as musicians on a similar level," said Holzman. "Because she plays guitar and I play keyboards, there's more of a rapport right off the bat. Musically, too." And since musical marriages are…well…marriages, serenity may not always reign. Said Getter, "Since we're so close, and if we do disagree about something, we might take it to another level than just friends would. But then, we're aware of it."

When I asked for a clarification of "taking it to another level," Holzman said with a laugh, "It might get chewed-over longer than it needs to be…" "…but then we realize what's going on and we say 'Oh, sorry…" said Getter. Holzman concluded, "We figure it out, or one of us backs down and says, 'It's your tune' or whatever."

Since dedicated musicians are usually dedicated music fans as well, I wondered what their lives as listeners were like. "The day-to-day role that music plays in our lives, since we've had a kid, has definitely changed," aid Holzman. 'We used to blast music around the house all the time, listen to tons of CDs and listen to our projects. And now, with Russell around, we can't blast as much music whenlever we feel like it. He's sort of co-opted the living room a lot of the time with Nickelodeon. It's not quite the same free-for-all music-carnival life that we kind of had before. The most often I get a chance to listen to music -- and I think it's the same thing for Jane -- is when we're driving around in the car. Music listening has sort of turned into that. The other thing about just playing is our schedules. Scheduling our lives can be a real science project as well. It affects our emotional life, too. We end up so crazy sometimes. We have to plan each week like we're going to go to war."

"But we do talk about music all the time "said Getter, "and pretty much there's always something musical floating around." Holzman agreed, saying, "There's always some tune being cooked up around the house. Our son Russell plays the drums, and so he bangs around some times."Some of the Holzman-Getter household's current favorite albums include Grace & Mercy by gospel singer Marvin Sapp, as well as releases that range from Missy Misdemeanor Elliott to Salif Keita, alongside those by such perennial icons as Weather Report and Miles Davis. And some pieces of music hold special personal significance.

"When we got married, the song for our first dance was 'Through The Fire,' the Chaka Khan tune," recalled Holzman. 'We had a very hip band at our wedding. They were sort of an R&B group and they had a great singer, Lillian, and she belted out this great version of 'Through The Fire.' And in the chain of events, I started playing with Chaka Khan the following year. It turned out that we'd play [New York's] Beacon Theatre on our first-year anniversary. And 'Through The Fire' was in the set, so Chaka dedicated it to me and Jane. So that was kind of cool too. Exactly one year later -- on our anniversary having the woman herself sing it. I guess that song definitely has significance."

And did Holzman and Getter have anything special planned for Valentine's Day? "No" said Holzman. "I was supposed to be in the studio working on a project with Wallace Roney. What we'll do is, we'll have Valentine's Day a few days later." "And it's Adam's birthday a few days later," reminded Getter. "It's all piling up," sighed Holzman, who sounded like he was already drawing up another mental battle plan for the coming week.