JacHolzman

Jac Holzman (68) was the founder, chief executive officer and creative head of both Elektra Records (1950) and Nonesuch Records (1964). In 1970, Jac sold all of his music interests to Warner Communications Inc. and continued his association with the labels he created for three additional years. While a part of the WCI music group, Jac helped to establish both the WEA Distributing Group and WEA International. Among the artists he has produced or discovered are: Judy Collins, The Doors, Love, Carly Simon, Harry Chapin, Queen, Fred Neil, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, and Tim Buckley.
In 1973, Jac became Senior Vice-President of WCI and the company's Chief Technologist. He co- wrote Warner's business plan for early year entry into home video and into the first interactive cable system( Qube). In 1976 Jac did the technical evaluation for WCI's acquisition of Atari and was a member of the Atari board until 1982, concentrating on product planning. From 1972 to 1982 Jac was also a director of Pioneer Electronics, Japan and as Senior Consultant to Pioneer, contributed to Pioneer's early adoption and successful implementation of both Compact Disc (CD) and LaserDisc technology. He led the team that help to launch CD for the Warner Music Group

In June of 1982, Jac assumed the Chairmanship of Panavision, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warner Communications, then in both financial and structural decline. In two and a half years, Panavision was turned around so that it was no longer a borrower of money but became, instead, a substantial cash generator. Panavision's value more than doubled, and in the spring of 1985 the company was sold for in excess of $70 million. While at Panavision, Jac introduced an advanced system of 16mm cinematography designed so that the progressive features of this system could migrate, without market disruption, into the camera that eventually became the Platinum Panaflex. Under his stewardship, Panavision began a totally new program of optical design resulting in the acclaimed Primo series lenses and inaugurated a comprehensive management information system to track the whereabouts of rental equipment throughout the world and to determine the ROI on each rental item in Panavision's considerable universe.

In 1986, Jac formed FirstMedia, a closely held investment firm specializing in communications. FirstMedia led the acquisition of Cinema Products, the largest non-camera maker of precision equipment for the motion picture industry which includes the Oscar winning Steadicam® family of camera stabilizing products, the Vidiflex high resolution and super sensitive video viewing system for film cameras and a new Telescanner for the transfer of film to digital video formats.
In June of 1991, Robert Morgado, then Chairman of the Warner Music Group, retained Jac as the group's Chief Technologist to help sort and define a broad spectrum of issues relating to Warner's expanding music interests. His current work centers around DVD Audio and multichannel sound.

In October of 1991, through FirstMedia, Jac acquired the Discovery, Trend and Musicraft jazz labels from the estate of Albert Marx which he refashioned into a fully contemporary label. In 1993 Discovery was acquired by the Warner Music Group and operates as a 100% Time Warner subsidiary.
Jac has done pioneering work in setting both operating and business standards for the LaserDisc optical video disc and the Compact Disc (CD). He is a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he has served four terms on the steering committee for Scientific and Technical Awards.

Jac is an alumnus of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland class of 1952 and contributed six years as a member of the college's Board of Visitors and Governors. He recently received that college's Most Distinguished Alumnus award
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I contacted Jac Holzman in September about an interview for our forum. He replied that he would be happy to participate in December when he returns from vacation. I wrote a long list of questions thinking that we would do the interview via email. But, Jac preferred to do it by telephone. He granted me thirty minutes of his time and I must admit that I was nervous about the format and all the things that could go wrong. It turned out okay, but there just wasn't enough time to ask everything that I wanted or to even follow-up his answers as much as I would have liked to. What follows is the transcript of our conversation.
Jack Brolly...Hello Jac...Thanks for taking the time to participate in our forum. I have an enormous amount of respect for you and what you've contributed to the recording industry. I've read "Follow The Music" and I consider it to be the best book ever written about American folk and contemporary music in the fifties, sixties, and seventies. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive and it looks like you have the makings of a best seller on your hands.
Jac Holzman...Well, thank you. They're planning to print a paperback edition of the book this fall to coincide with Elektra's fiftieth anniversary. I hope they don't forget.

JB...In the previous conversation we had, you mentioned to me that you feel David Anderle is the person that I should be interviewing about Tim and Elektra. Why is that?
Jac Holzman...David spent a lot of time with Tim. He was the eyes and ears of Elektra when it came to our west coast artists. He and Tim became good friends. As you know, he talks about Tim in the book and there may even be more in David's transcripts, but right now they're buried out in Sante Fe. He has a good memory for things so you should write to him and see if he'd be interested in an interview. His email address is xxxxx@xxxxxx.xxx. Another person you may want to contact is Danny Fields. I'll give you his number. He's been on the New York scene for years and you know Tim worked with the late Nico for a while. Danny had something to do with that. You might also want to talk to Jackson Browne. He knew Tim pretty well. I think he was influenced by Tim.

JB...Tell me Jac, how did you come to meet and sign Tim?
Jac Holzman...I didn't meet him. An audition record came from Herb Cohen. He and Tim were sort of dancing around each other as a manager/artist relationship, and the disc was made I think at Sunset Sound. I may have the original disc someplace but it's probably in my hangar. I'd have to go through a hundred cartons to find it. Well anyway, a twelve inch acetate came to me from Herbie Cohen. I put it on one day and I was totally captivated. Just Tim and his guitar doing four or five tunes and I was thoroughly smitten. I called Herb Cohen and he said "wait until you see this guy, he's gorgeous". I said that I'd be out on the west coast in a week or so. I sat down with Tim and Herbie and I decided that I wanted to sign Tim. It was real simple.

JB...When you and the late Paul Rothchild finished producing Tim's first album, were you happy with it or did you feel that it was just a nice beginning?
Jac Holzman...Well, I feel that in most cases all first albums are nice beginnings with some exceptions. The Doors' first album and Carly Simon's first album were fully found, and Butterfield's was damn close. I thought that this was a beginning album and I planned for much greater reach on the second album and of course, that's what we got.

JB...So therefore, you were able to foresee that Tim was capable of achieving the degree of excellence that he attained with "Goodbye And Hello".
Jac Holzman...Yes. I never sign an artist unless I'm ready to do three albums with them and generally that's my rule of thumb. It usually takes that long for the artist to begin to learn the studio, and figure out what they can do. One of the big results, and I think it was true in Tim's case, is that when an artist hears their first record they sometimes cringe and that's good, because then it means that the next one is going to be a lot better. I think that was the case with Tim. It was an affectable album, but it didn't have magic. The second album had magic.

JB...Around the time of Tim Buckley's arrival, Elektra was mostly regarded as a folk artist label. Did you see Tim as a blossoming folkie or could you sense that you had found someone unique?
Jac Holzman...The distinctions were getting blurred. First of all, folk music had changed dramatically from traditional material to singer/songwriters and Tim was clearly a singer/songwriter who happened to play guitar. I didn't know what the labels meant anymore, and by the time I got to Tim I already had an electric band with Butterfield. I was looking to sign more artists like that. I wanted artists who could take their careers someplace and Elektra along with it. Tim struck me as being one of those kinds of artists.

JB...Did you anticipate that Tim was going to change directions as often as he did?
Jac Holzman...No. I didn't even think about that as long as every new album was a step beyond where he had been. That was okay with me.

JB...When "Goodbye And Hello" was released on the heels of "Blonde On Blonde", my friends and I thought that Tim might be the new Dylan or the heir to the thrown so to speak. Was their any competition in that respect?
Jac Holzman...No, I didn't find it. I didn't think that he felt that at all. He would have found that concept abhorrent. Being the new Dylan. There will never be a new Dylan. Beck is not a new Dylan, although he's an extraordinarily interesting artist.

JB...Did you have many conversations with Tim? Did he reveal much of his personal life to you or was it mostly business?
Jac Holzman...I had a personal relationship with all our artists. Tim hung around with the Mothers of Invention which is probably why he came so quickly to Herbie Cohen's attention. It wasn't mostly business because there's no business to do. The deal was made, everything was involved with making the records. Tim came to me with the idea of "Goodbye And Hello" and the thought of using Jerry Yester as the producer and I had known Jerry for a long time because he had been involved with Judy Henske, so that was fine with me.

JB...So, Jerry Yester was Tim's idea?
Jac Holzman...As far as I recall, yes.

JB...The "Bleecker and MacDougal" album by Fred Neil, which you and Paul Rothchild produced, is one of my favorite albums. At a live concert in Los Angeles late in his career, Tim is quoted as saying that Fred Neil was the only friend he ever had. Were you aware of any friendship or comradery between Tim and Fred Neil in the early days of Tim's career?
Jac Holzman...Fred Neil at that time was out of my field of vision. You might like to know that Elektra has plans to re-issue that "Bleecker And MacDougal" cd.

JB...Do you remember in the early days, if Fred was any kind of an influence on Tim at all?
Jac Holzman...I think he might have been a bad influence, because of drugs. He was not a particularly nice guy as we say in the book. That he was an influence wouldn't surprise me because they had similar tempers as writers. They were somewhat moody as writers but always interesting and of course Fred had written some fine songs.

JB...While running the company, and with so many artists under your umbrella, did you have the time to stay close to the recording sessions for Happy Sad? And if so, what did you think of Tim's subtle direction change towards jazz on that album?

Jac Holzman...I would have liked to have seen him build more on "Goodbye And Hello". Tim was a folk-rocker on his first album and he was charting a new direction with "Goodbye And Hello" and I thought that would be a better direction. It seemed to me that we had three albums and they were all distinctly different without a helluva lot of continuity. That he wanted to explore his jazz grooves didn't surprise me. When you talk about Fred Neil, I think that there is some Fred Neil on this album. In retrospect, years later I think that this is the album where he really found himself. I have a great deal of respect for that record. And of course, Jerry Yester was involved in that one too.

JB...Are you aware that Tim once said that you taught him that an artist has to keep growing? Do you remember telling him that? And if so, do you think that he took that advice too literally?

Jac Holzman...Oh, I tell that to everybody because that's the excitement for me. It's not like today where you put a record out every two to five years. He was putting out records once every 14 months and I just like to see a progression. In retrospect, I would probably say that the first album was a very good debut album. I thought that "Goodbye And Hello" at the time was the apotheosis. "Happy Sad" is as good as anything he ever did. On "Lorca",( and I must point out that I haven't heard "Lorca" in a long time ) Tim did something that Judy Collins would do a lot with vocal gyrations, and she wasn't very successful with that. I thought that the record didn't come together as a full vision.

JB...Were you getting any feedback from the people involved with the recording sessions that "Lorca" was going to be a bit far-out?

JacHolzman...I thought that it was just another faze. There wasn't a great deal of interest as far as the public was concerned and it wasn't received very well. It only had five songs on it. It felt unleavened to me and that was the direction he wanted to keep going in (and even further as you know). And what's interesting is that the direction in which he did go with "Starsailor", which is probably a better album, made more sense live than it did on record. You could get involved much more with Tim on stage because you saw that he was so taken with his own music and you had to respect that. But, recording is another reality and I don't think Tim ever really understood what I meant by that.

JB...I read in your book that your son Adam played keyboards with Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Chaka Khan, and Grover Washington Junior. Do you know if Adam had any opinions about the avant-garde stuff that Tim was into because Tim was a fan of Miles Davis?

Jac Holzman...If you want to call him, by all means go ahead. We never discussed it but I'll give you his number if you want to call him and ask him that. He's back East and his number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

{Note from JB}...I did call Adam and he was very forthright with his comments. He said that he played with Miles Davis for four years. He said that he was really only familiar with Tim's first two albums and that he wasn't informed enough to give an opinion on "Starsailor". He told me that I could mail him a copy of the tape and he would give it a considered listen and then get back to me with his thoughts. A real gentleman, just like his dad. I will let everyone in the forum read Adam's reply when I receive it. It will be very interesting to get a jazz musician's take on "Starsailor" and to see exactly how close to avant-garde jazz Tim actually came or was Tim's form of expression unique and possibly without classification.

JB...Do you think that Tim's music from the Elektra years still holds up?
Jac Holzman...Like all artists who die young, he has some of the same tragic figure aspects of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and people like that. There's a certain fascination. It's almost kind of a "Greek" thing with people who die young and we remember them only as we would like to remember them; which is certainly going to be true of John Lennon as compared to Paul McCartney. We're going to have to watch Paul grow old and I don't know (LOL) if people want to see that.

JB...Do you think that Tim would have listened to you if you had advised him about his short-sightedness when it came to his daring career moves?

Jac Holzman...He was a very young man. His first album came out before he was even old enough to vote or drink. And here he had made an incredible second album which made a lot of people pay attention to him. I think Tim was in his own personal orbit. When that occurs...it's tough for anybody to break your will.

JB...I know of possibly two or three people who are writing books on Tim Buckley. I was wondering if authors Bob Niemi or David Browne had talked to you at all? I've read a draft of Bob's unpublished book and it's wonderful. I also think that Lee Underwood might be interested in writing a manuscript on Tim if a publisher were interested.

Jac Holzman... Let me put it to you this way. I don't have any recollection of having done any interviews for a Tim Buckley book.

JB...Does your company, "First Media", publish books on music?

Jac Holzman...Well of course we published "Follow The Music" and we're going to be doing some other books, but I don't think that they will be music books. We're working on aviation and financial books. That's what I hope to be spending some time doing after I finish this. The two publishers who first offered to publish our book did not like the format that we had it in, and I demanded too many photographs. I wanted absolute control over the photos and how the book looked and they weren't willing to do that. So, we published it ourselves.

JB...Do you see Tim Buckley's life as possibly being movie material?

Jac Holzman...It's pretty much a downer and you know the inevitable second title is going to be that his son died. I don't think that anybody could perform him. There was another worldly quality to Tim that I'm not sure an actor could do. It would have to be an actor that I've never seen before. I don't know of anybody who could play him. He was a male gamine when I first met him (editor's note: {French} A gamine or gamin is a female street urchin or a neglected child) . I think that we've seen a lot of tortured artists. If he had an impact greater than he had, then maybe I could see it. If there's a movie done, it would probably be done by VH1. They are doing movies now. I'm trying to get them interested in the book.

JB...How long did it take to research and write your book?

Jac Holzman...It took a tremendous amount of research; about three years. I had started eight to nine years earlier writing it and I just didn't like it. It was me, me, me, me. So, I had to have someone else do the interviews and the person I had doing the interviews didn't do a very good job. I couldn't do the interviews for obvious reasons. But, we did get some good stuff out of it like the Paul Rothchild interviews, because later Paul was too sick to do the interviews . Then when I started with Gavan Daws, it was three years from the time we began. Gavan did interviews for the first year. I wrote the beginning of the book (the me, me, me part) or the first fifteen pages of the book in which I dominate. I wrote that very early on. It was when I read the five thousand pages of transcript (LOL) that I brought Gavan on to create a time-line so that we could hang all of the events. That's what I spent about six months doing; trying to come up as best I could with what happened when. Then we started putting the ornaments on it. Looking at all of the interviews and I would remember stuff and I would write and then Gavan would try to weave the two together not by rewriting me or anybody else but by saying "this is what so and so says and this is what you said, can you make it tie in better". He didn't do any writing for me. In order to keep the book honest I could not remove anything unless I could convince him that it was a total involved lie and I couldn't change anybody else's words. I think the book has a certain integrity.

JB...Was it like a catharsis? Did you feel that you had to do this? Was it something that you felt you had to have in print for posterity?

Jac Holzman...Nah, I really wished that I hadn't done it at all. It was a major, major project that was going to take me three years and I had done a number of major, major projects before, and I was not looking forward to doing another. Let me just say that members of my family were pressuring me to do it, and the reason I engaged Gavan was that I knew he would not let me get away with NOT doing it. I could have told him at any time that I don't want to do any more, but I just would have been too embarrassed to do that. The process is not a lot of fun. The answer to your question is that I am tickled that I did it.

JB...Well...I guess we're out of time. Thank you for fitting me into your busy schedule. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Good luck with the book and all your future endeavours.

Jac Holzman...You're welcome and good luck to you as well.