Ex-banker one of Canada's finest jazz pianists
Maria Tzavaras
Dec. 1, 2002
When Steve Holt left his job on Bay Street in 1999, he was ranked the top equity analyst
in Canada and many people thought he left a career of a lifetime.
However, what others thought was a crazy move was actually the beginning of a journey that led to the Scarborough resident realizing an important life goal. Recording and releasing a pop music album.
Renowned as one of Canada's top jazz pianist's who has recorded three jazz albums and a Christmas album, Holt's 15-year career in the business world was actually an interruption in his already blossoming music career.
Born and raised in Montreal, Holt said he knew from the time he was four playing the piano that he wanted his life to be about music. After playing folk music as a teen, then discovering a love of jazz music, he received his degree in jazz performance from McGill University and began establishing himself on the Montreal jazz scene.
Not only was he playing in the jazz scene, but he was also teaching music at McGill, when one day, something happened within his family's private money management company.
"My dad had passed away and there was no one else to do it so I had to do it," he said. "That's how I got pulled into that area of work."
Holt said he never had any interest or desire to work in that field, but soon after got "hooked" on building financial models on the computer and became interested in financial accounting and evaluation.
"I was totally into it, I was cracking open text books in financial accounting at four in the morning and building models until 9 a.m.," he said.
His day job at the time was teaching music at McGill and while doing that, he would play his gigs at night, then after that, would do his financial work. Holt said he got to a point where he had to choose a path.
After a brief stint as a stockbroker, he moved to Toronto in 1987 after he was offered a job as an equity analyst. But his music career didn't suffer; during that time he managed to record a Juno-nominated jazz album called 'The Lion's Eyes'.
Although he didn't come to Toronto for his music career, Holt said it ended up being a great move music wise. He said he became very busy as a jazz musician and also ran a club.
Holt said he was busy as both an analyst and a musician, and he was working his way up the ranks as an investment analyst. In 1989, Holt moved to the Guildwood area and he built a studio in his basement. It was there where Holt said he recorded two jazz albums and his first Christmas album.
Holt said his career as an analyst was slowly phasing out his musical career. He was recording and performing less, so in 1999, he made a decision to leave Bay Street altogether.
"And it was that year that I was ranked No. 1," he said. "I thought to myself, there's no where to go from here and I want to do music full time."
He also decided to change musical genres and to sing.
"I decided to go back and not do jazz, but to do pop music," he said.
Two years later, Holt's dream was realized in the release of his fifth album 'The Dream,' in August. The adult pop album contains 11 songs that reflect Holt's life journeys, as well as his diverse musical tastes.
"All those songs I wrote out of my own life experiences," he said. "The love songs are about my own relationships and so are the spiritual songs."
Holt's CD, which includes everything from love songs to cover song like 'Let It Be,' contains an eclectic mix of music with both Latin and Indian musical influences and nine of the songs are either written, or co-written by Holt.
"It's music about life, about real life experiences, things that happen to people, things that matter," he said.
Holt said the feedback for his new album has been great and for those who are not convinced, Holt said he just found his song 'Soon' has garnered him a finalist position in the USA Songwriting Competition.
Overall, Holt said he hopes his new album will appeal to both his jazz fans and his new fans because he feels his songs about life and spirituality are common to us all.
"I'm not looking to be a star, what I want is to be able to share the music..."
Mirror photo/JIM ROSS
Musician Steve Holt takes a break with a cup of coffee at his studio in downtown Toronto recently.