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holdsworth's the man.
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02-28-2013 03:26 PM
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I can't find anything not to like about his classic "Fred".
But more importantly does he use a floating or anchor picking technique.......
Enjoy.
Guy
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I think he lightly anchors his pinkie over the vol/tone controls (he has large hands); his picking motions are highly economized (so the pick attack is consistent with his tone when slurring) and as such he doesn't employ much wrist motion, negating the need to float the picking hand
Originally Posted by GuyBoden
But more importantly does he use a floating or anchor picking technique.......
Enjoy.
Guy
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Good & difficult.
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I listened to him a lot before I got into jazz. To enjoy his music you really have to try to not compare it to anything else you've heard. His stuff is pretty harmonically intense which is why I think most people don't enjoy it.
I really like his chordal playing. I always noticed how Eric Johnson's chordal playing is a lot like his technique/voicing wise, just not as harmonically involved.
I'd love to see him play some coltrane solo's as he's probably in a small group of people who could execute it, with justice, it on the guitar.
Tone is also amazing
Has anyone seen his lesson/instructional video? Here's part of it, even if you're not into his playing there's loads of great advice for any jazz musician.
Last edited by euterpe; 03-02-2013 at 06:21 PM. Reason: grammatical
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According to "Reaching for the Uncommon Chord", a book of Allan's transcriptions, he was opening a brewery in Southern California in 1985 :-)
Allan and a few others - John McLaughlin obviously - are playing music that comes from their spirit, most jazz these days is just about trying to recreate the sounds of the golden age, nothing wrong with that of course.
Allan is uncompromising.
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Do you any of you remember the "unknown" John Clark who took over guitar duties after Allan left Bill Bruford's band. I went to the Agora Ballroom in Atlanta to see Bill's group play a gig about 1980 or so and everybody before hand said Holdsworth's not with the band anymore etc...well I was disappointed to say the least. However as soon as the music started and Clark played it was a shock...just like Allan! I guess the rest is history. Whatever happened to the "unknown" John Clark?
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Interesting topic. I love Allan's records and playing in general. Although I REALLY don't like the prog rock guy who sings on some of the tunes, should have left him off the record!
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LOL, too good and too difficult,
Try Mary Poppins and the sound of muzak.
No disrespect to Austria, the most beautiful country in the world apart from London, or maybe Doncaster.
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I've tried to like Allan, but I just have never heard anything of his that made me want to come back. I respect his dedication, hard work, knowledge, and guitar chops, but in the end he just sounds like another shredder to me with a slightly jazzy fusiony twist. There's nothing wrong with having different music tastes and preferences. You sound kind of like me, you've tried to like him, but you just don't. I do believe there is something to learn from every style of music / high level guitar player. I would love to have the chops that he has, but I would use it much differently, I think.
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I found this masters thesis on Allan's music by Bjorn Schille (2011) while looking for something completely different and thought it might be of interest to some here.
https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/han...pdf?sequence=2
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Thank you bako for that link! Fascinating stuff. Allan is so far ahead of his time it's scary.
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I had John Clark on a Bruford live album on vinyl - The Bruford Tapes? Big Holdsworth influence for sure, that early Holdsworth style. Originally Posted by Eric Rowland
Huge fan here. I've listened to this clip heaps - the playing has a few rough spots and Allan's guitar is feeding back, but this performance knocked me out big time. Could be new material for the album he'll hopefully put out soon. Every facet of this clip - the composition, harmony, really interesting rhythmic concept, incredible solo (really hitting that Coltrane vibe on this one), I could go on and on...
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I now play and listen to what can be loosely categorized as straight ahead jazz, but I have been a fan of Allan Holdsworth since the first time I saw him - in May 1973 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London with a prog/metal-oid band called Tempest. He was playing that night with another amazing guitarist - Ollie Halsall from the band Patto, who had a similar mega-speed legato style (Ollie died a few years later). I followed Allan's recorded work with the Soft Machine (I still listen to the album Bundles regularly) and Gong (I also still occasionally listen to that stuff), and next saw him in Washington DC in 1975 or 1976 with the New Tony Williams Lifetime at a bar/restaurant called the Childe Harold (I drove 150 miles with a group of fellow fans from the College of William & Mary to see that show. There were actually two shows which were each only 30-45 minutes long and we could only afford to see one of them. But getting to see and hear Tony and Allan live even for that short set was well worth the three hour drive.) I subsequently saw Holdsworth a number of times with his various line-ups.
Like I said, while I'm much less into fusion type music than I was in my youth, I still consider Holdsworth one of the true geniuses of guitar and improvisational music.Last edited by jbernstein91; 03-19-2013 at 02:23 PM.
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Great to see so many enthusiasts. To me, The Drums Were Yellow features the most intimate and interesting dialogue between drums and guitar that I've ever heard. Amazing.
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Absolutely epic Allan and Tony performance:
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BTW - I forgot to mention that I saw "the Unknown John Clark" with Bill Bruford's band at a now defunct rock club in Falls Church, VA in 1979. I went to the show to see Holdsworth and was disappointed when I found out Allan was not playing. Clark turned out to be quite good, although obviously not in Holdsworth's league.
I also just remembered that I went to see Jean-Luc Ponty in Norfolk VA sometime in the mid-1970s (around the "Enigmatic Ocean" period) in the hope of seeing Holdsworth, but Ponty had Jamie Glaser playing guitar.Last edited by jbernstein91; 03-20-2013 at 12:39 PM.
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In the analysis of Holdsworth's improvisations in Guitar Player magazine the author said that Holdsworth is the consummate improviser. Another person on this thread said Holdsworth can wail as freely as Shorter or Coltrane and I'll have to second that motion. Although Shorter doesn't play lines like Holdsworth and Holdsworth doesn't play lines like Shorter, Holdsworth has figured out how to make the guitar able to operate in the stratosphere with the big boys. The guitar and his four finger playing constrain him to certain kinds of things that are doable on guitar but it's still genius regardless. He can play for hours without repeating himself just like the best of the best. Constant long lines aren't for everyone but that can never detract from the genius of it.
My own composing although inspired by Holdsworth's sound and aesthetic has more of a kinship to Shorter's approach.
Impermanence SoundClick artist: Garden of Contemplation - World, Asian: India, Middle East, Japan AND Jazz Fusion.
Maha Maya SoundClick artist: Garden of Contemplation - World, Asian: India, Middle East, Japan AND Jazz Fusion.
Black Storm SoundClick artist: Garden of Contemplation - World, Asian: India, Middle East, Japan AND Jazz Fusion.
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Going way back, I really liked his playing on the Jean Luc Ponty, Enigmatic Ocean album. That one had quite the line up on it and is still a favorite of mine.
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Personal opinion only but..
Holdsworth is a freak of nature.
I've never been a huge fan of his synth axe era
But the stuff he plays on the Bruford albums is mind altering.
Also...if you can find them
Check out Proto Cosmos and Fred from Tony Williams New lifetime.
Straight into a Marshall...no toys.
Unreal.
He does run on sometimes on his newer stuff with the dreamy layers
But I do consider him one of the Gods.
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Nevermore.
One of his originals off the album U.K.
Awesome piece of music.
His ending solo is like a bloody national anthem.
I stand up everytime.
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transcribed some of his runs off "Devil Take the Hindmost" (the one on the Metal Fatigue record) - some of it can be straight away applied to functional contexts. A lot of his improvisation takes place over a static G- vamp; but he clearly outlines II-V motions as well as substituting different minor transformations over the vamp. Also saw the use of some constant structures as well as interpolation of different maj/min triads. There are obviously some parts where there is some heavy chromaticism and deliberate instances of outside playing (but not as much as I thought). all in all his process seems fucking legit.
'course I dig this guy.
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Listening to The Sixteen Men Of Tain..
WOW!
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The problem with this type of playing, if you want to call it a problem is, the only people that listen are other musicans, non-musicans will never be into this stuff. If they are into it, the % is less then 1.
K
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The guy is truly one of a kind. Originally Posted by 3625
I rank him among the highest.
Here's a blast from his past.
His playing on this just destroys me.
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