Allan Holdsworth

Revision as of 07:02, 20 October 2009

GMC Wiki

Introduction

Alan Holdsworth is known to be a guitarists guitar player, and many of today's great guitar players mentions him as a source of inspiration. His innovative legato technique in combination with wide stretches and "impossible" chords, makes his style and approach to music unique. He was also one of the first players to adopt the guitar synthesizer and played a major role in the 70' fusion movement.

Early career & influences

Alan Holdsworth, born August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is son of a skilled amateur musician, that in early ages was taught music theory and began to play the guitar. He states Django Rheinhardt and Wes Montgomery as his first role models, but the biggest impact on him was actually horn players like John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. He stated in an interview that when John Coltrane died, he locked himself into the bathroom and cried for hours. Influences also included Charlie Christian, Joe Pass and Eric Clapton.

In the beginning of his career he paid his dues by playing on local dance establishments and clubs, playing whatever what was asked for. His first recording was made in 1969 with Igginbottom ("Wrench"). On occasion he met Ray Warleigh, one of the best tenor-sax players around at that time, and he brought him to London to perform at the legendary Ronnie Scotts with his band in the early 70's.

In 1971 he was a member of Sunship, a band that played mostly improvised music, and contained future-member of King Crimson, percussionist Jamie Muir. He was then "discovered" by Jon Hiseman, who had his "progressive"-rock band "Tempest" by that time, and was eventually touring internationally. He is featured on the cult-recording by Tempest from 1973 with the same name, as well as a recording made by BBC by the same time. His fame grew among musicians in the U.K, when beeing a member of avant-garde instrumental music ensemble, Soft Machine. In 1974 they released the album "Bundles", which led to an international reputation as a skilled guitar player.

Shredding the Jazzrock scene in the mid/late 70's

Drummer Tony Williams (ex. Miles Davis) heard Alan around 1975 and asked him to join his band "The New Lifetime", which was one of the leaders in the jazzrock-movement back then. Alan was then participating in many different constellations in the genre, adding colour with his personal sound/approach. He was playing with Pierre Moerlen's band "Gong", as well as participated on Bill Brufords (ex. Yes, King Crimson) first two solo albums and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's solo albums. In 1976 CTI records released a solo album with Alan, known as "Velvet Darkness", against Alan's will. The album was made from some old tapes when he was rehearsing in a studio, and he still doesn't want to hear about it.

In 1977 he joined Bill Bruford, John Wetton and Eddie Jobson (ex-Roxy Music/Frank Zappa) to form one of the most succesful progressive-rock bands to be known as just "UK". Due to different thoughts about the music, Alan was eventually fired by John Wetton, but appeared on Bill Brufords album "One Of A Kind" from 1979. He also begun a short-lived collaboration with pianist Gordon Beck, even though they played together later in his career resulting in two more jazz-oriented albums. (Sunbird 1979 and The Things You See 1980)

Going solo

Tired of beeing a sideman/session player Alan formed his own band I.O.U in the beginning of the 80's. The name I.O.U is short for "I Owe You", which was a joke among the members - since they all liked beer, and got lousy wages, they might as well ending up beeing paying the club owner instead of getting paid. The first setup of I.O.U included drummer Gary Husband and bassist Paul Carmichael. His first release as a leader was in 1982 with an album just entitled "I.O.U".

In an interview in Guitar Player in 1983 Eddie Van Halen stated: "that guy is bad! He’s fantastic, I love him" and "he's the best, in my book." Van Halen persuaded Warner Bros. Records executive Mo Ostin to sign Alan, and he relocated to L.A by the same time his first album (EP) on Warner "Road Games" was recorded. Since Gary Husband left Alan's band to join Level 42, Chad Wackerman (ex. Zappa) and Jeff Berlin (from the Bruford band) joined Alan for the recordings. Along was also Jack Bruce, a long-time friend and collaborator of Alan's, who's doing some vocals on Road Games. Noteworthy is that Ted Templeman (Van Halens producer) was producing the album as well as the forthcoming "Metal Fatigue". The album was grammy nominated the next year. (1984)

Since Alan had controversies with Warner regarding his artistic freedom, he signed a new contract with Enigma Records. In 1985 Alan recorded "Metal Fatigue" with bassist/top session player Jimmy Johnson (Flim & the BB's) and Chad Wackerman, both of them still members of Alan's band. Also appearing on the album was bassist Gary Willis and original IOU drummer Gary Husband as well as others. One of the albums track's "Devil's take the Hindmost" was featured as a little plastic sleeve in Guitar Player, together with a transcription of the solo. (that the editor NEVER heard someelse manage...)

The following album "Atavachron" is best known for Alan's introduction of the guitar synthesizer "Synthaxe", which is present on and off an almost all of his solo recordings. (he was also doing some branding for them in ads etc.) The personnel are very much the same as on Metal Fatigue, but featured also Alan Pasqua (keyboard) and Tony Williams on one track.

The following album "Sand" in 1988 saw Alan's further explorations of the SynthAxe and the same year was also the third duo-album with pianist Gordon Beck released. The following year was Alan's studio "The Brewery" built, and "The Sixteen Men of Tain" featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiutta was recorded on location. The name for the studio was taken from one of Alan's major interests in life except the guitar - beer! Alan is known to be a real connossieur and knows a lot about the art of brewing.

During the eighties Alan also recorded as a guest soloist/collaborator with artists such as: John Stevens, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jon St. James, Krokus, Stuart Hamm, Stanley Clarke and Jack Bruce amongst others.

Further explorations

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Related GMC Lessons

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Blue Shuffle 2

Blue Shuffle 2 again

See also

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