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Allan Holdsworth
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Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946) is a British guitarist and composer. He has played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but is now best known for his work within the jazz fusion genre.
sworth's first recording was with the band Igginbottom on their lone release, Igginbottom's Wrench, in 1969 (which was later reissued under the group name of "Allan Holdsworth & Friends").
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Encyclopedia
Allan Holdsworth (born August 6, 1946) is a British guitarist and composer. He has played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but is now best known for his work within the jazz fusion genre.
Recording career
Holdsworth's first recording was with the band Igginbottom on their lone release, Igginbottom's Wrench, in 1969 (which was later reissued under the group name of "Allan Holdsworth & Friends"). In the early 1970s, he joined Tempest, upon which the albums Tempest (1973) and Living in Fear (1974) were released during his brief time spent with the band.
Following this, Holdsworth worked with various popular jazz fusion groups and artists, including Gong, Soft Machine, The New Tony Williams Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty and, later in the decade, the progressive rock band UK.
It was also during this time that Velvet Darknessa rehearsal session passed off as an official recordingwas released without authorisation in 1976, much to the anger of Holdsworth, who to this day claims to loathe the album intensely.
At the end of the decade and into the 1980s, he collaborated with pianist Gordon Beck, releasing two jazz-orientated albums entitled Sunbird (1979) and The Things You See (1980). A third album with Beck, With a Heart in My Song, was released in 1988 (both musicians would later collaborate once again in 1996 for the Holdsworth solo album None Too Soon, which featured fusion-based interpretations of popular jazz standards).
His first official solo album came in the form of I.O.U. in 1982, after which he embarked on a solo career that was to span five albums during the 1980s (continuing with another four in the 1990s). After the release of I.O.U., Holdsworth was brought to the attention of Warner Bros. Records executive Mo Ostin by Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen. This led to the 1983 vinyl-only release of the Road Games EP (which was later reissued for CD format in 2001). Van Halen later stated in Guitar Player magazine that Holdsworth was a major influence on his playing, and that he was the best in my book.
In 1990, a short-lived tenure with pop band Level 42 arose when guitarist Alan Murphy died of pneumonia brought on by AIDS. As a result, Holdsworth was brought in to perform on their 1991 album, Guaranteed. Later in the decade, a collaboration with brothers Anders and Jens Johansson saw the release of the experimental, fusion-laden Heavy Machinery in 1996.
For the 2000s, Holdsworth began to noticeably slow down his solo output, with Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie (2001) remaining his most recent studio album as of 2009. Besides this, he has featured as a guest musician on albums by other artists, most notably with keyboardist Derek Sherinian on Mythology (2004) and Quantum (2007); the latter with Sherinian's progressive metal band Planet X.
Compositions and style
Despite Holdsworth's solo compositions being primarily instrumental, he did at one point incorporate vocals on all but one of his albums during the 1980s, with the exception of Sand (1987), and during the 1990s for Wardenclyffe Tower (1992). Additionally, he once provided vocals himself on The Things You See.
Throughout the years, Holdsworth has developed and perfected a highly unique playing style that involves the prominent use of both arpeggiated and full chords (often awash with delay, chorus and other complex effects), various legato techniques (including a specialised variation of the pull-off, which works more akin to a 'reversed' hammer-on) and a delicate use of volume swells to create sounds reminiscent to that of a horn or saxophone.
In his 1986 release, Atavachron, he began to utilise the SynthAxe; a guitar-like MIDI instrument with frets and a breath controller device to alter the volume of notes being played. Although the use of the SynthAxe has been displayed on each one of Holdsworth's solo releases since Atavachron, he has stated that he no longer wishes to make it such an integral part of his playing, mainly due to it being so rare and difficult to maintain and repair. Furthermore, he has gone on to state that he once preferred the saxophone to the guitar, having been influenced greatly by such players as John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
Discography
Solo albums
Collaboration albums
Other album appearances
External links
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