Allan Holdsworth 1979.. he's still jaw-dropping after 40 years

equalsql

'One Of A Kind' by Bruford was 'the' album that spent the most time on my record deck back in 1979-1980. I almost wore the damn thing out.

Jeff Berlin's bass playing was breathtaking at the time, second to only Jaco, but the highlight was without doubt the unbelievable guitar work of Allan Holdsworth on this album.

He was beyond revolutionary when this was released. You have to understand that back in those days there was no-one even close to what he was achieving back then. He was truly unique in his abilities and vision at that time.

We lost one of the greatest and most influential guitarists ever in 2017

sweepy

Feels Good to Me is equally stunning, I usually find that Holdsworth is a lot more listenable and accessible when playing on other people’s projects such as Bruford or Jen Luc Ponty

blobb

Dave Stewart on keys. You can hear the National Health vibe.

This is my favourite Holdsworth, this and that riff from Hazard Profile on Bundles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NEH3UCXklg

sweepy

Or this one

schrodinger1612

Even as someone who’s into jazz, I still find AH too much to take in sometimes....I like the vibe though; his music will probably play in the bar of some futuristic cyberpunk metropolis where people’s brains have evolved enough to actually make sense of it. And the kids of the day will be complaining about the “state of music these days” with this overly simplistic and formulaic Alan Holdsworth shit.

jdgm

He was great with Bruford, Jean-Luc and...well everybody really. My favourite is this Tony Williams recording:

equalsql

schrodinger1612 said:

Even as someone who’s into jazz, I still find AH too much to take in sometimes....I like the vibe though; his music will probably play in the bar of some futuristic cyberpunk metropolis where people’s brains have evolved enough to actually make sense of it. And the kids of the day will be complaining about the “state of music these days” with this overly simplistic and formulaic Alan Holdsworth shit.

We can only wish eh?

Philtre

Love to know how he got his lead tone. I once asked this on another forum and the replies were along the lines of "it's in his fingers, man!". Yes, but his lead tone has a particular over-driven mid-range to it.

equalsql

jdgm said:

He was great with Bruford, Jean-Luc and...well everybody really. My favourite is this Tony Williams recording:

Dang! That was GREAT! I've never heard or seen this before. Thanks so much for posting this, it now goes into my list of essential listening!  

JohnCordy

@Philtre there's definitely more to it than his fingers yeh. There's interviews where he talks about modding his own amps etc to get closer to the sound he wanted

sweepy

He used all sorts, Norlin Lab Series, Hartley Thomson, H&K, Yamaha etc etc eventually settling on a pair of Yamaha DG Stomps. He spent years perfecting his legato technique where the pull offs had no sideways action whatsoever which he referred to as a “meowwwing” sound that used to drive him crazy. Invoke the spirit of John Coltrane and see the guitar as a linear instrument, work on wider stretch’s and note doubling and off you go,oh add zero neck relief and light strings, 0.008’s at one point, good luck

DrJazzTap

I love this track, the keyboard/guitar back and forth is amazing. He was definitely one of a kind, really gets to me why more people don't know about him.

fandango

equalsql said:

'One Of A Kind' by Bruford was 'the' album that spent the most time on my record deck back in 1979-1980. I almost wore the damn thing out.

Jeff Berlin's bass playing was breathtaking at the time, second to only Jaco, but the highlight was without doubt the unbelievable guitar work of Allan Holdsworth on this album.

He was beyond revolutionary when this was released. You have to understand that back in those days there was no-one even close to what he was achieving back then. He was truly unique in his abilities and vision at that time.

We lost one of the greatest and most influential guitarists ever in 2017

Had this album at one point. Loved it. No idea what became of it, but many thanks for bringing it back.

Stuckfast

That Tony Williams album is ace, thanks for posting that!

To my ignorant ears it sounds as though AH's playing had a lot in common with Robert Fripp?

Grocer_Jack

sweepy said:

Or this one

The singer's shirt! 

axisus

Stuckfast said:

To my ignorant ears it sounds as though AH's playing had a lot in common with Robert Fripp?

Well Holdsworth is infinitely more complex in terms of what he is doing! 

So disappointing that he's gone .....

Megii

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdkm8GXnSI

axisus

Megii said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdkm8GXnSI

I was playing that album at work last Friday!

bingefeller

Philtre said:

Love to know how he got his lead tone. I once asked this on another forum and the replies were along the lines of "it's in his fingers, man!". Yes, but his lead tone has a particular over-driven mid-range to it.

Philtre said:

Love to know how he got his lead tone. I once asked this on another forum and the replies were along the lines of "it's in his fingers, man!". Yes, but his lead tone has a particular over-driven mid-range to it.

@Philtre I got the below info from a forum somewhere, it was saved on a text file on my computer.  I set up a parametric EQ stompbox on my GT-1000 with those frequencies and it does give a Holdsworth like tone. 

In my ears is Allan’s sound in this song a very “sweet” and soft sound with an almost sort of a growing, slow attack to it, still with out lacking any attack. The whole tone is almost sort of growing and the notes get bigger the longer they sustain. It has a very voice like quality to my ears, with most of it leading energy in the midrange, and it has very little low and muddy bas frequencies witch make it sound very open and clear.

I would say that most of the energy and what makes the sound, is focused between 600Hz and 1.5kHz (and most of it around the 600Hz area). The treble is very round and soft and there is almost no information above 2.6kHz, at all. It sounds like there’s not too much distortion in his sound and a lot of what makes the sustain and singing quality is the power in the midrange and obviously, Allan’s great technique.

His sound doesn’t sound like a loud guitar or like a cranked big amp, but it still sounds massive and big. It sounds like there are a warm sounding reverb (that is pretty big), and a very low volume delay on the sound, and maybe a little compressor. Other people might hear this completely different, but that wont matter sins this makes sense to me, and that is what it’s all about.

Philtre

@bingefeller Interesting, thanks!