Allan Holdsworth
Encyclopedia
Allan Holdsworth is an English
guitarist
and composer
. He has released twelve studio album
s as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion
. A player noted for his advanced knowledge of the fretboard
and innovative playing, he is cited as an influence by such renowned rock
and instrumental
guitarists as Eddie Van Halen
, Joe Satriani
, Greg Howe
, Shawn Lane
, Richie Kotzen
and John Petrucci
. Frank Zappa
once called Holdsworth "one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet".
'Igginbottom
on their lone release, Igginbottom's Wrench (later reissued under the group name of "Allan Holdsworth & Friends"), in 1969. In 1971, Holdsworth joined Sunship, an improvising band also featuring Alan Gowen
, Laurie Baker and future King Crimson
percussionist Jamie Muir
. The band played live but never recorded any records.
In the early 1970s Holdsworth joined the British progressive rock
band Tempest
, and performed on their self-titled debut studio album
in 1973. His playing can also be heard on a live BBC Radio
concert from the same year, which was released in 2005 as part of a Tempest compilation album
entitled Anthology: Under the Blossom.
studio album Bundles
and from 1975-1976 with The New Tony Williams Lifetime
on the Believe It
and Million Dollar Legs
albums, an experience he was to prize. In 1976 he played with Gong
(contributing to their Gazeuse and Expresso II albums) and with Jean-Luc Ponty
on Enigmatic Ocean.
In 1976, CTI Records
released a recording of a rehearsal
session, passing it off as an official recording, under the title of Velvet Darkness
. This angered Holdsworth, who says he still loathes the album intensely.
to play most of the guitar on Bruford's first (and jazz fusion-influenced) solo album Feels Good to Me
.
Shortly afterwards, Bruford was recruited into a new, second-wave British progressive rock band - UK
, which was fronted by Bruford's former King Crimson
bandmate John Wetton
. When Wetton recruited the virtuosic and classically-influenced Eddie Jobson
(ex-Roxy Music
/Frank Zappa
) into UK on keyboards and violin, Bruford in turn recruited Holdsworth as a jazzier "counterweight". Both the Bruford and UK debut albums were released in early 1978, with the latter rapidly eclipsing the former in terms of profile and marketing. Holdsworth's second spell as a potential progressive rock star was as short as the first. Chafing at the more composed and predictable elements to UK's music, he objected to being expected to play the same solos every night. Despite his musical fluidity and virtuosity, this approach did not suit John Wetton, who fired him from the band. Bruford quit in sympathy or was also fired (depending on accounts). Holdsworth would later stress that although he'd not enjoyed his time in the band he'd liked and respected everyone involved and that the problems were "purely musical".
While UK continued with different musicians, Bruford returned to the core lineup of his solo album as the band Bruford, and retained Holdsworth as its guitarist. The first album under that name (One Of A Kind, recorded and released in early 1979) featured extensive contributions by Holdsworth, but the guitarist was by now tired of being a sideman and decided to follow his own course. Following the band's first British tour, Holdsworth quit, although not without reluctance.
pianist
Gordon Beck
, with whom he first played on Beck's Sunbird
album in 1979. Their first proper collaboration, The Things You See
, followed in 1980, which was a largely similar effort without percussion
or bass. Both musicians would later work together again in the decades to come. Soon afterwards, Holdsworth joined up with drummer
Gary Husband
and bassist
Paul Carmichael as a trio, in what became known as False Alarm. This was to be Holdsworth's first outing as a bandleader and, after the acquisition of former Tempest
singer Paul Williams, the band was renamed I.O.U. Their self-titled debut album, I.O.U.
, was released independently
in 1982, followed by a mainstream reissue through Enigma Records
in 1985.
Immediately after I.O.U.s release, Van Halen
guitarist Eddie Van Halen
brought Holdsworth to the attention of Warner Bros. Records
executive Mo Ostin
. Van Halen had previously enthused about Holdsworth in a 1980 issue of Guitar Player
magazine, saying "That guy is bad! He's fantastic; I love him", and that Holdsworth was "[t]he best, in my book". This resulted in the Warner Bros. release of Road Games
in 1983. It was produced by longtime Van Halen executive producer
Ted Templeman
, and received a Grammy Award
nomination in 1984. Holdsworth, however, has always disliked the EP
because of various creative issues which arose with Templeman. At the time, the latest incarnation of the I.O.U. band consisted of drummer Chad Wackerman
(who would become a regular Holdsworth bandmember for the next three decades) and bassist Jeff Berlin
. Former Cream
singer Jack Bruce
provided vocal duties, as well as a returning Paul Williams.
Having relocated permanently to Southern California
and acrimoniously parted ways with Warner Bros., Holdsworth signed to Enigma for the 1985 release of Metal Fatigue
(along with the aforementioned I.O.U. reissue). It was at this time that Flim & the BB's
bassist Jimmy Johnson
joined the band and, like Wackerman, has remained a consistent bandmember to this day. Making his last appearance on vocals was Paul Williams, with whom Holdsworth claims to have fallen out due to the selling of live bootlegs
by the former.
The Atavachron
album in 1986 was a landmark, in that it was the first to feature Holdsworth's work with a brand new instrument named the SynthAxe
. This unusually designed MIDI controller
(albeit not a guitar synthesizer) would become a staple of Holdsworth's playing for the next fifteen years, during which he would effectively become the public face of the instrument. The next year saw a fourth album, Sand
, which featured no vocals and showcased further SynthAxe experimentation. A second collaboration with Gordon Beck followed in 1988, with With a Heart in My Song
.
In the late 1980s, Holdsworth set up his own recording studio
—The Brewery—in San Diego, California
, which would become one of the recording locations for all of his studio albums beginning with Secrets
(1989) and throughout the 1990s. In a 2005 interview, however, he stated that he no longer owned the studio following his divorce in 1999. The aforementioned Secrets introduced pianist Steve Hunt
, who went on to play keyboard
on two further albums, and as a member of Holdsworth's touring band.
came about in the form of Truth in Shredding
, an ambitious studio project put together by Mark Varney (brother of Shrapnel Records
founder Mike Varney
) through his Legato Records label. In December of that year, following the death of Level 42
guitarist Alan Murphy
in 1989, Holdsworth was recruited by the band to play as a guest musician during a series of concerts at London
's Hammersmith Odeon. With former I.O.U. partner Gary Husband now being the drummer for Level 42, these factors all led to Holdsworth contributing guitarwork on five tracks on their 1991 album, Guaranteed
.
Holdsworth's first solo album of the decade was 1992's Wardenclyffe Tower
, which continued to feature the SynthAxe but also displayed his newfound interest in self-designed baritone guitar
s (built by luthier
Bill DeLap). With the release of Hard Hat Area
in 1994, Holdsworth's touring band for that and the following year was composed of Steve Hunt, Gary Husband and bassist Skúli Sverrisson
. A collaboration in 1996 with brothers Anders
and Jens Johansson
resulted in the hard-edged funky, bluesy, odd time signature-laden Heavy Machinery
. In the same year, he was once again joined by Gordon Beck on None Too Soon
, which featured interpretations of a selection of his favourite jazz standard
s, including The Beatles' Norwegian Wood
.
in 2000, but it turned out to be Holdsworth's last album recorded at The Brewery. Immediately afterwards, he abruptly slowed down his solo output due to events within his personal life. A pair of official live album
s, All Night Wrong
and Then!
, were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively, along with a double
compilation album
, The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock
, in 2005. His eleventh album, Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie
, was released in 2001 and remains his most recent studio effort. According to Holdsworth, a new studio album entitled Snakes and Ladders was slated for a 2008 release on guitarist Steve Vai
's Favored Nations
label, but as of 2011 this has not come about. Further new material featuring Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson was also said to be in the works. In a 2010 interview, he again claimed to have enough material for two albums, which he planned to begin recording after a show in Tel Aviv
, Israel
.
Throughout the latter half of the decade, he toured both North America
and Europe
extensively, and has played as a guest on albums by numerous artists: most notably with former Dream Theater
keyboardist
Derek Sherinian
on Mythology
(2004) and Quantum
(2007); the latter with Sherinian's progressive metal
group Planet X
. In 2006, he performed with pianist Alan Pasqua
, Chad Wackerman and bassist Jimmy Haslip
as part of a live tribute act in honour of late drummer Tony Williams. A DVD
(Live at Yoshi's) and a double album (Blues for Tony) were released in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Throughout 2008–2010, he toured with drummers Terry Bozzio
and Pat Mastelotto
, and bassist Tony Levin
as HoBoLeMa
, a supergroup
playing improvised
experimental music. On 3 November 2011, Holdsworth performed in Mumbai
, India
as part of drummer Virgil Donati's touring band, which also featured pianist Austin Peralta
and bassist Anthony Crawford
.
, but vocals
were prominent on all his 1980s albums except Sand. Two of his most recurring singers were Paul Williams (featured on I.O.U., Road Games and Metal Fatigue) and Rowanne Mark (Atavachron and Secrets). Additionally, he himself sang on Igginbottom's Wrench and The Things You See. In his early career he occasionally played violin
(on Velvet Darkness, Sunbird, The Things You See and I.O.U.) and acoustic guitar
(on Velvet Darkness, U.K., Gazeuse and Metal Fatigue), but claims to not be proficient at the latter; this is due to it being percussive
, and hence a lack of desire to play such an instrument.
He has a distinctive playing style that involves a strong scalar
sense, combining elements of jazz and progressive rock. The harmonic
structure of his pieces can be highly abstruse, with frequently shifting tonal centres
, and his soloing follows from a self-taught advanced modal framework derived directly from his unusually-voiced
chords. His phrasing
almost always features striking yet subtle transitions between note
s that often work to defeat a listener's expections of consonance and dissonance
, with wide and unpredictable intervallic
leaps. Whilst soloing
, he predominantly uses various legato
techniques such as slides, hammer-on
s and pull-off
s (the latter being a personalised method which works more akin to a 'reversed' hammer-on); all of which result in an extremely fluid lead
sound. One of the reasons for his renowned emphasis on legato, as opposed to picking
, stems from a desire to make the sound between picked and legato notes indistinguishable.
Another of his most identifiable traits is the use of rich, fingerpicked
chords
(often awash with delay
, chorus
and other complex effects), which are articulated and sustain
ed using volume swell
s to create sounds reminiscent of the horn
and saxophone
. He has said that he prefers both of the aforementioned to the guitar, which was not his first choice of instrument upon receiving one from his father when beginning to play. It was because of this unfamiliarity with the guitar, combined with attempting to make it sound more like a saxophone, that he originally began to use legato without realising that it was not a common method of playing at the time. Furthermore, he was influenced greatly by such saxophonists as John Coltrane
, Cannonball Adderley, Michael Brecker
and Charlie Parker
, whilst some of his favourite guitarists were Django Reinhardt
, Joe Pass
, Wes Montgomery
, Jimmy Raney
, Charlie Christian
and Hank Marvin
.
. He then switched to playing custom Fender Stratocaster
guitars that were modified with humbucker
pickups. Holdsworth also endorsed DiMarzio
pickups during this time; he was pictured in a contemporary DiMarzio catalogue (circa 1981) playing one of his modified Stratocasters. He continued to play this type of design in the early 1980s, developing custom models with Charvel
and Jackson
that feature on I.O.U. and Road Games.
In 1984, he developed his first signature guitars with Ibanez
, known as the AH-10 and AH-20. These instruments have a semi-hollow
body made from basswood
with a hollow cavity underneath the pickguard
, and can be heard on Metal Fatigue and Atavachron. In 1987, he began his long association with Steinberger
guitars, which are made from graphite
and carbon fibre
, and distinctively have no headstock
. With designer Ned Steinberger
, he developed the GL2TA-AH signature model. In the 1990s, he started playing customised headless
guitars made by luthier Bill DeLap, including an extended-range baritone model which had a 38-inch scale length
. However, he now only owns one of the latter instruments (with a 34-inch scale). He has also developed a line of signature guitars with Carvin, including the semi-hollow H2 in 1996 and the completely hollow HF2 Fatboy in 1999.
On his 1986 release, Atavachron, Holdsworth first recorded with the SynthAxe; a fret
ted, guitar-like MIDI controller with keys and string triggers instead of a strung neck, and a tube that dynamically
alters note volume and tone via breathing (similar to a talk box
). Sound-wise, he uses patches which are mainly Oberheim
synthesizer
s, as he considers them to be "great sounds". Although he has used the SynthAxe on all his solo releases since Atavachron, and still enjoys using his two remaining ones in the studio, he says he no longer wishes to make it such an integral part of his playing—especially live—mainly because of it being so rare, and difficult to maintain and repair as a result.
as one of his favourite pastimes. He is also a keen aficionado of beer
, with a particular fondness for Northern English ale
. Such is his taste for ale that he went as far as experimenting with brewing
his own in the 1990s and inventing a specialised beer pump
—"The Fizzbuster"—which, in his own words, creates "a beautiful creamy head
". He has three children with ex-wife Claire named Louise, Samuel (named after Allan's father) and Emily; all three live in Southern California. He has a daughter from his first marriage to Angela Slater named Lynne, who resides in England. He became a grandfather in December of 2010 when his daughter Louise gave birth to a baby girl named Rori.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He has released twelve studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
s as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
. A player noted for his advanced knowledge of the fretboard
Fingerboard
The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
and innovative playing, he is cited as an influence by such renowned rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
guitarists as Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, Greg Howe
Greg Howe
Gregory "Greg" Howe is an American guitarist and composer. As an active musician for nearly thirty years, he has released nine studio albums in addition to collaborating with a wide variety of artists.-Recording career:...
, Shawn Lane
Shawn Lane
Shawn Lane was an American musician. Although piano was his first instrument, he quickly became a noted player in underground guitar circles and joined Black Oak Arkansas when he was just fourteen years old....
, Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen
Richie Kotzen is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter.At a young age, Richie Kotzen was taken by music and first began playing piano at the age of five. At the age of seven he was inspired by the band KISS to learn the electric guitar...
and John Petrucci
John Petrucci
John Peter Petrucci is an American guitarist and songwriter best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Along with his former bandmate Mike Portnoy, he has produced all Dream Theater albums since their 1999 release, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory...
. Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
once called Holdsworth "one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet".
Early bands ('Igginbottom, Sunship, Tempest)
Holdsworth first recorded with the bandMusical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
'Igginbottom
Igginbottom
Igginbottom were an English progressive rock band, featuring Steven Robinson , Allan Holdsworth , Dave Freeman and Mick Skelly...
on their lone release, Igginbottom's Wrench (later reissued under the group name of "Allan Holdsworth & Friends"), in 1969. In 1971, Holdsworth joined Sunship, an improvising band also featuring Alan Gowen
Alan Gowen
Alan Gowen was a fusion/progressive rock keyboardist, best known for his work in Gilgamesh and National Health.-History:...
, Laurie Baker and future King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
percussionist Jamie Muir
Jamie Muir
Jamie Muir is a UK painter and former percussionist, best known for his work in King Crimson.-Biography:Muir attended Edinburgh College of Art during the 1960s and began playing jazz on trombone before settling on percussion....
. The band played live but never recorded any records.
In the early 1970s Holdsworth joined the British progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Tempest
Tempest (UK band)
Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
, and performed on their self-titled debut studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
in 1973. His playing can also be heard on a live BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
concert from the same year, which was released in 2005 as part of a Tempest compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
entitled Anthology: Under the Blossom.
Journeyman years (1974-1977)
Following his short tenure with Tempest, Holdsworth worked with various well-known progressive rock and jazz fusion artists. In 1974 he played on the Soft MachineSoft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
studio album Bundles
Bundles (album)
Bundles is a 1975 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine.On Bundles, only keyboardist and founding member Mike Ratledge is left of the early Soft Machine line-ups...
and from 1975-1976 with The New Tony Williams Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime
The Tony Williams Lifetime was a jazz-rock fusion group led by jazz drummer Tony Williams.-Original line-up:The Tony Williams Lifetime was founded in 1969 as a power trio with John McLaughlin on electric guitar, and Larry Young on organ. The band was possibly named for Williams' debut album as a...
on the Believe It
Believe It
Believe It is the first album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1975 on Columbia Records.The New Lifetime was a jazz fusion band formed by the drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Alan Pasqua on keyboards and Tony Newton on bass...
and Million Dollar Legs
Million Dollar Legs
Million Dollar Legs is an American comedy film, directed by Edward F. Cline and released by Paramount Pictures. It was inspired by the 1932 Olympics, held in Los Angeles.-Cast :*Jack Oakie as Migg Tweeny*W. C...
albums, an experience he was to prize. In 1976 he played with Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
(contributing to their Gazeuse and Expresso II albums) and with Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...
on Enigmatic Ocean.
In 1976, CTI Records
CTI Records
CTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor. Initially, CTI was a subsidiary of A&M Records, but the label went independent in 1970...
released a recording of a rehearsal
Rehearsal
For other uses, see Rehearsal or Dress rehearsal A rehearsal is a preparatory event in music and theatre that is performed before the official public performance, as a form of practice, and to ensure that all details of the performance are adequately prepared and coordinated for professional...
session, passing it off as an official recording, under the title of Velvet Darkness
Velvet Darkness
Velvet Darkness is the first studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1976 through CTI Records; a remastered edition was reissued in 2002. According to Holdsworth, the tracks were originally recorded during a rehearsal session, after which the tapes were released by CTI without his...
. This angered Holdsworth, who says he still loathes the album intensely.
Bruford, UK, and other (1977-1979)
In 1977, Holdsworth was recruited by progressive rock drummer Bill BrufordBill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
to play most of the guitar on Bruford's first (and jazz fusion-influenced) solo album Feels Good to Me
Feels Good to Me
Feels Good to Me is the debut solo album by the British drummer Bill Bruford. The band Bruford grew out of the line-up assembled for this album, which was released in August 1978. Led by drummer Bill Bruford, the album also features guitarist Allan Holdsworth and John Goodsall, bassist Jeff Berlin,...
.
Shortly afterwards, Bruford was recruited into a new, second-wave British progressive rock band - UK
UK (band)
U.K. were a short-lived British progressive rock supergroup active from 1977 until 1980.The band was composed of Singer/Bassist John Wetton, formerly of King Crimson, Bryan Ferry's band and Uriah Heep, Keyboardist/Electric Violinist Eddie Jobson, formerly of Curved Air, Roxy Music and Frank Zappa's...
, which was fronted by Bruford's former King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
bandmate John Wetton
John Wetton
John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s...
. When Wetton recruited the virtuosic and classically-influenced Eddie Jobson
Eddie Jobson
Edwin "Eddie" Jobson is an English keyboardist and violinist noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K., and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zappa's band in 1976-77...
(ex-Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
/Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
) into UK on keyboards and violin, Bruford in turn recruited Holdsworth as a jazzier "counterweight". Both the Bruford and UK debut albums were released in early 1978, with the latter rapidly eclipsing the former in terms of profile and marketing. Holdsworth's second spell as a potential progressive rock star was as short as the first. Chafing at the more composed and predictable elements to UK's music, he objected to being expected to play the same solos every night. Despite his musical fluidity and virtuosity, this approach did not suit John Wetton, who fired him from the band. Bruford quit in sympathy or was also fired (depending on accounts). Holdsworth would later stress that although he'd not enjoyed his time in the band he'd liked and respected everyone involved and that the problems were "purely musical".
While UK continued with different musicians, Bruford returned to the core lineup of his solo album as the band Bruford, and retained Holdsworth as its guitarist. The first album under that name (One Of A Kind, recorded and released in early 1979) featured extensive contributions by Holdsworth, but the guitarist was by now tired of being a sideman and decided to follow his own course. Following the band's first British tour, Holdsworth quit, although not without reluctance.
1980s
Holdsworth's next significant collaborator was jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Gordon Beck
Gordon Beck
Gordon James Beck was an English jazz pianist.Beck was born in Brixton, London, and attended Pinner County Grammar School . He studied piano in his youth, but decided to go into a career as an engineering technical draughtsman...
, with whom he first played on Beck's Sunbird
Sunbird (album)
Sunbird is a studio album by pianist Gordon Beck, released in 1979 through JMS–Cream Records. This was the first time Beck worked with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which led to two collaborative albums...
album in 1979. Their first proper collaboration, The Things You See
The Things You See
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, electric violin*Gordon Beck – Rhodes piano, piano*Jean-Marie Salhani – production...
, followed in 1980, which was a largely similar effort without percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
or bass. Both musicians would later work together again in the decades to come. Soon afterwards, Holdsworth joined up with drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Gary Husband
Gary Husband
Gary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
and bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Paul Carmichael as a trio, in what became known as False Alarm. This was to be Holdsworth's first outing as a bandleader and, after the acquisition of former Tempest
Tempest (UK band)
Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
singer Paul Williams, the band was renamed I.O.U. Their self-titled debut album, I.O.U.
I.O.U. (album)
I.O.U. is the second studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1982 through Luna Crack Records/I.O.U. Records and reissued in 1985 through Enigma Records...
, was released independently
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
in 1982, followed by a mainstream reissue through Enigma Records
Enigma Records
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...
in 1985.
Immediately after I.O.U.s release, Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
guitarist Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
brought Holdsworth to the attention of Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
executive Mo Ostin
Mo Ostin
Mo Ostin is a record executive who has worked for several companies, including Verve, Reprise Records, Warner Bros. Records, and DreamWorks. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 by Paul Simon, Neil Young, and Lorne Michaels...
. Van Halen had previously enthused about Holdsworth in a 1980 issue of Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine, saying "That guy is bad! He's fantastic; I love him", and that Holdsworth was "[t]he best, in my book". This resulted in the Warner Bros. release of Road Games
Road Games
Road Games is an EP by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1983 through Warner Bros. Records on vinyl only; a CD edition was reissued through Gnarly Geezer Records in 2001, although to this day Holdsworth claims to have received no royalties from either release...
in 1983. It was produced by longtime Van Halen executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
Ted Templeman
Ted Templeman
Ted Templeman is an American record producer.-Career:He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to...
, and received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination in 1984. Holdsworth, however, has always disliked the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
because of various creative issues which arose with Templeman. At the time, the latest incarnation of the I.O.U. band consisted of drummer Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...
(who would become a regular Holdsworth bandmember for the next three decades) and bassist Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin
Jeff Berlin is an American jazz, jazz fusion and progressive rock electric bass player.Jeff Berlin's bass playing is somewhat similar to that of Jaco Pastorius, though Berlin plays a fretted bass and has stated his distaste for Jaco imitators.-Early life:Jeff Berlin was born to parents who were...
. Former Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
singer Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
provided vocal duties, as well as a returning Paul Williams.
Having relocated permanently to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and acrimoniously parted ways with Warner Bros., Holdsworth signed to Enigma for the 1985 release of Metal Fatigue
Metal Fatigue (album)
Metal Fatigue is the third studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1985 through Enigma Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, engineering, production*Paul Williams – vocals...
(along with the aforementioned I.O.U. reissue). It was at this time that Flim & the BB's
Flim & the BB's
"Flim & The BB's" was a contemporary jazz band that became popular not only to jazz fans but also "tech-heads" because of the methods and type of equipment and technology that went into their recordings...
bassist Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (bassist)
Jimmy Johnson is an American bass guitarist best known for his work with James Taylor, Allan Holdsworth, Lee Ritenour and Flim & the BB's...
joined the band and, like Wackerman, has remained a consistent bandmember to this day. Making his last appearance on vocals was Paul Williams, with whom Holdsworth claims to have fallen out due to the selling of live bootlegs
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
by the former.
The Atavachron
Atavachron
Atavachron is the fourth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1986 through Enigma Records and JMS–Cream Records . The album's title and seventh track, as well as the cover art, are references to the "Atavachron" alien time travel device from the Star Trek episode, "All Our...
album in 1986 was a landmark, in that it was the first to feature Holdsworth's work with a brand new instrument named the SynthAxe
SynthAxe
The SynthAxe is a fretted, guitar-like MIDI controller, created by Bill Aitken, Mike Dixon, and Tony Sedivy and manufactured in England in the middle to late 1980s. It is a musical instrument that uses electronic synthesizers to produce sound and is controlled through the use of an arm resembling...
. This unusually designed MIDI controller
MIDI controller
MIDI controller is used in two senses.*In one sense, a controller is hardware or software which generates and transmits MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices....
(albeit not a guitar synthesizer) would become a staple of Holdsworth's playing for the next fifteen years, during which he would effectively become the public face of the instrument. The next year saw a fourth album, Sand
Sand (album)
Sand is the fifth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1987 through Relativity Records and JMS–Cream Records .-Track listing:-Personnel:...
, which featured no vocals and showcased further SynthAxe experimentation. A second collaboration with Gordon Beck followed in 1988, with With a Heart in My Song
With a Heart in My Song
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, engineering, mixing, production*Gordon Beck – keyboard...
.
In the late 1980s, Holdsworth set up his own recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
—The Brewery—in San Diego, California
San Diego County, California
San Diego County is a large county located in the southwestern corner of the US state of California. Hence, San Diego County is also located in the southwestern corner of the 48 contiguous United States. Its county seat and largest city is San Diego. Its population was about 2,813,835 in the 2000...
, which would become one of the recording locations for all of his studio albums beginning with Secrets
Secrets (Allan Holdsworth album)
Secrets is the sixth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1989 through Intima Records; a remastered edition was reissued in 2008 through Eidolon Efformation.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
(1989) and throughout the 1990s. In a 2005 interview, however, he stated that he no longer owned the studio following his divorce in 1999. The aforementioned Secrets introduced pianist Steve Hunt
Steve Hunt
Steve Hunt is an American jazz pianist and composer who was born in 1958. He has released two studio albums, recorded extensively, and toured the world. He is ranked #39 on the Digital Dream Door list of greatest fusion keyboardists.-Music Career:...
, who went on to play keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
on two further albums, and as a member of Holdsworth's touring band.
1990s
A collaboration in 1990 with fusion guitarist Frank GambaleFrank Gambale
Frank Gambale is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released eleven studio albums over a period of more than two decades, and is renowned for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.-Recording career:...
came about in the form of Truth in Shredding
Truth in Shredding
-Personnel:*Frank Gambale – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, engineering, mixing, production*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, overdub engineering*Freddy Ravel – keyboard*Tom Brechtlein – drums*Jimmy Earl – bass guitar...
, an ambitious studio project put together by Mark Varney (brother of Shrapnel Records
Shrapnel Records
Shrapnel Records is a guitar-oriented record label started in 1980 by record producer Mike Varney. Guitarist Marty Friedman , one of the label's most successful artists, first appeared on the album Unsung Guitar Heroes II in 1980 with the band Vixen. Vixen would later change their name to Hawaii...
founder Mike Varney
Mike Varney
Mike Varney is an American musician, record producer, music publisher and impresario. He is the founder of the Shrapnel Label Group, which includes Shrapnel Records, Tone Center Records and Blues Bureau International. He also has a 50% stake in Magna Carta Records, a New York-based label...
) through his Legato Records label. In December of that year, following the death of Level 42
Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
guitarist Alan Murphy
Alan Murphy
Alan Murphy was an English rock session guitarist, best remembered for his collaborations with Kate Bush and Go West. In 1988 he joined the group Level 42 as a full time band member, and played with them until his death in 1989...
in 1989, Holdsworth was recruited by the band to play as a guest musician during a series of concerts at London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Hammersmith Odeon. With former I.O.U. partner Gary Husband now being the drummer for Level 42, these factors all led to Holdsworth contributing guitarwork on five tracks on their 1991 album, Guaranteed
Guaranteed (Level 42 album)
Guaranteed is the ninth studio album by the British musical group Level 42, released in 1991, their first album of the 1990s. The album was released by RCA records and it was the first Level 42 studio album released by a label other than Polydor....
.
Holdsworth's first solo album of the decade was 1992's Wardenclyffe Tower
Wardenclyffe Tower (album)
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, baritone guitar, SynthAxe, mixing, production*Naomi Star – vocals*Steve Hunt – keyboard *Gordon Beck – keyboard *Chad Wackerman – drums , keyboard...
, which continued to feature the SynthAxe but also displayed his newfound interest in self-designed baritone guitar
Baritone guitar
The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. It first appeared in the classical music realm...
s (built by luthier
Luthier
A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...
Bill DeLap). With the release of Hard Hat Area
Hard Hat Area
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, engineering, mixing, production*Steve Hunt – keyboard*Gary Husband – drums*Skúli Sverrisson – bass guitar*Rejean de Grand'Maison – engineering*Gordon Davis – mixing*Bernie Grundman – mastering...
in 1994, Holdsworth's touring band for that and the following year was composed of Steve Hunt, Gary Husband and bassist Skúli Sverrisson
Skúli Sverrisson
Skúli Sverrisson is an Icelandic composer and bassist residing in New York City.Over the past two decades, bass guitarist-composer Skuli Sverrisson has worked with a veritable who’s who of the experimental world, from free jazz legends to music icons Skúli Sverrisson (born 23 October 1966) is an...
. A collaboration in 1996 with brothers Anders
Anders Johansson
Anders Johansson is a Swedish musician. He is the son of Jan Johansson, famous jazz pianist and brother of keyboardist Jens Johansson.-Biography:...
and Jens Johansson
Jens Johansson
Jens Ola Johansson is a Swedish power metal keyboardist and pianist. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.-Biography:...
resulted in the hard-edged funky, bluesy, odd time signature-laden Heavy Machinery
Heavy Machinery (album)
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe*Jens Johansson – keyboard, bass synthesizer, production*Anders Johansson – drums, production...
. In the same year, he was once again joined by Gordon Beck on None Too Soon
None Too Soon
None Too Soon is the ninth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1996 through Polydor Records , JMS–Cream Records and Restless Records...
, which featured interpretations of a selection of his favourite jazz standard
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
s, including The Beatles' Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood is a 1965 song by The Beatles.Norwegian Wood may also refer to:* Norwegian Wood , an annual music festival in Oslo, Norway* Norwegian Wood , by Haruki Murakami...
.
2000s and 2010s
The decade began positively with The Sixteen Men of TainThe Sixteen Men of Tain
The Sixteen Men of Tain is the tenth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 2000 through Gnarly Geezer Records , Polydor Records and JMS–Cream Records ; a remastered edition was reissued in 2003 through Globe Music Media Arts. The album's title is a reference to Glenmorangie, a...
in 2000, but it turned out to be Holdsworth's last album recorded at The Brewery. Immediately afterwards, he abruptly slowed down his solo output due to events within his personal life. A pair of official live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
s, All Night Wrong
All Night Wrong
All Night Wrong is the first official live album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 2002 through Sony Music Entertainment Japan and in 2003 through Favored Nations Entertainment .-Track listing:-Personnel:...
and Then!
Then!
Then! is the second official live album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 2003 through Alternity Records and in 2004 through JMS–Cream Records .-Track listing:-Personnel:...
, were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively, along with a double
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock
The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock
-Disc two:-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, spoken vocals , production*Naomi Star – vocals *Rowanne Mark – vocals *Steve Hunt – keyboard...
, in 2005. His eleventh album, Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie
Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie
-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, drum programming, production*Dave Carpenter – acoustic bass guitar*Chris Bellman – mastering...
, was released in 2001 and remains his most recent studio effort. According to Holdsworth, a new studio album entitled Snakes and Ladders was slated for a 2008 release on guitarist Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
's Favored Nations
Favored Nations
Favored Nations is a record label started by guitarist Steve Vai and former Guitar Center owner Ray Scherr in 1999. The first album ever released by Favored Nations was Frank Gambale's Coming to Your Senses in 2000...
label, but as of 2011 this has not come about. Further new material featuring Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson was also said to be in the works. In a 2010 interview, he again claimed to have enough material for two albums, which he planned to begin recording after a show in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Throughout the latter half of the decade, he toured both North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
extensively, and has played as a guest on albums by numerous artists: most notably with former Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Derek Sherinian
Derek Sherinian
Derek Sherinian is a rock keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, and Alice In Chains. He was also a member of Dream Theater and is the founder of the instrumental metal-fusion band Planet X...
on Mythology
Mythology (Derek Sherinian album)
Mythology is the fourth solo album by keyboard player Derek Sherinian. Sherinian again draws upon some of the greatest talent from the worlds of rock and jazz music...
(2004) and Quantum
Quantum (album)
-Personnel:*Brett Garsed – electric guitar, production*Allan Holdsworth – additional guitar solos *Derek Sherinian – keyboard, production*Virgil Donati – drums, orchestration, production*Jimmy Johnson – bass guitar...
(2007); the latter with Sherinian's progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
group Planet X
Planet X (band)
Planet X is an instrumental rock/progressive metal supergroup, founded by keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Virgil Donati. Throughout a decade of activity, they have released three studio albums and one live album, each with a variety of guest musicians and oft-changing...
. In 2006, he performed with pianist Alan Pasqua
Alan Pasqua
Alan Pasqua is a jazz pianist, educator and composer who co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He also has had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist and songwriter of the 80s hard rock band, Giant. He studied at Indiana University and the New...
, Chad Wackerman and bassist Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip
Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
as part of a live tribute act in honour of late drummer Tony Williams. A DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
(Live at Yoshi's) and a double album (Blues for Tony) were released in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Throughout 2008–2010, he toured with drummers Terry Bozzio
Terry Bozzio
Terry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa.-Biography:Terry Bozzio was born December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California. He started at age 6 playing makeshift drum sets. At the age of 13 he saw The Beatles premier performance on The Ed...
and Pat Mastelotto
Pat Mastelotto
Pat Mastelotto is a rock drummer who has worked with Mr. Mister and King Crimson, amongst others. For King Crimson he initially formed part of the "double trio" lineup, joining Bill Bruford on drums...
, and bassist Tony Levin
Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American progressive rock musician, specializing in bass guitar, Chapman stick and upright bass ....
as HoBoLeMa
HoBoLeMa
HoBoLeMa is an improvisational instrumental supergroup consisting of Allan Holdsworth, Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. The group toured Japan in November 2008, the West Coast of the United States in January 2009 and Europe in April and May 2010...
, a supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
playing improvised
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
experimental music. On 3 November 2011, Holdsworth performed in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
as part of drummer Virgil Donati's touring band, which also featured pianist Austin Peralta
Austin Peralta
Austin Peralta is a musician and composer He had two CD's released by CBS/Sony in Japan by the age of 16.Peralta is a piano player, devoted to music from his very young years when he started taking piano lessons at age 6, and continued his music studies with Eleanor Lindboe and Sara Banta at...
and bassist Anthony Crawford
Anthony Crawford (bass musician)
-External links:*...
.
Compositions and style
Holdsworth's solo compositions are primarily instrumentalInstrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
, but vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
were prominent on all his 1980s albums except Sand. Two of his most recurring singers were Paul Williams (featured on I.O.U., Road Games and Metal Fatigue) and Rowanne Mark (Atavachron and Secrets). Additionally, he himself sang on Igginbottom's Wrench and The Things You See. In his early career he occasionally played violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(on Velvet Darkness, Sunbird, The Things You See and I.O.U.) and acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
(on Velvet Darkness, U.K., Gazeuse and Metal Fatigue), but claims to not be proficient at the latter; this is due to it being percussive
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, and hence a lack of desire to play such an instrument.
He has a distinctive playing style that involves a strong scalar
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...
sense, combining elements of jazz and progressive rock. The harmonic
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
structure of his pieces can be highly abstruse, with frequently shifting tonal centres
Tonic (music)
In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
, and his soloing follows from a self-taught advanced modal framework derived directly from his unusually-voiced
Voicing (music)
In music composition and arranging, a voicing is the instrumentation and vertical spacing and ordering of the pitches in a chord...
chords. His phrasing
Phrase (music)
In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...
almost always features striking yet subtle transitions between note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
s that often work to defeat a listener's expections of consonance and dissonance
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
, with wide and unpredictable intervallic
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...
leaps. Whilst soloing
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
, he predominantly uses various legato
Legato
In musical notation the Italian word legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence...
techniques such as slides, hammer-on
Hammer-on
Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off...
s and pull-off
Pull-off
A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note.-Performance and effect:...
s (the latter being a personalised method which works more akin to a 'reversed' hammer-on); all of which result in an extremely fluid lead
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
sound. One of the reasons for his renowned emphasis on legato, as opposed to picking
Flatpicking
Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...
, stems from a desire to make the sound between picked and legato notes indistinguishable.
Another of his most identifiable traits is the use of rich, fingerpicked
Fingerstyle guitar
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking ....
chords
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
(often awash with delay
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, chorus
Chorus effect
In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
and other complex effects), which are articulated and sustain
Sustain
In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...
ed using volume swell
Volume swell
A volume swell is a musical crescendo commonly associated with the electric guitar.Roughly speaking, the sound of a guitar note is characterized by an initial 'attack' where the pick or nail produces higher pitched overtones over the top of the fundamental note, followed by a diminution of these...
s to create sounds reminiscent of the horn
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
. He has said that he prefers both of the aforementioned to the guitar, which was not his first choice of instrument upon receiving one from his father when beginning to play. It was because of this unfamiliarity with the guitar, combined with attempting to make it sound more like a saxophone, that he originally began to use legato without realising that it was not a common method of playing at the time. Furthermore, he was influenced greatly by such saxophonists as John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Cannonball Adderley, Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, whilst some of his favourite guitarists were Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
, Joe Pass
Joe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
, Wes Montgomery
Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone, Emily...
, Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney
Jimmy Raney was an American jazz guitarist born in Louisville, Kentucky most notable for his work from 1951–1952 and 1962–1963 with Stan Getz and for his work from 1953–1954 with the Red Norvo trio, replacing Tal Farlow. In 1954 and 1955 he won the Down Beat critics poll for guitar...
, Charlie Christian
Charlie Christian
Charles Henry "Charlie" Christian was an American swing and jazz guitarist.Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra...
and Hank Marvin
Hank Marvin
Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...
.
Equipment
Over the course of his career, Holdsworth has worked with many different guitar manufacturers in a lifelong quest to evolve his unique sound. From the late 1960s and through to his time spent with Tony Williams in the mid-1970s, his main instrument was the Gibson SGGibson SG
At the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
. He then switched to playing custom Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
guitars that were modified with humbucker
Humbucker
A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...
pickups. Holdsworth also endorsed DiMarzio
DiMarzio
DiMarzio, Inc. is an United States manufacturer best known for its revolutionary direct-replacement guitar pickups. The company also produces miscellaneous guitar accessories, such as cables, straps and hardware.DiMarzio became known for its Super Distortion model, which was the first after...
pickups during this time; he was pictured in a contemporary DiMarzio catalogue (circa 1981) playing one of his modified Stratocasters. He continued to play this type of design in the early 1980s, developing custom models with Charvel
Charvel
Charvel is a brand of guitar originally founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California and then later, Glendora, California. Charvel guitars became popular in the 1980s due to their association with famous rock guitarists such as Edward Van Halen , Richie Sambora , Warren DeMartini ,...
and Jackson
Jackson Guitars
__FORCETOC__Jackson is a renowned brand of electric guitar that bears the name of its founder, Grover Jackson.-Early years:Grover Jackson obtained ownership in Charvel's Guitar Repair of Glendora, California in the 1970s with a promise to bolster Charvel's business...
that feature on I.O.U. and Road Games.
In 1984, he developed his first signature guitars with Ibanez
Ibanez
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce...
, known as the AH-10 and AH-20. These instruments have a semi-hollow
Semi-acoustic guitar
A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...
body made from basswood
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
with a hollow cavity underneath the pickguard
Pickguard
A pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...
, and can be heard on Metal Fatigue and Atavachron. In 1987, he began his long association with Steinberger
Steinberger
Steinberger refers to a series of distinctive electric guitars and bass guitars, designed and originally manufactured by Ned Steinberger. The word Steinberger can be used to refer to either the instruments themselves or the company that produced them...
guitars, which are made from graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
and carbon fibre
Carbon fiber
Carbon fiber, alternatively graphite fiber, carbon graphite or CF, is a material consisting of fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber...
, and distinctively have no headstock
Headstock
Headstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
. With designer Ned Steinberger
Ned Steinberger
Ned Steinberger is an American creator of innovative musical instruments. He is most notable for his design of guitars and basses without a traditional headstock, which are called Steinberger instruments...
, he developed the GL2TA-AH signature model. In the 1990s, he started playing customised headless
Headstock
Headstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
guitars made by luthier Bill DeLap, including an extended-range baritone model which had a 38-inch scale length
Scale (string instruments)
In stringed instruments, the scale length is the maximum vibrating length of the strings to produce sound. In the classical community, it may be called simply "string length" or less often "mensure." On instruments in which strings are not "stopped" or divided in length like for example the...
. However, he now only owns one of the latter instruments (with a 34-inch scale). He has also developed a line of signature guitars with Carvin, including the semi-hollow H2 in 1996 and the completely hollow HF2 Fatboy in 1999.
On his 1986 release, Atavachron, Holdsworth first recorded with the SynthAxe; a fret
Fret
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...
ted, guitar-like MIDI controller with keys and string triggers instead of a strung neck, and a tube that dynamically
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
alters note volume and tone via breathing (similar to a talk box
Talk box
A talk box is an effects unit that allows a musician to modify the sound of a musical instrument. The musician controls the modification by lip syncing, or by changing the shape of the mouth...
). Sound-wise, he uses patches which are mainly Oberheim
Oberheim
Oberheim Electronics is an American company, founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim , which manufactured audio synthesizers and a variety of other electronic musical instruments.-Oberheim Electronics:...
synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, as he considers them to be "great sounds". Although he has used the SynthAxe on all his solo releases since Atavachron, and still enjoys using his two remaining ones in the studio, he says he no longer wishes to make it such an integral part of his playing—especially live—mainly because of it being so rare, and difficult to maintain and repair as a result.
Personal life
Holdsworth has lived in California permanently since the early 1980s, and often mentions cyclingCycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
as one of his favourite pastimes. He is also a keen aficionado of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
, with a particular fondness for Northern English ale
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
. Such is his taste for ale that he went as far as experimenting with brewing
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
his own in the 1990s and inventing a specialised beer pump
Beer engine
A beer engine is a device for pumping beer, originally manually operated and typically used to dispense beer from a cask or container in a pub's basement or cellar. It was invented by the locksmith and hydraulic engineer Joseph Bramah in 1797...
—"The Fizzbuster"—which, in his own words, creates "a beautiful creamy head
Beer head
Beer head is the frothy foam on top of liquid beer after it is poured in a glass. It is produced by bubbles of carbon dioxide rising to the surface....
". He has three children with ex-wife Claire named Louise, Samuel (named after Allan's father) and Emily; all three live in Southern California. He has a daughter from his first marriage to Angela Slater named Lynne, who resides in England. He became a grandfather in December of 2010 when his daughter Louise gave birth to a baby girl named Rori.
Studio albums
- 1976: Velvet DarknessVelvet DarknessVelvet Darkness is the first studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1976 through CTI Records; a remastered edition was reissued in 2002. According to Holdsworth, the tracks were originally recorded during a rehearsal session, after which the tapes were released by CTI without his...
- 1982: I.O.U.I.O.U. (album)I.O.U. is the second studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1982 through Luna Crack Records/I.O.U. Records and reissued in 1985 through Enigma Records...
- 1983: Road GamesRoad GamesRoad Games is an EP by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1983 through Warner Bros. Records on vinyl only; a CD edition was reissued through Gnarly Geezer Records in 2001, although to this day Holdsworth claims to have received no royalties from either release...
(EP) - 1985: Metal FatigueMetal Fatigue (album)Metal Fatigue is the third studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1985 through Enigma Records.-Track listing:-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, engineering, production*Paul Williams – vocals...
- 1986: AtavachronAtavachronAtavachron is the fourth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1986 through Enigma Records and JMS–Cream Records . The album's title and seventh track, as well as the cover art, are references to the "Atavachron" alien time travel device from the Star Trek episode, "All Our...
- 1987: SandSand (album)Sand is the fifth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1987 through Relativity Records and JMS–Cream Records .-Track listing:-Personnel:...
- 1989: SecretsSecrets (Allan Holdsworth album)Secrets is the sixth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1989 through Intima Records; a remastered edition was reissued in 2008 through Eidolon Efformation.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
- 1992: Wardenclyffe TowerWardenclyffe Tower (album)-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, baritone guitar, SynthAxe, mixing, production*Naomi Star – vocals*Steve Hunt – keyboard *Gordon Beck – keyboard *Chad Wackerman – drums , keyboard...
- 1993: Hard Hat AreaHard Hat Area-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, engineering, mixing, production*Steve Hunt – keyboard*Gary Husband – drums*Skúli Sverrisson – bass guitar*Rejean de Grand'Maison – engineering*Gordon Davis – mixing*Bernie Grundman – mastering...
- 1996: None Too SoonNone Too SoonNone Too Soon is the ninth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1996 through Polydor Records , JMS–Cream Records and Restless Records...
- 2000: The Sixteen Men of TainThe Sixteen Men of TainThe Sixteen Men of Tain is the tenth studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 2000 through Gnarly Geezer Records , Polydor Records and JMS–Cream Records ; a remastered edition was reissued in 2003 through Globe Music Media Arts. The album's title is a reference to Glenmorangie, a...
- 2001: Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent MovieFlat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, drum programming, production*Dave Carpenter – acoustic bass guitar*Chris Bellman – mastering...
- 2005: The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the ClockThe Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock-Disc two:-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, spoken vocals , production*Naomi Star – vocals *Rowanne Mark – vocals *Steve Hunt – keyboard...
(compilation)
Collaboration albums
- 1980: The Things You SeeThe Things You See-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, electric violin*Gordon Beck – Rhodes piano, piano*Jean-Marie Salhani – production...
– with Gordon BeckGordon BeckGordon James Beck was an English jazz pianist.Beck was born in Brixton, London, and attended Pinner County Grammar School . He studied piano in his youth, but decided to go into a career as an engineering technical draughtsman... - 1988: With a Heart in My SongWith a Heart in My Song-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, engineering, mixing, production*Gordon Beck – keyboard...
– with Gordon Beck - 1990: Truth in ShreddingTruth in Shredding-Personnel:*Frank Gambale – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, engineering, mixing, production*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, overdub engineering*Freddy Ravel – keyboard*Tom Brechtlein – drums*Jimmy Earl – bass guitar...
– with Frank GambaleFrank GambaleFrank Gambale is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released eleven studio albums over a period of more than two decades, and is renowned for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.-Recording career:...
/The Mark Varney Project - 1996: Heavy MachineryHeavy Machinery (album)-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe*Jens Johansson – keyboard, bass synthesizer, production*Anders Johansson – drums, production...
– with Jens JohanssonJens JohanssonJens Ola Johansson is a Swedish power metal keyboardist and pianist. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.-Biography:...
and Anders JohanssonAnders JohanssonAnders Johansson is a Swedish musician. He is the son of Jan Johansson, famous jazz pianist and brother of keyboardist Jens Johansson.-Biography:... - 2009: Blues for Tony – with Alan PasquaAlan PasquaAlan Pasqua is a jazz pianist, educator and composer who co-composed the CBS Evening News theme. He also has had an extensive career in pop and rock music, most notably as a founding member, keyboardist and songwriter of the 80s hard rock band, Giant. He studied at Indiana University and the New...
, Chad WackermanChad WackermanChad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...
and Jimmy HaslipJimmy HaslipJimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...
(live double album)
Other album appearances
- 1969: Igginbottom's Wrench – 'IgginbottomIgginbottomIgginbottom were an English progressive rock band, featuring Steven Robinson , Allan Holdsworth , Dave Freeman and Mick Skelly...
- 1972: Belladona – NucleusNucleus (band)Nucleus were a pioneering jazz-rock band from Britain who continued in different forms from 1969 to 1989. In their first year they won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock, and performed both at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Gate jazz club.They were...
- 1973: Tempest – TempestTempest (UK band)Tempest was a British progressive rock band active from 1973 and 1974. Its core members were Jon Hiseman on drums and Mark Clarke on bass. They released two studio albums before breaking up.-Band biography:...
- 1975: BundlesBundles (album)Bundles is a 1975 album by the British psychedelic, progressive rock and jazz/fusion band Soft Machine.On Bundles, only keyboardist and founding member Mike Ratledge is left of the early Soft Machine line-ups...
– Soft MachineSoft MachineSoft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre... - 1975: Believe ItBelieve ItBelieve It is the first album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1975 on Columbia Records.The New Lifetime was a jazz fusion band formed by the drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Alan Pasqua on keyboards and Tony Newton on bass...
– The New Tony Williams Lifetime - 1976: Million Dollar LegsMillion Dollar Legs (album)Million Dollar Legs is the second album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1976 on Columbia Records.The album features the jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua and Tony Newton. The Allmusic review awards this album with 1 star...
– The New Tony Williams Lifetime - 1976: Gazeuse!Gazeuse!Gazeuse! is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1976. In the U.S., it was called Expresso.The album is jazz fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history...
– GongGong (band)Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett... - 1976: Capricorn Princess – Esther PhillipsEsther PhillipsEsther Phillips was an American singer. Phillips was known for her R&B vocals, but she was a versatile singer, also performing pop, country, jazz, blues and soul music.-Early life:...
- 1977: Re-Touch & Quartet – John StevensJohn Stevens (drummer)John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
- 1977: Enigmatic OceanEnigmatic OceanEnigmatic Ocean is an album by French Jazz-Fusion artist Jean-Luc Ponty, released in 1977. It reached #1 on the Billboard Jazz album chart in 1977.- Track listing :All songs by Jean-Luc Ponty.#"Overture" – 0:47#"The Trans-Love Express" – 3:59...
– Jean-Luc PontyJean-Luc PontyJean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano... - 1978: Expresso IIExpresso IIExpresso II is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1978.Like the other Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums, the album is predominantly jazz-fusion and has little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen's Gong, even though the bands share a common history.Expresso II is a companion...
– Gong - 1978: Feels Good to MeFeels Good to MeFeels Good to Me is the debut solo album by the British drummer Bill Bruford. The band Bruford grew out of the line-up assembled for this album, which was released in August 1978. Led by drummer Bill Bruford, the album also features guitarist Allan Holdsworth and John Goodsall, bassist Jeff Berlin,...
– BrufordBill BrufordWilliam Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring... - 1978: U.K.U.K. (album)UK is the eponymous debut album by the progressive rock supergroup UK. It features John Wetton , Eddie Jobson , Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth . It was released in 1978 on E.G. Records / Polydor...
– U.K.UK (band)U.K. were a short-lived British progressive rock supergroup active from 1977 until 1980.The band was composed of Singer/Bassist John Wetton, formerly of King Crimson, Bryan Ferry's band and Uriah Heep, Keyboardist/Electric Violinist Eddie Jobson, formerly of Curved Air, Roxy Music and Frank Zappa's... - 1978: Live In Boston – U.K.UK (band)U.K. were a short-lived British progressive rock supergroup active from 1977 until 1980.The band was composed of Singer/Bassist John Wetton, formerly of King Crimson, Bryan Ferry's band and Uriah Heep, Keyboardist/Electric Violinist Eddie Jobson, formerly of Curved Air, Roxy Music and Frank Zappa's...
- 1978: Touching On – John Stevens
- 1979: One of a Kind – Bruford
- 1979: Time is the KeyTime is the Key-Personnel:*Pierre Moerlen – drums, gong, vibraphone, electravibe, marimba, glockenspiel, tympani, darbourka, synthesizers *Hansford Rowe – bass , acoustic guitar , bass synthesizer *Bon Lozaga – guitar with...
– Pierre Moerlen's GongPierre Moerlen's GongPierre Moerlen's Gong is a jazz fusion outfit which is very different from the first incarnation of Gong, the psychedelic space-rock act led by Daevid Allen... - 1979: SunbirdSunbird (album)Sunbird is a studio album by pianist Gordon Beck, released in 1979 through JMS–Cream Records. This was the first time Beck worked with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which led to two collaborative albums...
– Gordon Beck - 1980: Conversation Piece – John StevensJohn Stevens (drummer)John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
- 1981: Land of Cockayne – Soft Machine
- 1983: Individual ChoiceIndividual ChoiceIndividual Choice is an album by French Jazz-Fusion artist Jean-Luc Ponty, released in 1983.- Track listing :All songs by Jean-Luc Ponty.#"Computer Incantations for World Peace" – 5:41#"Far from the Beaten Paths" – 5:59#"In Spiritual Love" – 7:01...
– Jean-Luc Ponty - 1983: Retouch – John Stevens
- 1984: Transatlantic – Jon St. JamesJon St. JamesJon St. James is an American guitarist, songwriter–composer, producer and engineer whose Casbah Recording Studio was a part of Orange County, California's new music scene in the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. St. James' first album was as leader–frontman–songwriter of the progressive rock group...
- 1986: Soma – Soma
- 1986: Master Strokes 1978-1985 – Bill BrufordBill BrufordWilliam Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
- 1986: Change of AddressChange of AddressChange of Address is Krokus' ninth album, and is largely seen to be their least successful. It has been described as "plainly one of the worst efforts" from Krokus, and the band's website claims that they and their musical style were put under too much pressure from their record company...
– KrokusKrokus (band)Krokus is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Switzerland. They enjoyed moderate success in North America during the 1980s.Krokus was founded in Solothurn in 1974 by bassist Chris von Rohr and guitarist Tommy Kiefer... - 1986: Fast Impressions – Jon St. James
- 1988: Radio Free AlbemuthRadio Free Albemuth (album)Radio Free Albemuth is the debut solo album by virtuoso bassist Stuart Hamm, released in 1988 on Relativity Records. Hamm demonstrates his ability on the bass guitar and is backed up by famous guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Joe Satriani....
– Stuart HammStuart HammStuart "Stu" Hamm is an American bass guitar player, known for his session and live work with numerous artists as well for his unconventional playing style and solo recordings.-Beginning career:... - 1988: If This Bass Could Only TalkIf This Bass Could Only TalkIf This Bass Could Only Talk is a 1988 album by the American bassplayer Stanley Clarke.-Track listing:#"If This Bass Could Only Talk" – 2:30#"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" – 6:24#"I Want to Play for Ya" – 3:22#"Stories to Tell" – 3:46...
– Stanley ClarkeStanley ClarkeStanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores... - 1988: No Borders – Carl VerheyenCarl Verheyen-History:Verheyen has authored many instructional books, including Improvising Without Scales, as well as Studio City, a collection of articles written for the magazine Guitar for the Practicing Musician from 1996-1999...
- 1988: The Distance Between – Strange AdvanceStrange AdvanceStrange Advance was a Canadian New Wave band formed in 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They were nominated for a 1983 Juno Award as Most Promising Group of the Year and again in 1985 as Group of the Year...
- 1989: Attack of the Neon Shark – Alex MasiAlex MasiAlex Masi is an Italian guitarist.He was born in Venice, and studied at the Conservatory of Music in Verona. He formed the heavy rock band Dark Lord in 1984 and recorded two EPs with them...
- 1989: A Question of Time – Jack BruceJack BruceJohn Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
- 1989: Guitar's Practicing Musicians – various artists
- 1990: Silent Will – Andrea Marcelli
- 1990: Blue Tav – Steve TavaglioneSteve TavaglioneSteve Tavaglione is a woodwind and EWI musician most notable for his work as a founder of the Latin fusion group Caldera, his work with noted keyboard player Scott Kinsey, and work in the television and film industry....
- 1991: Love in Peace – Paz
- 1991: Forty Reasons – Chad WackermanChad WackermanChad Wackerman is a jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer; arguably best known in the United States for his work as a drummer and percussionist in Frank Zappa's band...
- 1991: GuaranteedGuaranteed (Level 42 album)Guaranteed is the ninth studio album by the British musical group Level 42, released in 1991, their first album of the 1990s. The album was released by RCA records and it was the first Level 42 studio album released by a label other than Polydor....
– Level 42Level 42Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the... - 1992: Lone Ranger – Jeff WatsonJeff Watson (guitarist)Jeff Watson is an American guitarist originally known as one of the founding members and lead guitarist of the band Night Ranger, in which he has played as co-guitarist with guitarist Brad Gillis. He has also released solo albums. In 2007, he left the band to pursue more challenging opportunities...
- 1993: The View – Chad Wackerman
- 1993: Come Together: Guitar Tribute to the Beatles – various artists
- 1995: Suffer – Gongzilla
- 1995: Oneness – Andrea Marcelli
- 1995: Worlds Away & Back – Strange Advance
- 1996: Stare – Gorky ParkGorky Park (band)Gorky Park or Парк Горького was a Soviet Glam Metal band, that gained mainstream popularity in USA during Perestroika. Gorky Park is famous for its kitsch use of western stereotypes of Russians, such as pseudo-traditional clothing, balalaika-like guitar design and Hammer and sickle as their logo...
- 1997: From Your Heart and Your Soul – Steve HuntSteve HuntSteve Hunt is an American jazz pianist and composer who was born in 1958. He has released two studio albums, recorded extensively, and toured the world. He is ranked #39 on the Digital Dream Door list of greatest fusion keyboardists.-Music Career:...
- 1997: Blue Tav – Steve TavaglioneSteve TavaglioneSteve Tavaglione is a woodwind and EWI musician most notable for his work as a founder of the Latin fusion group Caldera, his work with noted keyboard player Scott Kinsey, and work in the television and film industry....
- 2002: Pray for Rain – Atlantis
- 2003: BBC Radio 1971-1974 – Soft Machine
- 2003: Abracadabra – Soft Works
- 2004: Sonic Undertow – Riptyde
- 2004: MythologyMythology (Derek Sherinian album)Mythology is the fourth solo album by keyboard player Derek Sherinian. Sherinian again draws upon some of the greatest talent from the worlds of rock and jazz music...
– Derek SherinianDerek SherinianDerek Sherinian is a rock keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, and Alice In Chains. He was also a member of Dream Theater and is the founder of the instrumental metal-fusion band Planet X... - 2004: Book of the Dead – K2
- 2005: The State of Things – David Garfield & Friends
- 2005: Nebula – David Hines
- 2005: Anthology: Under the Blossom – Tempest
- 2006: Deconstruction of a Postmodern Musician – Corrado Rustici
- 2006: Floating World Live – Soft machine
- 2007: Prowlin – Dan Carlin & Friends
- 2007: QuantumQuantum (album)-Personnel:*Brett Garsed – electric guitar, production*Allan Holdsworth – additional guitar solos *Derek Sherinian – keyboard, production*Virgil Donati – drums, orchestration, production*Jimmy Johnson – bass guitar...
– Planet XPlanet X (band)Planet X is an instrumental rock/progressive metal supergroup, founded by keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Virgil Donati. Throughout a decade of activity, they have released three studio albums and one live album, each with a variety of guest musicians and oft-changing... - 2007: The Acatama Experience – Jean-Luc Ponty
- 2007: Rock Goes to College – Bruford
- 2008: Progasaurus – Chris Buck
- 2008: Everyone Knows My Drinking, No One Knows My Thirst – Eric Keyes
- 2009: Highway Star – Snew
- 2009: The Early Years – Paul KordaPaul KordaPaul Korda is an English songwriter, singer, musician, and actor. He has been writing and performing music since the 1960s...
- 2009: Propensity – John StevensJohn Stevens (drummer)John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
and Danny ThompsonDanny ThompsonDaniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
(originally recorded in 1978) - 2010: Living It Up – Level 42Level 42Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
- 2011: Dirty & Beautiful: Volume I – Gary HusbandGary HusbandGary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
VHS video releases
- 1992: REH Instructional: Allan Holdsworth (guitar instructional, reissued on DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format in 2007) - 1997: Drums & Improvisation – Gary Husband (Holdsworth is interviewed and contributes to three songs)
DVD video releases
- 2002: Live at the Galaxy Theatre
- 2005: Carvin: 60 Years in the Making (features an extended interview with Holdsworth, amongst others)
- 2006: Rock Goes to College – Bruford
- 2007: Live at Yoshi's
Books
Transcriptions and sheet music. Transcriptions, sheet music and accompanying CD. Reference tables and diagrams.External links
- Official website
- Discography at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Jazz Guitar Online: "Allan Holdsworth's Guitar Gear"
- MP3 clip of a SynthAxe solo on Radio Free Albemuth at Guitar Nine Records
- Allan Holdsworth Style Legato Pattern