I think Allan was fighting through some illness here. Like he was disconnected from it all. You can see he was trying to keep it together. Greatest guitarist that ever lived.
How can people say this is good? I'm listening and feeling embarrassed at how bad this sounds. He is a legend yes and some solos he's played are some of the best ever in the history of ever.... but this is just bad. Especially when compared to what Frank played over this.
Allan hated cliche licks, this chord progression is very pretty yet kind of corners you a bit with regards of what scales to use in a typical fashion. Dweezil is a mega guitarist but pretty safe in what he does, Allan is just doing the opposite, it’s very cool, one of my favourite vids of him live.
Allan can play whatever he likes !!! Haters can’t play s*** so they criticize. They are stuck in that play fast licks and shred it to death. If they listened to scoffield , lage lund, Julian lage they would explode. RIP ALLAN you da man
Frankly, this is over most people’s heads….(pun intended) Alan Holdsworth…. a god amongst guitar players… Only people who really know Frank can appreciate this……& AH.., played every carefully chosen note on purpose believe it or not kids….its a tribute to Frank…. Too bad the sound quality is mediocre but I’ll take wot ah can get… man do I miss both of these genius’s…. And Dweezil, I met, and have a ton of respect for!!!
If you’ve watched any amount of Holdsworth, its obvious that he is totally wasted here. The man loved English ales! Out of his countless jaw-dropping performances, this is one of the few that he had a few too many tankards. God rest his soul and we miss his genius musicianship.
Yeah he looks like he's in a black out actually. 1:30 Been there myself. I "remember" being in one on 8th Ave one night when a friend came up and I came out of it. Saw Jaco a few times towards the end and yeah man the lucky guys stop all the drink and weed and just get a good coffee ☕ maker.
Holdsworth’s approach to music was so unusual and idiosyncratic that I have to wonder if he actually didn’t know how to play over simple diatonic stuff. Or at least not how to translate his style to it. At times it sounded like he latched on, but was then somewhat lost. Being a guitar player myself, and having some understanding of his approach, I don’t think you can say every note here was somehow intentional genius going over people’s heads. He was struggling.
Allan stretches the modal boundaries and clearly delights delights Dweezil. I have been listening to these Zappa recordings since they came out. Holdsworth plays bits of the recording, but improvs in a fututistic and expressive way that would have made Frank stop and stare just as Dweezil does. Awesome. Allan tries to get even freakier at the end, but Dweezil doesn't follow his lead. He keeps the song a bit closer to it's original script.. remember this is about "treacherous" Cretins ...not friendly ones
When you are familiar with what Allan has done, you know, that he would have regretted his here performance. Dweezil is an excellent guitarist. But Allan was a genius and imho unfortunately was displaced here.
Allan was a guitar god, but c'mon this is a jamming session not allan Holdsworth project, his playing is not suit the band at all. Its just two fucking chords and allan play like 50 scales in one chord. Playing outside and being outside of the song is two different things, and i think this time allan is being outside of the song and the band. He has a different world, i know, but what's the point if we can't see that world ? Its become pointless
Dweezil can't make heads or tails of Allan or is he trying he knows what Allan does. Look at how Allan tests the waters first then he goes fullmetal jacket. UNBELIEVABLE.
Allan's music and 'other/normal' music doesn't go anyway....Allan was so different in his approach ....and Zappa's music was off on another tangent....like aliens from that part of space, jamming with an alien from over there.... give them a month together and their styles would start to mesh....I like it anyway....
Alex, The real problem here is not Allan it's the sound quality or lack of sound in the recording . I bet those lucky folks in the crowd heard this in a much better quality of sound coming off the stage than we hear on this poor sound recording . It's a cell phone clip what does anyone expect but that . Frank would have loved his soloing. Sad they are both gone & the world of guitar music has lost two genius's .
nice one when Frank zappa was asked a few years before he passed who did he rate as a Guitarist he said only one and he is playing here . the one thing that makes alan special he has his own chords and nobody knows what they are.many only scratch the surface trying to copy him
you are Zappa's child, don't make You your father, Zappa ... Allan was your father's favorite guitarist and you instead of letting him play, you want to jam with him..Your luck as Allan was modest .... in any case....
