Musical Musings From the Wild....Allan Holdsworth...WTF?! 

The scary thing is, even after decades of listening to his playing, he never ceases to amaze. You'd think, by now, we'd be jaded. But I was just listening to None Too Soon last week, his 1996 jazz standards album, and just marveling at several of the solos. They never lose the ability to wow, even after all these years

As a drummer of 52 years, I got into Allan Holdsworth way back through the litany of fantastic drummers he played with: John Marshall, Pierre Moerlen, Tony Williams, Bill Bruford, Steve Smith, John Stevens, Gary Husband, Chad Wackerman, Andrea Marcelli, Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Novak, Virgil Donati and so many others. Holdsworth is the epitome of guitar in my book. Even when he went to Synthaxe and people were bitching, I still found his output to be genius. I could listen to the tune Tokyo Dream everyday straight for a year and never get tired of it. I remember back in the cassettes in cars days, I always had Allan Holdsworth in the bunch.

He was also really good on the Tempest album from 1973. It’s so crazy’s to hear him play on a hard rock album.

Zappa knew 👍

Holdsworth's playing on the song "Road Games" is incredibly unique and brilliant. One of my faves!

Great video - discussing the master with praise that he so richly deserved.

I was listening to Close To The Edge this morning, and marveling about Steve Howe in the exact same manner. Wildly innovative playing! Can't wait to listen to New Dawn!

This Pat Smythe CD is the archival release of the year for me. Even a young Holdsworth is mind blowing! A must for any jazz/fusion fan. Also for anyone who doesn't understand Holdsworth, I think this is a great starting point.

I guess: I have more homework lol. By the way , gorgeous weather in New Jersey, and obviously looks like NY. Thanks again Pete for your time 👍💯

One of the outstanding releases this far in 2024. The rawness of playing to the opening of Floppy Hat and the runs are mind-blowing.

I had a time in the mid 80s, right around the time when i started playing drums, when i was listening non stop to Bill Brufords solo albums. It took my years though to realize that Allan Holdsworth plays guitar on those records. Just amazing stuff

Nothing like having some oatmeal before the gym and an outside vid from Mr. Pardo. Hope youre doing great Pete.

Odd fun fact: Allan Holldsworth played the guitar solo on Long Way from Home off of Krokus' 1986 album "Change of Address". That always baffled me how that came to be.

While I had heard of Holdsworth for years, I never really checked anything out until doing my SOT homework. From Enigmatic Ocean, to Tony Williams’ Believe It, to UK, it’s all pretty astounding. Also glad to see all those big trees behind you. My neighborhood here in the lower Hudson valley lost a whole bunch in the last few storms.

Holdsworth was from a planet called Yorkshire. I have had friends from there and they are a breed apart, beautiful people who will not be rushed. One of England's finest cricketers came from there, a similar level of mindful virtuosity!

Thank you Pete for another insightful look into the genius of Allan. I need to get that CD as soon as I can.

I got the chance to see Holdsworth with Jon Heisman's Tempest back in 1972 when they lit up Fleetwood Mac. He was a bad man back then.

I whole heartedly agree that Allan Holdsworth is a dimensional creature in terms of playing and musical imagination - truly an alien artist form another world. I would recommend the DVD of Allan Holdsworth , Allan Pasqua , Chad Wackerman , Jimmy Haslip at Yoshi's is an amazing musical experience for the playing and the sound quality - borders revelatory !

The funny thing is, the sound he's best known for was through a set-up most guitarists wouldn't touch with a bargepole. A Gibson Lab series amp with the compression circuit awitched on.

John Marshall was awesome. I was blessed to hear him with the Softs. Thanks for the heads up. AH on Bundles is splendid.

An indication of just how clueless I was back then I hadn't discovered Holdsworth until about 76 which is unforgivable considering I had been playing guitar myself for five years. I certainly knew about McLaughlin and Ackermann but not Holdsworth. Anyway I will give it a listen.

Great stuff! I was unaware of this and have just streamed it. I love all Holdsworth but his earlier stuff, especially the Tony Williams' Lifetime, blues me away every time I hear it. So, I'll now have to order the CD.

This channel turned me into an Allan Holdsworth freak and sent me on the impossible quest to collect all his sideman appearances and solo records on vinyl. From the moment I heard his solo on Bruford's "Beelzebub" I was hooked. Could someone out there please just re-issue his solo albums on vinyl already?

Pick this up recently but haven't had a chance to check it out..I will now..great segment Pete..

Thank you, i will listen to the album. Allan was the best.

Hello Pete , have you ever listen to " Touching on " by drummer Joh Stevens ? A. Holdsworth is killing on thise one . Al improvised music , Allan didn't like at al , i think this great early master Holdsworth . Greetz from Belgium !!!!!

Alan Holdsworth had this certain method where he would play a fingering pattern traditionally played over a 4 fret stretch and turn it into a fingering stretched over 6 or 8 frets. For example...taking the notes of a G major scale and skipping a few frets between notes and running that across the fretboard is difficult for some players to do fluently and makes little sense to them when they can grab all the notes between the third and sixth fret....however you won't get the Holdsworth sound or his style playing everything in the traditional way. I don't believe that Alan Holdsworth stretched his fingering hand like that to always gain speed...I believe he did it to develop a style of his own. A distinctive style .

Holdsworth was connected like Coltrane was.

No clue about this Pat Smythe album. 1973?!? This exactly the type of Jazz album I woulda wet my pants over in 1975 (1st started buying Jazz). My uncle was sending me Pat Martino LPs in the mail. This one would have stayed on my turntable! Damn!

Holdsworth was a quiet god.

he came from my home town of Bradford

What’s a good album to start with for Holdsworth?

What about a tribute for Peter Collins (producer, arranger, and audio engineer for Rush, Queensryche, Alice Cooper...)?

Tf did I just watch?😂