Photo: By The original uploader was Gm7b52001 at English Wikipedia
It’s very sad to hear of the passing of legendary guitarist Allan Holdsworth. On Easter Sunday, April 16th, 2017, Allan Holdsworth’s daughter sadly announced the passing of her Father. The announcement was made via social media. Allan Holdsworth was seventy years old at the time of his passing.
Everyone knows that one great guitar player in their neighborhood or school who usually plays at a level of musicianship above everyone else. Chances are, if you ask that great guitar player to name the guitar players that inspired their playing, the name AllanHoldsworth will stand at the top of their list. Allan Holdsworth was a favorite among musicians. Holdsworth’s guitar playing defined the word original. No one sounded like Allan Holdsworth. Many rock fans first discovered Allan Holdsworth’s musicianship through his work in the late 1970’s progressive band U.K. It was a band founded by the legendary drummer Bill Bruford, who was also a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. Allan Holdsworth’s guitar playing in the band U.K. helped create a legion of fans that would follow Holdsworth’s entire career.
Allan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford would work together on several different projects. Eventually, Holdsworth began a solo career, releasing 12 albums. His first solo album was released in 1983. The album titled Road Games was produced by Ted Templeman, who had achieved considerable success producing the early Van Halen records. Allan Holdsworth would go on to win a Grammy in 1984 for his first solo album. In 1985, Holdsworth released one of his all-time great records titled Metal Fatigue. For this writer, Holdsworth’s Metal Fatigue Album was the record that spurred many rock fans’ interest in fusion music. The guitar playing rocked, but it had a depth many people had never heard before. It was, for many, a groundbreaking record that crossed musical genres and enticed fans of both sides to cross the street.
Every Allan Holdsworth album would feature some of the greatest rock and jazz artists of the 20th Century. All the great rock fusion guitarists wanted to work with Holdsworth. One of his most exciting projects was Holdsworth’s work with guitarist Frank Gambale. The group also featured Tom Brechtlein on drums and Jimmy Earl on Bass. The project, produced by Mark Varney, was a killer exploration of fusion guitar riffs and solos exchanged between two powerhouse musicians.
In the mid-1980s, a new interface called MIDI was developed to help synthesizers communicate with each other using 0s and 1s (computer bytes). Basically, it was a non-audio communication protocol. It enabled synths to send note-on and note-off information along with pitch bend and volume controls. It was not a perfect technology, but it was groundbreaking at the time. Allan Holdsworth utilized the technology by employing an instrument called a SynthAxe. It was basically a guitar that could connect to a synthesizer. Alan Holdsworth’s original utilization of the SynthAxe in his compositions and guitar playing was just another example of the man’s brilliance and contributions to 20th-century music.
Allan Holdsworth’s passing is a tragic loss to the musical community. He was a true inspiration for so many musicians.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family .
Photo: By The original uploader was Gm7b52001 at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0), GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
