Ultimate Collectors' Edition

by John Kelman
September 25, 2016

Well, there's certainly been a wait for this one, but for fans of what may be the last high profile progressive rock group to emerge in the 1970s, U.K.'s Ultimate Collectors' Edition proves well worth it. What began as an already sizeable 16-disc box for a group that, during its relatively brief tenure, released just two studio albums and one live recording, has become an 18-disc set with the addition of a recording of the group's final show in Nijmegen, ...

Allan Holdsworth: FLATTire: Music For a Non-Existent Movie

by Glenn Astarita
July 3, 2013

FLATTire was released in 2001 and highlights Allan Holdsworth's use of the MIDI-controller, guitar-like Synthaxe, and is based on a soundtrack for a non-existent movie, marking a period of reflection in the artist's life. However, the album did not receive much attention amid a sparse print run. Here, the guitarist integrates the broad tonal aspects of the synthaxe with his time-honored guitar prowess. He casts impassioned sentiment, and explores the dominion of a film soundtrack, used as a basis for ...

Allan Holdsworth: None Too Soon

by Chris M. Slawecki
December 19, 2012

For his ninth album, guitar wizard Allan Holdsworth takes on jazz classics by saxophonists John Coltrane and Joe Henderson, pianist Bill Evans and more, plus pop classics just as famous for their jazz interpretations, in a set put together by Holdsworth's longtime musical associate and pianist, Gordon Beck. “Gordon chose most of the tunes, which I hadn't grown up playing and so wasn't that familiar with," Holdsworth recalls. “When he taught me one, it would be just like I was ...

Allan Holdsworth: Hard Hat Area

by Glenn Astarita
June 4, 2012

Allan Holdsworth is one of the most heralded guitarists of modern times, namely among the progressive rock and jazz elite. Vastly influential and maintaining an active touring schedule, the artist's craft is often imitated yet never duplicated. Originally released in 1993, Hard Hat Area looms as one of the guitarist's premier solo outings. Holdsworth demands the utmost from his drummers. Here, Gary Husband--a legend in his own right--tenders the polyrhythmic vehicle on the blithe, yet torridly gravitating “Low ...

Allan Holdsworth: Hard Hat Area and None Too Soon

by John Kelman
March 23, 2012

Few artists alive in 2012 can be both as awe-inspiring and frustrating as guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Since emerging in the early 1970s--his solo on “Hector's House," from trumpeter Ian Carr's Belladonna (Vertigo, 1972), an early and rough-hewn but still staggering preface to advances made in leaps in bounds in the ensuing half decade--Holdsworth has emerged as a rare true original, creating a harmonic landscape like none other. It's not just guitarists who strive to emulate Holdsworth's smooth, legato approach, sophisticated ...

Allan Holdsworth: Blues for Tony

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 7, 2010

Questo doppio CD, registrato nel 2007, racchiude il meglio di un tour che ha visto Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua, Jimmy Haslip e Chad Wackerman scendere in campo per omaggiare il batterista Tony Williams. Il chitarrista Holdsworth e il tastierista Pasqua hanno militato nel New Tony Williams Lifetime, il quartetto che registr�� gli album Believe It e Million Dollar Legs fra il 1975 e il 1976. Il bassista Haslip e il batterista Wackerman sono invece musicisti ben noti che ricoprono adeguatamente ...

Allan Holdsworth Trio: Gatineau, Canada

by John Kelman
October 8, 2009

Allan Holdsworth TrioMaison de la Culture de Gatineau Gatineau, Canada September 28, 2009

In a trio, changing only one member can make a tremendous difference. It's been two years since guitar legend Allan Holdsworth last performed in eastern Canada but, with an eight-city tour focused largely in the province of Quebec, it's a very different trio than that of his long overdue return to the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2007. Longtime bassist Jimmy Johnson was still ...