I've been to The Golden Bear. That night it was John McLaughlin. Steve Morse opened for him and Allan Holdsworth was seated across the table from me. Saw Allan countless times, most often at The Baked Potato.

Great tribute; he was definitely the GOAT; a once in a century musician; pure genius! I will always treasure every second of every show I got to see live; the best concert experiences imaginable. Too good for this world.

Not jazz guitar but the idea of music. Created new languages not recognizable by any other linguist. He was beamed here from outer space for sure

On point Bro!!❤

Wow - thanks for this account. Very moving. Allan's contributions cannot be overstated. Example: no Allan, no EVH as we knew him. No EVH... It's interesting that sometimes it's the underrated/obscure musicans who're the innovators that change everything, while more famous, but less innovative ones proliferative their ideas.

You are absolutely correct!

David, big thanks for this important background history!

Never heard of this or him until now. Nice. Of course, AH is what brought me here...

david c - Wasn't Pat Smythe the pianist in Joe Harriots quintet in the late 50 early 60s that was so influential and important on the development of European Free Jazz?

New talent? Ever heard Tempest? Igginbottom? Soft Machine?

Exactly. Most world class guitarists rely on patterns and 'finger muscle memory', whereas Allan could improvise at this speed! 😳

Like or not, his music, you are right. All the practice in the world doesn't allow for this.

I love when people say it’s random playing. It’s random cause you don’t have the ear yet to understand it

@@alexanderallegra432Well put! When I came across Allan the first time (probably 4 or 5 years ago, I was probably 16 or 17), I didn’t get it. I was super impressed by the technical ability, but that’s all I got. When I came back to him about a year and a half to two years ago, I couldn’t believe I’d dismissed him initially. He’s now my favorite guitarist of all time. Something just clicked, and I wish I’d been able to see him live before he died

@@MetalheadNation me too bro, I want to see Tim miller live, he’s probably as close as it gets

Thanks for that!

Totally agree, and depending on my mood sometimes I prefer this harsher more gutteral tone.

I like it more kinda. At least sometimes. I like the more structured jazz stuff he’s playing over

@@Jon-wm3wp Is that something new to you?

@@Jon-wm3wp There is for millions of players, you know you wont change that because you don like the term.

@@Jon-wm3wp Sure, a high overdriven amp (not distortion) with so much saturation that legato sounds so smooth that we all say its liquid, like Holdsworth, Lane or Eric Johnson.

Don't be silly. It's on facit of guitar playing and yeah, he owns legato playing.. but your fanboy comment is just ignorance of all music. ... and a tired cliche.

@@morbidmanmusic Really? A tiered cliché? As if everyone says that all the time. But if they do, than it must be true. A.H. was a phenom, and the likes of you will never mire his legacy. You talk like a jealous hack with pipe dreams of false grandeur.

Malmsteen is a big fan of him so yeah he is in the argument as one of the greats or greatest

My favourite guitarist but I believe Paco de Lucia and Joe Pass definitely and possibly Beck Reinhardt Montgomery McLaughlin Metheny Segovia Julian Bream Roy Clark and Shawn Lane are same level as Holdsworth

Says everyone.

Jazz and Fusion just can't seem to hold audience anymore in this day and age. The audience are getting smaller. The kids today are so into dance music, hip hop and rap. Sadly, these are the pop music of today. Why, in the 70s AM and FM radio's playlist includes Led zep. Hendrix, Sabbath, etc. though that's no Jazz or Fusion, it's at least guitar major music that get kids learning to play the guitar. You are right, very sad indeed that he was reduced to crowd funding support. And this is the man that took the guitar world by storm.

I blame MTV. The visualization of the music is more important than the music itself. Music is just a vehicle for image anymore. Thats why today, musicians are incredibly appealing to the eye and are complete crap to the ear. The stuff Allan did was appealing to the ear if you are smart enough to allow his style to infect you. Holdsworth to me is a lot like Frank Zappa, in that there is very little music that is similar in style. Once you listen to Holdsworth (or Zappa) its hard to listen to something else for a while that is engaging. It's like a complex music hole, that you get pleasantly pulled into. Then everything else just pales by comparison and simplicity.

Great comment and agree absolutely.

Damn! That is one sad story!

Well he's dead now..........

Me too. And now he has gone😢

of all times

RIP AH Allan and J Mclaughlin were also born around the same time and came from the same area of Yorkshire. What are the odds on that? Lets have a beer for Allan. I'm still in shock on hearing he passed away.😦

Me too, Nige - just heard this numbing news today too. Just reproducing here my review of "Bundles" from Amazon. RIP, great man - we won't see your like again - one of the very greatest musicians of any age >> 5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great bands with a guitarist from the Gods By Richard House on 1 Jan. 2012 Format: Audio CD An historical retrospect. When I was at university in the mid 1970s (1974 or 1975, I believe), I went down to London to see the Softs with a group of mates who had always been Softs fans going back into the late 60s. We got seats near the front - and as other reviewers have said here, none of us had heard of Allan Holdsworth before then. When Allan took his first solo (dressed all in white - echoes of another guitar legend, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin), he wondered to the front of the stage and proceeded to solo for maybe 12-15 minutes (this was probably Hazard Profile), and we were all utterly stunned in disbelief at the virtuosity of what we were hearing. I looked around me, and complete strangers were falling out of their seats in droves. None of us had ever heard guitar playing like this - it seemed superhuman - technically impossible, and awesomely beautiful. Today, when I put on 'Bundles', my skin creeps just as it did that first time I ever saw Holdsworth. If you've never heard the extraordinary Allan Holdsworth before, this is certanly a good place to start. It's just such a shame that Allan's joining of the band led to such dis-ease and ill-feeling. I suppose it's some kind of salutory lesson about how the electric guitar can dominate a band, with the other world-class musicians being cast in its shade. Having been a huge Mike Ratledge fan (e.g. try the magnificent album 'Soft Machine 3'), I just wish Mike and Allan could have found a way to play together over a period of time, both egos intact (like McLaughlin and Jan Hammer famously managed for at least a few years in the Mahavishnu Orchestra). But if you're a jazz or jazz-rock fan who values virtuosity, you just can't go to your grave without hearing this. 8 Comments 23 people found this helpful.

+Richard House Exactly when I first heard Allan too, and I was never the same again. The Bundles tour stopped at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. I remember the place was only half full. My elder cousin took me along (I was a 15yr old budding guitarist) I was intrigued by Roy Babbingtons 5 string Bass, but sorry Roy, when I saw the swaying figure playing the white SG - my god. I can only describe it as perhaps how it must have been to hear Bird on 52st for the first time.

I read yesterday that the Great Man had to resort to crowd-funding to be able to release his latest (now last) album - what a bonkers world we live in. Thankfully, there is a 12-box set about to be released - "The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever" - just a shame that t's over £140! Richard

+Richard House Yes, I heard about the funding- crazy times indeed. Great news on the box set!

I agree with "The Coltrane of Guitar". Absolutely. Listen to his work with Gong on Expresso II. His stuff with Tony Williams Lifetime and IOU was also amazing back then. By then he had developed his rich tone and incredible lines.

There is hope… I have witnessed a young guy whose name I can’t remember… Somewhere in his mid-20s who is emulating the fluidity of Holdsworth and that kind of expressiveNess that is so elusive

@@pjuliano9000 Matteo Mancuso?

@@pjuliano9000 There are definitely some amazing, brilliant talents out there, and some that do a remarkable job covering Allan, but none are on his level.

Lisa Bella Donna Love your synth work Lisa and wonderful too that you love the late great maestro Allan. Peace 😊

fusion fan Thank you! 😊❤️ To me, Allan was the ultimate of highest altitudes in music. I miss him here.

Yes me too Lisa, he was the soundtrack to my life ever since I first bought Igginbottom's Wrench when it first came out in 1969. His music spoke to me at a profoundly deep level, not because of his technical virtuosity or amazing harmonic language, but because it touched something within me that I can't fully articulate, which forever lifts and inspires me. I am still in mourning you might say, but console myself with the indelible legacy he left us all in his wonderous music. Peace.

@@fusionfan6883 wow that's incredible that you were there to experience the immaculate Igginbottom's Wrench at it's release. As a 23 year old who has just recently discovered that album I find myself having the same feeling as you in response to Allan's music, especially from the Igginbottom days. "Can't fully articulate" is the only way I've been able to put it as well. Something totally otherworldly about the music

@@fusionfan6883 Agree entirely

the confidence with which Holdsworth enters those Tony William's L:ifetime tracks - the ones the critics hated EG Million Dollar Legs - plus he has the legato-emphasizing reverb, the high-lonesome sound, that you hear in Beck, JMcL, Santana (Borboletta IMO his actual greatest studio guitar) and also the underrated Ray Gomez

andrew gillis Yes indeed, and agree Borboletta is so underrated, as is Lotus. And I too have always loved Ray Gomez and am so saddened drugs curtailed his career and musical output. Can I suggest you check out Corado Rustici if you are not familiar with him.

If it was it would still be better than anything you will ever produce.

John Montgomery Rouse amen

Holy shit I didn't even know he had died

Hello, John McLaughlin?

@@Yourbankaccount Not even close!

What were the reactions to Holdsworth like at the time? I mean, did he silence the audience or things like that? Was there an 'aura'? Or was he just another good performer?

By the late 1980s, when he reached the peak of his playing (my personal opinion), he probably picked not more than 40% of the notes heard in his solos, and it stayed that way until his death. However, back in the 1970s as seen in this vid, looks like he picked more notes, I'd say maybe half, or a little more than half. But he still does a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs, and you can clearly see the man already looking for a horn-like type of playing, playing lines rather than licks and trying to transcent the physical limitations of the instrument.

@@seukfuhi I think the quality of the amplifiers at that time did not allow to achieve a good sustain, so Alan had to pick more than he actually wanted.