In Memoriam Allan Holdsworth

'The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever'

Muzieknieuws 18-04-2017 06:42

Net nu zijn verzameld werk in een box verschenen is onder de titel "The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever”, en er een “Best Of” verschenen is onder de titel Eidolon, is supergitarist Allan Holdsworth 15 april 2017 op 70-jarige leeftijd onverwacht overleden.

Telkens als er een gitaarheld overlijdt kijk je als redactie meteen terug naar wat je aan interviews hebt gedaan met de betreffende artiest. Vaak schrik je dan dat het alweer veel te lang geleden is dat je met zo’n held gesproken hebt. Allan Holdsworth spraken we begin 2000 voor het laatst, alweer 17 jaar geleden. En nu is hij plotseling overleden... 

We kunnen het hier alleen maar goedmaken met een mooi portret boordevol audio en video, met muziek van Soft Machine, Tony Williams, U.K. Bruford en zijn eigen albums, en met een paar mooie strofen uit het interview dat Michiel Roelse destijds deed rondom het verschijnen van een van zijn beste albums “The 16 Men of Tain’. We sluiten dit artikel af met een reeks citaten uit reacties van musici die met hem gespeeld hebben of door hem geïnspireerd zijn. 


Op 3 april trad hij nog op in L.A. met Virgil Donati op drums, Steve Hunt, toetsen en Evan Marien bas. Bekijk de video: 

 

 

Interviewfragmenten uit Gitarist april 2000, door Michiel Roelse 

Eigenlijk wilde Allan Holdsworth saxofoon spelen. Vader Sam vond dat instrument echter wat te begrotelijk en kocht in plaats daarvan een gitaar. Jammer voor Allan, maar gelukkig voor ons gitaristen. Juist zijn fascinatie voor blaasinstrumenten heeft Allan Holdsworth gemaakt tot wat hij nu is: een toonaangevende en volstrekt eigenzinnige fusiongitarist. Holdsworth maakt zijn eigen regels en er is al lang niemand meer die hem bij kan houden. Zijn fenomenale legato-techniek stelt hem in staat combinaties van noten te spelen waar anderen zich maandenlang het hoofd – en de vingers – over breken. Een virtuoos in de ware zin van het woord. Oeps, zei ik daar ‘virtuoos’?

In Amerikaanse gitaarbladen wordt je beschreven als ‘compromisloos genie’ en ‘virtuoos’ en zelfs ‘de maestro’. Jou kennende voel je je waarschijnlijk knap ongemakkelijk bij dat soort kreten…
‘Zeg dat wel! Ik weet nooit hoe ik daarop moet reageren. Als ik al iets bereikt heb – en dat betekent veel meer voor me dan die overspannen loftuitingen – dan is het dat ik nog steeds nieuwe dingen leer. Dat ik blijf groeien.”

Van jouw muziek wordt wel eens gezegd dat het altijd hetzelfde is.
“Van mezelf weet ik dat mijn muziek anders is dan vroeger. Ik kan daar verder geen antwoord op geven. Er komen ook mensen naar me toe die zeggen dat ze me twintig jaar geleden beter vonden. Dat respecteer ik, maar ik hoop dat ze begrijpen dat ik daar niet in kan blijven hangen. Ik moet vooruit."

Ik hoor steeds meer jazz en steeds minder rock in je muziek.
“Het is een lange reis vol verwikkelingen en ontwikkelingen. Toen ik begon was ik knap waardeloos, zoals iedereen. Ik speelde pop omdat ik dat kon, daarna blues en toen rock. Als je vaardigheden toenemen wil je automatisch steeds iets anders gaan spelen, je wilt groeien. Ik denk dat je gelijk hebt. Het wordt jazzier.”

Als ik je muziek speel valt me steeds weer op hoe onmogelijk dat eigenlijk is. Op een of andere manier weet jij steeds een groep noten achter elkaar te zetten die volkomen onspeelbaar lijkt. Hoe doe je dat toch?
“Ik oefen toonladders met vier vingers per snaar. Niet omdat ik dat per se in mijn solo’s wil spelen, maar omdat het dan makkelijker wordt de hele hals te bestrijken. Het is een natuurlijke manier om van de ene plaats op de hals naar de andere te komen. Violisten doen niet anders.

Als ik speel denk ik eigenlijk meer in lijnen en niet zozeer in toonladders. Vroeger schreef ik akkoordenschema’s uit en probeerde dan manieren te verzinnen om op een interessante manier van het ene akkoord naar het andere te komen. Liefst zodat het net leek of ik een heel andere kant op ging dan het schema om dan toch weer op het juiste moment terug te komen. Als je over een statisch akkoord speelt ben je helemaal vrij. Het is dan leuk om dingen te doen als het spelen van arpeggio’s van akkoorden in een dalende richting. Bijvoorbeeld G, F#, F en E mar dan steeds in hogere liggingen.”

Soft Machine 1974

 

Bruford live 1979

 

Allan Holdsworth live 1984 - volledig concert

Allan Holdsworth Trio 1998



Allan Holdsworth Band feat. Jimmy Haslip & Gary Husband - Jarasum Jazz Festival

 

Een paar toptracks op Spotify:  

Legendarische solo op "In The Dead of Night" van U.K. 


Op de plaat Bruford, "Fainting in Coils"

 

En uitgebreid een selectie van de ons insziens meest bijzondere opnames van Holdsworth op plaat verschenen:


 

 

Tal van musici wereldwijd eren hem en halen herinneringen op:

R.I.P. Allan Holdsworth (August 6, 1946 - April 16, 2017).

With enormous sadness I write to express my condolences to Allan's family on the loss of a much-loved father and grandfather, my friend and colleague. For several years in the 1970s, through my own band and 'UK', I listened to him nightly, launching sheets of sound on an unsuspecting audience, changing perceptions about what guitars and guitarists should or could be doing, thrilling me half to death.I would have paid to be at my own gig.

Allan wasn't easy, but if it was easy it wouldn't have been Allan. Like all creative musicians he was restless and relentless in pursuit of 'the perfect sound', the one that he couldn't get out of his head, the one that would never leave him alone. Now he will be at peace. Still, my guitar gently weeps.

Bill Bruford

Allan Holdsworth’s unique contribution to the electric guitar is unquantifiable. I remember him saying to me once that his goal was to create a catalog of music that was undiluted. Well, that he did…. Dear Allan, you were extraordinary and from all of us who you've touched so deeply with your brilliance, we are grateful. Rest in deep peace my friend.
-s

 

R.I.P. Allan Holdsworth. You remain an enormous inspiration to me. Your beautiful music will live on forever.

“R.I.P. Allan Holdsworth. You remain an enormous inspiration to me. Your beautiful music will live on forever.”
TWITTER.COM
 
Stanley Clarke
Yesterday at 12:06am · 
YouTube
 · 
 

A great day in the studio with Allan Holdsworth 🎸🎸🎸 and Stewart Copeland......
When Allan came along there was a paradigm shift in guitar playing. We will all miss his playing.....

I was very shocked to hear about Allan Holdsworth passing away. He was a guitarist's guitarist yet much more. His explored wealth of new guitar possibilities will be a wealth for musicians to learn from for many, many years to come.
I first met Allan when he played with the band U.K. He always had that identifiable uniqueness to his playing. He was a very sweet, and sensitive person; always searching for brilliance.
He left a library of redefined guitar styles with his one of a kind chord voicings and fluid solos.
I was sad to hear of his death. My prayers go out to his family and I owe him thanks for showing and daring us to be different, be ourselves and strive for the best we can be.
Eric J.

Soms raakt je iets zo diep en onverwacht. Allan Holdsworth was een enorme inspiratie since #IOU & #oneofakind Blown away door zijn akkoorden, vibrato, composities, improvisaties, soundscapes en geniale lijnen. Gelukkig live gezien en helaas gemist op de NAMM dit jaar. RIP en dank voor alle fantastische gitaarwerk! We hebben geprobeerd hem naar Amsterdam Electric Guitar Heaven te krijgen:) Heel veel dank en bewondering

 

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people standing
Chad Wackerman - Yesterday at 4:10am · 
We lost a true musical innovator today. Allan Holdsworth has passed away. My condolences to his family Louise, Emily and Sam. I started working with Allan Holdsworth in 1982, thanks to my friend John Ferraro who suggested that I audition. The audition was an hour and a half of improvising together- just guitar and drums. He never told me what to play - ever. He just figured that he would find people who bring things that he enjoyed into to his own music. Casting for his band was tricky and yet critical to him. It was another world of music that I had never experienced and quickly became addicted to. To me his music is intense and beautiful at the same time. Over 30 years we did countless tours, played on so many albums, and he was kind enough to play on 3 of mine. So much have been said about his musical genius and I believe it to be true. He had a completely different way of approaching and hearing music and to play with him raised my own musicianship. As friends we had a musical trust that when we improvised something was going to happen. He was a brilliant improviser.The world has lost the heaviest musician I've known and I've lost a long time friend. Goodbye Allan.
 
Kim Weemhoff
about a day ago · YouTube · Edited · 
Goeie reis, gitaarkunstenaar/ meestercomponist!
Mijn spel is nog zo geïnspireerd door dit magistrale album Secrets! Wat een rijkdom aan melodieën, harmonieën en ritmiek! ( Beste drumwerk op Fusion gebied tot nu toe..)
Meesterwerk en waarlijk mijn drumtechnische Bijbel ( Tis Pasen..)
 
just received very sad news, one of my guitar hero's , the great Allan Holdsworth passed away suddenly......I happened to check his music out yesterday after a long time (used to check him out live when I was younger) . One of the most influential artist who helped define modern guitar playing. He was known for this phenomenal technique, fluidity and exotic chord changes. A truly unique musician.

Left with an empty feeling.....till next lifetime, Allan!
 

En als besluit het prachtige persoonlijke In Memoriam van Gary Husband die zo vaak het podium met hem gedeeld heeft. 

Yesterday I received the most devastating news of the passing of my spiritual and musical brother Allan Holdsworth. And along with that news came the realisation I had now witnessed the conclusion of the last chapter of probably what will always be known by me as the most significant musical relationship of my life. The journey that began in the later 1970s in a studio in London - a first time ever trial playing situation for us - where time and space seemed to evaporate and give vent to suddenly this otherworldly, uncannily effortless, intense communication and empathy of the nature and height I could have only dreamt possible. I remember wondering afterwards, as we were packing our gear, if we'd ever reach that again or even get to play together once more.
And we did.
And those heights occurred for us again and again. Very regularly. And though the albums IOU, Metal Fatigue, Atavachron, Sand, Wardencliffe Tower, Then, Hard Hat Area etc) serve to document the handful of decades we were able to develop together within Allan's writing, I have such vivid memories, still, of that continuing improvisational rapport, flowing, evolving & taking shape in front of audiences all over the world on live shows. It would be a new manifestation, totally unexpected and wildly different every time. And it's clear to me in this moment that this was undoubtedly some kind of connection I will not experience the like of again.

With Allan I had the invitation to literally invent. I knew it was totally unique music. Yet strangely it was music I felt instantly - almost as naturally as if it had come through me. The unique harmony, the unique signature pushes & pulls in tempo, the pauses and the inherent rubato, up alongside all the straighter grooves that all felt so completely logical and organic to me I was genuinely mystified at so much of the confused reaction the music provoked in people. I had no idea why it was regarded convoluted, complex or unusual.

So not only was this the most comfortable playing situation for me I also was afforded the luxury to approach and form all drum approaches to the pieces from my own imagination and intuition. Occasionally I'd come up with something, and I'd quickly know if it wasn't an instant success. But mostly it was. And little was said, virtually nothing ever rehearsed, and it just all fell into place, got recorded that way and continually expanded upon live.
IOU was to essentially document as strongly as possible version of pieces we had been performing for a good while - even from the very beginning, where Allan himself sang the vocal melodies on gigs. But from Unmerry-Go-Round - the wonderful piece where I worked alongside Allan to form the rhythmic structure - it was about an approach to drum composition I had not broached before in myself - how the drums could serve to counterpoint & punctuate the music meaningfully and work conceptually - as a springboard for all our "playing" side of things. This started to particularly blossom and expand for me particularly on the albums Atavachron and Sand.
I would love to elaborate on all these periods one day. Perhaps in the form of a book sometime.

Jumping to the more recent years, from 2000 on, a lot was starting to deteriorate and crumble in Allan's life. Happily we'd been massively enjoying a beautiful reconvening with Jimmy Johnson in trio format at this point, and had also recorded another album in Los Angeles together. But Allan's demons by this point were getting their feet very comfortable under his table, and started to manifest in the form of a growing acceleration in alcohol consumption. And this would be influencing everything from this point onwards.
I was party to a lot I cannot and will not divulge in a Facebook post. All of us were - all who worked together with Allan. And from that point, we were starting to become very concerned.
What would also start to materialise with Allan at this time was a deterioration of creativity - which was bad enough.
Then Allan's marriage collapsed catastrophically, and this brought about yet more severe excesses. Nevertheless, his playing was always central and his continually inspired beautiful fluidity and lucidity was always still apparent. But from this point he was no longer in any way anything bordering on sober on gigs.

The details of our years with him since - the self-medicating, his ever-increasing, spiralling and perpetually heightening suffering and turmoil are, as I clarified, not for these pages. All I can say is that as I always promised him and assured him, I was always at the other end of a phone. Always there.
This would never be enough. And it became inevitable to me that Allan was fast-tracking towards more and more even greater emotional destitution.

Fast forwarding to the most recent and last time I would get to perform with Allan, in 2014 along with Jimmy Haslip I was aware - for the first time ever - things were definitely no longer well with him also as a musician. The self-medication had accumulated significantly, and I was mortified to discover this had now, finally, become quite apparent in his playing.
From this point, and through many unpleasant extra-musical episodes and manifestations later it has been tragically apparent and somewhat inevitable that drastic measures would have to be sought. But, as ever, the closer we were, to Allan, ultimately the more ineffective we proved to be.

And so, now the moment I/we all feared, dreaded yet anticipated has arrived. In all it's dreadful sadness, the story has come to a close, and the cold, stark reality that I will see that man no more is so unbearably painful for me, I cannot describe it.
I have a feeling I will never again recognise musical endeavour in quite the same way without my brother Allan Holdsworth in this world. I will just have to hang on to it, keep it close - keep in constant touch with my little part in the legacy of his trajectory, our shared one, the seed of that creation and keep the essence of it well in tact, together with all of us that've been through so many years in music with this genius. Carrying it on through and into all our future endeavours. I guess I'm speaking for all Allan's players - from way back, to my times starting with him, through the decades and even into these last few tragic years.

I pray with all my heart, my brother, that your suffering is eased and healed. I pray that your passage, into eternity, will be now smooth and complete.
You'll always be such a huge part of me, dear Allan. You are already so incredibly and indescribably missing. I have always loved you, I love you now and will always.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx🎈❤️🎈❤️🎈❤️

 

 

De albums in de box "The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever': 

1 I.O.U. (Complete Album: 1982)  
2 Road Games (Complete Album: 1983)  
3 Metal Fatigue (Complete Album: 1985)  
4 Atavachron (Complete Album: 1986  
5 Sand (Complete Album: 1987)  
6 Secrets (Complete Album: 1989)  
7 Wardenclyffe Tower (Complete Album: 1992)  
8 Hard Hat Area (Complete Album: 1993)  
9 None Too Soon (Complete Album: 1996)  
10 The Sixteen Men Of Tain (Complete Album: 2000)  
11 Flat Tire (Complete Album: 2001)  
12 Then! (Complete Album: 2003)

 Luister hier naar alle albums in deze box: 


Allan Holdsworth

6-8-1946 – 15-4-2017

 

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