EN PS Holdsworth’ eis Untold NeuiaK aan average day, it may take a couple of slow, careful steps to wade safely through the foyer at the Holdsworth residence, which is generally crammed waist-high ‘with pieces of incoming or outgoing equip- ment. The day before an 1.0.U. tour, allow an extra minute or two. But when Allan is immersed in a recording project, it’s best to either pack a lunch or just use the patio door around back, because that’s the most direct route to the meister’s nerve center, the Brewery—home of bottles, boxes, inven- tions-in-the-rough, and site of much of the sonic outrage captured on Secrets, his latest release. Allan chose to section the undertaking {nto a numberof crucial but practical divi- sions, Four of the eight compositions were submitted by members of the band; two of those four feature Allan's electri guitar ‘work, Of the remaining four, written by Al- Jan, two are SynthAxe-based two feature extended improvisation, and two are ele- gies. The eight pieces were partially tracked ata commercial recording studio; the im- provised half of each was recorded here at the Brewery. Then Allan began mixing the album—at home—and spent half his time ‘working on an album with pianist Gordon Beck and half his time arduously fitting all the pieces together. He went almost a half- year over schedule, and half of his fans went crazy-eights Why? “Because I'm a constant experimenter,” explains Allan, “Over the last two albums, ‘when I started using the Synthaxe, I began working with different ways of recording guitar, probably more than I should have. At points during Atavachron,'d do things | like run the amp into one speaker cabinet, ‘| mike it, feed that into another amp, and then mike up that cabinet. On ‘The 4:15 Bradford Executive’ from Sand, l used two of the little enclosed speaker cabinets I built and drove each with a different amplifier (Eid Note: These small, soundproof cabinets contain movable microphone rigings for place- ‘ment in relation tothe speakers, Finding things lke that can take forever. On this al ‘bum, I just thought about all the things 1 learned from the past and tried to consoli- date them. I'd say, ‘Okay, look—this mike sounds good and I'm going to stop putzing with iI did putz with ita lot inthe begin- ning: '¢ record a solo and then two days | Tater erase it ll [Bassist] Jimmy Johnson + would keep calling and say, ‘Look, man, | don't be erasing,’ I'd listen to copies of 1} what | erased and think, ‘Oh, that wasn’t so | bad.’ When I start chasing the tone thing, sometimes I really go around in circles.” But Allan is far too judicious to squander time on one element in the picture he | wanted to present with Secrets, which is why he chose to mix the tracks at his house, away from the financial demands of a studio schedule and the distractions of ‘ravel and industry. But this kind of music s forthe bandstand, and he was called away from the console for short tours that ‘waylaid the project even further. “We did a tour with [drummer] Vinnie Colaiuta and mare woocumaR PER 25‘Worthy Quotes By Matt Resnicoff though he makes use of utars and amps for much of his music, Alan Holdsworth Sst even che to being a conventional tuitarst—never wanted tobe, infact. | Drawing his concepts rom saxophonists suchas Olive Neon and John Coltrane, he's | forged aviually unbound linea approach and a remarkable chordal fir that have stretched cars| and fingers for meaty 20 years of recording His mastery ofthe cumbersome SyehAxe was cal Iyvalated by tne consecutive weeps in the Guitar Syhesst category of Guitar Payer Rea ers ol Regardless of whether he ikesit, Holdsworth ceaseless innoations and unswerving standards | have secured is place on the evolutionary time lines of both jazz and eock guitar. His unigue pr spectiveon these achievements cast as much ight | ‘on the man as dos his muse. Here then ae — some particularly pithy Alan Holdsworth soos, Fusion Blues Tas ely looking forward to a European tour that was supposed to follow the release of my latest atbum with [pianist Gordon Beck, With A Hearn My Sng We were oing ogo out asa ‘duo and pay material fom the album, and Iwas | relly excited because it was going obe the only toured ever done where ' only pay Sym thane wasnt going to take a guia. It mas go> | ingto be acoustic piano and some synthesizer st, ith some hythmic tings that were. ‘quenced. The guy fom the record company called and tld us that when the eae of my involve ‘ment, everybody over there said, “Oh, no, that uy. ock player jus pot them of. fe re ally frustrated by that, because dn’ really see ‘the mus play as ock tal mean ean sets ‘ots, bt think they mast jst hear the tone, somenhat ditrtd guitar sound and automat. «ally the music goes right yal they can think i “Ob thisis rock” I's werd word Another Kind Of Pasion ‘When the new kid onthe block plays more ‘notes, then everybody sas, “Oh, isnot happen= ‘ng” But the, five years late, when they figure out that guy wasn' plying very many notes at all, because the new guy's playing twice as many notes, they acept the other guy, and they say of the new guy, Oh, but he doesn't play with any feeling” I don't really pay any attention to it. on’ think music has anything whatsoever to do “with how many notes anybody pays. I've tied in the past to make something have some sort of pasion tot with ess notes, but at times ike it 26 fiery—that’ passionate in another way. But do think that some guys don't play with any feling atal, Another thing thas so funny about some ofthe ell airy metal monsters hea, is that tas though they jus took a [roCo) Rat distr tion and Dit into a console, but because ‘theyre playing alot of notes, you dont hear the Sound, and then when they sit ona note fora ‘minute you go, “Oh, yuk” I’ teribl! It’ just the spares thing lever head The Precious Past Astime goes on, things move forward in some ection, but backward in others. like the quality of an automobile; they can make aca go fase, but ts not made like used tobe. People say that al the time. There ae some really deep, really incredible high-quality tings you can get foom the pst. For example a saxoptone player ‘coming up now might not have heard anything further back than Michael Brecker, who's abso- lutely ince. But when you go back and hear Sone ofthe old guys, then you ealize—well, I ‘id—that all these guys who came up afterwards and tried to sound like them never realy did Sound lke them at al. There was something mise ing, When Igo back and listen ta Chari Parker recording, he sounds unbelivale; i’ so fresh. You have to wade through the poor sound quality of the recordings, but boy it wa happening! Can- nonballAderiey and Coltrane, man, those guys ‘were unbelievable Some of those Miles Davis al- tums both of hem were on—wow, that was something. s things mave forward, something ‘ése moves back.’ inevitable, because that’ the ‘nature of things. I's reall ret fr people to go ‘ack and have a look, because otherwise they're realy going to miss something. Things get lost, [that should never have gotten ost Win Of Chay iets pnt ea ee served scenctn tsa tac oar abu! sce et Seto eel esonee Bta, Tos nr i se a ioe eee ees eae uerry grenade str meno ee Sica snopes ne pepe eee A Cis pon rp wth co nin fo sont gsc ise ele cee Seep gy eo ea Se ree ALLAN HOLDSWORTH deny that was just wonderul* he re ‘parts -and inthe same tour played with [arurmer} Chae and [oases] 800 Wackarman, ane that was wonder ‘Then we oid a tip fo Japan with (arum- mer] Gary Husband and Jimmy, which was amazing I'm so soked 10 be play- ing witn these guys. As far as | know, they're probaby al saying, Give me the guitar In fac, tll em that every time: |say"Man, he ony thing wrong wih tis Oand is'ne guitar player. Theres probably 2 lt af people who would agree with that, and Im with ‘em. They played so great on the album, and itmakes me fee! particulary goos, knowing I gave tem the kindof ree- som I would enioy 'HeS right cn the fist and lest ac counts. This band—drummers Colaiua, Husoana. or Wackorman, Jonnson. and keyboardist Steve Hunt—is one ofthe ‘ost vial rotabng units in electric jazz ‘nd their breathing performances sland tallin Alans crystaline procuc- tion, From the rich ambience ofthe ‘furs and Jahnsons S-sting Alembic athe way down othe Spaten Franziskaner ale Alan pou as a spirt- €ed.coda to "City Nights Secrets is a rien, deep colecton of adventurous ‘music that features some ofthe gu= tari most dramatic elect work, and some of the mast expressive gutarsyn thesis ta be encourtares anywnare Part of Holdsworths recording pro- cess involves sussing outa feel forthe tracks fom montring the bands b3- ‘cs; Because each guitar part was ‘veraubbes, recorang sols requred a Certain period of emotonalreaquain- tance wih the racks. “As you get rare ‘experienced, you gt ait bit beter at Ith he says. "Twas tama with he ‘backing Vacks because Id been inthe ‘Sugi do them. Sometimes I might like a sla rom a guitar port of view— (Oh, | played prety well ve hat sec tion —but then Fa iston back, and it just ‘wouscnt sound tke |was tere. Some ties Ido that too much; | might be ‘vent conscious of what's gong on ‘and that's why | want 0.00 the next al ‘bum diferenty ant do anything ci- ferent than l would have done athe ‘Sugg, and i sil sounded reasonably ratuzal “The same senstviy alowed Holdsworth to sip easly between the roles of performer, producer, and engi heer. Dissatisiod withthe inited range Cf his equipment, he replaced his mon toes with highly accurate Yamaha NS- 406, rented an Otari MTR9O tape recorder, and turned in his console for 2 sneet-sounding Tident He per. feemed a series of maicuous expe ‘Penis betore setting into any ir: \ersiole mes“ think | made up for the lack of equipment and studioevel sonic qualy by keeping everyhingboalanced | wanted to make the albu ound fay natural. so | dat go over ‘board with any processing. | wanted to ‘rake i as cea! as | could. go in tare and gett EO’, do @ rough mix to DAT tape ano hen Id maka a cas- Sette and play it everywhere. 'd actual ly spend the rest of he day paying iin someone elses car my van, the back room where Ihave a Baster and through the NS-d0s. I there's any gnert there, | want to hear i For his guitar tones, Alan worked with several pieces of MESA/Boogie Squipment cunning ether a Merk. (Quad Preamp, of 80 Caller through various combinations of custom en Cosed speaker boxes, protolypes of what Rocktron now markets a3 the Alan Housworh Jule Extracto lead box, ang other assorted gear that best sult ‘2d each Stuaton. Ang although nis mastery ofthe SynhAxe controler has ‘akon coneideradie strides over tres years of exploratory use, Alans loss of Contact withthe company over ure solved design flaws has cast the instru ‘ent into a postion of labiliy, especial iy fo sage work. eal Marto ‘Qush forward he points out, "because Fe got four consoles af which eniy two work properly, and even those screw Up. The last imo went to Japan. it was topping memory athe time. ts bad lenouah when youre a gular payer \who’s aready got mission contol her, but wth al he syntnesizers when the Stuf starts going wrong, boy, sats {gong wrong. On that ast Japanese tip. ust wanted to tow away and Sar playing gular again “Ive also always wanted to get a small neck made,” Holdsworth contin- ues, “because despite al the things ‘Syninaxe da. which | ought were ab Soisloly awesome—and sil do~ tet ‘mistake was in making the neck so big. ‘We came up with one that was alrost 28% smaler, bul it was 00 expensive to get st one made, There are tings that ae anal ofa pain to play on ‘¥en though | can do nem very easy on guitar. find myself having to tink lifrenty about how Im going to play something, just because know my hand isnt big enaugn to grad certain notes. And know that i he neck was smaller, [4 be able o pay etut mat | wouldrit be able to play cn guitar. That would really open itup for me ‘Alan focused his attention on the Syma for With A Heart In My Song. his second album of us wih Gordon Beck since meating the pianist in Lor don inthe mid "70s. The’ Things You See, eased in 1980, contained int ‘mate, competing dueis banween acoustic and electric guitar and pi: ano—sort oa space-age take on a Jim Halil Evans dialog, Beck is one of the few bebop-based musicians Alan has worked with cisely, and the gu- tarst has had io adst his approach to hea Reina the amount of time takes for peopleto ace some- thing. OfPaia.. now what ' ying 0 do, what ve done, what havent done, and what can o.oo big to think hat anything was woth anything | can get on witht and jus hope that one yt ‘ould leat my paying to sucha high evel that itwasundenable that something was happening Inutat the same tine, noone ke realy what seas Then I gues fd ther be in even orn hall. Thal ever happen, but you just hep chas- {ng that dream, That al you can do, ray It sets harder as you gt ole, because ater a while youre that every beng has its own en, and tnhen someone ees coming yp ina detent time the gong to hea thing completely i ferent. dn! expect to ge anything eal bap- hho we ist in Lndon he mee couple of nights that fl that I payed so bad that couldn believe it. mean, some oft might have psyched myself into, and got de- pressed because just being back in England re ‘minded me of ll the years [spent struggling there that nothing keep happening syndrome But there was one night in Manchester wen I aso disgusted with my playing that after the gus et I couldn’ talk to anybody. ve been ‘etn better I've tried to hide it.I used to come offstage and say, “Oh, that was the wos. played sobad.” Then thought, wel these people are trying to say tat they liked if, an teling them it ‘was horibles kind of making a mockery of them, and I didn’ want to do that, so keep my mouth shut even fel that way. But this gig was so bad that I spl. couldn stay there, man, could not have talked to anybody and I got aeter froma guy saying that he was really pissed of tat It, that Idi’ talk to him and beanie guy ike the it, but | always fi. Like that night in Manche ‘ster walk away from i, and the nextday ML 40,“ ant tobe better so much because ofthat"; ‘because that was so ad, Ihave to struggle with self and go. I ane that feeling take hold of sme, Ive got to beat it Fv got to figure why this happens to me and jst keep pushing, “Man, Youre The Greatest” Ie embarassing. What do you say? Tim just ‘ayn to do what I d, and its marvelous that | somebody else likes tI’ really, wally attering, ‘but eel ike want to run away. t makes me cringe. don't know what todo, other than just stand there and say "Thank you very much,” But | atthe same time''m sying, "Thank you very | much,” almost hear that as me ageing with them, and I ate that don’ want o agree with them. n one way it great because somebody likes what you're trying to do, and that a relly ‘wonderful thing, that the musi touches peo- ple—tha’s what musi’ fort touches me, and |i the greatest thing, bot I'm stil embarased ‘when people say things ike that to me. ‘Dos it happen alot? (Pause Tite bt. ‘other guy in the band. He aid he undestood the feeling bute cour have, because if he had, Jhe'd have let aswell That was the worst one for afew yeas. I mean, haven't actually felt that bad fora long time, sof that guy reas ths, 'm sory; that's the way its, and fit happened again, I othe same thing. nd Pleasure The oy in music ithe as do actualy get sgetjoy rom it and reat jo rom playing 1 Tove musi with such ig pasion. fs veridng, ean’ say bow bgt butt i. love yng to iy, ve eaming about mus, andi always Seqms that every er kara more in that year than in di inthe previous 20,50 'm happy in that spect. Sometimes play something in the garage o« to myself and fel pretty good about it. rerybdy does, an hen when they get ou on stage, alll apart. Bu enjoy it before go ‘on. ook forward tot So want to go out and do ‘What Its olay that hee are lt of gtr players in sy aunt expe that fT played bas sant og se im, ori payed drums, 1 want osc ary. Tha’ healthy. Bu just ove ifthe wer more peopl tou gs who weenie in musk Unfors sot zing to hapen, because the musi doesn't seo them I'l he people who ae involved init that fn oat aoa cate theyreina dierent ro ck, An thats on the things hare sapoins me, expec 3s Tegan od, Deca now Ue that eer cing to reach anybody. Wee never ely fein fn out who woul ave edo who ‘oul have hate ec they renee gonna hearin, ut what can you do? We ie at | time when thisis happening, and isnot just happening tome it’ happening to milions ot struggling musiians, Were geting more and ‘moe int this kindof monopolies thing this record company bus out this record company, an then you realize that if Sony had bought CBS tefore, for example the couk have led vinyl immediatly, because they owned al the technol ogy forthe DAT machine and then the DAT me chine andthe CD woud have been out. sll money That’ what its It's the same in every. thing: The ite guy isting to make it with out the big bots to even mae people aware of the fact that there’ something out here they night be intersted in No, unforunately, he sic sins aad ofthe msc Everythings assabout-ae But i's oo. The litle guys have to fight it and thats what wee doing We js have a F tokeep going. 27ALLAN HOLDS WORTH “Here, You've Gotta _ TryThese” ts Invention of the guitar. You can actually hear & ‘ference. Theyre 24 carat gold and 100% 1m) Noncotosive. 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Whed | ead Seymour SBaere ‘Send $2.0 fr ur cata oth wor iret uta nas pickups (01 Pine Avenue, Sara Barbara, CA 93117 (805) 964 9610 big 10 ‘of canta twit the Prd bot “Secrets” asthe gigs song, but primarALLAN HOLDSWORTH saying thats wha Iy nad, so ll of he was playing ing win my not the breath contale othe way the nota Is hing. but his time mere was only “M4 Duncan Terrace” veloaty alone. be biowir It’s our necks that put us leet Eel eyio the rest was considering an acoustc solo on git ny room and Whately dine Whenyouthinkof craftsmanship, you fe pret fhinkofaneletic canbe Iowescton gece FioeTeyion yorhew profesionals by Xnitherearesomethat acoustic, butssocasy laptodayandfeclhow sound good. Butthere pay, sourt pod t ums creved fvihalock wilibidcisancke- "Taylor the choice take ret. syed a Poser earns ens | “Joshua that, But thin cont This might sound lke bul but Ive gat the thistothe high-quality 9353 Abrhary Way ‘woods and hand ‘And when you add | How do you ge ineety rete Danvers a EU Me CLM Be ee ee eee)ALLAN HOLDSWORTH crams. Ithad tis ways sounded Ike beginning to en Roe eee Bruce Kulick Te] STRINGS 32 ounanruaverwarcSee Allan Holdsworth’s “Joshua” solo transcription PAGE 36 A SELECTED ALLAN HOLDSWORTH DISCOGRAPHY Sole Albums: Velvet Darkness, CT 1.0.U,, Enigma; Road Games, Warner Bras. mini-LP: Metal Fatigue, Enigme ‘Aiavactron, Enigma; Sand, Reatity: Se- ‘res, Enigma. With Gordon Beck: The Things You See, Disques JMS (rue Cesar Franck, Paris 73015) With A Heart in My ‘Song, JMS (dist. by Disques Ades, 54, ‘ue Sain Lazare, Pais 75009), With Tony Williams’ New Lifetime: Believe It Columbia: Mion Dolar Legs. Columbia With Bruford: Feels Gooa To Me, Edi tions EG; One OF A Kind, Editions EG. With Gong: Exaresso, Virgin, Gazeusel Virgin Time Is The Key. Avista. With oth- ers: UK. UK, Editions EG; Jean-Luc Ponty, Enigmatic Ocean, Alani; Indic. ual Choice. Atlantic; Sok Machine, Bun- ales, Harvest; Tempest, Tempest, Warner Bros.; Soma, Soma, Occidental, Nucleus, Beladonna, Vergo: Jack Bruce, A Ques: tion Of ime, Epc