Vintage Guitar - September 2017 - open - 60

COLUMN Fretprints

Holdsworth with a
variation of his Carvin
signature model.

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH

Farewell to the King of Future Guitar
By Wolf Marshall

T

his has been a tough year, with the loss
of beloved players like Chuck Berry,
Larry Coryell, and most recently, Allan
Holdsworth (see memorial in the "First Fret"
section of the July issue).
A true trailblazer, he was an innovator
and virtuoso whose name prompted the
superlative "Holdsworthian" to describe a
sound and approach created by an unbridled
imagination combined with Olympian
physical technique. Inspiring and astonishing, he exerted indelible influence on giants
like Van Halen, Lifeson, Satriani, Lukather,
Vai, Petrucci, and a legion of metallic shredders, fusioneers, and prog-rockers.
I met Allan in a professional capacity
after being a longtime admirer, and we
remained friends. Generous and forthcoming, I'll never forget the insights he shared
- everything from his uncommon scale

systems and chordal concepts to views on
the intricacies of gear and dialing-in sounds
from equipment. In 1990, he lent me his
famous homemade "juice extractor" when
I was struggling to get optimal tone from a
vintage Marshall, educated me in how he'd
obtained that signature sax/violin timbre
from similar rigs, and advised me on effects
use and amp safety, as well as guitar setup
and playing.
Holdsworth's saga began in England after
the British Invasion. Introduced to jazz by
his father, Fred, at age 17 he gravitated to
the sound of the saxophone but decided on
guitar. Inspired by rock of the day as well as
John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell,
Django Reinhardt, and Charlie Christian,
he fashioned a jazz-informed conception
and style. His early work was captured on
'Igginbottom's Wrench (1969) with art-rock

VINTAGE GUITAR

60

September 2017

quartet 'Igginbottom. In those days, he
favored a Gibson 335 and a cleaner sound,
but his playing was characterized by virtuosic
lines already rich in legato phrasing. His
sojourn continued with
Sunship, Nucleus, and a
seminal recording with
Tempest, a progressiverock outfit with Colosseum's rhythm section (Jon
Hiseman and Mark Clarke) and
vocalist Paul Williams; Holdsworth helped
the band reconcile Cream-influenced power
blues and prog-rock sophistication with a
blend of Clapton-like string bends, Gilmour
melodicism, and florid, jazzy double-timing
delivered with a definitive SG-into-Marshall
tone. Particularly noteworthy moments
include his work on the blues-rock shuffle
"Strangeher," wah colorations on "Dark
House," acoustic/electric layered sounds
in "Gorgon," and an impromptu jazz-violin
solo on "Upon Tomorrow."
Holdsworth solidified his jazz-rock credentials in the mid '70s with Soft Machine
(on Bundles) and The New Tony Williams
(Believe It and Million Dollar Legs). "Hazard
Profile" and "Fred" (must-see clips are posted
online) remain important fusion pieces of
this period, epitomizing his signature SG
sound, while "Sweet Revenge" and "Million
Dollar Legs" with their whammy-bar inflections foreshadow his Strat excursions of the
next decade. In '76, Holdsworth pawned his
SG, favoring a humbucker-equipped Stratstyle guitar from that point onward. His work
with the Strat was featured on Gong's Gazeuse
and Expresso II, Jean Luc Ponty's Enigmatic
Ocean, UK, and Bruford's Feels Good To Me
and One of a Kind. Allan described the sessions as comparable to a sax soloist waiting
his opportunity in designated solo space.
His early modded Strat with two DiMarzio
humbuckers is seen online in a telling live
clip of "Beelzebub" with Bruford.
Holdsworth's solo career began with
I.O.U., a 1982 album with Williams, Paul
Carmichael (bass), and Gary Husband
(drums). I.O.U. is deemed his genuine solo
debut, though CTI had released Velvet Darkness, an unauthorized record culled from a
1978 rehearsal; Holdsworth dismissed it as
illegitimate. On I.O.U., he revealed his rich
chordal palette often colored with vibrato
and pitch bends ("Where is One," "Letters of
Marque," "White Line") alongside evolving
single-note improvisations. His orchestral
aspirations, aided by carefully crafted
delay processing and volume swells via two
volume pedals, guided the guitar-generated
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