Artist: Alan Holdsworth
Alan Holdsworth was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist, violinist and composer.
Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts. His music incorporates a vast array of complex chord progressions, often using unusual chord shapes in an abstract way based on his understanding of "chord scales", and intricate improvised solos, frequently across shifting tonal centres.
His unique legato soloing technique stemmed from his original desire to play the saxophone. Unable to afford one, he strove to use the guitar to create similarly smooth lines of notes.
Holdsworth has been cited as an influence by a host of rock, metal and jazz guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen, Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, Greg Howe, Shawn Lane, Richie Kotzen, John Petrucci, Alex Lifeson, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Romeo, Ty Tabor, Fredrik Thordendal, Daniel Mongrain, John Frusciante, and Tom Morello.
Holdsworth's first significant collaboration was with jazz pianist Gordon Beck on the latter's Sunbird album in 1979. Their first collaborative release The Things You See followed in 1980, and was a largely similar effort but without percussion or bass. Soon afterwards, Holdsworth joined up with drummer Gary Husband and bassist Paul Carmichael in a trio that became known as False Alarm.
This was Holdsworth's first outing as a bandleader and, after the acquisition of former Tempest singer Paul Williams, the band was renamed I.O.U. Their self-titled debut album was released independently in 1982, followed by a mainstream reissue through Enigma Records in 1985.
Holdsworth's playing style combined elements of jazz and progressive rock, and drew upon scale forms often derived from those such as the lydian, harmonic major, diminished, augmented, whole tone, chromatic and altered scales. In his instructional video for example he mentioned that he often played altered scales that are unusual to the average player, such as F minor major 7th with a raised 4th.
Another of his most identifiable traits was the use of rich, fingerpicked chords (often awash with delay, chorus and other complex effects), which were articulated and sustained using volume swells to create sounds reminiscent of the horn and saxophone.
Further information about Alan Holdsworth is found here.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Holdsworth, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Allan Holdsworth - Looking Glass - Frankfurt - HQ audio
JARASUMJAZZ Remember : Allan Holdsworth
Alan Holdsworth: Videos
Allan Holdsworth - Warsaw Jazz festival 1998