Difference between revisions of "Allan Holdsworth"
(→Quotes) |
|||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
==Quotes== | ==Quotes== | ||
| − | "Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth." - Frank Zappa, [[The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk, pt.2]] | + | ''"Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth."'' - Frank Zappa, [[The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk, pt.2]], 1984. |
| − | ''' | + | '''In numerous interviews, you've cited the same guitarists you mentioned in your essay as the players who really moved you – [[Johnny "Guitar" Watson|Johnny Guitar Watson]], [[Elmore James]], [[Guitar Slim]], early [[wikipedia:B. B. King|B. B. King]] ...''' |
| − | |||
| − | ''' | + | '''Frank Zappa''': ''"Well, you'd have to include [[Wes Montgomery]] and [[Allan Holdsworth|Allan Holdsworth]] in there, too, I'm afraid." (...) When I listen to music, I listen to what the substance is, not necessarily the style of it. I've heard bluegrass players that knock me out, too. (...) I get the same sensation listening to [[Wes Montgomery]]. You hear Wes when you hear him play, and the same thing with Holdsworth. He puts his personality, something about him as a person, into playing, and I don't detect "watch me show off now" – there is none of that syndrome. That's the thing that is most obnoxious about current guitar, because when people are attempting to play the guitar in a competitive way, in order to do somebody else's style but just do it faster, that's great from an Olympic competition kind of a standpoint, but I don't think it's particularly musical. And since I like music, it would not necessarily excite me to hear someone playing something real fast, if it wasn't unique to the individual."'' - [[Frank Zappa On... The '80s Guitar Clone]]'', Interview by Dan Forte, Guitar Player, January 1987. |
| − | Well, you'd have to include [[Wes Montgomery]] and [[Allan Holdsworth|Allan Holdsworth]] in there, too, I'm afraid. | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | '' | + | ''"One of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet is Allan Holdsworth. I really respect his playing."'' - Frank Zappa, ''[[Zappa's Inferno]]'', Interview by Noë Goldwasser, Guitar World, April 1987. |
| − | + | ||
| + | '''Interviewer''': ''But once something becomes stylized, it becomes rigidly marked by the public. The notion of a "guitar solo" has preconceptions placed on it, even if it's Allan Holdsworth who does it, no matter how amazing or how frighteningly original; people automatically refute it because it's supposed to be selfindulgent or "for musicians." It's almost like things become iconographic and somehow lose their value for outsiders.''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Frank Zappa''': ''"Well, whose fault is that? That's what writers do. Musicians don't do that. The average person doesn't sit around thinking about the "iconographic problems of a gultar solo." You're talking about a sociological, emotional phenomenon associated with the need of a writer to earn a living by describing something which is very difficult to write about: music. And the hardest thing to write about is that kind of music, when it's really personal, when a guy is really trying to do something, which I think Allan Holdsworth is. He's a brilliant musician. And when you start digging the thesaurus out and delving into things like "iconographic" and tacking shit like that onto stories about guitar solos, well, [laughs] then the problems begin! A guy might listen to it and go "I like it" or "I don't like it," but to have it explained to him by a writer that "we now have an iconographic problem," that's another can of worms, wouldn't you say?"'' - Frank Zappa in ''[[Poetic Justice]]'', Interview by Matt Resnicoff, Musician, November 1991. | ||
==Read also== | ==Read also== | ||
Revision as of 11:59, 5 July 2026
Allan Holdsworth (August 6, 1946 in Bradford, West Yorkshire - April 15, 2017) was a British jazz guitarist and composes, particularly active in jazz/fusion. He is most acclaimed for his technical skill and the complexity of his compositional and improvisational work.
According to a 1989 interview Zappa named Holdsworth his favorite rock guitarist. [1]. Zappa also expressed his admiration for Holdsworth in the interviews Dynamo Frank and Zappa's Inferno.
Quotes
"Well, there's one other guy whose work I know who should be included in that list who I respect and that's Allan Holdsworth." - Frank Zappa, The Frank Zappa Interview Picture Disk, pt.2, 1984.
In numerous interviews, you've cited the same guitarists you mentioned in your essay as the players who really moved you – Johnny Guitar Watson, Elmore James, Guitar Slim, early B. B. King ...
Frank Zappa: "Well, you'd have to include Wes Montgomery and Allan Holdsworth in there, too, I'm afraid." (...) When I listen to music, I listen to what the substance is, not necessarily the style of it. I've heard bluegrass players that knock me out, too. (...) I get the same sensation listening to Wes Montgomery. You hear Wes when you hear him play, and the same thing with Holdsworth. He puts his personality, something about him as a person, into playing, and I don't detect "watch me show off now" – there is none of that syndrome. That's the thing that is most obnoxious about current guitar, because when people are attempting to play the guitar in a competitive way, in order to do somebody else's style but just do it faster, that's great from an Olympic competition kind of a standpoint, but I don't think it's particularly musical. And since I like music, it would not necessarily excite me to hear someone playing something real fast, if it wasn't unique to the individual." - Frank Zappa On... The '80s Guitar Clone, Interview by Dan Forte, Guitar Player, January 1987.
"One of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet is Allan Holdsworth. I really respect his playing." - Frank Zappa, Zappa's Inferno, Interview by Noë Goldwasser, Guitar World, April 1987.
'Interviewer: But once something becomes stylized, it becomes rigidly marked by the public. The notion of a "guitar solo" has preconceptions placed on it, even if it's Allan Holdsworth who does it, no matter how amazing or how frighteningly original; people automatically refute it because it's supposed to be selfindulgent or "for musicians." It's almost like things become iconographic and somehow lose their value for outsiders.
Frank Zappa: "Well, whose fault is that? That's what writers do. Musicians don't do that. The average person doesn't sit around thinking about the "iconographic problems of a gultar solo." You're talking about a sociological, emotional phenomenon associated with the need of a writer to earn a living by describing something which is very difficult to write about: music. And the hardest thing to write about is that kind of music, when it's really personal, when a guy is really trying to do something, which I think Allan Holdsworth is. He's a brilliant musician. And when you start digging the thesaurus out and delving into things like "iconographic" and tacking shit like that onto stories about guitar solos, well, [laughs] then the problems begin! A guy might listen to it and go "I like it" or "I don't like it," but to have it explained to him by a writer that "we now have an iconographic problem," that's another can of worms, wouldn't you say?" - Frank Zappa in Poetic Justice, Interview by Matt Resnicoff, Musician, November 1991.
