Allan Holdsworth to Play with Kurt Rossenwinkel

[N_Singh]

By the way, here is a good review on the Holdsworth pedal (incidentally, Kurt uses it, too--must have replaced his RAT pedal, apparently):

"I've had one for a few weeks and really like it. Contrary to what you might expect, the overdrive side is VERY low gain. You have to hit it with the boost if you want to get into aggressive territory. Between the 2 band EQ on the OD side and the low/high and fat/clean/treble options on the boost side, it's a very flexible tone-shaping tool. I understand from the above video that Holdsworth uses it to tame whatever backline he may encounter on the road."

[wideopenears]

Cool thread......
Allan is Sui Generis. That's really all one can say. But.....

As I do in every Holdsworth thread, I will say it again: His own compositions are utterly unlike anything else on Earth, really. I love his solo output, and yes, even his synthaxe work. It's unique, and is his voice, entirely. His voice owes much to jazz, and rock, and fusion, of course...but I also hear a distinctive symphonic approach--with a certain melancholic harmonic flavor that no one else really has....it's somehow very "English" to my ears, but not in a Vaughn Williams way......

The insane legato speed and huge, strange intervallic leaps get people's attention, for sure, but I find myself actually enjoying his spontaneous chordal compositions more than anything else these days...

[wideopenears]

Oh, and I've been playing "Star of Jupiter" a lot over the last three weeks, since I got it, and I'm totally digging Kurt's thing. I see it as an extension of albums like Heartcore and Enemies of Energy, but more organic, and more of a "band" feel, instead of the sometimes "Kurt with electronica" thing on earlier albums, or the straight-ahead stuff he's done. The new album cements his place as "most interesting new-ish guitarist" out there, in my mind.....though I've been enjoying Guthrie Govan a lot lately, too!

[Dave (in MA)]

Hazard Profile is a Soft Machine number. It's on the Floating World Live CD. IMO, Holdsworth's compositions on his solo albums are very solid. And more interesting than the vamp and riff oriented Soft Machine material. But I can enjoy both.

[Dean Watson]

His ability to stretch apart ( see picture above ) his 2nd and 3rd fingers is something I don't think many people can do, I certainly can't.

[Obscured]

Seems like this was the only tune AH played on. (You can see his hands on the screen at the top right of the vid)

[rottersclub]

Hazard Profile first appeared on the album Bundles. I didn't see it mentioned above - just the much more recently released Floating World Live release.

With respect to Star of Jupiter: I'm really digging it. Another poster mentioned it being organic and more of a band release. I agree. I also think that some of the credit ought to go to keyboardist Aaron Parks. The guy is just a wonderful musician. Check out his solo release Invisible Cinema and his other band is James Farm with Joshua Redmond, Matt Penman and Eric Harlan. I saw them several years ago when they were just getting to know each other and it was a good concert. I would expect them to be even better now.

[JSS]

Seems like this was the only tune AH played on. (You can see his hands on the screen at the top right of the vid)

"lets hit the bathroom and grab some more budwesier before John Mayer plays..."

[nosebone]

"Is that a guitar?"

[SunshipVoyager]

Love, love, love Holdsworth's work with Soft Machine, Tony Williams, U.K. & Bruford.

No time for the plastic sound of the SynthAxe, however, which turned me off to a number of Allan's solo recordings.

But however you slice it, the man is a genius. And the Allan/Kurt pairing is sheer, 100 % unmitigated awesome sauce.