Holdsworthian guitarists |
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Dick Heath
Forum Senior Member Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Location: Loughborough UK Status: Offline Points: 103 |
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Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 7:14am |
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While it is known Holdsworth does not like guitarists who imitate elements of his playing, e.g the legato, the fast complexs runs, the tangential solos at right angles to a tune's main theme (e.g. delve into the comments found in the liner notes of Yngwie Malmsteen's Inspiration* album), etc., a number do it. (And I admit I like a lot of these recordings). However, I think adopting/adapting Holdsworth's style indicates a hard and challenging point to start a (professional) musical career - and how many other new pro guitarists borrow heavily from their elders and betters?
We can pick guitarists who have gone through a brief spell of Holdsworthian playing and moved on - Scott McGill during interview admitted Holdsworth's influence in his early playing e.g. with Finneus Gauge, but clearly 20 years on is his own man. Alex Machacek seemed mortified by reviewers suggesting his debut album Featuring Ourselves, to be a sort of 80's Mothers with Holdsworth as lead guitarist, that his subsequent albums have been free of the obvious. Other guitarists have the occasional Holdsworthian moments but also have drawn on a broader range of influences and along with their own originality, e.g. Nguyen Le or Susan Reinert. Do others find with the pairing of Holdsworth and Frank Gambale on MPV's Truth In The Shredding, that it was difficut to tell the guitarists apart - when Gambale has a fairly distinct sound on his own recordings? And I may go as far as including It Bites' Francis Dunnery in this listing, who in a UK specialist guitarist magazine at the end of the 80's, discussed his love of Holdsworth and Genesis - which goes a little way to my then thinking It Bites has a small percentage of UK and a larger percentage of Gabriel period Genesis in their albums. And then those who have stuck being Holdsworthian through several albums and those who have been limited to one album only (e.g. Jacque Le Greca, Elliot Freedman). Then there is that odd 80's period of Bill Connors' career with three solo albums that had him accused of being Holdsworthian - whilst ignoring the originality of his earlier RTF period???
So following on from that preamble,some questions/requests for your input:
1. Which guitarists do you think have a distinct voice (and you may like to add which subsequent guitarists have "borrowed")? I would say McLaughlin (although Larry Coryell has claimed to have added to McLaughlin education in the early 70's) , Holdsworth, Metheny, Montgomery, Jim Hall, Les Paul, Coryell.
2. Which Holdsworthian guitarists and their recordings would you recommend?
*On which Malmsteen at least tackled UK's In The Dead Of Night and avoided being Holdsworthian.
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js
Forum Admin Group Site admin Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Location: Memphis Status: Offline Points: 35215 |
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I think a very distinct voice on the guitar is Pete Cosey. He started as a sideman with the Chess label where he played on countless RnB and blues records. He also played with the odd-ball artsy soul group Rotary Connection. Somewhere in there he helped make the infamous "Electric Mud" album with Muddy Waters on which Waters was pushed into a psychedelic style he claimed not to like, but the album has become a cult attraction to collectors.
Cosey's break into the jazz and fusion world came with Miles Davis. Cosey contributed some of the finest and most original electric guitar work ever on albums like "Get Up with It" and "Agharta". Cosey's playing is grounded in the blues, but years of wood-shedding have led to an incredible technique that rivals the best. Rock guitar ace Robert Fripp has referred to Cosey's playing as "wallpaper shredding". After Miles, Cosey went back to quietly working on his technique until Bill Laswell called on him for work on his many projects. Cosey has never recorded a solo album, but remains active often showing up on Laswell records and other artists associated with the NYC scene. |
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Prog Geo
Forum Senior Member Joined: 18 Apr 2011 Location: Athens (Greece) Status: Offline Points: 126 |
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Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower) is heavily influenced by Alan Holdsworth. Also he has met him.
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Padraic
Forum Newbie Joined: 22 Mar 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 18 |
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John Clark does such a good "Holdsworth" on The Bruford Tapes I thought it was Holdsworth.
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chuckyspell
Forum Groupie Joined: 04 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 76 |
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For Holdworthian guitarists, I would recommend Eric Wollman's albums Stealth Compromised AND East Coast Shoes.
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chuckyspell
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as well as Hugh Ferguson's A D D
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chuckyspell
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and Corrado Rustici - Deconstruction Of A Postmodern Musician
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chuckyspell
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Patrice Meyer is one of Hold's contemporaries because he had the same kind of solo style before Holds got popular. Check out the Racines Croisées album and maybe Dromedaire Viennois
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snobb
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Patrice Meyer's work on Pip Pyle's or Hugh Hopper's albums are more impressive than his solo works for me. Racines Croisees is a bit too amateurish and Dromedaire Viennois (with strong collaborating artists) is seriously zeuhl -influenced.
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Abraxas
JMA Collaborator Joined: 10 Mar 2011 Location: Argentina Status: Offline Points: 1251 |
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Well, Scofield has a distintive voice, doesn't he?
Also, Sonny Sharrock. Meola? David Fiuczynski does seem to have a rather original style, with influences no doubt. Jeff Beck and Santana are very original imo, although more toward the rock genre. John Goodsall may have a bit of Holdsworth? Hmm, maybe not. John Etheridge as well, but he does seem to have more of a McLaughlin influence. Concerning the jazz genre proper, I'm still a newb at differenciating guitarists. Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, all considered great ones, but I need to pay close attention to notice the differences. A band that you might be interested, if you don't know yet, is Exivious from the "Metal Fusion" genre, the guitarist reminds me a lot of Holdsworth, despite the metal riffage: Edited by Abraxas - 03 Aug 2011 at 12:05pm |
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darkshade
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Speaking of "metal jazz", a lot of Planet X guitar work reminds me of Holdsworth (obviously, Holdsworth guests on their most recent album Quantum.)
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chuckyspell
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Still waiting to hear those.
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Kazuhiro
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It is one person that Misa Micevski was influenced from the Spider finger, too.
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Moshkito
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Hi,
Might not quite fit here, but Jukka Tolonen was pretty impressive guitarist in his own fusion band and works ... at least I thought that could/should be considered fusion.
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chuckyspell
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Another Holdsworth-like player is Bill Pohl from Underground Railroad.
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Atavachron
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chuckyspell
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Another Holdsworthian recommendation would be Mongol's Hirofumi Mitoma.
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Dick Heath
Forum Senior Member Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Location: Loughborough UK Status: Offline Points: 103 |
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How coincidental? I've had in my mind to find time to briefly mention here Mongol's Doppler 444, which I recently discovered. Virtually every guitar solo has a strong Holdsworthian input.
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Dick Heath
Forum Senior Member Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Location: Loughborough UK Status: Offline Points: 103 |
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Amused at some sarcasm displayed elsewhere very recently commenting on You Tube footage of rehearsals, here of Jakko Jacszyk in a line up of Isuldurs Bane's musicians, preparing for the Swedish IB Festival, i.e. Jakko was labeled 'Jakko Holdsworth'. No deying Jakko does like to display on occasions his Holdsworthian approach to guitar-playing. But then as Jakko will tell you, he is proably the only person to get guitar lessons from the maestro himself.
Edited by Dick Heath - 03 Nov 2011 at 8:39am |
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chuckyspell
Forum Groupie Joined: 04 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 76 |
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What do you think of Charles Altura? What is there of him other than the Stanley Clarke Band cd?
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