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Dick Heath View Drop Down
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    Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 7:14am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 8:03am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Prog Geo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 8:48am
Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower) is heavily influenced by Alan Holdsworth. Also he has met him.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Padraic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 10:29am
John Clark does such a good "Holdsworth" on The Bruford Tapes I thought it was Holdsworth.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 10:29am
For Holdworthian guitarists, I would recommend Eric Wollman's albums Stealth Compromised AND East Coast Shoes.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 10:31am
Originally posted by chuckyspell chuckyspell wrote:

For Holdworthian guitarists, I would recommend Eric Wollman's albums Stealth Compromised AND East Coast Shoes.
as well as Hugh Ferguson's A D D
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 10:41am
Originally posted by chuckyspell chuckyspell wrote:

Originally posted by chuckyspell chuckyspell wrote:

For Holdworthian guitarists, I would recommend Eric Wollman's albums Stealth Compromised AND East Coast Shoes.
as well as Hugh Ferguson's A D D
and Corrado Rustici - Deconstruction Of A Postmodern Musician
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 10:54am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snobb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 11:02am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Abraxas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 11:58am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote darkshade Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 12:23pm
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 6:03pm
Originally posted by snobb snobb wrote:

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.
Still waiting to hear those.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kazuhiro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Aug 2011 at 8:23pm
It is one person that Misa Micevski was influenced from the Spider finger, too.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Aug 2011 at 3:06pm
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2011 at 11:04am
Another Holdsworth-like player is Bill Pohl from Underground Railroad.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Atavachron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2011 at 9:20pm
Originally posted by Dick Heath Dick Heath wrote:

Do others find with the pairing of Holdsworth and Frank Gambale on MPV's Truth In The Shredding, that it was difficult to tell the guitarists apart - when Gambale  has a fairly distinct sound on his own recordings?
 
- Good record; I can distinguish between them often but not always.  Gambale taught at GIT so I became familiar with his sound and can hear his very distinctive sweep-pick style which, at least when I knew him in '86, was entirely unique to him.


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.
 
- John Abercrombie, maybe Jeff Beck too
 
2. Which Holdsworthian guitarists and their recordings would you recommend?
 
- As noted by Pat, the "Unknown" John Clark on The Bruford Tapes
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2011 at 2:38pm
Another Holdsworthian recommendation would be Mongol's Hirofumi Mitoma.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dick Heath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Oct 2011 at 10:18am
Originally posted by chuckyspell chuckyspell wrote:

Another Holdsworthian recommendation would be Mongol's Hirofumi Mitoma.
 
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dick Heath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Nov 2011 at 8:29am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chuckyspell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2011 at 6:01am
What do you think of Charles Altura? What is there of him other than the Stanley Clarke Band cd?
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