Allan Holdsworth

1946 – 2017

Just before we went to press with this issue, we heard the news that Allan Holdsworth had died. There are very few guitarists who played such an important role in shaping jazz-fusion guitar. His influence was far-reaching, spilling over into rock and blues. Eddie Van Halen names him as a major influence and Robben Ford calls him the “John Coltrane of the guitar”.

We’re planning a fitting tribute in the next issue of Guitarist, but meanwhile, here is a personal recollection from the man who took over from Allan in Soft Machine, John Etheridge…

“I saw Allan play in Ronnie Scott’s in 1972 and I remember walking in and seeing this unlikely looking character holding a guitar, not looking all that comfortable. He had long straggly hair, and I thought, ‘Here we go; another of these so-called jazz-rock guitarists… ’Then he started soloing and my jaw hit the floor!

“I would occasionally bump into him and we’d chat. One day I was in Top Gear and he was there. He was playing with Soft Machine at the time and he said, ‘Hello, man. What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘Well, I’m not doing anything,’ and he said,‘Oh, really?’ and he took my number. A couple of weeks later I got a call from New York and it was Allan, who said, ‘Hello, man. Have they got hold of you?’ and I said, ‘Who?’ and he said, ‘Soft Machine; I gave them your number’. They’d just done the Bundles album and he’d left before the promotional tour to go and play with The Tony Williams Lifetime in America. Eventually, they got hold of me and I went along, and they liked me and it was really thanks to Allan. So I had to take over and promote the Bundles album, which was a hell of a thing, and it was made worse by me having seen the band with Allan in it about two months before. Obviously, it was mainly these stratospheric guitar solos, which I had to then not necessarily replicate, but at least keep my end up. I really had to try to get near to what he was doing, which, as you can imagine, was pretty hard.

“It kinda came together, but years later when I played with Stéphane Grappelli, people would say, ‘You’re following Django…’ and I’d say, ‘No, I’m not, I’m following a load of pretty ordinary guitarists who Stéphane played with in the 50s, 60s and 70s,’ so I didn’t feel intimidated. But taking over from Allan in Soft Machine was obviously a hell of a challenge.

“As far as his playing is concerned, he really is the outstanding guy from my generation, from McLaughlin onwards. There were better composers and more organised people, but as a soloist, Allan was the greatest. Out of all of us, he was pre-eminent in that field and despite appearing untogether – musically, he pursued that goal. My favourite of Allan’s solos, which is definitely in my top five guitar solos of all time, is Land Of The Bag Snake on the Bundles album. To me, it encapsulates everything and it’s a combination of this melancholy feeling that’s always present – and when he starts playing fast it doesn’t sound speedy, it flows. It’s all to do with the legato technique and he never hurries the beat and that solo is beautiful and more direct than he became later on, less harmonically involved. He was a guy who achieved, musically, what he had to.”