Allan Holdsworth in 1969

  • Thread starter Thread starter AlChuck
  • Start date Start date
Spwee,

Maybe my MP3 encoding made the song sound better :)

About the Tribal Tech guys, you know Willis worked for Wayne Shorter for a time post-Weather Report? And Henderson was in the Zawinul Syndicate for a year or so?

Yeah, my wife and I bought the house we live in in 1995, for nearly $280,000, about the cheapest thing we could find that wasn't a total shoebox or a condo and wasn't in a neighborhood full of criminals... It's about 1400 sq. ft., small but almost liveable. we could probably have sold it for nearly $500 K recently, but then what good would that do? To get anything larger or nicer, it would be $800 K or higher.

Berlin was amazing, and a really sharp guy; I used to love those articles he wrote in guitar player. I've got that CD Pump It! where he plays Clapton's famous "Crossroads" solo on the bass. Wonder what he's up to?

Another guy who vanished is Bill Connors. He was the original fake Mahavishnu in Chick Corea's Return to Forever, before DiMeola. Next he played acoustic guitar for several years, with a few solo albums on ECM and as a sideman with a bunch of folks like Paul Bley and Jan Garbarek. Then in the mid-80's he re-emerged in NYC and put out three electric guitar records in about three years, very Holdsworthy-sounding, nice stuff... then he disappeared.

Man, you took lessons from Joe Diorio, too? I'm jealous. I need lessons with somebody to break through my jazz barrier. I've listened to it since I was 18 but I can't seem to play changes; I never quite make that breakthrough. I also would like to study composition with Charlie Banacos... he does it via mail, maybe I'll try that some day.
 
AlChuck --

Well, I broke down and uploaded my tunes to IUMA.com last night. Fast, easy process to do that along with creating your own little page. The whole drill took less than an hour. They said it will be up and running within two business days, so I'll let you know when it happens.

I had 'ripped' my tunes a couple of weeks ago using the free utility called Cdex. The default 'rip' speed is 32X, but I kept getting 'jitter' errors which results in the recording sounding like a record skipping. After many attempts, I lowered the speed to 1X and adjusted all the other parameter as well, and it finally gave me clean results.

Yeah, I remember seeing Gary Willis playing with Shorter on a PBS broadcast of the Newport Jazz Festival. Willis is another one of those guys who's just mind-bendingly brilliant. Saw him several times with Scott Henderson's band way back in the early 80's. They used to play at the famous Dante's Jazz Club in North Hollywood. Tons of jazz greats used to play there until the owner decided to close shop. He sold the club to some Japanese investors, and on the evening before he was to turn ownership over to them, he put a gun to his head while sitting at the bar, and blew his brains out. Everyone was completely shocked. The club never did re-open with the new owners.

That's cool that you're sitting on a bunch of equity since your home purchase. Like you said though, doesn't really do any good to sell due to the cost of upgrading. If you ever leave that area though, you'll be happy you had lived in that 'cash cow'.

Oh yeah, Bill Connors, I'd almost forgotten about him. I actually liked his playing much more that DiMeola's, which left me cold. Sometimes you find these guys still playing in obscure clubs somewhere out of the limelight. Either that or dead from drug overdoses!

Joe Diorio -- another guru and monster player, but he was very down to earth and a riot to hang with -- great guy. I also had one lesson with Ted Greene, the chord maestro. At the time he had a waiting list of two years to study with him but left one slot a week open for new students to have a lesson. Man, the material he gave me was enough to keep my brain and fingers burning for six months. Also had one 'lesson' with Lenny Breau, before his tragic death. Actually, it wasn't much of a lesson. Poor Lenny was an emotionally distraught person as well as a heroin addict, and the day of my lesson he'd just had a fight with his live-in girlfriend. He spent most of the time crying and moaning, it was pretty pitiful. But, I stayed and talked with him for a while and tried to console him, and he finally settled down. He even attempted to start the lesson but it was just too strange at that point so I opted to leave and let him be. He was so brilliant and accomplished yet utterly child-like.

Wow, Charlie Banacos, step to the head of the class. That dude is really heavy. Did you hear about him via Mike Stern? You had also mentioned you were studying Pat Martino's minor concept -- is that the one where if you displace an interval in a minor triad you always end up with a diminished triad? If you have trouble with changes, I would really just go back and learn triads -- major and minor -- and learn them in as many permutations as you can think of. Then just play through simple standard tunes using nothing but the triads. That really solidifies the whole concept of changes and also helps to tie together the whole fretboard. I did that a few years ago when I realized that my blues playing sucked. It was just too all over the place. So, I just started practicing I, IV, V progressions just using triads, and playing with a metronome which is very important. Straight 8th's and also triplets. It made a huge difference in my playing. After you get that down, you just fill in the gaps with the other passing tones. I recall Pat Metheny also saying he learned that from Steve Swallow and it really helped him alot.

spwee
 
spwee,

Looking forward to checking out your IUMA stuff.

Interesting story about Dante's club... I'd heard of it, of course, but never went there even during the brief period I lived in West LA in 1980-81. Reminds me of another guitar player, one whom I was considering taking lessons from -- Warren Nunes. He shot himself in a park in San Mateo about two years ago. Weird.

Wow, you had lessons with Ted Greene and Lenny Breau too? Man...

Yeah, I think I first heard of Banacos through the Sterns, both Mike and Leni -- she's a great writer. Oh, that remidnds me of another great guitar player -- Wayne Krantz. Ever hear his stuff?

The Pat Martino thing is this book I got a while ago called Linear Expressions -- it's a bunch of minor scale forms, and he reduces improvisation over changes to substituting minor forms for ech chord. I never got very far with it -- one of my curses is to buy all these books and then never work through more than a few pages before I get distracted and a year goes by... this Martino book, I've got a couple of Joe Pass books, a book by Jim Hall, another by Leni Stern on composing, Mick Goodrick's book... not to mention books of tracnscribed Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, and Charlie Parker solos...

I really should just try what you suggest. I'm actually working now on making sure I can play four inversions of each flavor of 4-note chords in at least three ways -- 6th and 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings, 5-4-3-2, and 4-3-2-1 -- and trying to just zone is as I move them around to where the third and seventh is. Playing triad arpeggios is a natural extension of that.

Oh, I got the Gary Husband CD yesterday too -- really good, very interesting recording. The small label it's on (Art of Life Records, http://www.artofliferecords.com/)
also offers a Gordon Beck record called Experiments in Pops from 1967, with "Johnny" McLaughlin on guitar... so I ordered that too, it's quite good!

-AlChuck
 
Oh sure, Wayne Krantz, I have two of his albums. A guitar player friend of mine from Philadelphia turned me on to him. He goes to NYC to study with Wayne once a month, or at least he did a couple of years ago. Man, how time flies. Krantz did a tour with Steely Dan, an enviable gig. He can play his fool head off without a doubt, but I was impressed by his range and choice of material. He covered one of my favorite Jethro Tull tunes, 'Sossity, You're a Woman'. Beautiful, solo guitar rendition. Did you ever get into Tull? I think they are one of the greatest bands ever. Ian Anderson is such a unique and original talent.

Oh, my friend also studied with (and here's another dead guitar player) Emily Remler. Have you heard her? She was really gifted. It was odd, since at one of the lessons, she actually came on to my friend and wanted him to have sex with her right then and there! He's thinking "damn, all I want is a guitar lesson" -- sex is the furthest thing from his mind -- he's a very serious and excellent player. She got insulted and he had to leave and that was the end of his studies with her. Then she ended up dead as well. What a waste.

I never have much luck with books either. I've learned mostly everything I know from transcribing solos that I like from the different jazz heavies that I have mentioned, plus Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, George Coleman, anybody that caught my ear. That seems to work better for me. I'm not sure if I am familiar with that particular Martino book, although it might be the same one was I was describing before. The Mick Goodrick book, is that 'The Advancing Guitarist'?

Just curious -- the Charlie Parker transcriptions you have -- were they transcribed by Victor Millikuff (might be wrong spelling)? He published tons of Parker solos, then I ended up meeting the guy and playing in a band with him. He was okay, but nothing great. He changed his name to 'Wolf Marshall' (rock on, baby) and got involved with that 'Star Licks' series of videos. He's a real hustler and has the rock star look in spades.

Thanks for the link for Husand's record label. The one tune I heard from that album was very good. And yeah, 'Johnny McLaughin', what a hoot. Far cry from Mahavishnu! And as Miles Davis disparaged "yeah that Devadip-shit Santana guy" -- priceless! He couldn't take any kind of pretention.

spwee
 
Meshuggah,

I'll have to take a listen to that stuff this weekend... thanks.

spwee,

Yeah, I have that Wayne Krantz record... my favorite is Two Drink Minimum, a live one from '97 or so, I guess.

Actually I was never much of a Tull fan. I really liked their first two albums, and was a real Mick Abrahams fan for a while until he, too, disappeared. I didn't like Aqualung and their subsequent stuff too much.

Emily Remler was terrific, I saw her at McCabe's Guitar Shop one night way back when when I lived down their. She did an excellent instructional video that I rented once. Really sad.

The Charlie Parker solos were transcribed by Stuart Isacoff. One of the Music For Millions Jazz Master Series. I've seen Wolf Marshall's name and face in the video and book ads for a long time. He does project an attitude thing even in still photos. Maybe the fact that he didn't make it big just shows there is sometimes justice in the world after all.

The Martino book, he's got a two volume set that's longer and more involved, that were companions to a pair of REH videos: Creative Force, Vol. 1 and 2. There's another called Quantum Guitar: Analysis of a Tune & Advanced Concepts from CMP Publishing. The one I'm talking about is probably his oldest, from Hal Leonard; they also have a later book just titled Pat Martino with a CD... there's also a book of transcriptions by Steve Khan named Pat Martino - the Early Years.

Yes, the Goodrick book is The Advancing Guitarist. Kind of like zen and the art of guitar playing...
 
Meshuggah --

Wow, that's some pretty intense music there -- kind of high octane rap-metal with some interesting rhythmic undercurrents. The lead guitar player kind of got buried in the mix but his Allan Holdsworth style is quite evident. I'd like to hear him take an extended solo. Good luck with your project, you guys seem to be well organized.

AlChuck --

I have that live Krantz album as well, and it really does shine.

Yes indeed, the early Tull stuff was the best, my favorite albums being 'Benefit' and 'Stand Up'. I didn't like the title tune 'Aqualung' but I do like most of the other material on the album. And Mick Abrams went on to form 'Blodwyn Pig', which was kind of short lived.

Yeah, Wolf Marshall (I crack up every time I hear that name) has managed to keep himself employed in the music field. His playing was kind of 'more is less' concept in that he would play long rambling phrases that were a bit off rhythmically, so it had kind of an annoying effect. I like to hear some space now and then.

It's interesting about Pat Martino and all the different books he's done. He obviously has all this knowledge and ability (let's talk pre-aneurism to be fair), but for all that he was essentially what I call a 'plug and play' guitar player -- he used the same arsenal of utility phrases and plugged them in at the appropriate times. He would play them note for note the same way each time. That became most obvious when he played a tune that wasn't a full-charge-ahead straight 16th note outing, which was his specialty. But, he was still great and could really burn, and was a big influence on me when I first started trying to play jazz. Actually, the teacher I learned the most from at the beginning was Steve Giordano, also in Philadelphia. He played with Richard 'Groove' Holmes and other jazz dudes, and had a very natural musical style.

Now for the inevitable guitar player question -- what kind of guitar and amp setup have you been using? I have a 1970 Gibson 335 that I use for jazz, a 1983 Charvel (USA) Strat (Holdsworth model with Floyd Rose), and I recently acquired a Parker Fly, which is incredibly easy to play. I used a Boogie Mark IIB for 15 years, but recently sold it and got two other amps -- a Marshall 1962 Bluesbreaker combo reissue, and a reissue blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb. Have a Real Tube overdrive unit, a Fulltone II overdrive, Boss digital delay and that's about it. The thing is, I haven't played out in a long time -- but at least I'm prepared!

spwee
 
spwee,

Yeah, I was a stone Blodwyn Pig fan back in '71, one of three or four in the US :)

Gear... let's see...

I have three electrics -- a Gibson L6-S I bought new in 1974, a Hohner Steinberger copy I bought new in 1989, and a Fender Vintage '62 Strat made in the late '80s that I bought in 1995. I also have a Yamaha steel-string acoustic, and an Ibanez SoundGear 4-string bass my wife bought me for Christmas in 1991.

For amps I have a Carvin SX-100 and a 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb that I bought used for $125 in 1973. I also have a POD 2.0 that I use for recording. Effects include a MXR Distortion+ that I bought in 1974, a Budda Bud-Wah I bought just a few months ago, and an Alesis Quadraverb GT that the POD has basically replaced.

I have always wanted a 335, and I've longed for a Parker Fly since I first saw 'em -- then I played one at a friend's birthday party/jam once about three years ago and my longing went up a notch or two... I would also like to get a Carvin Holdsworth model and I would die for a nice archtop box like an L-5...

I also have not played out lately except as a bassist for a cover band at work... there are three guitar players which is why I'm on bass...

-AlChuck
 
AlChuck --

I've been racking my brain trying to recall the sound of Blodwyn Pig. I went on Amazon.com and peoples' reviews of their albums, particularly 'Ahead Rings Out' are way over the top -- fiercely complimentary. Do you have that one? The only complaint about the version of that album that is available now is that the song 'See My Way' is not on it.

Regarding your guitars, one kind of boggles my mind -- the Hohner Steinberger copy. I always think of Hohner as a traditional old company and Steinberger as a modern innovator. But it's a Hohner guitar modeled after a Steinberger? Is it 'headless'? And yes, that Carvin Holdsworth model (is it the 'Fatboy'?) does look mighty tasty.

I've been laboring all day on composing and recording a new tune. I joke with my wife that it seems like Claymation -- such a slow, agonizing process. But, somehow I manage to find what I'm looking for.

spwee
 
Meshuggah,

Wow, yeah, he's definitely listened to Allan... interesting stuff....


spwee,

I have Ahead Rings Out on LP. Abrahams had such an interesting style, much more diverse than most of the other guys then. He could play the Creamesque hard rock thing, but also play traditional blues and bottleneck and approach jazz as well...

Yeah, it's a Hohner, the headless thing, says "licensed by Steinberger" on it, has "Designed by EMG" pickups... not a great guitar by any means but certainly decent-sounding and playing, and very easy to carry on a plane -- that's the main reason I got it. At the time I had a job that involved some travel. so woth that axe I was able to practice in my hotel room while on the road.

Yeah, it's the Fatboy I'm talking about... maybe some day there'll be one of those in my pile...Speaking of Holdsworth again, and yesterday I pulled out Jack Bruce's 1989 CD A Question of Time, which has one track ("Obsession") where Allan plays a very wicked solo over an ominous rock track with Ginger Baker on drums... ever hear that one? AH really rises to it when he guests on other people's records. Did you ever hear his stuff on Jean-Luc Ponty's Enigmatic Ocean from the late 70's? Or his stuff on Chad Wackerman's CDs from the early 90's?

Glad you're getting results with the composing and recording... can't wait to hear your IUMA stuff...

-AlChuck
 
you know, alchuck........

i play an older carvin, a dc400 i bought in 1980.... didn't like the neck, so i took it to zion guitars, and they shaved the neck down for me......

i can tell you that, after 21 years of tough gigging with it, it still records and plays wonderfully...... i'd go for that fatboy......

enigmatic ocean was one of my favorites for listening to holdsworth play melodic solos on other peoples' stuff....... also expresso, gong.........
 
GONZO-X,

Thanks for the tip on the Carvin quality... but I just bought a new family car two weeks ago, though, so it's likely to be a veeeerrrrry long time before I buy myself anything more expensive than new strings and maybe a cable.

Yeah, the Gong stuff was very good; also the two Bill Bruford albums, Feels Good to Me and One of a Kind, are exceptional.
 
AlChuck and Gonzo --

Yeah, Allan many time does sound better on other people's stuff. I think he does better when he's not producing. He can't see his own forest for his own trees. Never heard that Jack Bruce thing, that sounds very intriguing, nor have I heard the Wackerman stuff. I do however, have Enigmatic Ocean and the Bruford albums. Loved also what he played on the U.K. album that has 'In The Dead of Night' on it, and also the 'Believe It' album with Tony Williams.

That's interesting about the Hohner guitar -- very practical. And that Fatboy looks mighty fine on the Carvin website with Allan holding it.

Damn, I got an email from IUMA saying my audio files were not the right format. I don't know what's up -- I used that ripping utility called Cdex and converted the CD files into MP3's. Somehow they're not right. I'm going to the IUMA site now and find out what they recommend. What a freakin' waste of time. I'm in the middle of working on a new tune, but I got my expectations high that my other tunes would be up and running, so I want to get this fixed. I'll try to get it all straightened out this evening. Oh, and to compound the problem, my cable modem has been going out intermittently for the last 24 hours. AAHH!!

If anyone has any technical suggestions, I'm all ears. By the way, my email address is : spweedah@hotmail.com.

spwee
 
AlChuck and Gonzo --

Yeah, Allan many time does sound better on other people's stuff. I think he does better when he's not producing. He can't see his own forest for his own trees. Never heard that Jack Bruce thing, that sounds very intriguing, nor have I heard the Wackerman stuff. I do however, have Enigmatic Ocean and the Bruford albums. Loved also what he played on the U.K. album that has 'In The Dead of Night' on it, and also the 'Believe It' album with Tony Williams.

That's interesting about the Hohner guitar -- very practical. And that Fatboy looks mighty fine on the Carvin website with Allan holding it.

Damn, I got an email from IUMA saying my audio files were not the right format. I don't know what's up -- I used that ripping utility called Cdex and converted the CD files into MP3's. Somehow they're not right. I'm going to the IUMA site now and find out what they recommend. What a freakin' waste of time. I'm in the middle of working on a new tune, but I got my expectations high that my other tunes would be up and running, so I want to get this fixed. I'll try to get it all straightened out this evening. Oh, and to compound the problem, my cable modem has been going out intermittently for the last 24 hours. AAHH!!

If anyone has any technical suggestions, I'm all ears. By the way, my email address is : spweedah@hotmail.com.

spwee
 
spwee,

Funny, we were just wondering about him... then I was looking at Anil Prasad's Innerviews website, and saw this news item:

Upcoming Interviews
Joy Askew, The Bears (Chris Arduser, Adrian Belew, Bob Nyswonger and Rob Fetters),Jeff Berlin, Kai Eckhardt, Jonas Hellborg, Henry Kaiser, Steve Smith, SPLaTTeRCeLL (David Torn), Dave Swarbrick, Miroslav Tadic and Eberhard Weber.

Have you ever seen this site? He's got a lot of good interviews with a lot of good people. For example, Allan Holdsworth from 1993:

http://www.innerviews.org/inner/holdswor.html

And as a Tull fan you'll like

http://www.innerviews.org/inner/iananderson.html

See the list at http://www.innerviews.org/archive.htm
 
AlChuck --

No, have never heard of this fellow or the site -- thanks for the links, they sound interesting, I'll check them out right away.

Still waiting on this damn software company to get back to me so I can download an installable version of their CD ripping program and get my tunes posted. They said 'two business days' for a reply -- well here we are at that juncture and I'm still sitting here with my floppy drive in my hand and no reply. Dateless and desperate. Oh, the humanity.

spwee
 
AlChuck --

Finally got my tunes posted at: http://granthambleton.iuma.com

If you choose to stream, please use the MP3 format -- the Real format sounds Real Bad.

The tunes are all different; many are pretty funky. My Holdsworth knockoff tune is called 'ThroughLine'.

Got the new Jack Bruce album. Man, that guy is so creative -- he hasn't run dry after all this time. It will take me a while to absorb the material. The only thing that bugs me about it, and I think you mentioned it, is the extraneous percussion. It's especially cloying on 'Sunshine of your Love' -- I was just aching for some Ginger Baker drums to make that tune go downtown.

spwee
 
spwee,

Despite only having had time for a cursory listening to your material, I just have to say:

Wow, great stuff -- I'm impressed. Fine compositional ideas, terrific recording job, terrific guitar tones, excellent playing (yes, "ThroughLine" is very Holdsworthy indeed -- wish I could dance through stuff like that!)... definitely some of the better stuff I've heard from folks on these forums.

I look forward to listening to them all more closely.

Did you post a link to these from the MP3 Mixing Clinic? I also think you should check out the Guitar Forum at musicplayer.com's Expert Forums:

http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

There's some discussion about a collection of links or perhaps a website with some space for a Guitar Forum particpant music compilation...

-AlChuck
 
Thanks, AlChuck!

Glad you could finally listen to my tunes. I appreciate your nice comments.

Yes I did post on the Mixing Clinic and already got a good response. Also put out the word on the VS Planet BBS, and the Akai DPS forum on Yahoo Groups, and the feedback has been very positive.

Haven't heard of the other 'musicplayer' website (you know alot of interesting websites!) but will check into that right away -- thanks for letting me know about it.

Kind of a surreal feeling with so many people hearing my stuff -- up until now it's just been me holed up in my bedroom studio in a tangle of wires and a pile of instruction manuals. I'm kind of amazed that actual music got produced.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts or suggestions after you listen further.

Thanks again.

spwee
 
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