Allan Holdsworth was a guitarist, violinist and composer from Bradford, born in 1946, who played in a run of British jazz-rock and progressive rock bands before settling in California, where he made most of his solo records. Wikipedia files his work under jazz fusion, wordless rock and progressive rock. This guide to Allan Holdsworth follows him from Soft Machine, Gong and U.K. to the solo records, noting which are sung and which are wordless.

The short version

Holdsworth was given his first guitar at 17 and recorded with ’Igginbottom, Nucleus and Tempest before joining Soft Machine at the end of 1973. In the mid-1970s he played with the New Tony Williams Lifetime and Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, then with Bill Bruford, and in 1977 he became a founding member of U.K. “Velvet Darkness” came out under his name in 1976, but he disowned it; he regarded “I.O.U.” (1982) as his true debut. From “Atavachron” (1986) he added the SynthAxe, a guitar-shaped synthesiser controller, to his sound. His last studio album was “Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie” (2001). Holdsworth died in 2017.

From Bradford to the London jazz-rock bands

His first record was the only album by ’Igginbottom, “’Igginbottom’s Wrench” (1969). He then played on “Belladonna” (1972) during a brief stint with Nucleus, a record released under Ian Carr’s name, and on the 1973 debut of Jon Hiseman’s Tempest, alongside singer Paul Williams. At the end of 1973 he joined Soft Machine. Wikipedia notes that his prominent guitar on “Bundles” (1975) set it apart from earlier Soft Machine records, which rarely featured the instrument. He left in early 1975, and returned as lead guitarist on “Land of Cockayne” (1981).

Tony Williams then asked him into his Lifetime for “Believe It” (1975) and “Million Dollar Legs” (1976). Late in 1976 he joined the line-up of Gong led by Pierre Moerlen, playing guitars, violin and pedal steel on “Gazeuse!”; its “Shadows Of” reworks his own piece “Velvet Darkness”. He returned as a guest on “Expresso II” (1978).

Bruford, U.K. and the move to California

In 1977 Bill Bruford recruited him for his debut “Feels Good to Me” (1978), and the two became founding members of U.K. with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson. On the self-titled album, released on 14 April 1978, Wetton sings and Holdsworth plays acoustic and electric guitar and co-wrote two pieces. Holdsworth and Bruford left U.K. that same year and carried on in Bruford’s own band.

“Velvet Darkness” (CTI, 1976) is a wordless fusion session with Alan Pasqua, Alphonso Johnson and Narada Michael Walden; Holdsworth said CTI released rehearsal tapes without the musicians’ consent. His own start as a bandleader was the trio with Gary Husband and Paul Carmichael, renamed I.O.U. when Paul Williams joined as singer. “I.O.U.” was released independently in 1982. According to Wikipedia, Eddie Van Halen then brought him to the attention of Warner Bros., which issued “Road Games” (1983), a six-track mini album, sung in part by Williams and Jack Bruce; it earned Holdsworth a Grammy nomination at the 1984 awards. By then he was based in Southern California.

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Album by album

Eleven solo studio albums, from “Velvet Darkness” (1976) to “Flat Tire: Music for a Non-Existent Movie” (2001); most are wordless, and the sung tracks are named below. Tap any title for its guide.

The players

The singers are few and specific. Paul Williams sings on “I.O.U.”, and on “Metal Fatigue” (1985, credited on its US release to Allan Holdsworth with I.O.U.) he sings the title track and “Panic Station”, while Paul Korda sings “In the Mystery”. Rowanne Mark sings “All Our Yesterdays” on “Atavachron” and the title track of “Secrets” (1989), where Craig Copeland sings “Endomorph”. On “Wardenclyffe Tower” (1992) Naomi Star is credited with vocals on “Against the Clock”, and the opening track carries a spoken voice part.

Everything else is wordless: “Velvet Darkness”, “Sand” (1987), “Hard Hat Area” (1993), “None Too Soon” (1996), “The Sixteen Men of Tain” (2000) and “Flat Tire”. Drummers Husband, Wackerman and Vinnie Colaiuta rotate, with Jimmy Johnson the regular bassist from “Metal Fatigue” to “Wardenclyffe Tower”; Tony Williams drums on one “Atavachron” track. “Hard Hat Area” is a quartet record with Husband, keyboardist Steve Hunt and bassist Skúli Sverrisson. “None Too Soon”, with Gordon Beck on piano, is mostly covers, from Coltrane and Joe Henderson to Lennon and McCartney, plus two Beck originals. “Flat Tire” was recorded almost entirely by Holdsworth alone.

Where to start

Start with “Metal Fatigue” (1985). Reviewing it for AllMusic, Daniel Gioffre places it among the key fusion records of the 1980s and singles out the band of Johnson and Wackerman. Then try “Secrets” (1989), which AllMusic’s Vincent Jeffries treats as the culmination of his legato playing and his SynthAxe work, and which Gavin Harrison, as cited on Wikipedia, picked among his essential drum albums for Colaiuta’s playing.

For the later Holdsworth, go to “The Sixteen Men of Tain” (2000), with acoustic bass and trumpet; AllMusic’s David R. Adler called it “startlingly superb.” If the SynthAxe is what draws you, “Sand” (1987) is the record where, in Thom Jurek’s AllMusic review, the synthesiser textures almost replace the conventional guitar sound.

Why they matter

Other guitarists said the strongest things about him. Wikipedia reports that his smooth legato lines grew out of a wish to sound like a saxophone, and that his chords used unusual shapes inside complex progressions. It reports that in 1981 Eddie Van Halen ranked him first among guitarists. Robben Ford compared him to John Coltrane, and Guitar World ranked his influence with that of Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. Wikipedia also names Frank Zappa, Steve Vai and John Petrucci among those who praised him, and Joe Satriani among those who cite him as an influence.

AllMusic’s Greg Prato counts him among the first musicians to take up the SynthAxe, notes that he topped the Guitar Player readers’ poll for guitar synthesiser from 1989 to 1994, and argues that wider recognition never quite came. His British years, from Soft Machine to U.K., belong to the story I tell in my book Beyond the Thames.

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