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From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: Mail order (forwarded message)
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1992 07:17 CST
From:
Subject: Mail order (forwarded message)

> Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 08:41:00 GMT
> Sender: Jazz Lovers' List
> From: [email-masked]
> Subject: Mail order CDs in Britain
>
> Does anyone know of a CD mail order company in Britain or even mainland
> Europe which could supply me with the likes of David Torn,Allan Holdsworth,
> John Zorn,Bill Frisell,etc?
>
> John Lenihan.

Well folks, any suggestions for this fellow?

bye,
cmv

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Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 00:04:16 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: live Tempest & UK
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 13:48 EST
From:
Subject: live Tempest & UK

Found a couple of interesting listings in the Lasers Edge catalog.

Tempest - Live In London '74 "The live CD is from Italy and is a
BBC radio broadcast. It features very long versions of six tracks
from the first LP."

UK - Road Test "Live recording of the original Holdsworth-Bruford
lineup. Recorded at the Cleveland Agora Ballroom on 11/9/78 it
features material from the 1st LP plus "Carrying No Cross" which
the group didn't record with this lineup and "Forever Till Sunday"
which turned up on Bruford's "One of a Kind" album."

The Tempest is $20; the UK is $21. Packing and handling is $1.00
per order. US postage is 1st Class $1.50 first CD, each additional
CD $0.75 or 4th class $1.50 for first 3 CDs, each additional $0.50.
Insurance adds $1.50.

Mailing address is The Laser's Edge, PO Box 3128, Hoboken NJ 07030.
Phone orders weekday evenings 6PM to 10PM EST (201)656-2112.

John McIntyre
Physics - Astronomy Dept
Michigan State University

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Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 00:07:33 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: Holdsworth live
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 17:07:38 PST
From: [email-masked] (Malcolm Humes)
Subject: Holdsworth live

Well, I should preface this review by stating that I favor the Holdsworth
recordings from the 70's with Gong, Soft Machine, Bruford, and UK to
most if not all of what I've heard in the 80's and 90's. I do own Road Games,
I.O.U and Metal Fatigue but have barely listened to them since the vocals
bother me too much.

So those may have been contributing factors to me being a little bored by
the live Holdsworth show I saw last night, the early show at the Great
American Music Hall in San Francisco. In fact I could have stayed for the
late show for free but was afraid it would just repeat the feelings I'd had
during the early set.

First of all, I did have a good time and I'm glad I went, and so was my
girlfriend and another friend who knew little of Holdsworth's music who
we dragged along to the show. It was at a good performance space and it
looked like the hall was pretty well full. The focus seemed to really be
on Allan and Chad Wackerman as the virtuoso performers. My friend Gary was
blown away by Chad's drumming.

What I didn't like about the show was a combination of technical details
and aesthetics in choice of material and arrangements. Since I had a fairly
good seat about 8-10 rows back a little off axis to the right I'm assuming
that the problems I heard in the mix were throughout the club and not just
where I was sitting, but I can't be sure. Initially the guitar was mixed
way too low and eventually it was pulled up a bit more to where it sounded
better, but to me the mix was never quite right. The drums were pretty loud,
probably partly due to Chad's style of playing which seems to me to be
pretty constantly heavy. He was really one of the best parts of the show,
but it would have been nice if the other instruments were as strong in
the mix as the drums (which probably weren't even amplified much anyway),
and IMHO Chad could be a little more dynamic in varying the intensity a
bit and being a little gentler and subtle at times. But this was a minor
part of what bothered me about the show.

They keyboard arrangments really stepped all over the guitar. Seemed like
the tonal quality and range of the guitar and the synth patches were too
close for me and they got muddied up in the mix so I could hardly tell
what was what at times. It wasn't until they did a piece with the keyboard
guy offstage that I could hear some of the beautiful chording work that
Allan was doing with some volume pedal controls and his effects rack. It
was really nice, and I assume he was doing more of this at other points
in the show but I couldn't really hear him doing much else but his solos.
The keyboard player ruined parts of this show for me, using very standard
synthy patches and stepping all over the same notes Holdsworth was playing
around.

I wanted to hear these guys improvise or do some music that had more
interplay between the instruments! Too much of the time they went off into
the jazz standards cliche of each member getting in a couple of solos.
They just solo'd away. I like to hear more interaction between players
instead of just one player soloing while the others provide a music bed.

A problem I have with Allan's music is that I get bored hearing more than
about an lp side worth of him playing becasue it all starts to sound the
same after that. I felt like it was time for a change of pace a couple of
times during this show and they did do one or two numbers that sounded
a *little* different, but mostly everything sounded like it was the same
style, instruments, and even solos after a while. I wanted more from
this than a bunch of solos flying up and down the scales. Well, perhaps
this will be one of those shows (like David Torn was) that grows on me
over time. After the show I accosted guy in front of me who had a tape
deck sitting in his lap and asked if I could get a copy of the show. If he
actually gets back to me on this I may have more of an opportunity to listen
to the show piece by piece and digest it more. My initial impession was that
I OD'd on Holdsworth about 20 minutes into the set and spent the rest of the
show trying to recover the thrill of the first song without much success.
It left me hungry for a dose of McLaughlin or Terje Rypdal.

Is Bigger Better? An interesting point I've rarely heard discussed is the
size of Holdsworth's hands. They are very big, and supposedly this has quite
a positive effect on his playing and fingering capabilities. (Off the subject
but tangentially related, have you ever heard about Merv Griffin's Big Head
theory? Merv believes that people with heads disproportionately large for their
bodies make more popular tv personalities. That's why he hired Pat Sajak.)
Also, Allan has the largest effects racks I've ever seen a guitarist use.
I'm not sure any of this means anything, it just seemed worth mentioning.

- [email-masked]

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Date: Fri, 07 Feb 92 21:06:11 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: re: Holdsworth
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Fri, 7 Feb 92 16:20:31 PST
From: [email-masked]
Subject: re: Holdsworth

> Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 17:07:38 PST
> From: [email-masked] (Malcolm Humes)
> Subject: Holdsworth live

> So those may have been contributing factors to me being a little bored by
> the live Holdsworth show I saw last night, the early show at the Great
> American Music Hall in San Francisco. In fact I could have stayed for the
> late show for free but was afraid it would just repeat the feelings I'd had
> during the early set.

I saw the late show in San Francisco, and although I came away from
the concert with a much more positive experience than Malcolm did, he
does raise some interesting points:

> Initially the guitar was mixed
> way too low and eventually it was pulled up a bit more to where it sounded
> better, but to me the mix was never quite right. The drums were pretty loud,
> probably partly due to Chad's style of playing which seems to me to be
> pretty constantly heavy. He was really one of the best parts of the show,
> the mix as the drums (which probably weren't even amplified much anyway),

The guitar was definitely mixed way too low for the opening number,
but it definitely improved in the following pieces. After the show, as
I was walking by the mixing board, I overheard the sound engineer say
that Allan likes the stage volume to be fairly low which makes it
difficult to balance everything. As a matter of fact, there were
occasional yells between pieces to increase the volume. I was in about
the third row of tables, fairly close to the front speakers, and I
thought the sound was great, not ear-bleeding loud. Also, I agree with
Malcolm that Chad's playing was one of the best parts of the show.

> I wanted to hear these guys improvise or do some music that had more
> interplay between the instruments! Too much of the time they went off into
> the jazz standards cliche of each member getting in a couple of solos.

Yes, it would have been nice to have more improvisation, but I really
liked the solos, especially Chad's. Steve Hunt (the keyboard guy) had
an extended solo in "Devil Take the Hindmost" that I thought dragged
on a bit too long, but on the whole these are some extraordinary
musicians.

> A problem I have with Allan's music is that I get bored hearing more than
> about an lp side worth of him playing becasue it all starts to sound the
> same after that.

The concert featured a nice blend of his music since I.O.U. It was
great to finally get a chance to see him perform his music. Those
haunting chords that he plays along with the added volume pedal effect
and those fast scale runs were classic Holdsworth. Unlike Malcolm, I
like everthing since Road Games, so I was not disappointed with his
song selection. He did a number called "spear of innocence" (I think,
?) that is supposed to be on his new album. BTW, he said its not out
yet because he hasn't mixed it yet and will do so when the tour is
over.

> Is Bigger Better? An interesting point I've rarely heard discussed is the
> size of Holdsworth's hands. They are very big, and supposedly this has quite

He does have quite a reach.
---
Angel Islas
[email-masked]

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Date: Wed, 25 Feb 92 03:38:17 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: Level 42's _Guaranteed_
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Wed, 26 Feb 92 03:31:36 EDT
From: PRESTON@morekypr
Subject: Level 42's _Guaranteed_

Testing, testing (he says, as he knocks dust off the list microphone)...

Level 42's newest release, _Guaranteed_ is due for release in the U.S.
today (2/25/92), on RCA Records. In case you'd missed hearing about it
before, Allan Holdsworth plays guitar on 5 of the cuts on this LP, and
does quite a nice job blending in to this dance/pop style. I'd like to
hear other people's opinions on it as soon as anyone hears it... and I
wouldn't mind to compare the tune listing (since mine is a Canadian
pressing).

Coming soon: European tour dates...

Jeff Preston ("Mr. Atoz")
Owner and moderator of Atavachron

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Date: Thu, 27 Feb 92 12:45:48 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: Violin playing
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Thu, 27 Feb 92 12:03:24 EDT
From: PRESTON@morekypr
Subject: Violin playing

Can anyone tell me what albums/tunes where Allan has played violin?
I seem to recall something from the _I.O.U._ album, but the title doesn't
spring to mind. Are there others?

Jeff Preston ("Mr. Atoz")
Owner and moderator of Atavachron
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Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 01:14:22 EST
From: atavachron@morekypr
Subject: RE: Violin playing
To: Jeff Preston

Date: Thu, 27 Feb 92 14:47 EST
From: [email-masked]
Subject: RE: Violin playing

Off the top of my head I recall A.H. playing violin on
the first Tempest album and Velvet Darkness. Seems like
there are a couple more places as well.....

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