I remembered I'd forgotten to ask a question submitted by one of you
"gear heads" -- so here's an advance bit of interview conducted via
phone today. Unfortunately Allan is still awaiting closure on a new
record deal--and like in many years past is faced with selling off
bits of the Brewery buy groceries in the meantime. The tour doesn't
start until April--so things are a bit grimm at the moment:
CH: What if you had a gig--and your sound gear got ripped off--if you had
only a thousand dollars to get a rack together--what would you get?
AH: I'd just spend it on beer! I'd get the Recycler and hope I get
lucky... I might try for some sort of [Mesa] Boogie--but I don't have
any idea what they cost. You can't get much for a thousand bucks anymore.
And more news for "Gear" junkies:
THE HARNESS -- produced by Brewery Electronics, Inc.
This is an extremely useful device for anyone loving tube-amp and big-time
distortion; it's a sort of improvement on Holdsworth's "Juice Extractor"
which he designed for Rockron a few years back. Any of you who can post to
the various News Nets, etc. -- it would be appropriate if you could forward
this to any guitarist-infested venues.
The device takes a line-out from any amp--and as Holdsworth puts it:
"allows you to take that big sound and control it without you having to
cut down a bunch of trees with volume." The box preserves that "major
league tone" and allows toys to be added--and can be plugged D/I to a
board--thus cutting down on mikes used in the studio. I've seen AH
use it at the brewery, and it makes for very comfortable recording of
distortion and big amp sounds in a control room, for instance. It's
also great for gigs at small clubs and small speaker set-ups--lower volume
renderings of clean--but beefy--tones. I should probably post this
to Stick Figures--I've used it for my stick--and it's fantastic.
Anyway--inquiries about ordering one--or sending your mailing address
for a brochure from AH--can be forwarded to me at my e-mail address. The
cost is currently under $400.
************************************
Jeff Preston asked me in a note what the text was on the metal utility
shack on the cover of the US release of Hard Hat Area--first of all the
guitar is a Delap Baritone--bottom string being the "A" of a regular
bass, and the neck is true to guitar scale--and thus longer than the one
on a standard bass guitar. AH calls this beast, affectionately: Gonan.
So here's some more "ultimate" Holdsworth trivia--the welding shack on
the cover (next to the "Danger" sign) actually had stencilled spray
paint lettering on it when I shot it--nothing subliminal--no hidden
messages--just reality:
IMPERIAL HWY
SANTA FE RAILWAY
EMERGENCY CALL
1-800-333-2580 (the number might be wrong--strained my eyes!)
DOT 28 027 R
The 'DOT' I presume is Department of Tranportation. All except for Gonan,
these shots were taken at the construction site for the massive Century
Freeway project adjacent to LA International Airport--I counted 12 35mm
slides of varying structures and objects were montaged via Adobe photoshop
and photo-CD. It took Russ Rohrer and I about 90 minutes of shooting, and
then one long evening at a Mac Quadra workstation to slap it together.
Russ did the digital wizardry and I directed... Thought he did a super
job with the rust and bolts he grafted onto Gonan--I'm still planning on
making up a print of just Gonan in high detail and sending one to Bill
Delap and AH...
**********************************************************
Have been enjoying the hell out of spinning HHA on CD over my stereo!
Until next time--CH.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 03:21:51 PST
From: uk438@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Graeme McIntryre)
Subject: Re: New Brewery Electronics Product/HHA Cover Trivium
I'd like to know if there are any books available of transcriptions
of allan's work or chord technique etc..... I know this has probably
been answered 100 times, but have patience...... I'm new here.
--
*****************************************************************
* Graeme McIntyre *
* uk438@freenet.victoria.bc.ca *
*****************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Date: 04 Mar 94 14:06:06 EST
Subject: Holdsworth, Fripp, and Steely Dan: Extended Ruminations
Hello Chrondozoids...
I'm going posting various takes on this thread (I guess I inadvertently
initiated) to Atavachron and Steely-Dan and Discipline--as the
posting has some application to each.
Also, I wanted to recommend that all "progressive music" fans out there
grab the new Holdsworth album, Hard Hat Area (Restless), and especially
plug the Disciplinites that Steve Tibbetts has a new album out on ECM (thru
BMG Classics). Tibbetts is strongly influenced by Fripp (so it seems)--I
really like his work, which sort of straddles a pastiche of territory
between "world music," the "ECM jazz vibe," experimentation with electronics
and distortion--and even prog-rock to an extent. Even the Dandophiles might
dig'im.
David Lane posted the following to Atavachron--thought I'd pitch in my
.02:
>Subject: AH on SD and RF & Get Well Jeff
Re: Some out-of-context quotes from me and comments by David Lane:
>CH:I think possibly Steely Dan is AH's favorite American rock
band--certainly he loves a lot of their music.
>CH: AH [...] never was a big Fripp fan anyway--he always found Fripp a
little too mathematical--too rehearsed in his solos.
>DL: I have to say that I disagree with AH on both counts. I've always
>considered SD pretty much over-rated, certainly heads above most other pop
>bands of their time, but nothing to get too excited about. Slick,
>heavily-produced, better-than-average AOR pop; lots of session
>musicians -- sort of a Toto with good lyrics. One *obvious* example of a
>far more adventurous American rock band comes to mind -- I'm sure AH is
>aware of the other work that Chad & Vinnie have been involved in?
>As for Fripp, I'd recommend that he listen to The Great Deceiver box.
>Dave Lane davidl@ratsys.com
First of all, Dave--what a tease! Who's so adventurous it's *obvious*?
Happy The Man? The Greatful Dead? Pere Ubu? Funny, I can't really
think of many American rock bands I can think of as "adventurous"
since Dan or the Heads... Maybe I'm just dense or out-of-tune... but
a Toto with good lyrics??? How about "The Doobies Brothers on
heroin, rather than skunk bud..." Anyway, thanks for prompting me to
ponder (perhaps in vain) the following voluminous comparison of apples,
oranges, and pears:
I disagree with AH on his Fripp comment too--and have played him
'Great Deceiver'-- he seemed genuinely impressed, although his listening
taste tends to lean mostly toward great, modern American jazz.
I can also see how RF's playing leaves a jazz oriented musician cold,
though--but to me the real glory of Fripp's musicianship explodes like a
nova for me when RF (seemingly) crosses the line between the meticulously
arranged solos and the wholly spontaneous--and 'Deceiver' is certainly a
plentiful source of such instances.
Fripp is without doubt in this cranium one of the most influential
"total musicians" of his generation--as is Brian Eno, Peter
Gabriel--for they have broad influences in many modern genres--and
in the highest echelons of 'pop'--not that I really give a damn. I
wouldn't place Genesis in this category--or Yes--because to me their
influence has been limited to a particular style and approach in
"prog-rock."
I'd tag the work of Fagen and Becker as singular and significant
for some different reasons--they forged a lot of new musical
territory in the 70s, undoubtedly absorbed influences from some of
these Brits in their earlier recordings--but to me they were great
innovators in terms of how they synthesized the studio technology
of the 70's with both great guitar driven rock, horn-driven R&B,
and jazz phrasings borrowed from the beatnik and swing eras. Yes,
they defined a new extreme of "slickness" in pop--some of their gems
were overly polished to me--but what a bag of diamonds!
What other American band has been that ambitious and succeeded
commercially? They accomplished something beyond that too--their tunes
have snuck back into the world's most universal--and hallowed realm of
musical treasures--many of their tunes have become true "standards"
of the past few decades--and really successful pop is rarely as
harmonically clever and rhythmically sophisticated. Sorry, I'd
think only opera snobs or frustrated critics would dare dis these
guys so haphazardly.
Holdsworth, to me, has written some stunning music that still
stretches the boundaries of what most music writers term "fusion."
When I think about "fusion" music, I thought Tony Williams'
New Lifetime was a quintessential (and vital) fusion band, along
with the Return To Forever quartet--but bands like the early
Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report really stretched the
boundaries of jazz in general. Representative of typical,
flashy and smart, in-the-groove fusion today is a group like
Scott Henderson and Gary Willis--the musicianship is first rate,
but the exploration factor is minimal. Holdsworth writes music,
most often, it seems to me--to challenge his abilities as an
improvisor--whereas in the best studio work of Weather Report
and the mid-70s King Crimson material--tended "play down"
improvised sections within the context of elaborate--and
beatifully conceived compositions. AH's music these days
more frequently transcends the fact he's one of the
greatest improvisors and technical innovators on guitars
and related instruments--I can't say the same is true
of RF--but consider what RF has done for music in general;
their polar opposites of sorts, apples and oranges, one
from the North, one from the South; it's very disconcerting
comparing them--but they both exemplify an attitude and
commitment that is, in quantum terms, a singularity.
Some of AH's technical ideas, while wonderful--have trickled
anonymously into the mainstream of rock in bits and pieces--in
broadening the scope of guitar solos and sounds--inspiring hard
rock players like Van Halen and Alex Lifeson, and shred-meisters
such as Satriani and Vai--I have no time for those guys, because
their whole approach to music seems mired to me in adolesence.
AH forever refined and expanded the sound of the guitar--unlike
Fripp, who single-handedly opened up rock music to new degrees of
artistry and near limitless boundaries in terms of other musical
traditions and approaches that could be swallowed up in rock.
In the late sixties, early 70's, however, it's really curious
how many parrallels there were between Fripp and Holdsworth--as
completely different as they were. Holdsworth was long the
sideman--fascinated with jazz and chumming with avante-jazzists
like Soft Machine--and boppers like Gordon Beck and Ray Warleigh.
Fripp had a vision that rock music could become a riveting, dark
art with intellectual appeal to bring together classical and
jazz audiences, and he went to the very avante fringe in bringing
in Keith Tippett into KC; this was as unlikely (and brilliant but
doomed not to last) as Bruford bringing AH into UK; Tippett and AH
probably took these two involvements least seriously among their
many artistic ventures. Okay, I keep plugging "UK"--but it was another
unique hybrid--like the first three Crimson albums--that married jazz
and broader classical and improvisational elements into rock.
This theme and continuing experiment is what always fascinated me
about these artists in particular--all of them wrestling with mutating,
mixing, and refining elements of 20th century genres--each with
extremely different results. Be it "Lizard," "One of A Kind,"
"UK," or "The Royal Scam," I find it very hard to tire of any
of these records for very long--because they're were so dark,
fresh, and inspired.
Steely Dan approached mating jazz forms in a pop-rock context in
a very different way from England's more cerebral rockers. Their
jazz instincts were ingrained in their song-writing moreso than the
process of adorning their music with improvisationalists taking solos.
Steely Dan did not delve into the strong duality that personified
King Crimson, who in their mid-period ferventlty explored free
improvs--more from a European standpoint than from that of American
jazz. Nevertheless, SD provided great soloists a rich pallette of
rhythm and harmonies to interract with--along with the hip cynicism,
which is why I think they appeal strongly to AH. I wonder what
RF would say about SD? With that--I'd better check my watch and
stop rambling--no more extended essays, I promise--until after I've
confronted my taxes!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I I those of the individual contributors.
Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 79
Thursday, 10 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
Tab?
HHA
Re: John McLaughlin's First Session
Atavachron #78
The Hoard Interview
silly little anecdote
HHA in europe..
The latest news from Mrs. H.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: Tab?
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 23:08:12 EST
> From: uk438@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Graeme McIntryre)
> Subject: Re: New Brewery Electronics Product/HHA Cover Trivium
> I'd like to know if there are any books available of transcriptions
> of allan's work or chord technique etc..... I know this has probably
> been answered 100 times, but have patience...... I'm new here.
If only I had more time, I would put a frequently-asked-questions
(FAQ) file together... I'll file that under "things-to-do-by-the-end-
of-the-century, right? :) But again, I would I'd like to suggest a
perusal of our archives; everything that's been written here since
November, 1991, will fit on one 1.44M diskette (amazingly enough),
and if you use a Unix system, 'grep' is a truly wonderful thing for
locating text strings within files and directories.
Anyway, to answer your question, there is the oft-mentioned _Reaching
For the Uncommon Chord_, published (still, I believe; Chris?) by 21st
Century Music Publications. This can be purchased through most music
stores, and also through the mail order firm, Music Dispatch, for
$14.95 plus $3.00 s/h within the continental U.S.; their address is:
Music Dispatch
P.O. Box 13920
Milwaukee, WI 53213
(800) 637-2852 (orders only)
This book contains about ten transcriptions (going by memory here,
so forgive me everyone) of tunes ranging from "Three Sheets To The
Wind" to "Fred" to "The Un-Merry Go Round." It also has what was
until recently the *best* biograpical data and personal insights into
Allan's creative processes available anywhere -- thanks in no small
part to the efforts of recent Atavachron subscriber Chris Hoard, who
co-wrote the text portion of the book.
There is, at least in the works, another book, titled _Just For The
Curious_; details are sketchy at this point, as it has either not been
published yet, or has only *just* come out, so I have no details as to
the publisher or other information concerning it. I do know that it is
accompanied by a cassette or CD, and Claire Holdsworth described the
package as a "companion piece" to the REH video which came out last
year (which is, of itself of interest to guitarists wishing to delve
into the Brewer's domain; it's available at music stores or through
a number of mail order music dealers for about $50). I'm trying now to
track down more information on this one... stay tuned!
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 94 17:13 GMT
From: ronc@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Ron Chrisley)
Subject: HHA
So, dows anyone know *why* the album art for HHA is not the same in
the UK as the US? The UK album sleeve is very simple; I think that
I'll seek out the US version. Is anyone *certain* that the UK and US
versions do not differ track-wise? Thanks.
Ronald L. Chrisley (ronc@cogs.susx.ac.uk)
School of Cognitive & Computing Sciences
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK
Tel: +44 273 678581; Fax: +44 273 671 320
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Date: 05 Mar 94 18:15:46 EST
Subject: Re: John McLaughlin's First Session
I took this from a note to Jeff Preston--which I thought might
be of general interest to y'all:
Had a ton of good CDs waiting for me in the mail when I got back--
review stuff from ECM mainly. The latest Jan Garbarek "Twelve Moons"
and the new Abercrombie "November"--best stuff they've done in a
long time--AH is a JG fan--and particularly likes the bass work of
Marc Johnson and P. Erskine (w/Abercrombie)--so I'd recommend these;
Abercrombie has never sounded better (Jon Surman, G. Beck's buddy
guests on this--and apparently Gordon has a new laserdisc out with
his quartet in the UK--sort of Bill Evans tribute I think with
Kenny Wheeler--maybe Dave Holland and Jack DeJonette--major league!).
Unfortunately during the interview, Gordon was a little OOO--out
of order! He played us a 1968 recording that EMI owns, but won't
release or sell the rights to. This was probably the **finest**
English jazz quartet recording I'd ever heard (other than Kenny
Wheeler's Gnu High on ECM). It was also John McLaughlin's first
recording date! He sounded unbelievable! The record featured
Tony Oxley on drums and ?? on bass--but most notable, it had two
Beatles tune--Beck's original arrangement of "Michelle" (which we're
now familiar with via AH)--and a cover of "Norweigan Wood"--this
was while the Beatles were still together... But it was amazing
to hear McLaughlin so focused and raw in his inspiration--before
he hooked up with Miles... Anyway--EMI--is just sitting on this
apparently, according to Gordon--they just can't be bothered. The
quality of the recording is excellent too. Oh well.
--Hoardman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kingsley Durant Jr
Subject: Atavachron #78
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 13:40:30 EST
Hey, y'all... (Virginian greeting)
HHA arrived and I picked it up on the way to the airport for an
interview at Bowling Green State U in Ohio. I've listened to
it several times but I want to let it all sink in before
commenting in any detail. I will say that it hangs together
very nicely, probably because the same band played the whole
set, and because the non-improv compositions are all Allan's.
I will also agree with Hoard that AH's compositional skills
have been developing by leaps and bounds over the last few
years, and, amazingly, he also continues to stay years ahead of
the multitude of guitarists mining the legato sustain tonal
area, in terms of sonic, harmonic, and thematic ingenuity.
Regarding the comments that Steve Hunt's solos are sounding
very Allan-like: when I saw the band in Alexandria in '92, I
noticed, in _Devil Take The Hindmost_, that Steve played a
couple of lines that were, um, *extremely* reminiscent of lines
from Allan's solo on the CD. Talking to Steve after the show,
I brought it up, and he grinned but denied he was doing it
consciously. I guess I'd make three observations here: One,
Steve's been working with AH pretty consistently over several
years at this point, and he probably can't help but get sucked
in by Allan's way with melodic lines - I'm willing to bet most
of us Atavachronista guitarists are probably guilty of this ;)
Two, I have an old tape of the Randy Roos band playing at
Pooh's Pub (Boston) in 1981 or so, featuring SH on the 'boards,
and his lines were not dissimilar to what he's playing now with
AH - in fact, when AH and band played in Boston in '87 I was
delighted to see Steve had been recruited, because I always
thought he'd be one of only a few keyboardists who would fit
into Allan's thing without either overwhelming it or just
sounding silly. Three, the chords and harmonies in Allan's
writing do lend themselves to playing certain types of lines.
(I'm sure that Allan would disagree with that assessment, but
not many of us are so hard-headedly exploratory when it comes
to putting lines together, which is perhaps the ultimate
*secret* to why Allan's music has continued to grow ever more
fascinating in the 20 years since he so casually laid down the
gauntlet on _Hazard Profile_) BTW, the aforementioned Randy
Roos often uses very similar chordal voicings, although
rhythmically and structurally his music is rather different.
As a result, his music lends itself to "Holdsworthian" lines,
although Randy himself plays slightly more traditional,
bop-based types of lines.
Next, I'd like to weigh in regarding the Dan/Crim thread...
My guess is, Chris, that Dave L. is referring to the recently
departed progenitor of the Zappa family, Vinnie & Chad's
pre-Holdsworth employer. I'd be curious to know what, if
anything, the Brewer thinks of FZ's oeuvre. Certainly his
musical ambition exceeds that of the Dan. Mike Kenneally's
comments in the April Guitar Player also make a very good point
about the level of FZ's commercial success - and he's not
talking about Yellow Snow or Valley Girls. I guess I'm not
going to stand on a soapbox and opine about FZ vs. SD, however,
because it seems to me their intentions were entirely
different. SD's writing was clearly within the tradition of pop
music, using some of the more sophisticated harmonic and
rhythmic ideas of an earlier era which were ultimately linked
inseparably with their use in '50's and '60's jazz. Although
Fagen & Becker were and are clearly jazz fans of the first
order, in my view their tunes were never intended to come
across as such, my dearly beloved sonata, _Aja_,
notwithstanding (anybody else ever imagine AH having a go at
the sax solo in that one?!). By way of contrast, FZ intended
only to make music for his own pleasure, and if some of it
turned out to sound like pop, well that was fine. IMHO, King
Crimson is probably better compared to Zappa in terms of
intentions, as both used the (almost - perhaps -
possibly-debatably) infinitely malleable canvas of electric
rock and roll to express ideas drawn from 20th century art
music, jazz, pop, blues... all filtered through the highly
intelligent, articulate, and idiosyncratic vision of a
thoroughly self-made musician who happened to play electric
guitar. As a side note (grace note?), it's funny how the most
interesting and creative guitarists in the music tend to be
that way, rather than guitarists who happen to play music -
Michael Hedges comes to mind here, too. But that's another
thread...
Hoard's comments about Yes & Genesis brought about a brief
reverie concerning ye auld englishe progressive bandes. I'd
first like to observe that the "big" groups, e.g. Yes, ELP,
Crimson, & Genesis, seem to get lumped together in people's
minds because of the level of their success and the superficial
musical similarities. In reality, their musical agendas were
remarkably different, even though they were certainly aware of
each other and shared a few musicians over the years. What's
easy to forget is that there were *lots* more bands working the
prog circuit in late '60's and early '70's England - Gentle
Giant, Lindisfarne, Camel, Van Der Graaf Generator, Henry Cow,
Egg/Hatfield & the North/National Health, Gong/Steve Hillage,
Soft Machine/Kevin Ayers, etc., etc..., and that the more
well-known bands came out of a far more interesting, creative,
wide-ranging, and vital scene than is commonly assumed. In
fact, it comes to mind that somebody ought to write a decent
history of that music because it's already getting very close
to being forgotten. Certainly the mainstream music press has
done it no favors over the years. What do you say, Chris? If
I can't get a job teaching, I'd be glad to help! Even if I do
get a job, I'd still be glad to help - anything publishable on
my vita is worth doing, even if it's in a field somewhat
removed from maths education. Just a thought here, but I have
noticed that "Poo & The Wee-Wees" and "Lobster in Cleavage
Probe" have remained in regular rotation on my turntable in
recent years while "Close to the Edge" and "Tarkus" gather
dust. (nb: the foregoing comment is not meant to dis Yes or
ELP but rather to praise Dave Stewart & the Hatfields)
To follow up on Hoard's suggestions RE: the non-Holdsworthian
listening front, Crimson's live set (Great Deceiver) does
indeed rule my CD player, and I'm quite excited to hear of a
new Tibbetts disc - he played Charlottesvile a couple of years
ago and it was utterly amazing. Leni Stern's new CD,_Ten
Songs_, is out and well worth a listen. Moving farther afield
(i.e. music which does not involve guitars), I finally took
Jeff Beck's advice and bought a CD of La Mystere des Voix
Bulgares. Incredible stuff for those willing to let their ears
travel a bit. As is a disc of several Javanese Court Gamelan
orchestras, similarly available on Elektra/Nonesuch. Ah, and
lest we forget, Atlantic has released a nice Coltrane anthology
(2 discs) which is all too brief but (mostly) covers the basics
of 'Trane-ology. Semi-obvious, perhaps, but that don't mean
it's not good. (more Virginia-speak).
One final comment, RE: gear for a grand. I second AH's
assessment - buy the beer, instead. I guess one approach might
be to get a Sansamp and a good F/X box and go direct, but
otherwise I don't think it's possible. The new DC-5 Boogie
goes for a grand all by itself, and the Recto's are all well
beyond that benchmark, as are most tube amps these days - and
that's before you start looking for a rhythm tone. (I recently
bought a used JC-120 for $350, though, so shop around and you
never know what might turn up). Probably the best thing is to
not try to cop Allan's tones!
I guess that's it for now - gotta do some taxes, myself.
<>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: The Hoard Interview
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 4:54:03 EST
I received the tape from Chris on Monday, and all I have to say is:
You guys will not BELIEVE this interview.
THIS is the kind of interview you've always wanted, but were afraid
to ask for!
I've transcribed about 15 minutes (of an assumed-100 minutes) so far,
which came out to be 388 lines, but I promise to put as much time into
this as possible. It's gonna be a big one, folks.
Chris, take a bow. And tell Allan we owe him some serious beer.
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 15:02:18 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: silly little anecdote
I'm sure you've all had the experience of mentioning Allan to someone, and
getting a blank stare or an "Allan *who*?" as a response. Seems like almost
nobody knows who he is. Well, the other night, I had the reverse happen. I
was driving in my car, with a software consultant I've been working with off
and on for about a year; I had _Hard Hat Area_ playing on the car stereo. All
of a sudden (right about where Allan's solo kicks in on "Ruhkukah"), he says,
"Hey, what is this anyway? That sounds like Allan Holdsworth!"
I don't really have a point to make here; I was just pleasantly surprised to
discover another Holdsworth fan in an unexpected place...
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: HHA in europe..
Date: Wed, 09 Mar 1994 09:24:39 +0000
From: David Valentine-Hagart
Just got HHA and isn't it grrrrreeat! (to quote Tony the tiger.. :-/ ) What a
shame
about the cover art though. It's only in two colours (red & black) and has only
a bare track/credit listing inside. All the other euro. releases on cream records
had covers faithful to the originals/US releases. Is this huge saving in
production
costs getting back to AH I wonder - not ! To answer Ron Chrisley, the track list
does not vary from the US release, ( see Mike Uchima's message of 3rd March
and compare). If anyone fancies scanning their "Mr Fancy" US cover art
for HHA and sending it to me to look at... (GIF or JPG), but hey, It's the music
that counts, right !!
Dave VH
..........................................................................
___ __ . CCZDVH . My Guitar wonders why
/ \_/ / __ . @uk.ac.nott.vme . Its not easy to fly
| []| | LLLLLLLLLLLLLL|__| . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . Exept if your name
\_\___/\_\ . I can't play this! . Ends in Holdsworth or Vai
....\......................................................................
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: The latest news from Mrs. H.
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 12:14:19 EST
We were recently "rejoined" by longtime contributor Todd Madson (well,
"rejoined" isn't the exact term, but it's close enough for government
work, isn't it, Todd?). In the course of our reacquaintence via e-mail,
Todd mentioned hearing something from a friend to the effect that Allan
had appeared on a track on (of all things) a *Krokus* album. Well, guess
what? Claire has *confirmed* this (!), and went on to add that neither
she nor Allan know which album on which the track appears. Does anyone
have even the foggiest notion?
Now *there's* a trivia question...!
In response to my inquiries about _Just For The Curious_, she says that
it is being published by CPP/Belwin (the same folks who brought us the
soon-to-be-lambasted REH video -- lambasted in the Chris Hoard interview
that is -- coming soon to a terminal screen in front of you), and should
now be available. I shall be phoning up my local music emporium just as
soon as I logout, I should think. :)
She also reports that Akira will be looking into the Phantom Records
imports listed in CDC's online database (again, thanks to Mike Uchima
for pointing those out!).
And... we now have some tentative tour dates (*tentative*, folks; as
you can see, only a few of these dates even have venues listed... we'll
get more solid info as the dates approach, but this might help you get
a ballpark figure so you can plan which day(s) to take off work, etc.).
:) Here's what Claire sent:
4/3 San Bernadino
4/7 Santiago, Chile
4/8-10 Buenos Aires
4/12-17 Florida
4/19-24 Catalina Bar and Grill, Los Angeles, CA
4/26 Orange County, CA
4/27 Belly Up Saloon, Solana Beach (San Diego), CA
4/28 Gibson's Bar and Grill, Tempe AZ
4/30-5/9 Japan
5/11 San Rafael, CA
5/12 San Francisco, CA
5/13 San Jose, CA
5/14 Sacramento, CA
5/15 Santa Cruz, CA
5/16-? Australia
Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the latest comparisons of
electronic tone synthesis and botanicals -- live, and otherwise --
coming soon, soon!
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
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Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 80
Monday, 14 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
The Allan Holdsworth Atavachron Interview - Part 1
sorry about the headers, hopefully this will get to the digest
Re: Atavachron Digest Number 79
Re: Can't find HHA, either!
Re: Atavachron Digest Number 79
Hard Hat Area
Where to get HHA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Date: 10 Mar 94 19:09:35 EST
Subject: The Allan Holdsworth Atavachron Interview - Part 1
**************************************************************************
THE OFFICIAL ATAVACHRON INTERVIEW: ALLAN HOLDSWORTH - PART 1
**************************************************************************
Credits:
By Chris Hoard (with assistance and diatribe from Mick Porter
and Ken Kubernik). Transcribed by Jeff Preston.
**Edited by J. Preston and C. Hoard**
Occasionally interrupted by Louise and Emily Holdsworth, and influenced
by excessive pints of Anchor Steam beer; opinions herein expressed are
not necessarily coherent, and by no means are not intended to stand up
in a court of law or hold water before a jury of our peers.
(C) 1994 by C. Hoard/J. Preston
NOTICE: this interview cannot be be used for any commercial publication
without the permission of the author and/or moderator of Atavachron.
Portions of it may be posted to any relevant Internet format, however,
we ask politely that Jeff Preston (preston@msuacad.morehead-st.edu)
be advised of any such reproductions.
======================================================================
Legend:
AH: Allan Holdsworth
CH: Chris Hoard
KK: Ken Kubernik
MP: Mick Porter
*italics* words stressed that would normally be italicised
but can't be in this case due to ASCII limitations
[brackets] thoughts CH thought he had at the time--or added
after transcription--or CH's interpretation of
an incomplete (or interrupted) phrase by AH.
=======================================================================
CH: I don't know how he talked me into this... that Jeff Preston
geezer...
AH: Yeah.
CH: He just doesn't pay me enough for this kind of thing.
AH: Well, go as fast as you can before I get the mind [totally
out of order]...
CH: [laughs]
AH: As it's already happenening...
CH: Alright. The first question was regarding the acoustic guitar.
Several people out there on the Internet contend that you're a
great master of the instrument even though it's been very rare
and seldom that you've ever played it.
AH: Well, there's a good reason that I've never played it. It's not
because I don't like the instrument; I saw that one question from
that one guy... you know, who said, you know, "Why doesn't this
musician play the most beautiful instrument in the world," -- that's
not the truth for me. See, that may be the truth for *him*, but
as far as I'm concerned the acoustic guitar is *not*, by a long way,
the most beautiful instrument *to me*.
CH: Yeah.
AH: Because it's a percussive instrument, and if it wasn't for the
fact that I got kind of trapped with the guitar, the last thing
in the world that I would ever want to play is a purcussive
instrument. I would like to play a horn. So for example, if my
dream came true -- if I could play the oboe or the english horn or
the coronet -- now *then* I would play an acoustic instrument. But
for me, the difference between that and the acoustic guitar is so
radical and so different that I'm not really interested in acoustic
guitar *period*, *but* that doesn't mean -- and you gotta tell this
-- that doesn't mean that I don't like the instrument when I hear
someone *else* play it. I love to hear the acoustic guitar played
really well, it's just that...
CH: Would you say you just kind of rule out using it in future
projects?
AH: I have no *interest* in it -- it doesn't make the sound I want to
hear. Why should I use it?
CH: Fair enough.
AH: Why would you want to do that? You know, why would you want to
ride a bike with 24-inch wheels?
You know, why would you want to do that? I mean, it's his
opinion... it's all his opinion that it was the most beautiful
instrument. Which is very nice... and it *is*, but for me...
sorry.
CH: Alright. Here's an obscure one: rumor has it you worked with a
guy named Jamie Muir, a musician I know of and respect.
AH: Yeah, a drummer.
CH: A drummer and percussionist. Is there a story there? How
did that come about?
AH: Well, it came about with Jamie Muir and Alan Gowen and a couple
other people were involved in just a band that was trying to get
together, and I used to go 'round to their house -- Jamie's house
I think it was, actually -- to rehearse.
But we never did anything... we never recorded anything and we
never went anywhere. It never...
CH: Do you remember anything about working with him, in particular?
AH: Well, I remember I *enjoyed* it... you know, I enjoyed working with
him, and I really enjoyed working with Alan Gowen, and everything,
but then, you know Alan Gowen died a few years later... of leukemia,
I think. And I just went off in this other direction.
CH: It was just interesting because, like, he was another member of
King Crimson you worked with -- which you've worked with a lot of
*other* members -- or at least two of the major ones.
AH: Well, what happened was I worked with... we were just *rehearsing*
with that band, and then I got the gig working with Jon Hiseman
of Tempest. So, it took me away from that, you know. I don't know
if we would have still carried on like that, but I *enjoyed* it. It
was a pretty loose, open kind of band. You know, maybe *too* loose!
But, from an *organization* point-of-view.
CH: Here's one that comes in from Deep Space Nine: Are UFOs real?
AH: Oh, of course.
[chuckles] Well... I don't know. My imagination thinks that they
are, but, you know. I mean of *course* I don't *know*. But my own
belief is that... it seems more *logical* that they *are* than
they're aren't.
CH: Right [just testing the guy who wrote a song called "Mr. Spock"].
AH: My logic, however illogical that *is*, would point me in the
direction that there *is* other life.
CH: I quite agree with you. [But can we atone for the deficit
of intelligent life on *this* planet?].
AH: You know, just the same as my logic will tell me that everything
that man does makes no sense at all. Then I think about the things
that I hear about, making California like a -- I'm not a smoker; I
don't smoke. But the thing is, when I hear all these stories about
making California and all restaurants non-smoking things, I have to
*laugh*, because you think... well, what you do is you go inside
the restaurant and you come *outside* and die! You know, it's like,
I still hear things on the radio where they're still going to be
running automobiles in 2015 off of fossil fuel. I mean, it's
absolutely ludicrous -- it's *ridiculous*! I mean, how can they
*do* that? How can they come down so hard on smokers -- they *should*
-- but how can they come down so hard on smokers and not on people
burning fossil fuels? [pause] They just screw your lungs up just
as bad. I mean, and in fact probably *moreso* the fossil fuel than
the cigarette, because you're literally just *burning* something...
you're not putting out some kind of toxic soot, you know.
CH: Allan: How big of an influence, if any, was John Coltrane on
your musical style?
AH: Well, he was a huge influence on my *life*. I mean, as far as "on
my style," I don't really know, because I couldn't even say that,
you know, I couldn't even *begin* to think about anything remotely
like that. He was just a... he was a huge influence on me.
CH: Would you ever teach music at the college or university level?
AH: No.
CH: No?
AH: No.
CH: No. End of story.
AH: I don't *know* anything about it. How can you teach anything if
you don't know it? If I could live to be five hundred years old,
I would know *nothing*.
CH: [laughs]
AH: And what makes me laugh is -- you know, you have to laugh at
people, you do -- but then again, some people are really *good*
at it.
CH: Oh, come on -- that's bullshit! You know a hell of a lot more
than *I* know. And on an intuitive level, you know a lot more than
a lot of musicians who *teach* music... I would argue, anyway.
AH: I don't know. But it's not something I'm interested in.
CH: Would you ever consider playing a seven-string guitar?
AH: Ah, no.
CH: Why? I'm just curious.
AH: Well, because the whole principle of making the baritone guitars
was to extend the range of the guitar. But if you put seven strings
on a guitar, you really *falsely* extend the range of the guitar.
What you do is you put this big, thick string on the bottom of the
guitar, with a scale length that's far too low for it to go. It's
like the relative scale length between that and the... it's like
putting the low C on a violin.
CH: So how does that affect the sound of the instrument, by doing that?
AH: It can never sound... good. It can never sound... I mean, it won't`
stop anyone playing... playing music on it and being good at it. But
to me, the sound is really important, and it can't possibly ever
sound right. That's why we made the big guitars [the DeLap baritone
guitars -- JP]; because the big guitar has the string length to go
down that low... I mean, relative to 25-1/2" scale. Because a bass
is actually a much shorter scale than the guitar *relative* to its
pitch.
CH: How important an experiment, in your recent body of work, has that
been -- developing the baritone instruments?
AH: Oh, it's been *real* important. You know, unfortunately I ran into
a few... fell into a few holes, just simply because Bill [DeLap], the
guitar builder--I never really am able to pay him a load of
money to just work for *me*. You know, it's a pain to build an
instrument. So he makes everything... [but] he's basically a repair
guy. He makes beautiful instruments, but he can't...
CH: He can't afford to support your habit all the time, huh?
AH: No. And the thing is, with the big guitars, an unfortunate problem
with them is, the two guitars I really played -- or that I like to
play -- is that he took one of them back to work on it. And that
was over a year ago, and I haven't seen it since. So it's really a
problem, you know, because he lives so far away, and I only get to
see him once a year. That's one of the reasons I didn't play a
baritone guitar on this new album, 'cause I didn't *have* it. I
mean, I have "Gonan," but I think the way they were, there was a
34", a 36" and a 38" [scale]. And the 38" one, which is the only
one that I have right now, is too *big* for me -- I can't play it.
It actually *sounds* great, but it *is* beyond... [pause]
CH: Your technical ability...? [beyond his technical ability--suppose
that's the mental equivalent of being denser than a black hole...]
AH: My capability to play it.
MP: Just because of its size?
AH: Yeah. It's too big.
MP: Could a big person play it?
AH: Ah, no, probably not. It's like the size of a human hand.
CH: So we're not likely to see you play a baritone guitar on a tour?
AH: Yeah, you are! But not that one. Not the 38" scale one. The 36"
scale one was a good compromise.. it *was* a compromise, 'cause it
wasn't truly 25-1/2", uh... [to] E. But it was the only way to do it.
CH: To what extent has the "MIDI revolution" affected your music?
AH: Well, it didn't really *affect* it as much as it gave me an
opportunity to play... to use it as a tool. But that's all I
thought of it as, 'cause I thought it was a wonderful tool, you
know... it's another way to record things and... you know, for
example I've always been interested in synthesis as opposed to
sampling and that kind take, you know, like the sound of a
particular thing, like say if you wanted... you could actually say
it's all computer based. So you could actually say, "Okay, well,
I want it to be *this* long; I want it to have a *reed*, but I want
it to have like, you know, the bell-end of a trombone, or I want it
to be like...." Or you could say, "I want it to be a trombone with
an oboe mouthpiece on it." You're able to, like, really create
instruments. The act...
MP: The expert system instrument designer... ?
AH: They haven't been able to create what you haven't *heard* yet, which
is to *me* what synthesizers should be all about, and *will* be,
eventually -- it's only a matter of time.
CH: Oh yeah. And it's not like they've *never* been about that, but...
AH: No, but there's a lot of horseshit about synthesizers that I hear,
where people say: "It's not a real instrument," you know, "It's a
product of like, the technology." But I've always believed this:
That any instrument that's ever been played by man since the dawn
of time has been a product of technology.
CH: Oh yeah?
AH: Everything.
CH: On some level.
AH: If you made a wooden flute, you had to know where to put the holes.
CH: The product of technology -- or hazard. [laughs]
AH: Yeah! And then if you make a... if you go back and you say, a
grand piano, you know, that's a really modern instrument. It's
steel -- you drag it out of the ground, and pull the strings
through dies, they wind it and all that -- it's totally modern.
It's nothing to do with a primitive instrument. It's all... it's
all these guys, they say, "Oh, you know, electric guitar, or
synthesizer or whatever..."; it's all... I think it's all bull.
CH: Yeah.
MP: You don't think it's too easy...?
AH: I just think it's that same thing, is... that wanting to be open
and to accept the fact that it *could* be good; we just see all the
bad things about it. And probably with the beginning of synthesis
they just saw it taking people's jobs. In the long run, it probably
can't ever do that. It's like if you have a mechanized plant, and
you make guitars or whatever, you'll probably end up hiring *more*
people, because you'll be able to do, you know, you'll be able to
do things a little bit more efficiently.
CH: I kind of view it like plants in the office; you know, you have
the plastic ones. They don't give off oxygen. Then you have the
real ones. I mean, synthesis is kind of like that -- could be in
its worst case. [Too often] it's kind of like an artificial
musical medium...
AH: Well, I don't see that -- I don't see that at all, because *all*
instruments... that would be true if you were talking about some
tree that grew outside that when the wind blew it played "Giant
Steps," but that's not the case with plants. Or, I mean, it's like
if you have a plastic plant, that *for sure* is not real. But...
what's so unreal about a synthesizer, compared to a saxophone?
CH: Ah... just that the cheezy ones don't sound that good...
[especially the cheddar alto sax preset on my old Ensoniq...]
AH: Well, that's... neither does a guy with a million-dollar
saxophone who's *lame*!
CH: This is true.
MP: I think a big part of the fear is they think 'you'll be able to
produce really beautiful music without having the expertise and
putting in the years, having made the commitment -- or even
having the *talent*; any schlep that can afford a computerized
setup can produce music -- I think that scares some people.
AH: Yeah, but I don't *think* so, because there's always gonna be...
they're always going to be able to recognize the difference. Sure,
when it first comes out, you might be able to impress some people
-- "Oh, look what I did with my little computer setup," and such.
But really, when you put that same thing in the hands of a real
musician, you're not going to have the same results.
CH: What I guess my point about synthesis is that... I've got a
problem with a lot of synthesizer music I hear.
AH: Well, that's to do with the *musician*.
CH: Of course, you're right. It has more to do with the musician.
They settle for a stock preset, it's cheezy, and they get overused,
and they actually are thrown out there on countless albums projects
like legitimate orchestrations -- and it sounds like Velveeta, you
know?
AH: Yeah, but that's the same as having like... somebody riding in the
Tour de France... you give all these guys the same bike, and
somebody's gonna do some more than another guy.
CH: Absolutely.
AH: And it's even deeper than that, because you're talking about a
*creative* force, not necessarily just a physical force. Anybody
can figure out... you might get guys who're real good at working
your computer, who can do... they can get in and look at my setup,
and say, "Oh man, you don't know how to use *anything," you know,
because I don't know how to *use* the computer -- and I *don't*!
I use a computer like I use a tape recorder: fast-forward, rewind,
play and record!
CH: I use it like a tape recorder and like a word processor; I mean,
I can edit out a bad note, you know. I can change a note in a
melody line, by typing on the keyboard, as opposed to *playing*
it, just because I want to hear how that melody would sound with
a different note. And it's buried right in there with the sequence
of notes that I just played.
AH: Well, the lucky thing for me was that, with the SynthAxe, I
couldn't record when I was playing solos, 'cause I chose to use
an analog breath controller. I can't record solos on a sequencer;
I have to record them directly to tape.
CH: Maybe that's just because your computer can't record some MIDI
control parameters...
AH: Yeah, but I wouldn't want to do that anyway. I'm *glad* that I
can't go in there and change the shit around... Excuse me for
a second. [AH hastens away, either to pull a pint or unload one].
CH: Yeah. Uh-oh! Beer break! We do need some new pints pulled.
Allan? [we "take five" here]
And a comment from Mr. Porter, on our discussion of synthesis,
yes?
MP: Oh well, synthesis brings up... it makes people think of... "new
age", and the old joke about "new age" music is: What you get when
you play new age music backwards?
CH: What?
MP: New age music.
CH: We were discussing your analogy for the synthesizer...
AH: Well, I was just thinking about it when I was peeing, there...
[laughter]. I was thinking... you know, the question about the
synthesizer is really, the bottom line is it always boils down to
the music -- what you're going to do with it -- and it literally
*is* a tool, and it's like, say for example, if I want to fix
something on my bike and I don't have the right wrench or something,
it's like you design a tool to do a certain job, and with that tool
you can do what you need to do with it, and that's what I see a
synthesizer as. It's like, when I'm working on the handpump or
something -- "Oh, you know what? I have to find a way -- plumbing
-- to get from an 1-1/2" diameter to 3/4" pipe", or whatever.
And then you...
[note, the "handpump" is an English device, commonly found only
in fine ale supplying establishments that serve, fresh,
unpasteurized beer--AH happens to have lugged two back from
England--and manages to keep a small army of Californians
interested in how this device transforms fine American beers
such as Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada, and Sam Adams--a few of
the favorites at "The Brewery." Of course, during the process
of installing the handpump, as he did not have a functioning
pub-bar facility, he had to attach a type of sink to the
hand-pump. Anyway, we had better not make too much of this,
as AH could well discover that plumbing is much less
stressful and immensely more lucrative than being a guitar
genius...]
AH: *first*. You cannot take the tool and just *use* it -- you have to
have a *need* for it, and then you have to have a purpose, and then
the tool serves your purpose and does the job for you. And that's
the way I see synthesizers: synthesizers are musical... is an
instrument -- it's only an instrument -- it's a tool. Just like a
guitar, or any other instrument. There's *no* difference.
CH: Take the title track on your last album, _Hard Hat Area_, where
you obviously use synthesizers. How did it work for you in *that*
context?
AH: Well, it was *good*, because I wouldn't have been able to do the
same thing, color-wise and texture-wise with *just* guitar. 'Cause
what I was visualizing was, I saw like a high-rise building being
built, in Tokyo city, for example--but in "Super Mario" style.
Pictures; it was like music for an imaginary movie. And it was
about guys *building a building*. And that's all it was.
CH: And obviously, it strikes the listener (or maybe just me)
that there's always questions why--given your compositional
compositional style in some of these tracks that you've
recorded that're in that [very visual] *vein*...
AH: I don't think I've *done* anything quite like that, though.
CH: ...No, not *quite like that*, but I think you've done some other
tracks that are quite condusive to film.
MP: Yeah, 'cause it's always like that. You know, it seems like there's
a really visual thing goin' on there.
AH: Yeah, it's usually that I see something, and then the tune comes
from *that*. It's like I *imagine* something, and then the music
comes to fit it. That's why, I think, you know... I would never say
that I can do anything, you know, like...
CH: So one can't make, possibly, an analogy between the female form
and say, "Tokyo Dream"?
AH: Well... I wasn't thinking about a female form when I did "Tokyo
Dream"...
CH: Well, okay [laughs] ... well, which tune *were* you...?
AH: But usually I am... usually, I think about that all day long. I
think I'm preoccupied, sorry.
CH: Quite alright.
MP: "A reader in Wisconsin asks..." [laughs]
CH: Actually, I had this question, and I was going to raise this
anyway. We we're talking earlier about the next project as being
potentially something more in a straight-ahead jazz vein. Your next
album's going to be a departure, I understand. Can you tell us
anything about this at this point?
AH: Well, I mean that's all I can tell you, is that I'd like
it to *be* that. You know, I'd like to do that. The thing is that,
it may show me out to be a total idiot. I mean, I have no idea.
All I know is that the music that I play, I *feel* is actualy akin
to jazz. You know, as chord changes, and we play over the chord
changes, and it's just that the form of it, because it's more
*unusual* -- a little different -- people don't really hear it
necessarily the way I do--the way I *think* they would hear
it. Which has become pretty obvious to me, right now.
CH: And [your recording of] "Michelle" had something to do with that,
right?
AH: Well, no, that was just something that... [came along]
CH: There was quite a reaction to that piece [on Atavachron and
otherwise]--some reviewer wrote something about "Michelle"...
AH: Well yeah... That was just an opportunity to do something. But the
way I was thinking about it was that it made me realize then, that
when I play that kind of music or whatever, it's the *same thing*;
all I'm doing is playing over chord changes. So, whether I wrote
them or *didn't* write them, it makes no difference. And the thing
is, sometimes I find it *easier* to play over things that're
other people's music rather than my own. A lot of times people
will say that you write a tune--basically to make it--*easy* for
yourself, or whatever. But I never *do* that; when I write a piece
of music, I write it with this thing, like the vision of the piece
I wanted. Like for example, "Tullio" is a good example. I've never
played a tune that was any harder than *that* for me to play
through; in fact...
CH: Really? That was probably the most difficult on _Hard Hat Area_
for you to play?
AH: Well, we didn't do it live first, you know; all the other tunes,
we did. And the reason we didn't do it live was, it was mostly...
it was pretty *difficult*. I couldn't get through half a chorus
without screwing up! It's an extremely long chord sequence, you
know. I'm sure there's some genius out there that could play
through it the first time, but I was struggling with it, and it
was good to know that some of the other guys in the band -- oh,
Steve [Hunt], who soloed in it, was having the same problems *I*
was. It kind of goes where you don't *think* [it will]--it trips
you up.
CH: Here's another question that came in from somebody, from Brandeis
University... from Lynn, possibly female?:
AH: Megor, megor! Completely megor.
CH: A female out there, that's interested in the Holdsworthian realm,
yes, very "megor" [if so, and if not, no offense intended!]
Is there a possibility that, if you had an opportunity to involve
Michael Brecker in the next project in some way, would you?
AH: Yeah, I'd like to do that! But then so would everybody else!
CH: Yeah! [laughs] Is it something I should pursue, at some point?
Is it possible for the next project?
AH: Well, it would be *possible*, yeah, 'cause what we'd have to do
is ask him if he could do it, and if he wants to he would, and if
he doesn't, he won't.
CH: Yeah. So in other words, "We'll ask him."
AH: Yeah.
CH: Okay. [laughs] Can't hurt to ask! Just out of curiosity, a
few people out there want to know what you think of the list on
the Internet; the fact that people are out there talking about
your music... what you do...
AH: Well, I think it's amazing. I was totally amazed, because
not being a computer guy, you know, it was all news to *me*.
People would call me up and say, "Jeez! Did you know that
the first time I heard about you like, some guy calling up and
going 'Jesus, this guy out there with this computer deal called
Atavachron...'" -- I just about fell through the floor -- I
couldn't believe it!
MP: How long ago was that?
AH: I think it was a couple of years ago...
CH: Yeah.
AH: I think it's amazing, you know? So I'm sure if they're doing it
to me, they're doing it to a lot of other people more *worthy*.
You know, so... it's good.
CH: Okay, what, if anything, do you see as a prerequsite for making
your name as recognizable as other famous jazz artists'? Like
Wynton Marsalis; do you see that there's a... is that a concern
to you?
AH: Well, it's totally a non-concern to me...
Probably because of the way I started, when I think about it, is...
there's a lot of reasons. But one of the main reasons is that, most
people--when they start out--they have an idea that they want to be
a musician. One day maybe a young kid he might pick up a guitar and
go, you know, "Jeez, I really would like to work real hard on this
and get a job as a musician," and everything. But when I look back,
I realize that that was the farthest thing from my mind. When I
started playing, I only did it as... It was just literally a *hobby*.
I'd *never* any intention of taking it any farther than that. It was
just because I loved music so much, and that I'd listened to it from
being really little, you know, like three or four years old.
Constantly... that's all I'd do, is just bury my head in my dad's
records. And I just thought of myself as a listener.
So when I started getting involved in trying to *write* music, then I
was really shocked at *myself*, you know. But it came by a complete
accident. All of a sudden, I realized like now, when I think, "Jeez,
you know, I'm actually doing this as a musician," -- but it wasn't my
*intent*. And I think that worked to my advantage, in that I don't
expect anything, you know. I don't think perhaps the same way as
someone who's *hunting* for a certain thing, you know. But I realize
that it would be impossible for me to do anything like, speaking of
Wynton Marsalis, for example, just simply because his music can be
put *in a box*. He plays *classical* music; he plays *jazz* music;
and you can put it in a big box, and my music falls through all the
holes. So you can't... that's the biggest reason. It has nothing to
do with whether it's any good or not, or whether *his* is any good
or not; it means that people will hear it because it falls into a
box, and they can play it on the radio. But my music *can't*; it
was never heard on the radio, except by a few stations who were not
too scared to lose their ratings by playing it.
CH: Do you have any Frank Zappa anecdotes? Any thoughts about him,
now that he's passed away?
AH: It's really sad... you know, I mean, we all loved what he did, and
I think of him, like, to me, he was like a musical Clint Eastwood;
'cause he did everything for himself, and not only was his *music*
wonderful; he was a great man, you know. And I don't know anybody
who didn't have -- who didn't know him -- who didn't have the
*utmost* respect for him, both as a musician *and* as a person.
CH: Did you know him, at all?
AH: Yeah, I did! But he was really good to me -- helped me out
and he one time let me use his studio, you know, and there was
no reason for him to do that, you know -- he was just basically
helping me out! But, you know, we were all, you know, really
*sad* about what happened to him. You know, I just wish I could
have seen a little bit more of him. Let him know what all of
us thought about him. The other thing is, I think that "self-made
guy" thing, you know, like Clint, you know... they go out and do
their thing... and they say *screw* Warner Brothers, *screw* any
record company... you know, they're all walking around with their
fingers up... [obviously some unmentionable orifice]
CH: [laughs]
AH: And I love it, man! Because they *prove* that it can be *done*!
CH: Right!
AH: And they were absolutely correct!
CH: Yes.
AH: Both counts!
CH: That *is* inspiring to anyone who's an independent thinker...
<<<<< E N D O F P A R T O N E >>>>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 14:01:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Resistance is futile
Subject: sorry about headers, hopefully this will get to the digest
[headers from Hades mercifully deleted -- JP]
Interesting comments From: Kingsley Durant Jr
>By way of contrast, FZ intended
>only to make music for his own pleasure, and if some of it
>turned out to sound like pop, well that was fine.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Frank also wanted to make money too.
The Sheik Yerbouti album is pretty much a commercial venture as far as I
can tell (and in my opinion one of his worst records). It also sold well,
for a Zappa album. Most of the mothers of prevention, man from utopia and
the first side of ship arriving too late are further examples of stuff that
sounds like it was created as pablum for the masses, with the perhaps noble
intention of turning new audiences on to the wonderful stuff that he could do.
I went to a Zappa concert at Meriweather Post Pavilion in the mid '80's
where the entire show consisted of this kind of tripe, and the audience
ate it up. A couple of years later I saw him at Towson State (the 'texas motel'
tour) and it was night and day. During a very interesting and extended jam
involving the horn section, many people around me were getting bored. What I'm
trying to say is a lot of people wanted to hear stuff like valley girl and Zappa
knew it.
>What's
>easy to forget is that there were *lots* more bands working the
>prog circuit in late '60's and early '70's England - Gentle
>Giant, Lindisfarne, Camel, Van Der Graaf Generator, Henry Cow,
>Egg/Hatfield & the North/National Health, Gong/Steve Hillage,
>Soft Machine/Kevin Ayers, etc., etc..., and that the more
>well-known bands came out of a far more interesting, creative,
>wide-ranging, and vital scene than is commonly assumed.
Yeah, the 'canterbury scene'. There is one of those 'family tree' diagrams
in the Soft Machine compilation (Echoes?) record detailing all the bands and
influences. I believe Allan shows up in this chart. When has there ever been
another so fascinating and influential scene? The first Hatfield album doesn't
even sound dated, 20 years later. I find the stuff Dave Stewart is doing now
to be boring, but he is one of my heros for the egg/hatfield/NH stuff as well
as the bruford albums. Also John Greaves, who was in Henry Cow, then National
Health and went on to do the great Kew Rhone album with a bunch of great
people.
This reminds me to highly recommend a little known band (actually it's just
two guys) who were heavily influenced by this stuff (Henry Cow/Slapp Happy
and Tim Hodgkinson in particular) called the Rascal Reporters. There is one
album available from wayside/cuneiform, and a previous one, better in my
opinion, called Riding on a Bummer, which is probably very hard to find.
Tom O'Toole - ecf_stbo@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu - JHUVMS system programmer
Homewood Computing Facilities, Johns Hopkins University, Balto. Md. 21218
>Here comes a jet ski.
>weuh weeuhh weeuhh weeuhh WEEUHH WEEUHH WEEUHH WEEUHH weeuhh weeuhh weeuhh weuh
--Boundary (ID ydrMbmLHktqJwlnbsQUy8w)--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mortal Kombatant
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 23:15:42 -0800
Subject: Re: Atavachron Digest Number 79
THIS IS PATHETIC!!!
I've been hunting high and low for a copy of _Hard Hat Area_ ever since
its release has been mentioned here in Atavachron, but it's NOWHERE TO BE SEEN!
Yet I live in Los Angeles county, right next to Allan's Brewery at Orange
County!
One would think that Tower of Hollywood or the Virgin "megastore"
would have copies of HHA too, but NOOOOOOO!!! I'm having a fit!!!
Eddie
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 07:44:08 CST
From: crispen@eight-ball.boeing.com (Bob Crispen)
Subject: Re: Can't find HHA, either!
Noteworthy don't have it, Tower don't have it, my local stores don't
think it exists!
Jeff or somebody who has it, could you please post the label and
number, address of the label, whatever it takes to order it?
The hellacious thing about it is that I heard what sounded an awful
lot like an AH track I hadn't heard before on the local "Jazz and
Blues" station during one of their infrequent forrays into actual
jazz. Not to worry though, it was followed immediately by a soulful
singer, backed by an M1 playing factory patches and a drum machine.
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Rev. Bob "Bob" Crispen | Music should not be held responsible |
| crispen@foxy.boeing.com | for the people who listen to it. |
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 09:54:36 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: Re: Atavachron Digest Number 79
> From: Mortal Kombatant
>
> [much ranting about unavailability of HHA in the LA area]
>
> Yet I live in Los Angeles county, right next to Allan's Brewery at Orange
> County!
>
> [...]
>
> Eddie
Heh.
Sorry to make you feel even worse, but I live in the far western suburbs of
Chicago; not exactly the music capital of the world. And *both* of the record
stores I've been to since HHA was released have had it in stock. Multiple
copies, even.
Maybe there's a pattern -- released first in Europe and Japan, then everywhere
in the U.S. *except* his home state... :)
You could special order it, or mail order it (like from CDC). (Or go and ask
Allan for a copy! :))
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joseph Kung
Subject: Hard Hat Area
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:38:53 -0500 (EST)
_Hard Hat Area_ demonstrates once and for all that Allan Holdsworth is
a truly gifted guitarist. His technical ability on this CD is uncanny.
He is the fastest player I have ever heard; yet his tone is liquid,
flowing, and extremely expressive. And his improvisational skills are
incredible. I've heard a lot of guitarists with speed and tone -- from
Vai, Satriani, Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt, John Petrucci, Shawn Lane,
Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, and the list goes on and on. Allan
Holdsworth tops them all in my book. There is no one who can cop his
licks. He is a true innovator. And like true gifted musicians --
sometimes the general public has a hard time appreciating their work.
I'd like to thank Allan for still being true to his music, and doing
it under hard circumstances. He makes today's music worth listening
to.
- Joe
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 17:46:41 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: Where to get HHA
Last time I looked, CDC had HHA in their on-line catalog. For those of you
not familiar with CDC, they're an on-line CD mail order company. I didn't buy
my copy of HHA from them (I got it locally), but I've been satisfied with
orders I've placed with CDC in the past. BTW, they've got Allan's entire back
catalog of CDs too.
To connect to CDC, telnet to "holonet.net", then log in as user "cdc". Their
system is menu driven, and should be pretty self-explanatory from there. For
those without telnet capability, they've also got modem access numbers
scattered around the country; sorry, I don't have the modem numbers.
Word of warning: CDC's system tends to be really busy, and usually bongs your
connection attempt with the message "All CDC systems are busy. Please try
again later." I've had better luck trying to get through to them late at
night; it's nearly impossible to do so during the day.
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I ========= End of Atavachron Digest =========
\ :::: ]I[ :::: /
: ::::::: ]] [[ ::::::: : Administrative requests to:
::: ]] [[ ::: listserv@msuacad.morehead-st.edu
''::]]]]]] ]] [[ [[[[[[::''
::: ]]] ]] [[ [[[ ::: Archives via FTP available from:
::: =a=t=a=v=a=c=h=r=o=n= ::: ftp.uwp.edu (login anonymous, send
::: ]]] ]] [[ [[[ ::: full e-mail address as password)
,,::]]]]]] ]] [[ [[[[[[::,, cd holdsworth.allan
::: ]] [[ ::: cd mail.list/archives
: :::::: ]] . [[ :::::: :
/ :: ] ::: [ :: \ All opinions expressed herein are
I I those of the individual contributors.
Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 81
Thursday, 17 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
Re: Interview
HHA, etc.
mangled posting
Re: mangled posting
Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
Re: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
The Krokus Connection
Re: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
One for the FAQ
AH interview (i)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 10:09:36 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: Re: Interview
>
> Occasionally interrupted by Louise and Emily Holdsworth, and influenced
> by excessive pints of Anchor Steam beer; opinions herein expressed are
> not necessarily coherent, and by no means are not intended to stand up
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> in a court of law or hold water before a jury of our peers.
>
> [...]
I think I may need a couple of pints myself, to unravel the meaning of this
little gem... :)
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** ***
***** [ Posting deleted from digest at author's request. --JP ] *****
*** ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 21:52:34 EST
From: DGINSBER%UCONNVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: HHA, etc.
Howdy, everyone! I've been hard pressed to find a word to add. HHA
is just a fine, fine album. To my ears this album is expecially
interesting because of rhythmic and dynamic developments in AH's soloing.
One works so hard to even things in order to make legato runs flow--it
takes so much more work on a guitar than on a sax--and while AH has always
done a great job adding rhythmic and dynamic shadings to his playing this
is really the first time that I've heard notes and phrases that carried
AUTHORITY mid-run. It's like those shots to the head that Jackie Mclean
comes up with that pull you deeper into the music. 'Course, it could
be that I've jsut been missing this all along.... But what does it
matter. Everyone just plays so well on HHA!
I'd also like to thank all of the folks in charge for their hard work!
As a recent subscriber to this list, I was blown away by the work that
y'all put in. Thanks ever so much for installment #1 of the interview,
and for the update about AH's new deal. Best to everyone,
Dan Ginsberg
dginsber@uconnvm.uconn.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 09:06:54 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: mangled posting
Looks like one of my postings to the list got mangled in transit; for some
reason, one message appears to have gotten distributed in two pieces, with
part of it missing. My comment about "needing a couple of pints myself" was
intended to refer to the line "...not necessarily coherent, and by no means
are not intended to stand up..." at the top of the interview.
The interview is great (so far), by the way...
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:42:00 EST
From: "Bob Lynch"
Subject: Re: mangled posting
When can we expect the rest?
>The interview is great (so far), by the way...
>
>-- Mike Uchima
>-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
>
________________________________________________________________________________
Bob Lynch voice:(609)897-7335
Global Enterprise Services fax:(609)897-7310
3 Independence Way e-mail: lynch@jvnc.net
Princeton, NJ 08540 800-35-TIGER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:39:38 EST
Well, we all goof, being only human... :)
The first goof was entirely mine -- I sent out Part One of Chris
Hoard's excellent interview to the "live" list (the folks who are
subscribed to the direct mail version, that is -- not the digest)
without looking it over one last time. As it turns out, something
wacko happened to parts of the text between there and here, and
consequently there are a few spots that don't seem to make a whole
lot of sense because there are a few random lines missing. This also
explains Mike Uchima's mangled posting -- I was holding his comment
regarding the interview until I could get the text of the interview
straightened out and distributed to the digest folks (I let him know
this, but for some reason the listserv s/w didn't like the way I held
the posting back, or something... inexplicable). Okay, my mistake --
apologies to one and all. I've now got the full, corrected text of Part
One archived on the listserv, so if you're a "real-timer" (as opposed to
a "digester," heh), you might want to send the following text in the
body of a mail message to listserv@msuacad.morehead-st.edu :
get atavachron intrvw.1
This will eventually be replaced (and probably renamed, as well) with
the full text of the interview, when it becomes available.
Okay, the second goof: This one's all Chris' baby. :) Ever-eager to
provide us with the latest-breaking Holdsworthian news (for which I am
very thankful), Chris ran across a bad case of gun-jumping (or was that
pre-equine cart-placement...?). :) What follows is Chris' corrected
posting -- which is what he insisted would be better received by future
historians when checking our archives for historical accuracy. :)
----- begin forwarded message -----
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Re: "All Night Wrong" (Ah's working title for a 'live in Japan' and
elsewhere album)...
Bienvenidos Atavachronistas,
I hope all of you enjoyed the interview as much as I did the beer...
Re: AH's plan for a live project (& my own persistent egging in
this area)...
I anxiously posted earlier, thinking we were *absolutely* going to have
a live album finished by the end of the upcoming tour, BUT, given further
discussions with AH, current status is as follows:
We are hoping to record some dates for a live AH project, provided
he needed capital can be raised for the recording equipment in
the next few weeks, and there's some $ left over for ale. After tossing
this about quite a bit with AH, he's decided he's *not* willing to commit
to completing a live release by tour's end. I think this stems out
of that inexplicable Holdsworthian fear that he might record 50 dates,
and never in the lot play seven tunes through without some
ghastly mistake! This helps explain the *triple* entendre in his
title for the project...
That's not to say it's impossible it will happen this year, however
after my discussions with Akira Yada, his manager, the release of this
project probably will be pushed back well into '95--even though AH is
well aware that he's overdue on putting out a live project.
--Hoardman
----- end forwarded message -----
Third goof: Mine, all mine (though more a sin of degree than of omission).
The tour dates which appeared in Atavachron #79 -- just to reiterate --
those dates are NOT CONFIRMED and are as of this moment ALL TENTATIVE.
Again, we should have the Real McCoy... the genuine article, if you will...
just as soon as the stone tablets come back from the engravers. :) My
apologies to anyone who mistook that posting as a finalized itinerary;
it most certainly was *not*, but we'll have one when it becomes available.
Whew... let me take a moment to dust off my knees, here... ;)
Okay, now another informational tidbit -- this one by way of Usenet
newsgroup 'alt.rock-n-roll.metal' reader (and recent Atavachron arrival)
Rick Aaron -- regarding the Krokus quandry. Rick reports that Allan's
solo appears on a tune called "Long Way From Home," on the album
_Change of Address_, on Arista, and has promised to look up the
relevant data for the discography as soon as he can meet up with his
copy again. He also mentioned that this is probably out-of-print, and
perhaps a perusal of the cassette bargain bins may yield a copy.
Speaking of out-of-print items, I have recently come into another
copy of _Road Games_... anyone needing a copy?
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 13:03:10 -0800
From: dmick@pongo74.West.Sun.COM (Dan Mick)
Subject: Re: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
> Okay, now another informational tidbit -- this one by way of Usenet
> newsgroup 'alt.rock-n-roll.metal' reader (and recent Atavachron arrival)
> Rick Aaron -- regarding the Krokus quandry. Rick reports that Allan's
> solo appears on a tune called "Long Way From Home," on the album
> _Change of Address_, on Arista, and has promised to look up the
> relevant data for the discography as soon as he can meet up with his
> copy again. He also mentioned that this is probably out-of-print, and
> perhaps a perusal of the cassette bargain bins may yield a copy.
I have a CD copy at home; ping me if you can't find it, Rick.
> Speaking of out-of-print items, I have recently come into another
> copy of _Road Games_... anyone needing a copy?
CD? If so, yes yes yes!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:32:14 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: The Krokus Connection
Oops! When the Krokus question originally came up, my wife and I went through
all of her (she's the Krokus fan in this family) Krokus albums to check for
any evidence of Allan. Apparently, we missed it, since she *does* have a copy
of _Change Of Address_. I have now confirmed this; the relevant info is:
Krokus - Change Of Address
Arista ARCD8402
As Rick Aaron reports, Allan plays on track 9, "Long Way From Home", and this
CD is apparently out of print.
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 20:11:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Holt
Subject: Re: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
On Wed, 16 Mar 1994, Dan Mick wrote:
> > Speaking of out-of-print items, I have recently come into another
> > copy of _Road Games_... anyone needing a copy?
>
> CD? If so, yes yes yes!
I second that. Has anyone ever seen the elusive Road Games on a CD? I'd
love it if it got stuck on the tail end of an old album, but I know how
label contracts go (that album being on WB)...I have a few copies of it
on LP, but never on CD...I'd LOVE to find it on CD.
Robert Holt
WJHU Baltimore Public Radio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: One for the FAQ
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 20:56:01 EST
> From: Robert Holt
> Subject: Re: Posting SNAFUs? On Atavachron? Never!
> On Wed, 16 Mar 1994, Dan Mick wrote:
> > > Speaking of out-of-print items, I have recently come into another
> > > copy of _Road Games_... anyone needing a copy?
> > CD? If so, yes yes yes!
> I second that. Has anyone ever seen the elusive Road Games on a CD? I'd
> love it if it got stuck on the tail end of an old album, but I know how
> label contracts go (that album being on WB)...I have a few copies of it
> on LP, but never on CD...I'd LOVE to find it on CD.
No, Warner Bros. is still sitting on it. Restless apparently tried to
buy it from them, but WB wanted *far* too much cash for it. We'd heard
last summer that Audiophile Imports was trying to license _Road Games_
from Warner, but that has also seemingly fallen through.
This will go at the top of the FAQ file, no? :)
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kingsley Durant Jr
Subject: AH interview (i)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 8:56:22 EST
Weighing in with some thoughts on the AH interview (part one)
First, thanks to Hoard & Preston, *especially* Preston. I've
done a lot of transcribing for my dissertation and it's quite
difficult - and that's using MS Word, not trying to get it
Unix-ready or anything.
RE: Professor Holdsworth. As evidenced by his video (such as
it is - it ain't perfect, but it offers an insightful glimpse),
AH knows plenty about music, his protestations to the
contrary. Of course, there's a hell of a lot more to teaching
than just knowing the content. And - I'm in the midst of this
world myself - there's a whole lot about teaching at a
university that has nothing to do with either content matter or
teaching expertise. (BTW, G.I.T. is looking for a math
professor - I was tempted - *briefly*) At any rate - what a
strange question!
RE: The synth conversation. I totally agree with Allan that,
with the exception of the human voice, every musical instrument
ever created is a product of technology. No instrument has any
musical validity, or lack thereof, in and of itself. It's nice
that people seem to have affinities for one instrument's sound
more so than another, but to impose one's personal affinities
and preferences and say that some other instrument is less
valid is the *height* of arrogance. Like a lot of guitarists,
the sound of wood and vibrating metal strings, stressed-out
tubes and speakers, and all the other physical elements that
make up the sound of an electric guitar through a cranked amp,
sound good to *me*. Although I started out playing trumpet,
french horn, and piano, as well as guitar, the guitar was the
instrument that really grabbed me. But the physical sounds are
only one element of music, and to focus on that at the
exclusion of the notes, the phrasing, the harmony, the
structures, and everything else, is really missing the point of
what AH is all about. Sure, people are gonna do that, and lots
of them take little bits of things and apply them somewhere
else - that's what music is like - but to hold AH prisoner to
those expectations and to criticize his synth playing because
of some personal prejudice about synth sounds is patently
unfair. Or, just because AH played acoustic guitar on a few
tunes and it sounded *great* to someone, and maybe a rippin'
Marshall or Boogie makes that person's teeth ache (my wife
comes to mind here), why should AH feel indebted to that person
to the point of saying, 'well, guess I'd better do an acoustic
record, huh?'
I guess the larger issue embedded in the technology thing is
about music and the roles of the musician and the audience.
What *does* a professional musician owe his or her audience?
It seems as though a lot of people in the audience believe that
the musician owes it to them to entertain them, and to keep on
entertaining them. After all, they put up their $$$, right?
So, if _Tokyo Dream_ really turns somebody on, then that person
might expect AH to keep on playing _Tokyo Dream_, or something
that sounds like it. And lots of musicians are happy to do
that - Ian Anderson will probably be playing _Aqualung_ from a
wheelchair - which serves to legitimize that sort of
expectation. Maybe Ian does that because he thinks _Aqualung_
is a great song, and that's fine, but he doesn't *owe* it to
anybody to do the song every show the rest of his life. IMHO,
this relationship (the artist owes the audience something) is
all backwards. The audience owes it to the performer to be
attentive and to try to respect the performer's intentions, and
to respond honestly and directly to the music. And if they
don't find the music palatable, they can either adjust their
expectations or walk away. Conversely, I don't think the
artist has much responsibility at all (to the audience). *I*
certainly prefer to listen to artists who are committed to
doing what they do, and doing it as well as they know how. But
that's only my personal prejudice, and I don't hold any artist
personally accountable to that in any sense, other than by the
simple fact of my choice to (or *not* to) support their art by
purchasing a recording or attending a show.
Time for a break. RE: beers... Sierra Nevada is bloody well
undrinkable by the time it arrives back east, but I'm a big Sam
Adams fan. Also, I heartily recommend Pete's Wicked Ale &
Lager. Question: does AH keep a keg on tap? Does he get it
fresh-unpasteurized? Any details on his system would be much
appreciated by those of us suds-o-philes who haven't had the
pleasure of visiting the Brewery!
RE: the FZ thread. Good to hear AH weighing in on FZ. As
regards comments in AD#80 about _Sheik Yerbouti_, and FZ's
other efforts in that vein, what difference does it make what
any of *us* think about it, relative to FZ's intentions? FZ
was into all sorts of music, and he didn't go around claiming
that Varese was *better* than anything else, or that _Jazz From
Hell_ (or _London Philharmonic_ for you synth-haters) was
better music than _Apostrohe_. S.Y. was, when it was released,
a pretty amusing commentary on certain popular (at the time)
social and musical conventions - which is easier to do directly
than obliquely. But people set up this false dichotomy between
*serious* music and *fun* music, and the clear implication is
that the *serious* music is somehow more important or
worthwhile. Well maybe it is to somebody, but I'm sure FZ
would just say "who gives a f@#*, anyway?" (In fact he did say
that - in Joe's Garage, Act III.) My point here is, FZ put a
lot of care and effort into *everything* he did, and it's
unfair to write off S.Y., Apostrophe, or whatever, just because
they sounded like pop, and attracted a big audience that
wouldn't have been the least bit interested in JFH, to say
nothing of Varese or Stravinsky. There are a lot of other
places I'd start pointing fingers, if it really bothered me
that the vast majority of the record-buying public in this
country will get into "Valley Girls" but won't listen to
"Gregary Peccary." (ah - back to Music Education - but I'll
just leave it as an implication here...)
RE: composition & visualization. My friend Bill Camire (owner
of the _Cityscapes_ record) once told me that he thought every
instrumental composition, no matter how abstract, was *about*
something - a picture, an emotional state, or something. To
me, it was always just music, you know? But after he said
that, I went back and listened to a bunch of pieces I had done,
and he was right - they all were about something. It's not
like I had this concrete picture or thought, well a few times I
did, but it didn't really matter; the compositions just came
out that way. I think that, as a musician, it's easy to be so
sensitive to (and enthralled by, in AH's case) the technical
elements of the music (timbre, melody, harmony, rhythm, form,
etc, etc,...) that I forget to hear the big picture - the
communication of an idea. And it gets more complicated; as a
composer, I might be communicating what I think is one thing,
but someone who hears it might perceive something entirely
different. It's great to hear what AH has to say in this vein
- I hope there's more in part ii - because this is much more
interesting than the technical details ("what gauge strings do
you use?") and the arguments about whether or not synthesisers
are legitimate instruments. I missed my chance to post
questions - was on the road at the time - but I'd love to know
how AH thinks when he's putting chords together into
sequences. (Where did the solo changes to _Wardenclyffe Tower_
come from?!)
One more thought - and my apologies for being so verbose
lately. What is jazz, anyway? Why is it so hard for AH to
gain acceptance by the commercial jazz community (i.e. record
labels, clubs, festivals, fans,...)? Is it because he's a
white english guy who plays guitar - without the pedigree of
having been in Miles' Davis' band (never mind that *that* band
drove lots of jazz critics and fans nuts at the time)? Is it
because his rhythms aren't based on traditionally accepted ones
- and aren't metrically regular, either? Is it because he uses
a solidbody guitar, a distorted amp, and a vibrato bar? Is it
because the changes he writes don't follow traditional patterns
of movement and resolution? (Or, if they do, they twist it
around in really unusual ways) Is it because he's not a junkie
or an alcoholic (his fondness for beer notwithstanding)? Or is
it that jazz just another dead, desiccated musical form that
has stopped growing and developing, with fans who are only
interested in having it preserved & embalmed as is, and can't
embrace new forms, tonalities, or approaches? (My, I'm
negative today. More apologies!) I mean, it seems to me that
here's an artist who has 1) mastered his instrument to a
thrillingly high degree, setting a new benchmark for expression
and technical expertise; 2) lived and breathed jazz for his
entire life - yeah, I know he played in some rock bands too; 3)
worked incredibly hard at composition, bringing in influences
from all different sorts of music and weaving them into a
unique blend which has clearly advanced the art form. Who
else, of the current generation of "jazz" musicians, can claim
to have done this to the extent that AH has? I'm sure AH
doesn't want to hear this raving lunacy, but IMHO, he belongs
right up there with his heroes if you use technical and
compositional innovation and expertise as your criteria for
selecting the true giants.
Well, that's enough opinionating for one posting, I think. One
last note: this morning (*after* having written the above) I
was sitting in Bodo's Bagel Bakery, a Ch'ville landmark known
for unbelievably good bagels and its hip ambience, which is to
a large degree a product of the piped-in music (mostly either
'60s hippie stuff - Dylan, Band, Dead - or their modern
counterparts - Richard Thompson, Bonnie Raitt, E. Costello,
T.Heads). Anyhow, I was sitting there eating a garlic bagel &
drinking OJ, and suffering through what sounded like a lame
version of the jam part of _In A Gadda-Da-Vida_ when the music
changed and on came, of all things, King Crimson - *Islands* no
less - at least, _Ladies of the Road_ and _Sailor's Tale_.
When was the last time anyone heard either of those broadcast
in a public place?! The garlic and Fripp's all-time best solo
(another polemic - jeez) combined to brighten my outlook
considerably. So, have a nice day, y'all! :)
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 82
Friday, 18 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
HHA cutout?!?
ATAVACHRON HOLDSWORTH INTERVIEW - PART 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 17:37:04 -0500
From: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
Subject: HHA cutout?!?
I managed to locate a single copy of "Hard Hat Area" today... and
it was a cutout! Bizarre. I guess it was somebody's promotional copy at
one time. (NO, don't start any rumors about HHA heading for the cutout
bin, please!)
In any case, I have listened to half of the album, and I like
it a lot better than "Secrets" and "Wardencliff Tower". What a fun
album. More later.
Dan
//////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
| Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center |
| University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu |
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Date: 17 Mar 94 18:14:29 EST
Subject: ATAVACHRON HOLDSWORTH INTERVIEW - PART 2
**************************************************************************
THE OFFICIAL ATAVACHRON INTERVIEW: ALLAN HOLDSWORTH - PART 2
**************************************************************************
Credits:
By Chris Hoard (with assistance and diatribe from Mick Porter
and Ken Kubernik). Transcribed by Jeff Preston.
**Edited by J. Preston and C. Hoard**
Occasionally interrupted by Louise and Emily Holdsworth, and influenced
by excessive pints of Anchor Steam beer; opinions herein expressed are
not necessarily coherent, and by no means are not intended to stand up
in a court of law or hold water before a jury of our peers.
(C) 1994 by C. Hoard/J. Preston
NOTICE: this interview cannot be be used for any commercial publication
without the permission of the author and/or moderator of Atavachron.
Portions of it may be posted to any relevant Internet format, however,
we ask politely that Jeff Preston (preston@msuacad.morehead-st.edu)
be advised of any such reproductions.
======================================================================
Legend:
AH: Allan Holdsworth
CH: Chris Hoard
KK: Ken Kubernik
MP: Mick Porter
*italics* words stressed that would normally be italicised
but can't be in this case due to ASCII limitations
[brackets] thoughts CH thought he had at the time--or added
after transcription--or CH's interpretation of
an incomplete (or interrupted) phrase by AH.
=============================================================================
MP: Which of your father's records did you used to listen to? I heard
you say that. What are the ones that really "did it" for you?
AH: All of them. I used to listen to all of them. Most of them...
we had Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Charlie Christian... Django
Reinhardt. Now there, you know -- Django Reinhardt -- and
Charlie Christian were probably the biggest influences once I
started to *play* guitar, but before that, I didn't really
pay any more attention to it because I heard the music in the
notes. [to his kids, who are wanting to order pizza] Mom can
do that! Jeez, I'm the one who's doing the *interview*! You
don't want to order the pizza?!? Starve to death, then!
[laughter by all]
AH: Screwballs!
CH: Much has been written, they say, about your legato style.
AH: Oh, God. Did I even answer that question? That last one?
MP: Chris, you answered it for him.
CH: They want to know if you attribute your unique approach to playing
legato, or is it something *new* -- a new style, perhaps.
AH: No, it's not; it's nothing. It's just the way...
CH: I guess I would rephrase the questions: "Is there any significant
factor in the way you derive your own style?"
AH: Significant? Yes, there *is*; a significant factor was always
trying to make the guitar sound the way you want it to sound.
CH: Like a horn?
AH: Yeah. I mean, for no other reason. I wanted to play the saxophone,
but I couldn't -- I got stuck with a guitar. And I didn't realize
what I was *doing*! I didn't know that I was playing legato...
I didn't know. I really didn't *care*! I was just trying to play
*music*; I was trying to find the notes that I wanted to hear. And
who cares? The notes, the music... again, the music's the thing,
man. Who cares whether the guy has a pick between his first two
toes, or holds it picking his ass-cheeks. Who cares, man? What
does it matter, man? It's totally unimportant. It's *irrelevant*.
Completely.
CH: Gearhead question:
MP: Wankers!
[note we were distracted by family conference on who should order the
pizza at this point--I posted the "gearhead" question (which I forgot
to ask after being distracted by nourishment) in Atavachron #78.]
AH: Claire! Do you want to do the pizza thing, for God's sake?!?
CH: This interview has just degenerated into a round of insults
being hurled from all directions!
AH: ... Actually, this is all going on the computer -- word-for-word!
Louise: Shut up, Dad!
AH: This is going on *Internet*!
CH: Yeah, I feel sorry for Jeff Preston, having to transcribe this
thing.
KK: But they'll learn a lot about Allan, and how he *really* works...
AH: Yeah... or *doesn't*....!
KK: Or how he *doesn't* work -- how he *malfunctions*!
AH: That's the thing, yeah!
CH: Apparently some idiot at Jazziz magazine put _Wardenclyffe Tower_
as one of the most important jazz releases of the decade. Despite
the fact that Restless sent *no* promo copies to any reviewers.
AH: As far as I know, Restless don't send anything to *anybody*. Not
even *me*! I can't get a cassette... it's pretty hard for me to
get a CD out of them -- believe me! I have to call them up and ask
them... they send them, one-by-one, along with a C.O.D., man.
KK: "You can have them at our cost: $13.00 each."
AH: It's true, man. We wanted to buy records to sell on the road. They
wanted the same price for 'em as they sell 'em *retail*. So the band
couldn't even do it. I mean, what kind of a record company would do
*that* to you? Print it -- please! [laughter all around] Put it
on there -- it's *true*! It's the truth! There's *no* record
company on the face of the planet that would do that to us; they'd
come to the gigs, and they'd want the band to pay for them to come
in. We have to pay for the record company...! And then, they all
go, "Aw, Jesus, we don't wanna do that," and then they show up
and you see them [at a gig] and you say, "Hi," as you walk by them
-- they don't come back to say hello to the band or nothing! I
mean, Restless... this is over, man. This whole Restless thing is
*history*. It's kind of sad, because Restless actually own my
whole catalog at the moment. So, I'm very disappointed and extremely
distressed about it, 'cause for example, please print all this
as well...
The stuff that they did with the album cover [for _Hard Hat Area_
-- JP], they went ahead and did the whole album cover, and never
even sent it to me to look at -- to *see*!
KK: Contractually, did they have the right to do that? Don't you have
the right to...
AH: *Everybody* goes and sees [it prior to release], you know...
KK: I mean, you as an artist have the right to contractually sign-off
on the work, don't you, I mean...
AH: Well, usually they let you *see* it, but they let me see it after
it'd gone to the printer and everything, and we... some *guy*
had to... they couldn't release it like that -- there were too many
mistakes on it, so they had to do it *again* [note: this comment
pertained to the musician/production credits]. I mean, and Restless
do this the whole *time* they did it -- with the last album, they
did it with *this*... they've done it with the press thing. They
write this shit about me, from 200 years ago that I don't ever want
to see... and they name-drop everywhere they can, you know... I
want to get *rid* of all that name-dropping! Who *cares* whether,
you know...
CH: ... Eddie Van Halen had something to do with it?
AH: Yeah! Or Carlos Santana... I think they're both *great*, but
what has that... you know, I just don't want to sit on anybody's
back! I mean, it's *insane*, man.
AH: Is it almost over?
CH: Almost. Your association with early fusioneers: Has that somehow
tainted your credibility in the jazz press?
AH: I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea.
KK: Wanker's question.
AH: But... probably, because it just makes the music fall through
the holes again.
MP: You know, I've spent some time wanking. I don't have a problem
with wankers. I'm a wanker. You were a wanker. I *wank*. These
are the Wank Years... [speak for yourself, Mickey! Pee Wee?]
CH: You were less than pleased with the REH video. Why were you less
than pleased with the REH video, and the new book, _Just For The
Curious_?
AH: Well, I wasn't displeased with the *book* -- I think the book
turned out really good, and the book is just basically for me,
one really good way of clarifying things that weren't made so
clear in the video. The biggest problem with the video was there
was a *huge* problem on the video. What I wanted to do was to
record the band live, like we did, but we wanted to... I wanted to
record it live-to-24-track and then *mix* it, so... because I know
that some guy sitting behind the desk [mixing console -- JP] who's
never heard the band before, he doesn't know where to put anything;
he doesn't know there's a keyboard solo... how loud the chorus
should be, or anything! So it was part of my deal was that we'd
record the thing live, of course...
CH: Um-hmm.
AH: ... but to *24-track*, and that I would be able to mix it afterwards.
Well, they screwed up big time. They went to the expense of recording
the all-live to 24-track, then when I got the tape at home, and put
the bass up, I thought, "It sounds great"; put the drums up --
"Sounds great"; put the keyboards up -- "Sounds great." I put the
*guitar* up and all I could hear was *drums*!!!
KK: What?
AH: They sub-grouped the drums to the guitar track. So when you listen
to the video now, this is a very good example of why I'm extremely
displeased with it is, that the way the video sounds now, there
*are* no drum tracks *up* -- *none*, whatsoever! None! All the
drums you hear on the REH video are on the *guitar tracks*.
CH: So in other words, it was a massive engineering disaster.
AH: It was a massive engineering fuck-up of the highest magnitude.
And then, not only that... not only that. Not only did that
displease me, but *they* turned 'round to me and said, "Well,
didn't you *check* that?" and I said -- because they know that I
do my own engineering -- but I'm on *this side* of the glass,
playing *live*!!! I'm not on *that* side of the glass! All it takes
is the guy -- the engineer -- to push a solo button and listen to
the guitar. If I was in there and pushed "solo" and all I heard
was *drums*...
CH: Any idea why there's so much chaos in the universe?
AH: Yes -- too many people.
KK: A very good answer.
AH: It's the *only* one... I didn't finish with REH yet.
MP: What does that stand for?
AH: I dunno.
KK: Was this thing widely distributed... the book and the video?
AH: Yeah. So, the book was a good deal for me, because I got to
straighten a few things out that weren't clarified in the, you
know, the video. But... which I think they *were*, plus we were
working with this guy, Aaron Stang, who was the guy who's
work was on the book, he was really great... he was really good.
KK: Do you have a copy of the book here?
AH: Yeah, I do.
KK: I'd love to see it at some point. I haven't seen it anywhere.
AH: Yeah, sure. But you know, then they turned that thing around on me
about the mixing, and it was completely impossible for me to *know*,
because I was on [the wrong] side of the glass.
KK: You can't be two places at once.
AH: And then the next big problem was I couldn't take advantage of
the sound of anybody else's instrument, on the video. For example,
the bass should have sounded better; the keyboards; the drums --
*everything* would have sounded *great*. But I couldn't, because I
couldn't process one thing without the other. I couldn't make the
keyboards sound [like] a million dollars with this sad, lame-ass
guitar sound, just simply because I couldn't *do* anything to it.
CH: Buried in the drums.
AH: So I had to leave everything *exactly* the way it was. I couldn't
put echo on the guitar without putting echo on the *drums*.
I couldn't make the guitar brighter without making the *drums*
brighter. It was a *complete, total disaster*. That's why. So in
answer to that, that seems to happen to me quite a lot, so, I'm
really sorry that I did it. But, it's out there. I'll *never* do
another one. [leans in to microphone] *Never*.
[laughs all around]
CH: Here's our star-struck question... Would it be a mistake for you to
appear on a high-profile artist's recording, as a soloist? Like
Peter Gabriel, Sting, or Steely Dan?
AH: Ah, I'd *love* it.
MP: Why would it be a mistake?
AH: It would be absolutely megor.
CH: Now, if I named those three, which one would you most like to do?
AH: Sting, probably.
MP: Why?
AH: Because I like... I know he seems to be a bit of a *poseur*, but
I like his...
MP: Poseur?
AH: There's something about his music that's like, kind of *organic*
that I like; it seems really... scratch the poseur thing!
[laughter]
AH: There's something about...
CH: He's quite a musician, isn't he?
AH: Well, I don't know, but what I like about it is when I hear his
music sometimes, it's like... they're songs that I've heard
in my head before. Everything sounds like I've heard it before.
But I recognize it... I recognize it; it seems to be one level
further *back* than like, pop music, which is just like on the
front -- and you just [hear] it and you go, "Oh, Jeez...."
CH: Could that possibly be because you're from the same geographic
area, in a way? I mean, he's from Newcastle; you're from
Bradford.
AH: Well, I mean... I think music is very geographical. You know,
you can tell a lot of times where people come from, by that.
CH: I really enjoyed his band, especially David Sancious and Vinnie
Colaiuta, who are incredible musicians.
AH: Ah, yeah.
MP: When he was done playing the keyboards, he got up there and
took up a guitar, man, and he *still* -- he'd part your hair at
a hundred meters. The guy was *phenomenal*!
AH: Well, I think David Sancious is great, you know, I mean because
that's what I always liked about him. I could never figure out
where, why. I could realize the guy that they've got [guitarist
Dominic Miller], you know, does the job, or whatever, and maybe
looks good, or whatever -- I dunno. But there's a funny thing;
is that David Sancious plays *really good guitar*.
MP: He *does*.
AH: And the thing that *I* saw, he just completely *torched* the
guitar player.
KK: This is true...
AH: It was like... it was like, "Why wasn't *he* playing guitar?"
KK: Just remember, it's like you say: Sting is fundamentally a
*songwriter*, and I don't think he wants the chops to get in the
way of the *song*, and that's what you're always thinkin' about.
I mean, you've heard it all before, and if everybody was busy
wankin' off and playing solos...
AH: Well, they wouldn't be, would they?
KK: No -- he wouldn't *let* them.
MP: Wanking. Wanking seems to be a recurring theme. I was commenting
on the wanking... [no more ales for him!]
AH: Well, I don't think they *should be*, anyway. It's not the kind
of music it *is*.
CH: Alright, we've got just a couple more.
AH: Fire away.
CH: Somebody -- Paolo -- writes, "How on Earth did it occur to Mike
Mainieri to invite you to participate on _Come Together [:Jazz
tribute to the Beatles_ -- JP] ?"
AH: Absolutely no idea.
CH: Mike Mainieri somehow thought of you. Probably Michael Brecker
recommended you, there.
AH: I doubt it.
CH: [laughs]
AH: But it was... you know, I'm glad we did it, because we got the
opportunity to do that thing with Gordon [Beck] -- that's the first
track that'd I'd done with Gordon in a few years. It was good.
KK: It was brilliant, Allan.
MP: Which track was that? The "Michelle" thing? That was phenomenal;
that was great.
CH: Yeah, let's move on... I want to kind of move on and talk a
little bit. Gordon's going to be involved in the next album, and
you were telling me that you really hadn't had a chance to make
a *real* album with Gordon. What do you mean by that?
AH: Well, everything that I've ever done with Gordon has been... has
had some problems for me, one way or another. Either I didn't know
the music before it was done, like when we did _Sunbird_ -- we
did the music before; it wasn't music that I was familiar with,
or a *style* of music that I [was comfortable with at the time]...
By the end of the tour, at least I'd figured out how I could work
my way through it [the changes]. But the album was recorded before
the tour, which was disappointing for me. I felt that I liked it
-- but that I sounded really bad on it. And that was my main
reason. And everything that we've ever done together has been
like that for *me*; I've never felt *comfortable*. So what I wanted
to do is at least have the chance to be comfortable with the music
before we recorded one. And I have such a *respect* for him, you
know, he's an unbelievable musician -- that I just would look
forward to having a chance to do that.
CH: What kind of other musicians -- if you were going to do something
more in a "straight ahead" vein -- what other ideal musicians would
participate, if you could get them?
AH: I don't really know yet. We haven't finalized it at all. We've
discussed it a little, but it's still up for grabs right now.
Because... it's operating in an area that I'm not... you know,
that I'm not working in, generally. I don't know, really.
CH: It's going to be another exciting experiment, no doubt.
MP: When you get ready to make a new album, do you say, "I better
make a new one, because I've just made one and toured in support
of it, and now it's time to move on," or do you actually... is
there something that happens and you say, "Okay, well an album
can come from this." What's the deal?
AH: Well, you just usually want to try and make one; you usually
want to try and document what's happened within a year. It seems
like a year seems to be a reasonable length of time. So after a
year, I always feel like I need to do a new album. Because after a
year's gone by, if I listen to the last one, I go "Oh, God! We've
got to do something *new*." So a year seems to be a good length,
you know, before you wanna go out and do another one.
I don't wanna be one of those guys who puts out two or three
albums a year. They all sound the same, or whatever. I mean not
*all* guys do that -- some guys could make three albums in a year
and they all be completely different, and all be really *megor*.
But for me, being slower... like it takes me that length of time
for it to sort of like *roll around*; for the gears to turn...
MP: I listen to like Sting, and I wish he would *wait* a little while.
Frankly, the last couple, I thought, haven't been as developed or
entertaining, and when he was doing _The Dream of the Blue Turtles_,
he probably had a *long* time to gather material, while the Police
was goin' on. And that was such a fine album, and it's like I'm
waiting for him to do that one again. Well, not *again*...
AH: Well, that's probably what... that's *possibly* what happened, you
see, because... I mean, I don't know -- who knows? But I know that
was the way it was when we did the first I.O.U. album. We had a lot
more material before we started that one, more available than any
other one. Until we came to the last one -- that's why I think
_Hard Hat Area_ for me was a nicer album. You know, 'cause you had
the same kind of thing as the first one: We played the music *live*
before we went into the studio, and that was real important to
*me*...
CH: And yet, the project was problematic, too.
AH: Oh, I've never done *anything* that wasn't full of like... terrible
grumblings and everything. We had terrible grumblings with the
machines; I ran out of money. But thankfully, for the guy who owns
Front Page Studios, like Biff Vincent, who's like a great guy --
he's really helped me out and he let me keep the machine a few
more days than I could pay for. But eventually, you know, I had to
hand it over. [laughs] You know, I had to take what I had, and
what I *had* wasn't what I *wanted* it to be, 'cause I really
wanted the album to sound better than it does, but... the bottom
line is [at some point you have to move on]...
CH: How would you compare it to _Wardenclyffe..._, for example, I
mean in terms of the sound?
AH: Well I actually think it sounds *better*. I think it's more
linear, or more uniform than _Wardenclyffe Tower_... That had
different groups, different combinations of guys doing different
studios and it wasn't quite... one uniform sound.
CH: There was a track with Vinnie Colaiuta, for instance, on
_Wardenclyffe..._...
AH: Yeah, yeah. Chad played on it...
CH: Was that left over from _Secrets_, or something?
AH: No, no-no-no. We went in and did that. So it was... Gary played
on it, Gary Husband; Chad Wackerman played on it; and Vinnie
played on it. So there was three different bands, and a couple of
the tracks that Chad played on were done at different studios.
KK: Something I always think about when I listen to your music...
how much your point-of-view is so *strong*... I mean I can tell
within one measure this is an Allan Holdsworth... It's more
than just music -- it's a complete relationship to the sound
of the music. I've always wondered if you've ever entertained
the notion of, just for an experiment's sake, if nothing else,
having someone else come in and produce an album with you. And
have somebody else's ears take a different position in terms of
the relationship to the sound that you get... and perhaps *defer*
to that person, or just allow another voice to have equal footing
with you -- just to see what would come out, in terms of getting
a different perspective...
MP: Somebody like Brian Eno?
KK: I don't know who. I don't *care* who it is.
AH: Well, I mean if it's something like that, it would have to be a
situation whereby they would be prepared to... like... throw the
record into the trash can. That would be the only way I'd go
into an album like that -- where I'd allow someone an equal amount
of [creative control] -- unless it was a duet thing, you know.
KK: No, I'm talking strictly as a producer-type, and not someone
who would be a musician with you. I mean, I'm just wondering...
bringing in a *producer*...
AH: Well, I've thought about it, because producers sometimes have
that thing of saying... well, you might do something and think
it's no good. And they might think it's really great. But *my
own experience is* -- until it sounds good to *me*, it doesn't
matter *what* he says! So, the answer to that question is "no."
[pause] Because in the end, the end result would be that if it
doesn't really concern me what anybody else thinks about it.
If I think I did the best that I could, and everybody else thinks
it sounds like shit, that's *still* okay, because at least I
[met my own standards]. The worst thing that can happen to me is
for me to do something like I fell off a log, you know.
[Something] that I think is not very good, and have everybody
like it...
You know, it's sort of like somebody comes up to me and says,
"Oh yeah, I really like what you did on Chad's new album," but
I'd have to say they'd be really completely crazy. 'Cause for
example, that last album that we did with Chad, has prompted me
to decide permanently and *completely* locked within my mind
that unless I know the engineer, or what he's gonna do, I'm
*never* going to play on anybody else's album again.
MP: What about it? What made you say that?
AH: Well because he took what I did and completely *changed* it, and
destroyed it, in my opinion.
CH: Not *Chad*, but... Chad's engineer [Walter Quintas -- JP].
AH: No! Yeah, but... Chad was *there*.
KK: And it's Chad's name on the record, so ultimately Chad has to
be satisfied...
AH: Chad has a certain responsibility to it...
MP: Destroyed it? How?
AH: Well, he did all kinds of stuff to the guitar -- he put all kinds
of effects on it, and processed it and harmonized it, and did shit
to it that would have driven me completely up the wall -- and does!
I can't even *listen* to that record!
CH: In other words, the engineer took the track that Allan had laid,
and had his own ideas about the effects and, you know, basically
botched it up.
AH: You know, I *told* Chad, with all due respect, to be loose on
it... like in terms of processing. And if the guy wanted to do
do anything [try it,] but what I was meant was more like... I
was thinking of it in a more *subtle* way; I wasn't thinking of
any *blatant*, complete, tortured sounding shit, you know, which
is what happened. And... I can't listen to it -- it's *painful*.
I can't *believe* that someone can do that. That just shows
you -- that's another reason getting back to your question about
the producing -- is why I can't give that stuff up to people.
'Cause it's like taking a solo that someone did on the saxophone,
throwing it through a ring modulator... harmonizing it... you know,
putting twenty tons of *reverb* on it, and then saying, "Thanks
for that solo."
MP: It's one thing for the person who did it *themselves* to be able
to do whatever the hell they want with their own stuff, but...
AH: Well, to be honest, he's the only person who *knows* what to do
with it.
**[note: some KK diatribe was lost here due to an ale-infested tape
operator. KK referred here, as I recall to the fact that
Keith Jarrett had spoken about his difficulty working as a sideman,
as he did for Kenny Wheeler, Gary Peacock, Miles Davis, and
Freddie Hubbard (to cite examples still available)--CH]
KK: It put him in a position, where he can never be satisfied because
knows what it takes to satisfy himself. It is *such* a commitment,
that he can't expect someone *else*, whose music it is, to have to
necessarily match his depth. I mean, we all have our *own* depth.
And I think it's very analogous to what you were saying...
AH: Well, it's basically the same thing.
KK: It's the same *exact* thing! It's striking, to me. And I think
a lot of it has to do with the fact that, linking you with Keith
[Jarrett] is fairly easy in my mind because your points-of-view
as musicians, your *ideas* -- forget the notes, the charts -- the
*ideas* -- it could be just *one* note, who cares? They're so
*strong*. They have so much to say in and of themselves that they
really crowd out a lot of the other crap that just passes for
what you said before with pop music; it's all out right in front
of your eyes -- there's nothing receded back. And I think when
you're operating at that depth, it's necessarily... kinda murky,
kinda dangerous -- kinda on-your-own. And I think that's what you
feel very much, that you are on your *own*... in the wilderness...
AH: Well in the end, yeah, because the older I get, the more I do,
the more I realize I get... almost further away. I get a
a deeper understanding of what it is that *I* want to do, and
*less* understanding of what anybody else wants to do. So I end
up like, maybe being able to create something on my own, that may
or may not be good -- but at least I'll understand every aspect
of it, and know *exactly* where it [stands]... and be controlling
it. But on the other hand, on the other end of the scale, I could
be just *floundering*, so I could see what he meant** [see
above note] -- like when you play with someone else or you do
someone else's stuff, you... to get it right... but not having
enough time to work with the music, or not having enough time to
feel as *controlled* over it. You know, both physically, mentally
and emotionally. You just *can't*. Can't be done.
KK: Unless you're a hack!
AH: Well the thing is, you know, like most musicians, you always
start out playing with other people, just like he [Jarrett] did,
and I played with lots of other people in the past -- growing up
in what I *did*, you know.... kind of progressive rock, or whatever
you want to call it. So I mean, growing up with that... I wouldn't
*not* want to have done that. I mean, I *learned* something from
*all* of it. But I would *definitely*, absolutely never want to
do it *again*. See, it's definitely a one-way street.
CH: Speaking of... harkening back to progressive rock...
AH: Not just... Chad's album just *confirmed* that. That it was a
complete sidetrack, and in a way, I let my friendship with him
-- because I think he's great, you know, he's a *wonderful*
musician and a really good friend. But the friendship overrode
my gut feeling.
KK: Did you have reservations even just prior to the gig?
AH: Ah, I really did not want to do it. I tried to kind of escape.
CH: That's the same thing with, say, Andrea Marcelli, or some of
these other artists...
AH: Well, the difference... there was a big difference with Andrea,
because Andrea... I had wanted to... I actually had because he
let me do a lot of other things on the album, like he let me...
I recorded it -- not his first album. But I mean his new album;
I kind of basically recorded it. So I recorded the bass and the
drums... and on the tracks that he did: you know, the
synthesizers... the whole thing. And it sounds pretty good to
*me*; I mean, someone else might think it sounds like shit. But
you see, I had a certain *control* with that, than I could have
never had with Chad's album... he can just go off and let some
other guy mix it and everything, and then I come back and I listen
to it and I go, "My *God*! What did he do to the *guitar*?"
Whereas Andrea's album, that first album, anyway, because I mixed
that *with him*... he was basically the producer, but I was
basically the engineer. So I *knew* what I wanted my guitar to
sound like, and because he knew it was my guitar, he didn't
*interfere* with it! So he left me to do what I wanted to do with
it. So *that's* the big difference, because then I have more
creative control over the whole thing.
MP: When this whole thing happened with the Chad album, I remember
you also having a problem with the fact that whoever was marketing
it wanted to feature your name pretty prominently, whereas you
saw yourself as a contributing member and didn't want to be, you
know...
AH: Well I just saw myself like all of the other guys, and not bigger.
Just the same as all the other sidemen.
MP: But yet they were displaying your name a little bit more
prominently -- or they were trying to.
AH: Yeah, I think so, but that was a *record company* thing. I don't
think we should get into that... well, I know what you mean. That's
how I felt, yeah.
CH: Now, there was a project that was proposed recently with Bill
Bruford, but I guess that fell through somehow. But the question
remains: Could you get something out of collaborating with Bill
Bruford at some time in the future?
AH: Oh... possibly. I mean it just seems unlikely...
CH: But nothing in the immediate horizon? It's too difficult from
a geographic standpoint?
AH: It's extremely unlikely, because simply he's on one side of the
ocean, I'm on the other. You know... there's just the *expense*
of doing an album. With two guys like that, you know, where...
with two guys in England, two guys in the States, and they work
for months on the music. It's not like with... a different kind
of music, but it's more improvised, where you can show the guys
the tunes through one way or another. And they can learn them...
you... you're talking about months of like getting it together,
and... the only way you can do that is actually to be like a
group and work together -- you can't just do that without it
being real expensive. So if a record company was doing it...
KK: You could never sell enough records in their minds...
AH: Yeah! Without the expense...
CH: Do you think there's ever a sort of a fly-in, improvised project
that could do anything for you that would, you know, where you
actually got together with a few people, more on a completely
improvisational context? Is there anything there that you would
ever consider doing, like that?
AH: Well, I... I wouldn't write it off. But then we get back to the
same thing again. There's absolutely no reason in my mind
*whatsoever* for me to want to do *anything* else. Because the
most creative I can be is -- if I'm doing it for myself. When I
don't... control it, I can't contribute -- in a way -- to other
people's things like I can to my own. Only my opinion, of course.
CH: Are you intending to continue to evolve the instrument like you
have, I mean, with the baritone guitar; the smaller instruments...
AH: Well, yeah, I'm going to keep going with it all, because the
thing is, that, you know, being influenced by Ned Steinberger's
design and the headless design, which I'm totally a big believer
in... I've had some experiences lately that're extremely funny,
I think. For example, I've shown the guitar to a few other
people in the past -- you know, guitar companies, or whatever --
and they'd say, "Well, you know I think we should put a head on
it," even if there was no machine heads on it. Isn't that pretty
funny? Don't you think that's *unbelievable*? Just for a cosmetic
reason. Why would you want to put a head on a *headless* guitar,
to make it look...? When, to *me*, it's the guitars that have the
heads on them that look *wrong*.
KK: Fear. Fear... that's what it is.
AH: I mean, why would you want to do it when it's *fake*? Sure, put
the head on the guitar if it serves a purpose, if it has machines
on it.
MP: They're more concerned with visual perception.
AH: So, you know, I know a lot of guitar players who don't like
Steinbergers just because they're not *big*. You know, it has
nothing [to do with that]... Then you look at a Steinberger and you
think, "Oh, it's a short scale...." People come up to me and
ask me about *my* guitars: "Oh, why do you play that short scale
guitar?" My God, you know, it's a 25-1/2" scale -- it's full
*size*. I couldn't play anything smaller than that.
KK: It's a perceptual thing. It's like a Salvador Dali painting.
AH: It *seems* small, because there's no body and there's no head.
But it's like taking... if you think of it as a double bass,
really, the size that counts on a double bass is, of course the
body, for acoustic purposes. But if you were talking of string
length -- which is what you are on electric guitar -- if you took
from the nut to the bridge on a big, full-size bass (or a 3/4
size, which is a full size now, I guess)... if you take that, and
just that, and look at the length, and chopped off the head and
chopped off the body, it's *small*, man! It's not the huge
dimensions that you think it is at all. So that's what happens
when you take that Steinberger design of 25... full-size, classical
guitar scale length. And it's like *this*, 'cause that's the way
it is. A classical guitar bridge is halfway up the body, and it
has a big head on it, you know; and the body only has twelve
frets to the neck on it -- it looks *big*.
CH: What was different about this new guitar you were designing
with Bill DeLap? What was the difference between it...
AH: Well, I was trying to take the concept... Because I couldn't work
with Ned anymore directly because he sold out to Gibson for various
reasons, you know. Of course, I don't know him on a level where
we were like close personal friends, or anything. So I don't really
*know* what his reasons were. I think the guy's wonderful, and I
respect everything he's ever done. I think he's a *genius*.
The [tuning] machines he came out with -- the ones that come
from the back? That's another thing, before we get back to
that, is that the machines come out the back like banjo tuners
and they're *fantastic*; it's a straight string pull. You pull
it through the hole, turn it and tighten it. And you get guys
with acoustic guitar players saying, "Well, can't you make the
machines that stick out at the side?"
MP: What's the point?
AH: Because of the way they look. Because of the way they *look*, man.
You have this *fantastic* mechanism... three times more precision
than anything else... pulls the string *down* into the head, instead
of wrapping it *'round* like an anchor on a boat.
And they just rejected it because of the same reasons as his
guitar, you know, it was just something that *looked* strange.
Like it had a big nose, or something. I dunno.
CH: What was the factor... I mean, *why* pursue the hollowbody?
AH: Well because *Steinberger* got me back on that, because
*Steinbergers* are *hollow*. If you take the top off it...
if you look at a plastic Steinberger -- a little G2, or
whatever it's called... the *plastic* one; I never know the
numbers -- but you take the top off it and it's like a little
archtop. This little plastic body, you take it off -- it's
*hollow*! It's completely hollow.
And the neck comes down in the mold, and then goes down, and a
ridge runs down the back, and up to the bridge. And the ridge
down the back is about *that* much higher than the actual back of
the guitar. I'm not sure -- I guess it's a reinforcing thing, you
know. 'Cause that material's so strong, and then the top just
fits on it. So Bill...
MP: Is it graphite, or something?
AH: Yeah, it's some kind of plastic compound.
CH: So, what were you trying to do with Bill?
AH: Well what I was trying to do is that he knew I *liked* that
guitar a lot, so he took that as a place to *start*. So, he
basically copied it -- in wood. Only instead of making a little
square body, he made the body a little bigger. But he took a
piece of alder, and hollowed it out, in exactly the same ways
it was hollowed out in the Steinberger. And I really liked it.
It sounded really good. And essentially I wasn't trying to
make a guitar; it was the baritone guitars that were that way
first, because he wasn't trying to make me a guitar -- I was
totally happy with the Steinberger. But I was so happy with the
baritones, that then he decided to make a regular one. So he
made a regular one and I loved *that*. Even *more*. So then, I
started off on this thing, so now we've been working on changing
the inner portion. I've got some ideas of my own now about
how the wood should be on the *inside* of the guitar, to free
up the back--what I've decided to do with the top and the
back, is to make the top and the *back* free. Instead of having
a piece that runs along the rib at the back, which it would have
to, when you poured it into a mold, for the plastic. With a wood
guitar, that's made of separate pieces -- a neck and a body --
it doesn't have to be. So if you took a piece of alder that was
hollowed out, you could put your hand right through it, you
know... but then down the back, where the backbone was, if it
came *away* from the back like it comes away from the front, so
neither the back nor the top--touch the guitar. And then it's
*slotted*... that piece of wood is slotted, because if it was a
thin piece of wood, it'd be too weak. It's like taking a
two-by-four and turning it on its side. The thin piece of wood
has a lot of strength *this* way, but not *this* way [gestures].
So you lose weight, but you gain rigidity; you cut wood *away*
but the guitar would be stronger because of it.
KK: Was "Boris" and "Natasha" [Allan's nicknames for two of the
DeLap baritone guitars -- JP] supposed to be for commercial
production, ultimately, or just one-off for you?
AH: No. No, they were just exclusively for me, yeah.
KK: Is there a commercial... I mean, do you think... I'm just
interested because of all these exotic guitars... and the tunings
that you use. Do you feel that you're operating in a world that
the average guitarist [could make use of this]?
AH: Yeah, I do. I do. For example, because I...
KK: Is there anything *beyond* it? Because you hear these things in
a very special way, and you have these special instruments *tuned*
to your sensibility. Do you think there's a larger audience...?
AH: Yeah, there is.
MP: Is there something to offer more musicians about it, other than
just your little "nook" that you're...
AH: Yeah, I think there *is*. Like for example, like one of the first
C-guitars I had, that was tuned originally to C, was actually too
short for the way I wanted it. I wanted it to be -- I can't remember
the scale length -- it was a little short. And I sold the guitar to
Carl Verheyen, and he loves the guitar, and he's using it -- a lot,
apparently. And he tunes it *lower* than *I* did; he tunes it down
to a low-A, where for me the concept of the design was that it had
to be correct at 25-1/2" to play an E. So in other words, that
guitar, for *me*, was no good beyond C. But he tuned it down to A.
So, I mean... there you go. You can take that as a good example of
it; for me, the scale length was too *short* to tune to A, 'cause
I would have to put big, thick strings on it, and then I would have
lost the character of the tone that I was trying to get. But for
*him*, he didn't. It was enough, you know... 'cause each guy's
different -- it's a personal thing. So I'm not saying that they
would be of any use to anybody used in the *same* way, but I think
for example like, a C guitar? A C guitar could be used by someone
else, tuned a lot lower, you know, instead of an A guitar.
CH: A couple more. Where do would you like to take synthesis with the
guitar; with the SynthAxe: Is there a future there for you?
AH: Well, it has nothing to do with the guitar, really. It's just
that the synthesizer... I'm really interested in the synthesizer.
CH: But what can you envision doing with it in the future that you
haven't done? Is there anything...?
AH: Oh yeah! There's a *lot*. It would depend on synthesis... you
know, the way it goes and how much the instruments develop. The
sad part about it, of that thing, is because of the instruments
that I've got now, is that I only have a SynthAxe that really
doesn't belong to me because I sold mine. But the next thing would
be like, perhaps this instrument that Harvey Starr makes, which
is like a keyboard. You know, totally like... it's a keyboard,
with like two necks. A guitar... it looks like a pedal-steel
guitar. But there's buttons instead of strings.
CH: And best English joke... your favorite English joke...?
AH: Oh, it's too rude to put on the computer.
MP: Oh, but tell it anyways -- we won't print it.
CH: Yeah. I'll turn the tape recorder off.
AH: Yeah, turn it off....
CH: And then you can...
[tape stops abruptly... and starts...]
MP: No-no-no-no! The English joke! He was going to tell us a vulgar
English joke! He had to think about it!
AH: No, no. I was gonna think about which one! While the kids are
still up.
CH: Anything else? Have we covered everything we possibly could
have covered?
AH: Well, I... of course not. But you've covered all the questions you
had on the paper, so that'll be it, won't it? Thank you.
CH: Alright! Thank you very much!
AH: No worries!
<<<<<< END OF THE OFFICIAL ATAVACHRON ALLAN HOLDSWORTH INTERVIEW >>>>>>
**** Conducted in February, 1994 ****
If AH's schedule permits we'll plan another round for late 1994--and if for
some reason a subscriber felt like a particularly good or burning question
was lost in the shuffle, we'll do our best to forward it to the maestro
when possible. If some good interview questions come to mind, please
forward them on to Jeff Preston, so he can archive them for next time.
**Thanks** especially to those who contributed questions--for me anyway,
like a few of you have commented--this was a *definitive* interview with the
artist, maybe not the most refined or entirely sober, but nonetheless,
a chance for us to venture deeply into the artist's thoughts, drives, and
struggles. I hope to take an abbreviated portion of this and publish it
somewhere when time permits... Needless to say, without the subscribers
input and the tireless efforts of our moderator--this venture would have
been of a lesser scope and quality...
--Chris
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 83
Monday, 21 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
Re: HHA cutout?!?
re: HHA cutout?!?
Re: HHA cutout?!?
Re: Atavachron Digest Number 82
Re: Road Games (was: One for the FAQ)
**The Voodoo on Jazz, Brew, Synths, and UFOs**
Itinerary updates
Re: Itinerary updates
New Zealand visit??? :-)
lead sound
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: Re: HHA cutout?!?
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 0:41:30 EST
> From: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
> Subject: HHA cutout?!?
> I managed to locate a single copy of "Hard Hat Area" today... and
> it was a cutout! Bizarre. I guess it was somebody's promotional copy at
> one time. (NO, don't start any rumors about HHA heading for the cutout
> bin, please!)
Well! This is certainly a surprise, knowing how much promotional
effort Useless... er, Restless have been known to show with regards
to Allan's past works. I'd really be interested to know where that
came from... is there any chance you might get that information from
the people who run the store? I know that in Morehead, KY, it's easy
to tell where the jazz cutouts come from -- WMKY, MSU's public radio
(and only outlet of jazz... mostly of the GRP variety, sigh) station.
In Amherst, MA, it might prove a more daunting task to narrow down the
source.
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 10:32:39 EST
From: David=Lane%HQ%Rational@Vines1.ratsys.com
Subject: re: HHA cutout?!?
>From: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett)
> I managed to locate a single copy of "Hard Hat Area" today... and
>it was a cutout! Bizarre. I guess it was somebody's promotional copy at
>one time. (NO, don't start any rumors about HHA heading for the cutout
>bin, please!)
When Wardenclyffe came out, I looked for it for a month or two without ever
finding a copy, then at a record show I came across a used/cutout/promo copy
for $9. I still haven't run across any in the retail stores. Restless has a
great marketing concept: don't put any product out at the retail level, but
send out promo copies to the radio stations. The stations don't play it,
because it's not popular -- people can't buy it, and they dump their
promo copies into the used CD market.
Dave Lane davidl@ratsys.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 12:22:41 CST
From: Philip Riley
Subject: Re: HHA cutout?!?
Re: cutout bin...
Not to scare anyone, but the *only* reason I ever discovered AH is because I
found a copy of IOU in a cutout bin once, and I had vaguely heard the name
somewhere before... Although that's the only time I've seen him there.
phil riley
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 14:22:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Resistance is futile
Subject: Re: Atavachron Digest Number 82
Re: comments by Kingsley Durant:
I really don't declare different types of music as 'serious' or 'fun' (to me
Sheik Yerbouti in particular isn't 'fun' anyway, but if someone else thinks it
is, great). But let's face it, some types of music have more commercial appeal
than others, I assume our disagreement is whether Zappa actually thought about
this at all. Your comments did get me to thinking, maybe the concert at
Merriwether that disappointed me so much was Frank saying 'fuck you' to me and
people like me who expected certain types of music from him, and his way of
saying, 'you can't pigeonhole me that way'. Looking at it this way, I suddenly
start to appreciate it as classic Frank.
Tom O'Toole - ecf_stbo@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu - JHUVMS system programmer
Homewood Computing Facilities - Johns Hopkins University, Balto. Md. 21218
Disco music makes it possible to have 'disco entertainment centers',
where dull, boring people can meet, and reproduce. - Frank
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 16:20:51 -0600
From: uchima@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Uchima)
Subject: Re: Road Games (was: One for the FAQ)
> No, Warner Bros. is still sitting on it. Restless apparently tried to
> buy it from them, but WB wanted *far* too much cash for it. We'd heard
> last summer that Audiophile Imports was trying to license _Road Games_
> from Warner, but that has also seemingly fallen through.
Maybe Allan's new record company will have better luck at prying the Road
Games master tapes out of WB's slimy hands?
I remember a number of years ago, a Chicago area record store I used to go to
frequently had zillions of copies of Road Games in their "bargain bin". If
I'd only known back then that it would eventually be a collector's item (and
if I'd had the cash...), I would've have bought 'em all. As it is, I've got
only one copy, and it stays!
-- Mike Uchima
-- uchima@fnal.fnal.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C_HOARD@BAX.compuserve.com
Date: 19 Mar 94 14:52:09 EST
Subject: **The Voodoo on Jazz, Brew, Synths, and UFOs**
HAIL Chrondozoids...
re: K. Durant's last post
>RE: The synth conversation. I totally agree with Allan that,
>with the exception of the human voice, every musical instrument
>ever created is a product of technology.
Hey everybody--read the recent issue of OMNI--K.D. may be wrong
about the human voice! AH has a lot of interest in UFO actitivities,
by the way, and the new issue of OMNI runs the voodoo down about the
the rumor mill--I think you'll find the articles pretty balanced and
objective re: the millitary coverups, Budd Hopkins, etc.
just in case any of you are similarly inclined. AH's roadie and
assistant engineer, Gordie--is a semi-fanatic UFOlogist--and given
that AH and friends tend to enjoy good science fiction, and are generally
of the curious sort--the common sense opinion around the Brewery is
the U.S. military in particular has covered information that is of
major significance to us all. I'll admit to being quite curious about
this while remaining skeptical.
>RE: beers... Sierra Nevada is bloody well undrinkable by the time it
>arrives back east....
Sierra Nevada is quite good--but only if fresh! I haven't seen
AH drink a pasteurized beer in years... He's had a keg of Sam Adams
around on occasion--but I think considers keeping one around
entirely to dangerous--as it also compromises his daily bike rides...
Another AH/CH favorite is wheat beer--widely available -- like Spaten
Weiss or Franciskhoner--chilled cold with a slice of lemon, as
the Germans prefer it.
We'll have to get AH to do a little talk on the brewer's art and
the true path toward serving a fine pint at some point--he knows the
physics and engineering aspects of it--and I'm convinced he could
lecture for an entire quarter--twice a week for two hours, without
exhausting his knowledge!
> What is jazz, anyway? Why is it so hard for AH to
> gain acceptance by the commercial jazz community (i.e. record
> labels, clubs, festivals, fans,...)?
Oh no--this is really going to give me a headache... Is he serious?
First of all--AH being "white" has zero to do with this equation.
Some of us forget that Beiderbeck, Goodman, Brubeck, Evans, Jarrett,
Kenny G., Chuck Mangione, etc. have all out-sold Miles Davises and John
Coltranes at one point or another playing "jazz" (well not in Kenny G's
case, really); this pisses off a minority of blacks obsessed with racial
pride. But I hope all of you agree, nearly all good music transcends
concerns and issues of appearance and prejudice. It's funny how
many of the musicians I know--who blacks have great pride in, who
play mostly with other black jazz musicians--absolutely love
AH's music and would jump at the chance to work with him! Of course
what better example is there than Tony Williams? Or Miles and
McLaughlin?
The whims of the music industry is quite another matter--they are
generally far more concerned with images and colors than sound, IMO.
You can bet before some of the "handlers"--producers and managers--
allow their "properties" to work with AH, there will be some battles
fought in the back rooms and bistros. This one front where I'm only
too happy to wage war--and I will be--for the next AH project. I think
much of the "commercial jazz community" has a great deal of respect for
AH. The big record companies are simply realists about their markets--and
and often arrogant assholes obsessed with "image" over content too...
Great musicianship only occasionally results in noticeable profits.
The problem isn't even so much the recording industry--it's *RADIO*.
Sure, I hear AH's music on all the public radio stations one time or
another in Southern California--but almost never on commercial radio.
I remember hearing AH on "Sunbird" and "Individual Choice" a lot on
the old LA jazz station--before it became defunct. The new "jazz" station
here thinks Manneheim Steamroller constitutes mainstream jazz. The old
"jazz" station plays Teddy Wilson to death and rarely plays anything
not recorded more than 15 years ago... With the exception of public
radio (like KCRW here) -- never have there been a group of more
musically ignorant people than those who tend to get jobs programming
or managing in commercial radio--at least in California! They have
a very rigid "profile" of what their "market" wants to hear--and AH's
music uses the zone beyond that "profile" typically as a starting
point for the music he makes. "Metal Fatigue" was the last thing AH
did anyone played on a rock station. The other problem--this will
sound absurd--but I think it's a valid comment--AH's music is too
aggressive and technically advanced--like a lot of music by some of
our other favorites (FZ, King Crimson, etc.) for commercial radio.
A jazz programmer will say--"it sounds too much like Van Halen" and
a rock programmer will say "it's too complex--my audience won't
understand it." Commercial art mediums--TV, radio, film--are the
typically the worst offenders when it comes to underestimating the
intelligence of their audience.
Jazz music--before sports or civil rights--was always the first cultural
forum where all races, sexes, and ethnic groups met as equal humans, equal
voices interacting on a level field. I'll take a fearless stab at
Kingsley's hardest question--what the f@$&! Jazz is America's foremost
native musical art form--that is it was born on the North American continent
by all accounts (geographic tie-in, not that it's "native American" i.e.,
Amer-Indian music, Jim Pepper excepted). As a musical genre, it's a very
tough one to pin down because now it's utterly vast--my best definition goes
something like this (and it's still cumbersome!)--so academics, get
ready, here's one you can readily eviscerate and tear to shreds:
The origins of jazz music combine some conventions of European chamber music
with the phrasings and rhythms of African-American spirituals, and blues,
most frequently as a context for melodic and rhythmic improvisation; most of
all it *swings*. It's that last little phrase that often (to me) casts AH's
music far out of what people think of as "mainstream" jazz. A true "Swing"
is a shuffling rhythm that AH terms "spang-a-lang"--mimicking the typical
bebop action on a ride cymbal--but there's a lot of jazz music doesn't swing.
What distinguishes it from rock and "pop" -- as two other broad "megagenres"
IMO is that jazz as a music is informed by a tradition--whereas most rock,
often great rock--seems more informed by hormones. If Steely Dan is an
example, sometimes rock or pop is informed by the jazz tradition. "Pop," of
course, is mostly informed by money, gossip, and posing. Of course, all
these elements wind up in one form or another in each of these genres,
which is precisely why people like ouselves are most interested in the
musicians who tend to ingore genre alltogether, thereby sometimes
transcending it completely by simply doing what they do so well.
BEWARE--NEFARIOUS PROPAGANDA TO FOLLOW:
***IMHO*** --Atavachronistas, in all your respective little corners of
the planet--the best way you can support AH to yourself and get 2-3
different friends calling up your radio stations, and demanding they
play an AH tune... If everybody did this over the next few weeks, and
and he managed to chart accross the U.S. and U.K. for jazz--this would
raise some eyebrows. It's one way we could use the power of this
medium without a lot of personal financial or time commitment. Of
course I bring this up given that HHA is probably his most radio-unfriendly
release ever--but "High Stakes" starts off pretty smooth and
unobtrusively--and "Mirrors" is short enough--it could potentially
crack the NAC or as AH puts it "snooze" stations.
So when KD asked why it's so hard for AH to gain "commercial acceptance"
within the "commercial jazz community" -- the biggest reason I see is
*radio,* and it's tendency to keep the major labels laying down the same
grade of alkaloid on its mirrored table. There is really no such thing
as the "commercial jazz community" -- there's the community of commercial
jazz radio--quite enslaved to it's mostly misguided ownership, quite
divorced from commercial jazz rags (like the one I contribute to on
occasion), both of which jump into the sack with the record labels--if
this is a "community" it's frought with incest, nepitism, and open
prostitution--I suppose just like the "art quarters" in any major city...
The community which I enjoy being a part of the most--which again can
be the most separate of all from the above, is that of the musicians
themselves.
Kings wrote some of the following re: synths:
>and preferences and say that some other instrument is less
>valid is the *height* of arrogance...
Just in case anybody thought *any* of those of us conversing with AH were
"anti-synth" or discouraging AH from synths--which is possibly implied
by KD's comments, I thought I'd throw in my own $.02:
....
I'll admit sometimes taking a "dishonest" position in an interview to
ellicit responses from the subject (or just blame it on the ale)...
Which is not to say I wasn't entirely serious about the analogy with
"plastic plants." AH underscored that's the choice of a *musician*, and
not the fault of the technology--I couldn't agree *more*.
I have strong opions about this--I love synths and probably waste
entirely too large a portion of life and money (according to my wife,
anyway) experimenting with them--I have about a dozen or so. My opinions
about their use in a jazz context, however, are strong. I hear
"jazz" keyboardists use them well rarely--Joe Zawinul and Lyle
Mays are two shining exceptions--Jan Hammer was also quite inspired for a
while anyway--David Sancious is another genius too little heard on his
own. As someone who is occasionally consulted with by AH, I've always
encouraged him to experiment with synths and samplers (sometimes directly
by lending him one of mine and some of my sounds (as was the case in the
title track from HHA). AH's approach to synths has always fascinated me.
Lately there's been more emphasis on guitar in his work--but we can
attribute that more to the hassles of touring with Synths--the technology
is still young--and with musical and performance standards like AH's, it's
difficult to rely on the synths and controllers AH prefers without
a small surgical crew and a spare unit of each (and it's expensive)!
****
Kings, you got me going! Sorry--yet, these *are* important topics.
I'll wait until the next round to post this monstrosity... Anyway
I just heard on NPR the art of the essay is making a comeback. Fine
by me, here's my latest feeble stab--cheers/Hoardman.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: Itinerary updates
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 16:16:15 EST
Claire wrote yesterday with some changes to the tentative itinerary. She
apologized for the fact that the Florida dates have been cancelled due to
added dates in South America. Hopefully those will be added back in when
Allan comes east, perhaps later in the year (we hope... we don't wanna
miss *another* year!).
As it stands, the itinerary is:
4/3 San Bernadino, CA La Casita Cafe
4/7 Santiago, Chile to be announced
4/8-11 Buenos Aires, Argentina to be announced
4/12-15 South America to be announced
4/19-24 Los Angeles, CA Catalina Bar & Grill
4/26 Orange County, CA to be announced
4/27 San Diego, CA Belly Up Saloon
4/28 Tempe, AZ Gibson's
5/3-7 Tokyo, Japan The Pit Inn
5/11 Santa Cruz, CA Kuuwamba
5/12 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
5/13 San Rafael, CA New George's
Now here's the dates I will say are tentative, *tentative*, TENTATIVE,
'cause I don't want to get a certain segment of the Atavachron population
all worked up should these dates fall through. Please NOTE that there
have been difficulties in arranging dates to this part of the planet
before, and some as-yet-unknown problem may scratch these dates! There!
I've said it! That's my disclaimer! :)
5/17-19 Sydney, Australia to be announced
5/20-21 Melbourne, Australia to be announced
5/22 Adelaide to be announced
5/24 New Zealand to be announced
Keep watching here for more updates as they arrive!
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 18:50:12 -0500 (EST)
From: proub@BIX.com
Subject: Re: Itinerary updates
-> Claire wrote yesterday with some changes to the tentative itinerary. She
-> apologized for the fact that the Florida dates have been cancelled due to
-> added dates in South America.
->
Ahhh! It figures...
-paul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: blackman@alkali.otago.ac.nz (Allan Blackman)
Subject: New Zealand visit??? :-)
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 21:27:10 GMT
Could it really be true that Allan is coming to New Zealand?? I hope that
this date is confirmed soon - it would be FANTASTIC to see him play live
here.
On a slightly related topic - has the Bruford Live Stamping Ground CD been
released yet?
Cheers
Allan (still waiting for his copy of HHA)
*****************************************************************************
Allan Blackman, Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin,
New Zealand. e-mail: blackman@alkali.otago.ac.nz
*****************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 14:21 GMT
From: chip@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Subject: lead sound
Many thanks to Jeff Preston and Chris Hoard for the interveiw!
Superb! Is Atlanta missing from the tour list?
Jeff: If this is too long or off topic please kill it, sorry...
I am wondering if anyone on the list would be interested in
discussing guitar tones, you know who's in particular. Basically, I'm trying
to talk myself out of purchasing a used Boogie .50. Right now I have an
ADA MP-1 running through various non-master volume Marshalls. I'm actually
quite satisfied with it. EXCEPT.........
I had this strange religious experiance with a Boogie MK IV that
belonged to one my student's. I was fooling around with it for about a
half hour at a soundcheck, when suddenly.... THE TONE!
It was very neat. You could VERY noticably change the timbre
depending on your vibrato and pressure. Super expressive. But I noticed it
only worked with this EXACT combination of the controls.. Move the treble
knob a hair, and it was gone.
So I'm wondering if this "sweet spot" exists on every Boogie (or at
least the ones A.H. uses- seems like he's used just about all of them at one
time or another). What I'm hearing (or WANT to hear) is a change in the
overtones in the upper harmonics depending on (I assume) micro minute
variances in voltage your pickup puts out (vibrato/pressure). This sound is
heard on Peril Premonition at 2:31. It's kind of like it "speaks" two
different vowel sounds depending on how you play it.
(Here's the funny part) It's like it goes "mmhhOW" or "OWhmmmm",
depending....
A friend of mine's Quad does it a little, but not as drastic as the
MK IV. I tried out the .50, and it seems like it WANTS to do it - it kinda
gets going a bit, but not like the IV.
And the funny thing is, the IV is one Boogie I don't think A.H. has
ever used (to my knowledge), so maybe I'm really nuts...
So tell me, Boogie/Holdsworth fans out there... Do I need to just
pray for a MKIV? Or can you tweak a .22 or .50 or possibly a Studio preamp
to do this? Does the DC5 do this? My theory is that you have to really
spend SERIOUS time with a Boogie to find the spot where the "strange
attractor" of the interactive controls will allow that "honk" to come out.?
--
]] Chip McDonald / chip@lakes.trenton.sc.us / chip@wa4phy.async.com [[
"Everything is important and nothing is as important as everything"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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those of the individual contributors. I I
Atavachron Digest - The Allan Holdsworth Discussion Digest
Number 84
Wednesday, 30 March 1994
TODAY'S TOPICS:
==============
Atavachron Digest Number 83
Care and Feeding of Boogies
Re: New Zealand!!!!!
More essays?
Where is HHA?
HHA: an A+
RE: Where is HHA?
_Just For The Curious_
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 11:57:17 -0800
From: rpeck@pure.com (Ray Peck)
Subject: Atavachron Digest Number 83
All this talk about cutouts reminds me of when I went to see Richard
Thompson last year. As most of you know, Thompson, like Holdsworth,
is a brilliant musician that doesn't reach the following he should.
He's also amazingly self-critical, like Allan: he's released one live
album in a 25 year career and then pulled it because it wasn't "good
enough". Bah!
Anyway, he's a real wisecracker. Said something like, "I've got a new
CD out, recorded with the latest technology: direct-to-cutout!".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "ToddM"
Date: 21 Mar 1994 14:55:14CST6CDT
Subject: Care and Feeding of Boogies
In a recent issue of Atavachron, chip@lakes.trenton.sc.us mentions that he had
the patented
BOOGIE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE:
You might be interested to know that I've used a Boogie Studio Preamp for about
three
years now and it's pretty easy to clone the sounds of certain semi-famous fusion
players.
Allan's tone is somewhat easy to approximate. The problem is: Allan's tone
sounds so
saturated and liquid and if you do obtain his sound you have to graduate to a
whole
'nother level of technique to keep extraneous hand noises from getting in the
mix.
I've gotten pretty good at controlling it, and when it works, it sounds
fantastic.
I tend to use somewhat more treble than Allan does in his sound, but the EQ and
tone is
very flexible on the Studio. I also find that the clean tone on the Studio is
gorgeous - a
very nice added benefit. Most of the studio engineers I've talked to have said
that the
main reason they use the Studio is its clean sound.
The studio is very flexible in terms of lead tones. Mainly because the thing is
so touch
sensitive you can alter great volumes of tonal shadings just by using a different
touch.
I was the persistent solid state guitar player for many a year. When I tried the
Boogie
in the store, I was like: "YIKES, NOW I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!"
I've never looked back, actually. The advantages of the Boogie stuff: you obtain
what I
would call a very "cultured" tone - no ultra super tweaked top-end metal sound
here, although
you can get a shred tone if needed. I used to own a Chandler Tube Driver and
thought it
sounded great at the time. I listen to old tapes of my playing and gag at the
sound. Just
awful. Plus, I'm using EMGs on the guitars I have so the sustain just goes for
weeks.
When I first got the thing, I re-dubbed some solos that were in the can on some
of my solo
stuff and I, as a joke to bug the other guitar player in the band at that time,
just did extremely
long, toneful sustained notes. He couldn't believe it - he thought I bought a
very expensive
Marshall and used a compressor or something. Nope.
I'd love a Mesa-Boogie pre and power amp setup - I'd bet it sounds killer.
Note: When I saw Scott Henderson and Tribal Tech play live, Scott was using a
studio-preamp. He's the only major-league user of the studio I've seen other
than Pete
Townshend on the Who Reunion tour a while back. Scott's tone is happening too.
Note 2: I've seen used Studio Preamps for about $400-500 on the used market. I
use mine through a Roland JC-120 (I actually use the JC-120 as a PA to amplify
what
I'm doing through the preamp). Works pretty darn good, actually.
-Todd.
LaserMaster Technical Support.
toddm@ramrod.lmt.mn.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: New Zealand!!!!!
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 11:21:22 +1400
From: Geoff.Thorpe@vuw.ac.nz
JEFF!!!!!!!
However cautious you are, I'm gonna get carried away
with this!!! Could this be, the unthinkable a reality?!
Please encourage him to come to Wellington, I REALLY
think that would be his best bet. Oh, and tell him to
gimme a ring!!!!!!!
(A real international guitar genius .... in New Zealand??!!
No way!)
Cheers,
Geoff Thorpe (in a good mood)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Kingsley Durant Jr
Subject: More essays?
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 11:56:42 EST
Hey y'all!
Good to see I got a rise out of people with my last posting,
contentious though it was. Chris, it's true the essay is a
dying art form, at least in the circles I travel in. I had an
english teacher in the V form (ask AH what this means) who was
a *fanatic* reader & writer of essays, and it rubbed off -
prior to that, I had been exclusively a mathematical
techno-weenie-computer room geek. (I ended up as a
philosophy/religion major - but now I'm a mathematics teacher.
Hmmm... Once a geek, always a geek?) At any rate, it's nice
to have this avenue (Atavachron) for expounding upon a subject
so close to my heart. (and totally irrelevant to my work)
To answer some of the comments: RE: the Zappa disagreement,
yeah, the issue I was after was FZ's intentions, not the result
- I'd have been disappointed too (at seeing a show that
consisted primarily of the pop-satire side of FZ's oeuvre)!
But that doesn't mean FZ owes me an all-instrumental show... as
it happens, I never did see him live :-(
RE: the beer thread. Sam Adams makes a *megor* wheat beer - has
AH tried it? I agree that having a keg of Sam around is too
dangerous, which is why I asked. Between that and trying to
work in a house full of kids - which is my own mode of
operation at least until I get my &#^$^%& dissertation finished
- I know all about the utter difficulty of task
accomplishment. I even put my amps in the closet last week!
RE: synths & jazz. I'm in complete agreement with Chris H
that, by and large, there isn't much in the way of interesting
synth use in jazz, which as Allan pointed out is mainly a
musician problem, not an equipment one. This just makes the
ones who *do* use them well (I wholeheartedly agree with Chris'
short list, here) stand out even more. It seems to be more
work than a lot of musicians are willing to do to get beyond
the usual plain-vanilla sounds and get something really
happening. I went *off* on this issue mainly because it really
irks me when people blame the instrument, not the musician, or
when people can't hear what AH is doing in, say, _Sand_, how
the Synth-axe opens up a whole new expressiveness in his
soloing, because it isn't *guitar*, or when I hear some famous
guitarist dis it as sounding like some cheap harmonica. As for
the race thing, I only mentioned it because I sometimes hear or
read comments (usually from critics - never from musicians)
implying that the only real innovators in jazz have been black,
as if one's musical legitimacy is somehow affected by the color
of one's skin. It's pretty obvious, however, that this has
little to do with success in the *commercial* arena, and it's
sadly true that the situation seems somewhat reversed there, as
Chris pointed out. At any rate, a walk through the "jazz"
section of my local record stores generally leads me to believe
that ignorance rules supreme... (and, BTW, I don't own a radio
except in my car)
(warning: more pontification ahead...)
RE: Sting (or *Stink*, as my brother Jon refers to Mr. Sumner)
I saw both Sting and Bruce Hornsby at the same "shed" in
Richmond, VA within a couple of months of each other last year,
and seeing Hornsby with no guitarist and Sting with an
ostensibly lame one, I was initially pissed off (if they
couldn't get some big name person, *I'd* do it, for god's sake,
I mean I know all of the tunes either one of them plays,
including Pat Metheny's *megor* solo on _Harbor Lights_). Then
came a realization that possibly I had a few attitude problems
that needed confronting, which I guess I'd describe as being
overly "guitar-centric." Here I was at these shows with my
wife and a couple of her friends, and they were all, along with
the rest of the crowd, really getting off on the music. I was
the only one who was sitting there dissatisfied, imagining the
parts *I'd* be playing if I was up there. It eventually hit me
that maybe Sting & Bruce just didn't want to deal with a guitar
player who would probably just do the traditional guitar player
thing: dominate the music, take all the bitchin' solos, and
clog up the rhythmic arteries with a bunch of too-loud
skronkin'. When I stopped and listened to what Dominic Miller
actually *was* playing, and not to what I thought he *should
be* playing, I came to respect the guy - he was doing some
simple, but really subtle stuff that added some dimension to
the music without sticking out and saying 'hey, listen to me,'
like most guitar players do. Granted, he's a complete *wanker*
when Sting lets him solo, and he looks like a guitar-store
weenie, but on balance I think he works for what Sting has in
mind. (BTW, it seems to have gone unmentioned that he played
on the Level 42 record with AH...) And yeah, Sancious can play
a pretty impressive guitar solo if it's gotta be done - anybody
have his old record with Jeff Berlin, or the earlier one? He's
a monster, no doubt, although his compositions can be a bit
suspect; on the record w/Berlin, one tune (suite, actually) is
a pretty pathetic rip-off of _In The Dead Of Night_!
Anyway, I have to add that I disagree with the assessment (in
the AH interview) of Sting's last 2 efforts. I loved the Blue
Turtles, too, and the last couple are in some ways a return to
some of the musical spaces he explored with the Police, but
they don't seem at all tossed-off to me. _The Soul Cages_, in
particular, is amazingly subtle and deep, although maybe,
because I was also dealing with the loss of a parent when I
first heard it, it was just timed perfectly. Or maybe it's
just that he used to teach math - and write music while giving
tests - I can relate ;-)
On another note, and just for the curious, AH's Steinberger is
designated a GL-2T ("G"uitar-"L" body style-"2"
humbuckers-"T"rans-trem - how logical). Of course it's also
been de-EMG'd and re-fretted so it isn't exactly
off-the-shelf... As AH mentioned, Ned S. did indeed sell out
to Gibson, and I have an equipment plug for one of Ned's former
employees, Brian Moore. Brian is currently building and
marketing what I would describe as the product of an *illicit
liaison* between a Steinberger and a Paul Reed Smith - see
April's GP for a tantalizing full-page ad (headstock only -
yeah, it has one). The guitar has a neck and back of S'berger
composite, with a figured maple top (& headstock cap), a choice
of fretboards (maple, rosewood, ebony), bridge/vibrato (choice
of a few different Wilkinson units), and electronics (whatever
you want). There's a block of basswood sandwiched between the
composite and the maple, and some chambering as well. Each
instrument is custom-ordered and made, and sold on a prix fixe
basis (~$2K). I visited the Moore "factory" in Brewster NY a
few months ago and played several instruments. They were
*very* nice - singing, round, not as clinical sounding as the
average Steinie (n.b. the average EMG-equipped Steinie, that
is). The locking Wilkinson vibrato is a cool innovation,
although it doesn't allow quick switching between bar-forward
and bar-back (a la AH) operation. They look great, fit like a
glove, and they play great too, and if someone would just buy
my gold-top Les Paul, I'd buy one in a minute. If anybody
wants to know more, get a #, or just talk guitars, e-mail me
and I'd be glad to provide more detailed info.
I guess that's all for now -
Kingsley
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 14:32 GMT
From: chip@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Subject: Where is HHA?
What's going on with HHA? I can't find it anywhere here in Augusta
Ga. (granted, not L.A. but still..). And from what I understand it's not
to be found in Atlanta or Columbia S.C., either. Can anyone concur on this?
I would order it, but a) I actually ENJOY the act of going to the store and
purchasing something I want and b) I would rather nag the &^)%$ out of the
local chains - perhaps making some distributor somewhere aware that A.H. IS
in demand. I even have some of my guitar students bugging them.
I hope it's not going to be like Wardenclyffe. Months after it was
out, a scheming student of mine happened upon a lone copy of it. And the
*&^%@# mofo extorted 2 Satriani cds and an Adrian Legg cd out of me for it.
(didn't miss the Satriani, but Legg...).
Has anyone talked to A.H. about setting up a "grass roots"
distribution arrangement? Or some sort of "fan club offer" that would
possibly bypass the "powers that be" and allow us to purchase directly
from him? Isn't Barking Pumpkin still happening? Seems like there could
be an angle there he could get happening. How did FZ do it?
AND NOW FOR THE FUNNY "CONSPIRACY THEORY" BIT:
Does it not seem that the misfortune that he has seems to be a little
more than maybe "accidental"? REH has made how many videos, and the guy
they got to run the tape machine apparently subbed the overheads to the
guitar tracks? I can't beleive that level of incompetance. He's constantly
bootlegged in Japan; but he can't attract a label? If his cd isn't being
distributed to every major city, how do they expect to get a return on their
investment? Doesn't follow. Road Games is produced by "Ted Templeman of
Van Halen" fame, and has Eddie's name attached to it, but they apparently
feel that it's not marketable? Warner Bros. doesn't see a big enough demand
for it, even in Japan? I found my (vinyl)copy in the cutouts, right after
it was "released". Just how mad did he make Warner Bros.?
--
]] Chip McDonald / chip@lakes.trenton.sc.us / chip@wa4phy.async.com [[
"Everything is important and nothing is as important as everything"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 19:37:14 -0700
From: smonroe@n33.stortek.com
Subject: HHA: an A+
I got Hard Hat Area on Sunday (20MAR), and it hasn't left the
CD player since. This disc is TRULY Allan at HIS FINEST.
The phrasing/and musicality demonstrated by Allan on this disc
is positively stunning. In particular, Allan's solo break on
"Low Levels, High Stakes" is non pareil. This cut alone is
worth the price of admission ($12.00). The rest of the music
on this disc is of equal quality. An A+ all around.
sjm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 09:26:23 -0500 (EST)
From: proub@BIX.com
Subject: RE: Where is HHA?
-> Has anyone talked to A.H. about setting up a "grass roots" distribution
-> arrangement? Or some sort of "fan club offer" that would possibly bypass
-> the "powers that be" and allow us to purchase directly from him?
->
Did you see the interview with Allan on the list recently? His (dirtbag)
record company won't even sell him CD's at a reduced price to sell on
tour!
-> Isn't Barking Pumpkin still happening? Seems like there could be an
-> angle there he could get happening. How did FZ do it?
->
Frank was in much more of a position to fund such an adventure. Frank had
a few significant hits, his LP's mostly sold pretty well, and you could
*find* them... he simply had more working capital. See Guitar Player's
Zappa! book (available as a reprint from GPI, I believe) for details and
tons of other good stuff.
I should count my blessings - living in Miami, it was pretty easy to find
HHA - but I had to wait - my birthday was Sunday & my girlfriend got it
for me. Had to avoid rushing out and buying it!
-paul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jeff Preston
Subject: _Just For The Curious_
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 22:41:00 EST
I picked up my copy of _Just For The Curious_ from ye olde local
guitar shop today, and rushed right home to pop the CD in the player
(of course). I really haven't had time to do more than scan the book
thusfar, but from what I've seen so far, it *does* seem to offer more
in the way of explanations as to what Allan's doing than the REH video
did -- probably thanks in large part to the efforts of Aaron Stang,
to whom Allan referred in Chris Hoard's recent interview. As I've said
before on the topic of instructional aids for guitarists, I have never
really used them (due to a combination of fear, ignorance and basic
laziness, most likely), but looking through this book makes me want to
pick up the guitar and see if I can't follow along with some of it.
This too may pass. :) Hopefully someone who has more experience with
using tab books and such will come forward with a better review.
Not only are the scale and chord exercises which were found on the
REH video explained in more detail, but there are transcriptions of
"Proto-Cosmos," "Looking Glass," "The Things You See," "Zone" (which
I believe has become "Epilogue," from _Hard Hat Area_ -- minus the
segue into "Material Real," of course), and "House of Mirrors" contained
herein. The one puzzling aspect to the package is the CD, which is
an edited version of the REH video's soundtrack (the recording of which
Allan lambasted thoroughly in the recent interview). Hmmm.
Overall, I feel certain that the book/CD will provide more insight
into Allan's playing (to those who study such things) than the video,
but the video is still nice to have from the perspective of getting
to see Allan and the band perform a ~50-minute set, as well as getting
those lurid close-ups of Allan's hands as they do his bidding, as they
say. At $24.95 retail ($21.95 for the cassette version), I'm sure it
will make a welcome (and affordable) addition to most guitarists'
libraries. For those who want to order from their local shops, here's
the relevant info:
Allan Holdsworth, _Just For The Curious_
CPP/Belwin (publisher)
Book number REHBK005CD (cd version)
REHBK005AT (cassette version)
Jeff
--
Jeff Preston =*= Moderator of the Allan Holdsworth discussion forum
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= atavachron-request@msuacad.morehead-st.edu =*=*=*=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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