This is one the of greatest things ever...whenever i show it to non musician (or musician friends with not a huge amount of musical knowledge), they are like "what the HELL is this?"....usually in a "bad' way....but i know its just over there head...this is three highly skilled craftsmen, creating amazing music...and Allan's best trio...ever
My alltime favourite trio lineup for AH. Novak and Carpenter are the perfect rhythm section in my view. Two fantastic listeners and players. Swing at 3:40 !! 'The 16 Men of Tain' disc, that features them, is AH's best album. Anyone agree on that?
RIP Dave Carpenter! Master Blaster of a bass player! One hell of an all round musician...Never knew him but seems like he would have been a friend...Love the way he played and man he could play ANY style! That is why he is on hundreds of recordings! You are missed...Brill
fantastic trio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!dave carpenter was incredible bass player!!!gary novak great job in this band.and allan,of course,nothing to add: he is the best guitar player!!!!!!!!!!!!!io ho visto lo stesso concerto a roma al big mama!
It's like a travelogue - classical elements, rock - it starts to swing at 4:00 peaks at 4:35 - this traverses whole concepts of musical genres. The culmination is raises the hair on the back of my neck.
Some of the best guitar, bass, and drum playing ever on this one... Actually, it's very very hard to find musical performances of that level. And the greatest guitar trio I've ever seen (by far).
Gretel Hanzel: I thought the same as you did the first time i listened to Allan, like 12 years ago... Now i think he is almost the only guitar player(and one of the few soloist on any instrument) that plays real melodical solos, no licks, every note has a meaning. it feels like composed music. You just need to adjust your mind to something different. It may take a while, but is worthy. Listen to "low levels high stakes", from his "hard hat area" album, I think that is the best solo ever on electric guitar, and one of the best on any instrument.
"I think that is the best solo ever on electric guitar". Agree. At least I never heard something better (or it would be another AH solo, like "The Drums Were Yellow", from the album "The Sixteen Men of Tain".
He is running his distorted tone through one amp and the midi pedal through the other to achieve the awesome tone in the beginning. He later turns off the midi pedal and just plays his regular lead tone.
It's dead simple. The reason he was such an innovative guitarist is because he didn't want to be a guitarist. He tried to manipulate the sounds we know for his own interests. Even in early days, playing an SG but sounding like much more!
@shpilk Allan plays in keys that don't exist :D Sometimes it seems he's not a 1/4-tone off, but some whacked out fraction off.... which of course, he makes fit right back in with whatever key the tune is actually in... First time he blew me away, was w/Bruford,Berlin,Stewart in the late 70's. It wasn't clear how much he had, at that gig, as I was having trouble focusing on any one player long enough ;)
Apart from the obvious answer, 'it's Allan, no one knows what he is doing' How does he get this tone? i have only ever heard him sound like this, at this particular performace. It sounds like he is running two serperate signals or perhaps some very subtle harmoniser effect, there is definately two blending sounds to create this incredible fusion.. Help! I know there is lots of reverb and delay, any help would be super :)
@juanbarros88 Well, by music capital I mean that's where MOST music is recorded in the USA. Los Angeles & New York are where most of the musicians can be found or eventually go to to record. The entertainment industry is in LA & music has become an arm of that. A musician like Vinnie Colaiuta played with AH & Zappa but also does tons of studio gigs for top money because they put any chart or notes in front of him & he can sight -read it perfectly & play it exactly the way they want him to.
I think it's impossible to split the guitar signal so that one signal goes to a regular guitar amp and the other goes to a MIDI controller. What would he use to split the signal like that?
Jimmijune, exactly: Holdworth isn't vamping over chords, he's making his own set of harmonic relationships and using his own chordal structure. I play keys as well as bass and guitar, and I've been try to adapt my thinking to how Allan has laid out his structure. It's one of the most daunting thing I've ever tried to do on the keyboard; not just the speed, it's the complexity that is just overwhelming. Somehow, Allan can improvise and make it work - and that just blows my mind.
@austin33309 Music to most people is not valuable in & of itself but is like a soundtrack to their social lives, if it doesn't serve to get them laid then they want nothing to do with it. I've seen Allan in clubs here in L.A. with only 20 people in the audience & one of them was Scott Henderson & L.A. is supposedly the musical capital of the world. I've heard that In Eastern Europe that audience sometimes grows to thousands of people a night. They have real music fans there unlike phony L.A.
"Just watch Gary ripping the drums" and a huge LoL =) Go pay the $35 if he comes to your area and you will shit yourself. Amazing drummer who musicians hang out with.
I love both of them but you're not giving Shawn Lane enough credit. We're not talking about just an other jazz fusion shredder. Some of Lane's stuff is just as mindblowing and conceptually crazy as this. Holdsworth and Lane leave everyone else in the dust as far as i'm concerned.
Oh, I don't want to come across as if I'm trying to burn Allan for his finger accidentally slipping off the string. On the contrary, I think it's really cool to see such a world-class player make a little mistake. And yeah, this lineup is phenomenal, I wish they recorded an album as this or something...
With all due respect, I can't imagine how *boring* it must have been for Gary Novak to play for Canadian singer Alanis Morissette! Perhaps he needed money, there's no other possible explanation. The guy is an alien (and sadly, the only member of this trio who is still alive), that compromise must have been hard to take in, musically speaking. But I'm only speculating, chances are he enjoyed playing pop, who knows? (Why do I lie to myself??..)
Adriən Evangelista Ask Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and all the other virtuosos that were hired as session musicians for pop acts It happens more than you can think
@Chromatype Fast, meh- I'm getting bored of fast. If one looks retrospectively at someone's career. 'Fast' won't blip the radar compared with the impact of composition.
Looks are so deceiving - Gary looks like a crazy metal-blasting drummer with his long hair. From behind, he kind of looks like Derek Roddy, but with straight hair.
I love Holdsworth, but this is not a fav of mine. I'm far more a traditionalist of establishing the tune first and then a player speaking his mind. A trio all soloing at the same time til 5:34 seconds in? Eh, I can leave it.
These vids are never taken or put together by musicians are they? The camera needed to be on Allan's hands all the time🙄 Very annoying. Idiots Almost as bad as footage of cream, hendrix etc.
Hi Gretel. I think I understand why you may not "get it." Since Holdsworth is doing a free form improvisational style here, why not listen to the albums Atavachron, Road Games and Metal Fatigue? Then get back to me. These albums lean more towards structured songs. Then I think you will fully grasp how great a guitarist/Synthax player he really was.
I just decided gary novak is probably my favorite drummer ever
Matt Britt Me too. Holy fuck
This is one the of greatest things ever...whenever i show it to non musician (or musician friends with not a huge amount of musical knowledge), they are like "what the HELL is this?"....usually in a "bad' way....but i know its just over there head...this is three highly skilled craftsmen, creating amazing music...and Allan's best trio...ever
This is the greatest Holdsworth lineup and one his greatest live performances of ALL TIME.
My alltime favourite trio lineup for AH. Novak and Carpenter are the perfect rhythm section in my view. Two fantastic listeners and players. Swing at 3:40 !! 'The 16 Men of Tain' disc, that features them, is AH's best album. Anyone agree on that?
i do!
What a friggin pocket these guys give Allan....
RIP Dave Carpenter! Master Blaster of a bass player! One hell of an all round musician...Never knew him but seems like he would have been a friend...Love the way he played and man he could play ANY style! That is why he is on hundreds of recordings! You are missed...Brill
Rest in peace Dave.
I wonder what my life would have been without Allan's music :(
One of the most unbelievable AH performances I've seen. Incredible. Thanks for sharing this.
Allan always has top notch world-class musicians performing with him. It's always a treat to hear everyone on stage. RIP Carpenter!
Every time I thought I heard all the variations of Holdsworth, I find something new. Incredible.
fantastic trio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!dave carpenter was incredible bass player!!!gary novak great job in this band.and allan,of course,nothing to add: he is the best guitar player!!!!!!!!!!!!!io ho visto lo stesso concerto a roma al big mama!
I'm gonna send this to the next person that says Jimi Page is the best gutiar player ever LOL
I admit I understand very little of what's going on here, musically, yet I'm transfixed. Amazing stuff.
This was Allan's BEST line up, this rhythm section make him sound better. Wackerman gives it a rock vibe.
No word reveals Alan's extraordinaryness.
Damn near speechless.
400 years from now, people (if still existing) will study and play his music in schools and concert halls. Holdsworth is
IF still existing :(
It's like a travelogue - classical elements, rock - it starts to swing at 4:00 peaks at 4:35 - this traverses whole concepts of musical genres.
The culmination is raises the hair on the back of my neck.
genres thinking is stupid!
You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
Some of the best guitar, bass, and drum playing ever on this one... Actually, it's very very hard to find musical performances of that level. And the greatest guitar trio I've ever seen (by far).
I think we should all agree that Allan should be also classified as a sax player as well. Close your eyes and what do you hear?
Close my etes & what I hear is far more orginal sax playing than all other jazz sax players & on a guitar to boot
Jaw dropping performance!
Epic ending!
Gretel Hanzel: I thought the same as you did the first time i listened to Allan, like 12 years ago... Now i think he is almost the only guitar player(and one of the few soloist on any instrument) that plays real melodical solos, no licks, every note has a meaning. it feels like composed music. You just need to adjust your mind to something different. It may take a while, but is worthy.
Listen to "low levels high stakes", from his "hard hat area" album, I think that is the
best solo ever on electric guitar, and one of the best on any instrument.
"I think that is the best solo ever on electric guitar". Agree. At least I never heard something better (or it would be another AH solo, like "The Drums Were Yellow", from the album "The Sixteen Men of Tain".
Amazing!
tbh i like the ending the best, some spooky sounding chords over a drum solo
boertush it is otherworldly stellar
They're playing a song called "material unreal"
wow!
thats a monster guitarrist,
great artist
RIP David.... Respect...!!!!
Gary: Ripster, Allan: Monster!!! Go go go! Its sad to lose Dave though! R.I.P
amazing
This is the true heavy music. Sissy Deathcore bands can watch and bow to the master of strings.
AGREED!! He is absolutely sick!
out of this world trio, one of the best AH ever had
Holy shit, this is fucking insane, PARDON MY FRENCH!
You can say that about pretty much every Holdsworth lineup
Oh my God!!!
He is running his distorted tone through one amp and the midi pedal through the other to achieve the awesome tone in the beginning. He later turns off the midi pedal and just plays his regular lead tone.
Allan - " It would be unfair if I opened my eyes."
It's "The Drums Were Yellow," which appears on The Sixteen Men of Tain. The arrangement on the album is significantly different, though.
5:23 and magic starts
It's dead simple. The reason he was such an innovative guitarist is because he didn't want to be a guitarist. He tried to manipulate the sounds we know for his own interests. Even in early days, playing an SG but sounding like much more!
I think he wanted to be a guitarist.
@megafone58 I never knew music was a competition.
@MrBlack125 Agree. All respect to JP, but those who say he's the "best ever" just have not listened to very many guitarists.
@shpilk
Allan plays in keys that don't exist :D
Sometimes it seems he's not a 1/4-tone off, but some whacked out fraction off.... which of course, he makes fit right back in with whatever key the tune is actually in...
First time he blew me away, was w/Bruford,Berlin,Stewart in the late 70's. It wasn't clear how much he had, at that gig, as I was having trouble focusing on any one player long enough ;)
Oh my god.
Apart from the obvious answer, 'it's Allan, no one knows what he is doing'
How does he get this tone? i have only ever heard him sound like this, at this particular performace. It sounds like he is running two serperate signals or perhaps some very subtle harmoniser effect, there is definately two blending sounds to create this incredible fusion..
Help! I know there is lots of reverb and delay, any help would be super :)
I hear many "licks" in this that were present in the track "The Drums Were Yellow", could this be connected somehow?
@eskimoposh yeah, gary deserves way more widespread recognition.
@juanbarros88 Well, by music capital I mean that's where MOST music is recorded in the USA. Los Angeles & New York are where most of the musicians can be found or eventually go to to record. The entertainment industry is in LA & music has become an arm of that. A musician like Vinnie Colaiuta played with AH & Zappa but also does tons of studio gigs for top money because they put any chart or notes in front of him & he can sight -read it perfectly & play it exactly the way they want him to.
yeah, exactly - jazz masters are far beyond all regular rockers page, etc, etc....
@electrichaggis Vinnie is in a league of his own and Gary N is right there with him.
The best ever.check out tokyo dream the japenese release.And sylvain luc
Er ok Al!
@bluezenith9: So true!
great footage, there is any DVD of this?
This is my favorite lineup of Holdsworth trio(no disrespect to Jimmie and Chad, though!)
tonertown usa
I think it's impossible to split the guitar signal so that one signal goes to a regular guitar amp and the other goes to a MIDI controller. What would he use to split the signal like that?
@BarriosGroupie They are playing music, just not something that sounds familiar.
jimi page...speak serius , jimi page? the nail of Allan has more music than in that other life
2:23... still human.
What holdsworth tune is this?
Is this "the drums were yellow?, nooooo......what tune is this? Never known the name, or is it all material unreal?, i know thats the last part
reah! Sounds like Drums were yellow to me
Zone part 136.
Jimmijune, exactly: Holdworth isn't vamping over chords, he's making his own set of harmonic relationships and using his own chordal structure. I play keys as well as bass and guitar, and I've been try to adapt my thinking to how Allan has laid out his structure. It's one of the most daunting thing I've ever tried to do on the keyboard; not just the speed, it's the complexity that is just overwhelming.
Somehow, Allan can improvise and make it work - and that just blows my mind.
Shawn Lane was fast, but he didn't have the concept to play this fast over these changes...taht is just where Allan leaves us all in the dust
What makes these changes different?
Allan Holdsworth does!
Larkydozer - try 5:30 onward on the clip. If that doesn't move you, not much will.
same solo he played the week before
@austin33309 Music to most people is not valuable in & of itself but is like a soundtrack to their social lives, if it doesn't serve to get them laid then they want nothing to do with it. I've seen Allan in clubs here in L.A. with only 20 people in the audience & one of them was Scott Henderson & L.A. is supposedly the musical capital of the world. I've heard that In Eastern Europe that audience sometimes grows to thousands of people a night. They have real music fans there unlike phony L.A.
Naughty. Gary screwed up the end ;-)
05:30
@MrBlack125
You won't get that line any more. It will be someone like Paul Gilbert.
"Just watch Gary ripping the drums" and a huge LoL =) Go pay the $35 if he comes to your area and you will shit yourself. Amazing drummer who musicians hang out with.
I love both of them but you're not giving Shawn Lane enough credit. We're not talking about just an other jazz fusion shredder. Some of Lane's stuff is just as mindblowing and conceptually crazy as this. Holdsworth and Lane leave everyone else in the dust as far as i'm concerned.
Something tells me this wouldn't go down well at the Stonington jazz festival.
I loved the Gary Novak days.
No offense to Chad Wackerman but I find his playing a little too geared towards rock for my tastes.
Oh, I don't want to come across as if I'm trying to burn Allan for his finger accidentally slipping off the string. On the contrary, I think it's really cool to see such a world-class player make a little mistake. And yeah, this lineup is phenomenal, I wish they recorded an album as this or something...
Steve128967 You’re joking, right?
I enjoy watching Allan and this band, but Holdsworth's music never moves me. I understand it but there's just no emotional reaction for me.
@Samsgarden i preffer wackerman, colaiuta and husband... i like that rock sound more..music and taste really is subjective
With all due respect, I can't imagine how *boring* it must have been for Gary Novak to play for Canadian singer Alanis Morissette! Perhaps he needed money, there's no other possible explanation. The guy is an alien (and sadly, the only member of this trio who is still alive), that compromise must have been hard to take in, musically speaking. But I'm only speculating, chances are he enjoyed playing pop, who knows? (Why do I lie to myself??..)
Adriən Evangelista
Ask Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and all the other virtuosos that were hired as session musicians for pop acts
It happens more than you can think
@Chromatype
Fast, meh- I'm getting bored of fast. If one looks retrospectively at someone's career. 'Fast' won't blip the radar compared with the impact of composition.
Looks are so deceiving - Gary looks like a crazy metal-blasting drummer with his long hair. From behind, he kind of looks like Derek Roddy, but with straight hair.
Useless comment.
and dave carpenter looks like a pc
When are they going to stop tuning their instruments and play a nice song to listen to?
I love Holdsworth, but this is not a fav of mine. I'm far more a traditionalist of establishing the tune first and then a player speaking his mind. A trio all soloing at the same time til 5:34 seconds in? Eh, I can leave it.
These vids are never taken or put together by musicians are they?
The camera needed to be on Allan's hands all the time🙄
Very annoying. Idiots
Almost as bad as footage of cream, hendrix etc.
Do you guys really like this...? I'm sorry but I don't get it. A buch of diminished scales played very fast with no emotion...
Hi Gretel. I think I understand why you may not "get it." Since Holdsworth is doing a free form improvisational style here, why not listen to the albums Atavachron, Road Games and Metal Fatigue? Then get back to me. These albums lean more towards structured songs. Then I think you will fully grasp how great a guitarist/Synthax player he really was.