Gordon Beck: Difference between revisions
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Gordon Beck was a British pianist. | Gordon Beck was a British pianist. Allan Holdsworth and Gordon Beck recorded two duo albums together, "The Things You See", and "With A Heart In My Song". They also worked together on other occasions, first on "Belladonna", on albums by [[John Stevens]], on Gordon's album "Sunbird", and on several of Allan's solo projects: Allan's cover of "Michelle", on three tracks on "Wardenclyffe Tower +3" and on "None Too Soon". Additionally, Allan engineered and produced Gordon's solo album "Dreams" in 1989. | ||
https://soundcloud.com/cgop/sets/gordon-beck-quartet-bbc-studios-london-1981 | |||
=Gordon on Allan= | |||
One Question I would have for Gordon would be re: his partnership with Allan Holdsworth - I would be interested to know how they met, and how he feels about their collaborations in the past, and what the future holds for them as a duo? | |||
Gordon: I first met Allan Holdsworth at the Ronnie Scott Club where he was playing with a strange, but very interesting, Quartet that nobody had ever heard of. He decided to stay in London and we put a quartet together with Jeff Clyne and John Stevens. This was called Plough and the music was totally improvised. This collaboration was extremely demanding but very exciting at times. However, Allan was already moving in his own direction which eventually resulted in the move to the U.S.A. I love all the various projects that we have been together on e.g. "Sunbird", "With A Heart In My Song", "None Too Soon", etc. Now, I feel that we have gone our own musical ways and further collaborations are unknown at this time. | |||
http://www.gordonbeck.net/gbinter.html | |||
=Allan on Gordon= | |||
==[[The Unreachable Star (Guitar World 1989)]]== | ==[[The Unreachable Star (Guitar World 1989)]]== | ||
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HOLDSWORTH:: They were done a different day, and I wasn’t happy with them. It was one of those things where you think that they’re going to let you listen to what you did, let you choose and maybe even do some of it again. But it wasn’t the case. We rehearsed, and they recorded it. Everybody was trying to figure out what was going to happen during the tunes, and then we were to try and record them, but it just didn’t happen like that. The guy put us in the red zone while we were just running through things, and consequently it came out sounding like shit. Sometimes, really cool things can happen like that, but generally, that would be far more likely if the guys knew everything and were then thrown into the studio playing pieces they were familiar with, rather than going in and struggling. It was a struggle, it sounds like a struggle and I really felt bad for all the other guys involved because nobody really got a chance on it. | HOLDSWORTH:: They were done a different day, and I wasn’t happy with them. It was one of those things where you think that they’re going to let you listen to what you did, let you choose and maybe even do some of it again. But it wasn’t the case. We rehearsed, and they recorded it. Everybody was trying to figure out what was going to happen during the tunes, and then we were to try and record them, but it just didn’t happen like that. The guy put us in the red zone while we were just running through things, and consequently it came out sounding like shit. Sometimes, really cool things can happen like that, but generally, that would be far more likely if the guys knew everything and were then thrown into the studio playing pieces they were familiar with, rather than going in and struggling. It was a struggle, it sounds like a struggle and I really felt bad for all the other guys involved because nobody really got a chance on it. | ||
GW: The guitar line from "Wish" is identical to the melody Paul Williams sings on | GW: The guitar line from "Wish" is identical to the melody Paul Williams sings on "The Things You See (When You Haven’t Got your Gun)" [IOU]. | ||
"The Things You See (When You Haven’t Got your Gun)" [IOU]. | |||
HOLDSWORTH: That’s because I counted nothing we did on that album. Usually, if I record something and feel that was the right place for it, I’ll leave it to rest and never do another version of it again. I think that can only be said of that album; I can’t remember anything else. The only time I ever did that was when it was unfinished - for example, on that '''Gordon Beck''' thing, we did a tune that turned out to be "The Things You See," or part of it, but that was before it was really finished. When we did the I.O.U. thing, I put it to rest. | HOLDSWORTH: That’s because I counted nothing we did on that album. Usually, if I record something and feel that was the right place for it, I’ll leave it to rest and never do another version of it again. I think that can only be said of that album; I can’t remember anything else. The only time I ever did that was when it was unfinished - for example, on that '''Gordon Beck''' thing, we did a tune that turned out to be "The Things You See," or part of it, but that was before it was really finished. When we did the I.O.U. thing, I put it to rest. | ||
==[[Allan Holdsworth’s Untold Secrets + Worthy Quotes (Guitar Player 1990)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth’s Untold Secrets + Worthy Quotes (Guitar Player 1990)]]== | ||
Allan chose to section the undertaking in a number of crucial but practical subdivisions. For of the eight compositions were submitted by members of the band, two of those feature Allan’s electric guitar work. Of the remaining four, written by Allan, two are SynthAxe-based, two feature extended improvisation and two are elegies. The eight pieces were partially tracked at a commercial recording studio; the improvised half of each was recorded here at The Brewery. Then Allan began mixing the album - at home - and spent half his time working on an album with pianist '''Gordon Beck''', and half his time arduously fitting all the pieces together. He went almost a halfyear over schedule, and half his fans went crazy-eights. | Allan chose to section the undertaking in a number of crucial but practical subdivisions. For of the eight compositions were submitted by members of the band, two of those feature Allan’s electric guitar work. Of the remaining four, written by Allan, two are SynthAxe-based, two feature extended improvisation and two are elegies. The eight pieces were partially tracked at a commercial recording studio; the improvised half of each was recorded here at The Brewery. Then Allan began mixing the album - at home - and spent half his time working on an album with pianist '''Gordon Beck''', and half his time arduously fitting all the pieces together. He went almost a halfyear over schedule, and half his fans went crazy-eights. | ||
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==[[Creating Imaginary Backdrops (Innerviews 1993)]]== | ==[[Creating Imaginary Backdrops (Innerviews 1993)]]== | ||
Last time I spoke to you, I suggested you finish up your Restless contract with a live album so you wouldn’t have to waste any new compositions on them. But you said it was too valuable. | Last time I spoke to you, I suggested you finish up your Restless contract with a live album so you wouldn’t have to waste any new compositions on them. But you said it was too valuable. | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth: An interview (Atavachron 1994)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth: An interview (Atavachron 1994)]]== | ||
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? | 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? | ||
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==[[No Secrets (Facelift 1994)]]== | ==[[No Secrets (Facelift 1994)]]== | ||
Allan would record an album with Tempest, whose music at that time has been compared with earlier work by Cream. One sonic document is a phenomenal live tape which sees him duetting with Ollie Halsall for a BBC in Concert recording. (“That was the last time I ever saw him"). First, though, was Nucleus, through whom passed any number of fine jazz musicians throughout the Seventies. Holdsworth left his mark on this line-up’s album ‘Belladonna’ with a blistering solo on the track ‘Hectors House’; in truth there is rarely a dud moment on this fine record. With musicians such as Dave McRae, Roy Babbington, '''Gordon Beck''' and Trevor Tomkins on board, that’s hardly a surprise: | Allan would record an album with Tempest, whose music at that time has been compared with earlier work by Cream. One sonic document is a phenomenal live tape which sees him duetting with Ollie Halsall for a BBC in Concert recording. (“That was the last time I ever saw him"). First, though, was Nucleus, through whom passed any number of fine jazz musicians throughout the Seventies. Holdsworth left his mark on this line-up’s album ‘Belladonna’ with a blistering solo on the track ‘Hectors House’; in truth there is rarely a dud moment on this fine record. With musicians such as Dave McRae, Roy Babbington, '''Gordon Beck''' and Trevor Tomkins on board, that’s hardly a surprise: | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth Interview (richardhallebeek.com 1996)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth Interview (richardhallebeek.com 1996)]]== | ||
-Why did you choose to play only Jazz standards on your new album? | -Why did you choose to play only Jazz standards on your new album? | ||
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==[[Legato Land (Guitar Techniques 1996)]]== | ==[[Legato Land (Guitar Techniques 1996)]]== | ||
‘None Too Soon’ is an unusual Holdsworth album in that none of the tunes were penned by the man himself. It features compositions by jazzers such as John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Bill Evans instead. | ‘None Too Soon’ is an unusual Holdsworth album in that none of the tunes were penned by the man himself. It features compositions by jazzers such as John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Bill Evans instead. | ||
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==[[Med Siktet Innställt På Total Kontroll (MusikerMagasinet 1996, Swedish language)]]== | ==[[Med Siktet Innställt På Total Kontroll (MusikerMagasinet 1996, Swedish language)]]== | ||
He continues with mild irritation: | He continues with mild irritation: | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (steveadelson.com 2000)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (steveadelson.com 2000)]]== | ||
TCG: The previous CD None Too Soon was slightly more traditional. You had quite a few cover tunes. | TCG: The previous CD None Too Soon was slightly more traditional. You had quite a few cover tunes. | ||
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==[[Audiostreet Featured Artists (Audiostreet 2000)]]== | ==[[Audiostreet Featured Artists (Audiostreet 2000)]]== | ||
"It wasn’t a conscious effort, it was just a nice accident. Because what I wanted to try and do after the last album that I did with '''Gordon''' ('''Beck''')"None Too Soon" we played old tunes, so in a way it was my album but I didn’t think of it like it was my album. The last band album I think of was "Hard Hat Area" which was with Gary, Skuli (Sverrisson) and Steve Hunt and right after that album I was thinking I wanted to write some original music, but just put in a different setting, a slightly different setting. And in a way this also happened by accident because I was playing with Dave Carpenter, who introduced me to Gary Novak and we played a lot and we did two tours of Europe with that group and I also knew he played acoustic bass. | "It wasn’t a conscious effort, it was just a nice accident. Because what I wanted to try and do after the last album that I did with '''Gordon''' ('''Beck''')"None Too Soon" we played old tunes, so in a way it was my album but I didn’t think of it like it was my album. The last band album I think of was "Hard Hat Area" which was with Gary, Skuli (Sverrisson) and Steve Hunt and right after that album I was thinking I wanted to write some original music, but just put in a different setting, a slightly different setting. And in a way this also happened by accident because I was playing with Dave Carpenter, who introduced me to Gary Novak and we played a lot and we did two tours of Europe with that group and I also knew he played acoustic bass. | ||
