Sunbird (album): Difference between revisions

This a quartet album of Gordon’s tunes, featuring Allan on electric and acoustic guitar, and violin, Gordon on acoustic and electric piano, Jean-François Jenny-Clark on acoustic bass and Aldo Romano on drums. The music is mostly acoustic jazz, flavored by Gordon’s soulful style. Allan does a good job, but does not really sound at home all the time. Their later duo album “Things You See” has better chemistry.

http://threadoflunacy.blogspot.no/2017/07/14-gordon-beck-in-70s.html

AII of which paints a picture quite different to the one of obvious harmony between him and Gordon Beck. Despite their obvious affinity in Nucleus, their partnership was first really sealed on the 1977 album “'''Sunbird'''", an uplifting album, deliciously light in touch, but with all the technical mastery both players were renowned for. “The sad thing about that was that we did the album first. My reading’s really bad, and they recorded the album before we did the tour. By the time we’d got through the tour I’d figured everything out, but the album was done!” '''Sunbird'''" also features Allan (briefly) playing violin: "It was the last time I ever played it. I never really played violin - it was just like a hobby. I just went into a music store in Sunderland when I was playing with that Glenn South band and I don’t know why, I was just walking past a junk shop and went in and asked him if he had any old violins. I didn’t see anything - and he went in the back and he came out with this thing - no strings. And it was like 10 shillings or something - no, it was 5 quid. So I fixed it up and got a new bridge made for it and strung it up.

==[[L’hommage_de_Jean-Marie_Salhani_à_Allan_Holdsworth_(Guitaremag_2017)#Video_transcript]]

- It was very particular. I've already done a first solo album with Gordon Beck and he manifested the desire to record an album with a quartet. He wanted to play with Aldo Romano at the drums and Jean-François Jenny-Clark in the bass, and he had been talking about a guitar player, an alien, a British guitar player who had played with Soft Machine and Gong. I didn't know Allan Holdsworth. I then listen what he had done with Gong. I didn't find the album with Soft Machine at that time. I said yes of course, if you want to have that guitar player with you, and I saw him at the studio Acousti, I think it was late '79, December '79, for the recording of that record, entitled “Sunbird”.