Buffalo News (2010): Difference between revisions
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A musical calling ; Allan Holdsworth plays with a passion | A musical calling ; Allan Holdsworth plays with a passion | ||
Jeff Miers | Jeff Miers<br> | ||
24 September 2010<br> | |||
24 September 2010 | |||
Buffalo News | Buffalo News | ||
You wonder, sometimes, why the guy who can barely play his instrument is the one up on the stage, throngs of adoring females at his feet, banks of uber-expensive amplifiers at his back, tortured grimaces doing battle with exaggerated pouts on his face. | You wonder, sometimes, why the guy who can barely play his instrument is the one up on the stage, throngs of adoring females at his feet, banks of uber-expensive amplifiers at his back, tortured grimaces doing battle with exaggerated pouts on his face. | ||
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Folks like this are a dime a truckload. Very few of them add anything new to the grand lexicon of guitar playing. A perfect example smacked me right in the face earlier this week, while I was enduring Nickelback's performance at HSBC Arena. The sheer inanity of it all, the unflinching embracing of every cliche known to rock guitar, and the implication that the lowest common denominator is more than good enough -- these depressed me almost as much as did the manner in which the crowd received them, as if they were manna from on high. Surely, there must be something more? | Folks like this are a dime a truckload. Very few of them add anything new to the grand lexicon of guitar playing. A perfect example smacked me right in the face earlier this week, while I was enduring Nickelback's performance at HSBC Arena. The sheer inanity of it all, the unflinching embracing of every cliche known to rock guitar, and the implication that the lowest common denominator is more than good enough -- these depressed me almost as much as did the manner in which the crowd received them, as if they were manna from on high. Surely, there must be something more? | ||
The guitar is a means to an end, of course, and that end is the creation of worthwhile, passionate and hopefully intelligent (or if | The guitar is a means to an end, of course, and that end is the creation of worthwhile, passionate and hopefully intelligent (or if not, then gloriously dumb!) music. Often, the contemporary guitar-music scene gets bogged down in a cycle of technique-worship to the point where one can attend a concert by a revered player only to leave feeling as if you've interrupted the guy while he was practicing. | ||
not, then gloriously dumb!) music. Often, the contemporary guitar- | |||
music scene gets bogged down in a cycle of technique-worship to | |||
the point where one can attend a concert by a revered player | |||
to leave feeling as if you've interrupted the guy while he was practicing. | |||
Most sentient guitar players who have schooled themselves in the rock, jazz and permutations of each, taking place over the past 40 years, know full well that Allan Holdsworth is one of the most imaginative, virtuosic and fluent electric guitarists extant. The generally unassuming and painfully self-critical guitarist and composer will never be as famous as the half-wit banging out barre chords before the adoring eyes of thousands. He seems fine with that fact. Some see playing music as a means of achieving fame and avoiding "real" work. Others see it as a calling, and know that it is incredibly difficult, demanding, "real" work. Holdsworth is the latter. | Most sentient guitar players who have schooled themselves in the rock, jazz and permutations of each, taking place over the past 40 years, know full well that Allan Holdsworth is one of the most imaginative, virtuosic and fluent electric guitarists extant. The generally unassuming and painfully self-critical guitarist and composer will never be as famous as the half-wit banging out barre chords before the adoring eyes of thousands. He seems fine with that fact. Some see playing music as a means of achieving fame and avoiding "real" work. Others see it as a calling, and know that it is incredibly difficult, demanding, "real" work. Holdsworth is the latter. | ||
