Allan's influences: Difference between revisions

Allan: I went back to listening as soon as I learned a little bit more about guitar. I started listening all over again to all those Jim Hall, Joe Pass, Jimmy Raney albums. I was really a big fan of Jimmy Raney, because, although all of those guys are absolutely wonderful, there was just something about the sound of the guitar I didn't like. I didn't like that rubber band, dead-tape-wound-string sound, and Jimmy Raney always seemed to have a little bit more of a sparkle in his sound. It sounded a little bit more lively, like Charlie Christian's sound-more vocal, not so dumpy sounding. I realized that I wasn't happy with the sound of the guitar. I wanted to make it something else, but it happened so gradually, I didn't even realize I was playing the guitar. It was a hobby, like someone who rides a bike. I had no intention of trying to make a living from it.

Here was a guitarist who had attained the absolute pinnacle of what practically every plectorist I had ever interviewed was striving for-to liberate themselves from the percussive nature of the instrument and emulate the flowing legato lines of saxophone players. And Holdsworth had already accomplished this way back in the ‘70s. He's been refining that aesthetic ever since, coming closer than any other guitarist to capturing the spirit of John Coltrane on his instrument. Indeed, ‘Trane has been Holdsworth's guiding light from the very beginning.