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Jazz Articles about Allan Holdsworth
Soft Machine: Floating World Live
by Glenn Astarita
Keyboardist Mike Ratledge's “The Man Who Waved at Trains" emerges as a highlight from Soft Machine's 2025 remastered album Floating World Live, representing a crucial period in the Canterbury legends' evolution during their pivotal era with guitar great Allan Holdsworth . Moreover, Drop (MoonJune, 2025), drawn from a 1971 concert, also receives the remastered treatment for 2025. “The Man Who Waved at Trains" highlights Soft Machine at their most reflective, weaving together Ratledge and Karl Jenkins' hypnotic keyboard ...
Continue ReadingMetro, Karizma, Matt Garrison, Marcus Miller and Allan Holdsworth
by Len Davis
This show includes music from Mitchel Forman and Chuck Loeb with Metro, Chroma with Mike Stern and Dennis Chambers. David Garfield. Bassist's Matt Garrison and Marcus Miller. Also, Italian drummer Andrea Marcelli, Allan Holdsworth and bassist Alain Caron. Playlist Metro “Earthpluck" from Metro (Lipstick) 00:00 Chroma “Upside Downside" from Music On The Edge (CTI)09:41 Karizma “Heavy Resin" from Document (Creatchy) 19:22 Matt Garrison “Dark Matter" from Matt Garrison-Live (Garrison Jazz)29:03 Marcus Miller “Burning Down The House" from M2 ...
Continue ReadingBill Bruford: The Winterfold Collection 1978-1986
by John Kelman
It's often easy to judge artists based on where they are now, but when you have a recorded legacy as rich as that of Bill Bruford, it's far better to view the body of work as a whole. As divergent as the intrepid percussionist/composer/bandleader's career has been, there are common threads running through all his work, making the earlier, electrified and amplified material on this Winterfold Collection fit contextually as a logical antecedent to his more recent unplugged and improvisation-centric ...
Continue ReadingJean-Luc Ponty: Individual Choice
by Peter Rubie
By 1982, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty had established an enviable reputation as a pioneer in jazz-rock and jazz fusion. He began as a young bebop player in the late 1950s with little interest in becoming another swing or gypsy style violinist. It was the “sheets of sound" music of John Coltrane that spoke loudest to him. By the early 1970s Ponty was recording and touring with rock composer Frank Zappa, and playing with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, as well as ...
Continue ReadingAllan Holdsworth & Alan Pasqua: Proto-Cosmos
by Jim Worsley
If the song title “Proto-Cosmos" brings Tony Williams to mind then step to the front of the class. Alan Pasqua's tune is featured on the drummer's 1975 album, Believe It (Columbia). The record is considered by some to be the best fusion album of all time. In addition to Pasqua and bassist Tony Newton, a young British guitarist named Allan Holdsworth introduced himself to the masses. Fast forward to 2022 and it has been five and a half years since ...
Continue ReadingThe release of Proto Cosmos from the late Allan Holdsworth, plus Mark Lettieri and Gillaume Barroud
by Len Davis
The release of Proto Cosmos from the late Allan Holdsworth. New music from Mark Lettieri, Billy Cobham and Sixun. World music from Dhafer Youssef and Guillaume Barraud, from Melbourne The JaimZ Project.Playlist Allan Holdsworth “Looking Glass" from Proto Cosmos (Blue Canoe) 00:00 Robben Ford-Bill Evans sax “Passaic" from Common Ground (MPS/Edel Music) 05:36 Robert Walter “Security" from Better Feathers (Royal Potato Family) 11:18 Mark Lettieri “Duster" from Fly Through It (GroundUp Music) 16:55 Billy Cobham “Seven Eight “ ...
Continue ReadingNucleus: Nucleus Live at the BBC
by Maurizio Comandini
Dio salvi la regina. E la BBC. L'emittente di stato britannica ha capito fin da subito che da quelle belle energie musicali, che spuntavano come l'erba di Hyde Park sotto al tiepido sole di quelle latitudini, passavano le scelte esistenziali e culturali delle nuove generazioni e sin dagli anni sessanta ha dato ampio spazio alla musica, premiando non solo il pop ma anche le proposte più articolate e di nicchia e ha conservato in archivio una buona parte di quelle ...
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