Allan Holdsworth playing Looking Glass with Synthaxe

[GreyJazz90]

It's crazy how the synthaxe is still more advanced than most midi controllers out there. The tracking is insane. It tracks even better than the guitar to midi technology available today.

[beckenbauers]

Beautiful. playing by Kei Akagi! So young Gary Husband looks

[shpilk]

It's interesting to hear the different voicings used with this instrument. As an experiment it clearly was ahead of its time then. By today's standards the musicianship is still excellent: technology has gotten much better.

I don't know if Allan is game to try again with more modern electronics and interfaces, but it would be fascinating to hear him try.

[maraboshi]

actually the synthaxe is more advanced than the stuff you can find today...

[Moog167]

Y'know whats crazy.....Allan never liked the guitar.....lol.....He wanted to play sax!!!!

[aliengtr]

wasnt the synthaxe like $100l at the time ?!

[Moog167]

More like $18,000 they were super expensive and super heavy. I don't know how Roy "Futureman" Wooten holds his Drumitar during a whole show.....

[titusbeertsen]

Pretty good keyboard solo I think - especially the way Akagi gets back into the lead melody at the end.

[sidbolero]

it's his sound from 1.26 on that I find to be most disagreeable. far too loud in the mix too

[sidbolero]

absolutely horrible

[5tgb6yhn5tgb]

Love the way the chords keep kicking down at the start - why stay in one place when you can keep on moving :)

[halimski]

WOW! this is probably one of the best fusion ever...they make T-Square and Casiopea from japan look really bad.

[osensei2987]

I find Casiopia to be somewhere between an Earth, Wind and Fire pop style and a Rippington's style Smooth Jazz. Holdsworth's style is a completely different beast altogether!

[eskimoposh]

I can't help but feel absolute disgust for this tour. I know alot of people will disagree with me, but for some reason I find this whole 'era' very disturbing. When I watch it, i feel sick to my stomache. But I LOVE Holdsworth / Husband SO much...this to me sounds and looks very awkward.

Look up "The Uncanny Valley" and you'll get an understanding of how i feel.

Sorry to the people that like this, but I can't stand it.

[5tgb6yhn5tgb]

Listen to "Non Brewed Condiment" then - nothing disturbing about that piece........... heheh ;)

[osensei2987]

Look man! It's hard to fuck w/ Herbie Hancock, but I gotta give the keyboard player some props! He's sounding like a Herbie joint!

That sythaxe sounds like a shitty casio keyboard, but Alan's solo is Coltranesque!

I'm glad Alan finally got over that cheesy shit instrument and plays real guitars now!

[maraboshi]

cheesy shit??? what?? :-)))

[petar870602]

if the keyboards sound like hancock here to you and holdsworth sounds like coltrane that you have pretty big ear problems my friend!

[Crosso979]

Counter-intuitively his delight on this very "casio" sonic diarrhea makes it one of his most fascinatingly powerful solos...Watch the guy's face !! Joy and Sublime are found on unexpected paths.

[guitarlines]

thanks !!

[DrFoofyMan]

Boring musical wanking of the highest order.

[gunthypunthy]

wow very unorthadox but great

[gbtayc]

King of modulation

I think this synthaxe solo is more melodic than any I've ever heard him do on

Earthly guitar

[prasiddha]

*Heavenly guitar

[colonnaf]

what beutifull chords

[marc777danielle]

as a drummer ironicly i'm most inspired by holdsworth. he's astonishingly original in an industry of copycats.

[Moog167]

I agree with marc777danielle

[ntesslafan]

Odd how different people see the same thing in so different ways. Compared to the original recording, this version has a nice swing to it. I respect your opinion brytar8, i just disagree with you.

[brytar8]

Uninspired.

[xbm]

how do you call one of the, if not the, greatest fusion guitarists of all time "uninspired"? asshole.

[SxSDeath]

The SynthAxe was a great idea that should have stayed an idea a bit longer, until the technology improved. You can do cool things with it but the tone sounds like hell wrung through a computerized cheese grater.

Though Allan is amazing whatever he happens to be playing.

[gemari77]

But they were incredibly awesome looking and futuristic, though... I remember when I first saw one as a kid... Someone in Michael Jackson's touring band used one on the "Bad" Tour... I'd been fascinated with them ever since. Even though they costed more than my parent's car at the time.

It's funny how everything is retro now... However, in the 80's, people were trying to create things that seemed like they came from the future. From Mars, even.

[jagger82]

I truly belive that Allan will play very soon in Serbia! As i said, his music is very similar with Serbian traditional music. Allan Holdsworth is a patriotic hero for Serbian people! Everyone who wants to visit Serbia, please you are all welcome! If you like Allan Holdsworth you will like a Serbian music too.

ALLAN, THANK YOU FOR YOUR MUSIC !!!

"WHITE LINE" FANS FROM SERBIA !!!

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH = SERBIA

SERBIA = ALLAN HOLDSWORTH

[Listendudeok]

One of the best humans, and I mean it

[ricappon]

great post !!! . nice piano solo by kei akagi . the band is : kei akagi , gary husband , jimmy johnson and allan .

[hakanozelguitarist]

20 yrs ago he was 200 yrs ahead of the rest of us!

[jonascohonas]

What are you talking about? He still is :) and will remain there for many years to come :)!

[hakanozelguitarist]

yeh ur almost right! however in the last 20yrs the rest of us have only moved forward 5yrs..so he is now actually 215 yrs ahead of us!

[DeathBringer769]

All I can say, WTF

[pueblo87]

who's the drummer??

[igorwillcox]

Gary Husband

[le1992lo]

he`s the best

[Freemasonry]

I have the feeling poor Al isnt quite the ladies man

[MusiciansQuarters]

Who cares?? He smokes, I would take the talent over split leg any day!! LOL

[hlhent]

Two recordings in which Allan really features the synthaxe is "Atavachron" which is one of my favorite recordings. The other is "Sand" which sounds so "alien" that it should have used in the Star Wars bar scene.

[hlhent]

*been

[georgeontherocks]

HAHAHAHAHA

[fusion07mp3]

Boy...that's a rare piece...I wish the audio was better...but it's a good Synthaxe demo of Allan's. Thanks for posting this!

[maraboshi]

Guys, thanks for the comments...I should have a better versione, I'll post it soon :-)

[Vonnegut]

It's most likely Kai Akagi on keys.

[michaelofpetaluma]

This is from the Jazz Festival in Germany in 1986. It's a great DVD. I forgot the name of the keyboard player at the moment (because I don't have the DVD in front of me) but he is very jazz influenced and compliments AH's style fantastically. Yes, that's Jimmy and Gary in the rhythym section.

[aliendough]

Nice one! Check my videos for a brief Synthaxe demo, course I can't play it as well as Allan! Anybody else out there got one?

[emmadet]

oh cool. I've totally worn out my old vinyl copies of atavachron & sand & IOU & secrets. that's gary husband & jimmy johnson, but it doesn't look like alan pasqua or steven hunt? thx for posting let's have some more if you've got it :-)

[nicosavage]

maraboshi, thanks. I was curious about this Synthaxe thing. amazing!!!