He has, after all, successfully reinvented the six-string idiom by fusing elements of rock with the free-wheeling harmonic sensibilities of jazz. The undisputed progenitor of "terrifying guitar," Holdsworth has been spinning dizzying yarns of punishing solos that continue to inspire and sow fear among the world‘s top-flight guitar heroes, and confound even the most seasoned jazz improvisers and pundits.
For more than three decades now, the self-effacing guitar wizard has been stretching the limits of his instrument, navigating baffling chordal structures and previously-uncharted fretboard terrain ‘where no fingers have ever gone before."
Aptly called "the guitarists’ guitarist," Holdsworth initially gained acclaim for his uncanny phrasing. While most of his fusion contemporaries such as John McLaughlin and Al di Meola played at blistering speeds by picking every note, Holdsworth employed a legato approach that enabled him to approximate the seamless phrasing of a jazz saxophonist – a trait he strongly attributes to one of his early influences: the late John Coltrane.
Although he was also a big fan of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and others from the old school of jazz guitar, Holdsworth never employed the trademark nasal sound reminiscent of his idols. Owing perhaps to his perennial obsession with the sax’s more robust and dynamic timbre, he soon found himself dabbling with various amp and pickup configurations in his quest for the perfect sound.
A by-product of his ever-evolving armada of custom-made electrics and souped-up amps, Holdsworth’s tone was a radical departure from the jazz tradition. Beefier, and with more violin-like sustain, it was this sonic palette that soon caught the ear of fledgling rock guitarists searching for new sounds. Soon enough, Holdsworth spawned a cult following among heavy metal shredders.
Many have attempted, but none have come close to emulating his stylistic trademarks. No matter how hard they tried, these awe-struck guitarists always ended up with tangled fingers and bruised egos despite hours of desperate tweaking.
After all, Holdsworth’s playing is anything but formulaic. Bearing hardly a hint of the pentatonic and blues scales typically found in any rock guitarist’s arsenal nor the "bebopish" arpeggios and scale runs of his jazz counterparts, Holdsworth’s style reveals a curious mingling of polytonal derivations. Instead of relying on predictable scalar patterns, he frequently substituted linear fragments derived from relative scales – a technique previously employed by saxophonists Michael Brecker and John Coltrane, and pianist Herbie Hancock. This near-atonal approach, combined with his penchant for wide intervals, gave him that "out" sound previously unheard of in guitaristic circles.
Although he had already made his stamp in the early ’70s via various fusion groups such as Gong, Soft Machine and previous gigs with veteran jazz drummer Tony Williams and violinist Jean Luc-Ponty, Holdsworth got extra media mileage as a result of an unsolicited endorsement from rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. When Van Halen (the rock band) made its debut in the ’80s, Eddie turned the guitar world upside down with his manic guitar histrionics, which included artificial harmonics, exotic modes and two-handed tapping – a feat which he attributed to Holdsworth.
While the Van Halen reference catapulted him to even greater heights, Holdsworth detested the citation and branded it as a cheap marketing ploy. But then again, his fate had been sealed. The whole world was listening, although he couldn‘t care any less.
Like most true artists, Holdsworth never equated his success in commercial terms. Modest to a fault, his perennial disenchantment with his own playing continues to surprise even his most ardent fans. In his own words, he was just "a guitar player in search of meaningful sounds."
Among his landmark recordings are Million Dollar Legs and Believe It!, with the Tony Williams Lifetime, One of A Kind and Velvet Darkness, with drummer Bill Bruford and bass maestro Jeff Berlin, and the mini-LP Road Games and Atavachron with bassist Jimmy Johnson and drummers Chad Wackerman and Gary Husband.
After fiddling around with the Synthaxe (a guitar synthesizer) in subsequent albums such as Atavachron, Sand, Wardenclyffe Tower and Hard Hat Area, Holdsworth paid homage to his jazz roots when he recorded None Too Soon during the mid-’90s. With Gordon Beck on keyboards, Gary Wilis (of Tribal Tech fame) on bass, and Kirk Covington on drums, the fusion virtuoso breezed through a repertoire of jazz standards, including Coltrane‘s Countdown, Django Reinhardt’s Nuages, Bill Evans’ Very Early, Joe Henderson’s Isotope and Inner Urge, and a "deconstructed" version of the Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood.