What this double disc cd/dvd set by guitar legend Allan Holdsworth does is not only make you miss his playing, but the excitement of a concert performance. Will we ever get the chance for this again? I caught him on his last tour in LA, and was a better man for it. Hopefully, the sounds on his will demonstrate why he was such an important six stringer.
This gig finds him at the Deutsches Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, Germany back in 1986,and he’s got a swinging team of drummer Gary Husband, bassist Jimmy Johnson and pianist/keyboardist Kei Akagi. Holdsworth is in wondrous form, intricate and yet fluid on pieces like “Three Sheets To The Wind” and galloping like a stallion over Husband’s ride cymbal on “White Line”. The team rocks hard, with everyone stretching out on the dancing “Letters of Marque” as Johnson lays down a hip solo, Husband burns the traps and Akagi sears through one of a series of swinging mainstream jazz solos. Here, and on the elliptical “Looking Glass” he’s a perfect complement to Holdsworth chiming excursions. Some of the guitarist’s pedals create synthy textures that make you feel like it’s the second coming of Weather Report as on the dramatic “Non-Brewed Condiment” and the mellow “ Shallow Sea”, especially with Johnson’s Pastorius’ pastoral support, while Atavachron” is an upbeat splashy affair.
Holdsworth shows what frontiers could be explored with the right captain at the helm.