Guitar legend Allan Holdsworth passed away today (April 16) at the age of 70.

His daughter Louise stated via Facebook: "It is with heavy hearts that we notify everyone of the passing of our beloved father.

"We would appreciate privacy and time while we grieve the loss of our dad, grandad, friend and musical genius.

"We will update close friends and family when service arrangements have been made and will notify the public of an open memorial service, which all would be welcome.

"We are undeniably still in shock with his unexpected death and cannot begin to put into words the overwhelming sadness we are experiencing. He is missed tremendously. -Louise, Sam, Emily & Rori."

Mostly known for his work in the realm of jazz fusion, Mr. Holdsworth was cited as one of the key influences of a wide array of guitar players, including Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Shawn Lane, John Petrucci, Alex Lifeson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Guthrie Govan, Michael Romeo, Tom Morello, Richie Kotzen, and even Frank Zappa, who once called Allan "one of the most interesting guys on guitar on the planet."

Guthrie Govan once said about Holdsworth: "I think it's potentially dangerous when a rock type player hears a bit of Allan Holdsworth or Frank Gambale and then dives straight into that style of playing; not only is the technical aspect daunting, there's also all that musical knowledge and understanding going on behind the scenes, and it's really hard to absorb both of those aspects at once without your playing just starting to sound worse."

Several months back, Tom Morello singled out Holdsworth's 1985 track "Metal Fatigue" as the No. 1 song that inspired him to think outside the box as a guitarist, telling Music Radar:

"The big introduction to outside playing for me was Allan Holdsworth. I remember a friend of mine playing me his song 'Metal Fatigue.' And admittedly, while the singing is kinda hokey, the guitar playing is insane. It was the first time I heard someone go outside of the expected melodic parameters, and that sounded fantastic to me.

"The DigiTech Whammy pedal felt like such a revelation when I got one in 1991 - I had been trying to find a way to approximate the harmonizer used on that Allan Holdsworth song. I bought a rack harmonizer but I couldn't even figure it out."

Rest in peace, icon.

RIP.

I never really listened to his playing, so I never became a fan of his. But I was well aware of his influence and reputation, and he was an inspiration. I'd gathered from John's posts that he was having some issues, but had no idea he was this sick.

RIP.

OMG, he was finally being recognized the way he have should just recently. What a great guitarist. This is going to hit JohnG hard.

Rick A.

Wow, ironically some of us were discussing his talent, not to long ago in the forum? RIP

Total bummer - was such a great groundbreaking guitarist. We had him at the club I worked at a few years back. Put on a great show and was a super nice guy. Signed records and took photos with his fans.

From what I understand this was sudden and not expected at all, but I'm just going from what his daughter posted.

He was a humble man and an absolute genius on the guitar.

A major, major influence on lots of guys especially Eddie Van Halen.

What a sad loss, especially on Easter Sunday.

R.I.P.

Met him at NYs The Cutting Room a few years ago in a Q@A session where he tried to explain his music theory to a crowd of about 30 people. Just stunning to hear from the Master. Got to take a pic with him and shake his hand. A true gentleman, a true genius. Then saw him play at the Iriduim a few nights later with Jimmy Haslip and Gary Husband. Great!
Had tickets to see him this July again at the Iridium. Was really looking forward to have my wife finally see him.

I am truly gutted and saddened with this news. He had just done a mini-tour in CA, released a box set and seemed to be picking things up.

RIP

Great photo of Allan's manager at the time Leonardo Pavkovic, Allan, Gary Husband (dummer) and Jimmy Haslip (bass) during their US tour a few years ago. Saw them at NYs The Iridium and it was awesome. I met Leonardo and Allan a few days before that at The Cutting Room.

https://www.gofundme.com/allanholdsworthmemorial

A GoFundMe was started 7 hours ago to help raise money for a funeral for Allan who was broke (one reason I asked people to please buy his box set) and guess what? It has raised over $26,000 in just 7 hours! That's how much Allan was loved! Incredible.

http://variety.com/2017/music/news/alla ... 202031666/


Excellent article today in Variety about Allan.

The GoFundMe is now up to $30,000!!! Wow!

A street sign in Tampa Florida.

Nice words from Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme, Generation Axe):


WELL.
When you've gotten the chance, like I have, to hang, talk and perform with so many of the greatest guitarists to ever walk this planet... you privately talk about your peers to each other and how you TRULY feel about them... in confidence.
You hear well... I like him, but I'm of not big of that dude and this is why etc... We debate the compositions, the technique, the tone. But in ALL my conversations with Eddy Van Halen to Jimmy Page to Brian May to the 4 Generations Axers that are by my side at this moment. Vai, Malmsteen, Wylde and Abasi. And countless more legends I've been blessed to be in the company of... There is ONLY ONE player that everyone across the board NEVER had a bad word to say about. And that's because we were ALL in AWE of this man. His tone. His playing. His writing. But most importantly...His innovation. I'm sure a lot of you reading this have never even heard of him. And that's mostly because he's one of few and true guitarist who was never chasing fame. He played for all the right reasons. Love and Passion of the instrument.
NO ONE has Quietly Influenced and affected the music world, so under the radar, like Allan has.
From the first 8 notes of his solo on UK's "in the dead of night" We all knew he was something special. Something out of this world. And it was only the beginning of his Mind Blowing guitar journey he was about to take us on. He created an impossible genre, He combined the most Complex playing, but delivered with Grace and Beauty. He took outside the box guitar playing and forced it inside the box, for All listeners of any genre to enjoy.
He left us today at the age of 70... and as much as I was saddened that he's physically gone away. He leaves his soul and spirit on Every piece of vinyl, tape and file he has graced.
THANK YOU Allan... for all that you've given us.
#RIP #allanholdsworth

The GoFundMe account has surpassed $75,000 in less than 24 hours. A tremendous outpouring of love for a simple man who possessed an extraordinary talent.

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2 ... dies-at-70

NPR article on the life of Holdsworth.

Now up to $83,000!! Wow!

From drummer Gary Husband, one of Allan's closest musical collaborators and friends;

Yesterday I received the most devastating news of the passing of my spiritual and musical brother Allan Holdsworth. And along with that news came the realization I had now witnessed the conclusion of the last chapter of probably what will always be known by me as the most significant musical relationship of my life. The journey that began in the later 1970s in a studio in London - a first time ever trial playing situation for us - where time and space seemed to evaporate and give vent to suddenly this otherworldly, uncannily effortless, intense communication and empathy of the nature and height I could have only dreamt possible. I remember wondering afterwards, as we were packing our gear, if we'd ever reach that again or even get to play together once more.
And it did. And we did. And though the albums IOU, Metal Fatigue, Atavachron, Sand, Wardencliffe Tower, Then, Hard Hat Area etc, that serve to document the handful of decades we were able to develop together, I have vivid memories, still, of the experiences of many incredible improvisational musical heights together, in many live settings, of the kind I will not experience the like of again.
With Allan I had the invitation to literally invent. I knew it was totally unique music. Yet strangely it was music I felt - almost as naturally as if it had come through me.
The unique harmony, the unique signature pushes & pulls in tempo, the pauses and the inherent rubato, up alongside all the straighter grooves that all felt so completely natural to me I was mystified at so much of the confused reaction the music provoked in people. I had no idea why it was regarded convoluted, complex or unusual.
So not only was this the most comfortable playing situation for me I also was afforded the luxury to approach and form all drum approaches to the pieces from my own imagination. Occasionally I'd come up with something, and I'd quickly know if it wasn't an instant success. But mostly it was. And little was said, virtually nothing ever rehearsed, and it just all got recorded that way and performed that way while expanded upon live.
IOU was to essentially document as good as possible version of pieces we had been performing for a good while. But from Unmerry-Go-Round - the wonderful piece where I worked alongside Allan to form the rhythmic structure - it was about an approach to drum composition - how the drums worked conceptually - as much as it was also the playing side of things. This started to really expand particularly on the recordings for the albums Atavachron and Sand.
I would love to elaborate on all these periods. Perhaps in the form of a book sometime.
Jumping to the more recent years, from 2000 on, a lot was starting to deteriorate and crumble in Allan's life. This had started to manifest in the form of a growing acceleration in alcohol consumption. And this would be influencing everything from this point onwards.
I was party to a lot I cannot and will not divulge in a Facebook post. All of us were - all who worked together with Allan. And from that point, we were starting to become very concerned.
What would also start to materialize with Allan was a deterioration of creativity - which was bad enough.
Then Allan's marriage collapsed catastrophically, and this brought even more excesses. Nevertheless, his playing was always central and his fleeting fluidity always still apparent. But from this point he was no longer in any way anything bordering on sober on gigs.
The details of our years with him since - the self-medicating his ever increasing, spiraling and perpetually heightening suffering are, as I clarified, not for these pages. All I can say is that as I always promised him, I was always at the other end of a phone. Always there.
This would never be enough. And it became inevitable to me that Allan was fast-tracking towards more and more emotional destitution.
Fast forwarding to the most recent and last time I would get to perform with Allan, in 2014 along with Jimmy Haslip I was aware - for the first time ever - things were definitely no longer well with him also as a musician. The self-medication had accumulated even more significantly, and I was mortified to discover this had now, finally, becoming quite apparent in his playing.
From this point, and through many unpleasant extra-musical episodes and manifestations later it has been tragically apparent and somewhat inevitable that drastic measures would have to be sought. But, as ever, the closer we were, to Allan, ultimately the more ineffective we proved to be.
And so, now the moment I/we all feared, dreaded and anticipated has arrived. In all it's dreadful sadness, the story has come to a close, and the reality that I will see that man no more is so unbearably painful for me I can't describe it.
I have a feeling I will never again recognize musical endeavor in quite the same way without my brother Allan Holdsworth in this world. I will just have to hang on to it - keep in constant touch with my little part in the legacy of his trajectory, our shared one, the seed of that creation and keep the essence well in tact, together with us all that've been through many years in music with this genius. Carrying it on through all our future endeavors. I guess I'm speaking for all Allan's players - from way back, to my times starting it with him, through the decades and even into these last few years.
I pray with all my heart, my brother, that your suffering is eased and healed. I pray that your passage, into eternity, will be now smooth and complete.
You'll always be such a huge part of me, dear Allan. You are already so incredibly missing. I have always loved you, love you now, and will always.
xxxxxxxxxxxx

A super fan named Manning Bartlett who assisted Allan on his recent mini-tour in CA (actually moved the equipment in his own car and found couches for Allan to sleep on, no hotel rooms), is the one who started the GoFundMe account after hearing from Allan's grieving daughter Lousie last Friday night.

Here is his story:

So yesterday at 4AM (my time), Louise Holdsworth is on the phone sobbing hysterically (as you can well understand). My wife Eva is sobbing as well. I am just numb.
Louise then uttered some words that harrowed my soul - "We can't even afford a funeral. What are we going to do?"
"Don't worry about the money", I said. "I'll sort it out".
A confession - this was PURE bravado on my part. I really had no idea how to solve this. My own credit card was still recovering from my recent trip to LA.
I called Greg Beaton to discuss crowdfunding. He was camping in the Sierra Nevadas. It breaks my heart to tell you that we had a GoFundMe account already set up... in preparation to raise the funds needed to get Allan's final two albums finished. That we were now using this account to pay for his funeral is just horrible.
Greg sets up the GoFundMe account using his phone while standing on a mountain trail. Meanwhile I shoot a video with my hair standing up and my t-shirt on backwards. (I'm not good at 4AM... or any other time really)
Now it is 24 hours later. I'll be honest, Louise is still barely able to function. I check in with her every two hours or so to make sure she is OK.
But something absolutely astonishing has happened. You - his fans - have stepped up in an utterly stupefying way.
Many, many people have asked "What are you going to do with the extra money?". Here's the answer - absolutely NO idea.
This fund was always about only one thing, ensuring that Allan Holdsworth received a dignified funeral. To be perfectly honest, I had no confidence we would even achieve that.
Louise, Emily and Sam are still too caught up in agonizing grief to think beyond the immediate. Meanwhile I'm just a family friend and it is not my place to decide anything. So I can't tell you anything about what we will do with the money you all have raised.
What I can tell you is that there are NO words for how grateful we are. Ridiculously, incomprehensibly, stupefyingly grateful.
Our dearest and beloved friend Allan will be buried with grace and respect, and his children will not panic about the cost. That is a kindness for which I have no words to describe.
Thank you all.
https://www.gofundme.com/allanholdsworthmemorial

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/arts ... .html?_r=0

Excellent obit today by the NY Times.

The GoFundMe surpassed $100,000.

No one on Earth could play like he did, and no one ever will.