Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is a musician's musician, and I mean that as the highest praise. The Bradford-born guitarist made the instrument sing with a liquid legato and harmonic logic that genuinely sounded like nobody else, which is why peers from Soft Machine to Tony Williams clamored to play with him. He was never built for mass appeal; his music demands you meet it on its own difficult terms. But those who get it tend to stay obsessed for life. His 2017 death felt like losing a true frontier explorer of sound. I revere him as someone who transcended the jazz and rock labels entirely.

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Name (English)

Allan Holdsworth

Name (Japanese)

アラン・ホールズワース

Reading

あらん・ほーるずわーす

Born

August 6, 1946 – April 15, 2017

Origin

United Kingdom

Occupation

guitarist / music educator / jazz musician / jazz guitarist / composer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Dog

• Official sitehttp://www.therealallanholdsworth.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan%20Holdsworth
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9B%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q285254

Tags

• guitarist
• music educator
• jazz musician

Last updated

September 25, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.