Three Allan Holdsworth songs arranged for big band

Poparad

Power User
I'm working on a master's degree in guitar currently and did a recital a couple months back. In addition to some jazz standards and some original compositions (see my previous thread for videos of those), I arranged three of Allan Holdsworth's songs for big band.

I'm playing a Carvin Holdsworth "Fatboy" guitar with patches based on the ones @simeon has posted on the forums. The only thing I changed were the cabs, the volume pedal routing to fit my setup, and tweaked the amp tone and levels to suit my guitar. I combined the three patches (lead, clean, swell) into one with two expression pedals tied to volume blocks to switch between sounds, just like Allan used to do. I don't think I used the "swell" sound in these, but I have it set up on scene 2.

Funnels:


Looking Glass:


Pud Wud:


On the last two videos, we had some issues with the Pro Tools rig throwing errors while recording. I had to substitute audio from some of the cameras to fill the gaps (just one gap each per tune), so you might hear some strange tonal fades as it switches between camera and Pro Tools audio.
 
I love this; hearing his music in a more traditional context. I think his music was sorely underappreciated by many jazz "purists", simply because he played a distorted electric guitar. He is my favorite composer and soloist, in any style, of any period. Very nice work.
 
I love this; hearing his music in a more traditional context. I think his music was sorely underappreciated by many jazz "purists", simply because he played a distorted electric guitar. He is my favorite composer and soloist, in any style, of any period. Very nice work.

Exactly! That was one of my main goals by arranging these songs. I wanted to open the door to his music to jazz listeners who aren't avid fusion listeners by presenting it in a more familiar setting. For me, I had been aware of Allan's music for a while, but could never get past the 80's synth sounds in it until I picked up "Sixteen Men of Tain." With the acoustic bass, more jazz-oriented drumming of Gary Novak, dialed back synths, and the presence of trumpet on a few tracks, it sounded much more like a jazz combo that I was accustomed to hearing. Once I got acclimated to his music I was then able to go back and listen to his older recordings and "get it." The synths not only don't bother me now but I absolutely love them!
 
Excellent playing and tone, it would be great if you could post your patch here (please)
It was a very good idea to bring a band together for this.
 
Here's the patch (Mark II patch)! I was using an Own Hammer Deluxe Reverb cab for the cleans and an ML Bulb for lead, so I substituted them with comparable factory cabs.

Expression 1 is set up to be a master volume and expression 2 fades from clean to lead (heel to toe). Scene 2 engages the longer delay for swells.
 

Attachments

  • Recital Fatboy.syx
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Very nice! It's great to know their are folks like you (and the others in this video) keeping real music alive...
 
What a wonderful thing to be doing for your master's in guitar! So completely different than my experience...
 
What a wonderful thing to be doing for your master's in guitar! So completely different than my experience...

I knew I didn't just want to do the typical combo-playing-standards-in-a-recital-hall thing. You get out of school what you put into it, so forced myself to do something big that I wasn't as comfortable with, and I'm glad I did! I gained so much knowledge about arranging, plus I have several more Holdsworth tunes written out that I didn't to start with. Still trying to crack the code to his language, though.
 
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