Originally published in an earlier, shortened form as a blog (A Thread of Lunacy: Appreciation and Analysis of the Otherworldly Music of Allan Holdsworth), this book is a biographical musical companion to the career of Allan Holdsworth, a guitarist revered by the greatest names in jazz and rock (such as Steve Vai, John McLaughlin, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson, Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, and countless others). Starting off his career with The Tony Williams New Lifetime, Bruford, U.K., and Soft Machine, in the early 1980s Holdsworth began releasing music under his own name, with bands comprised of some of the most accomplished and respected players in rock and jazz. Although this book is a perfect reference for Allan Holdsworth fans (containing detailed notes and interviews related to every single album he ever recorded on), another aim of this book is to help new listeners enter the frequently misunderstood universe of this "ahead-of-his-time" guitar genius.

Autorentext

Three decades ago, Ed Chang began engaging in various projects exploring the outer reaches of jazz and classical music, eventually pushing into the unbounded expanse of free improvisation, experimental music and abstract sound design. In recent years, Chang has been more active as a writer, using the blog platform to publish book-length treatises on composers (Beethoven, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Allan Holdsworth, Jimi Hendrix, etc) and genre writers (H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, etc). Chang's writing projects focus on creative "mavericks" who continually forged new paths in their chosen arenas, persistently taking risks throughout their careers in order to establish fresh worlds of expression and then moving on to create new innovations. Ed Chang is based in New York City and still plays guitar, but less often with metal-working tools these days.