Allan Holdsworth (August 6, 1946 - April 15, 2017)

Friday, April 15, 2022, marks five years since the world lost the pioneering jazz/rock fusion guitar legend, Allan Holdsworth. He was 70 years old.

In addition to his critically acclaimed solo discography, which is available on The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock (2005), Eidolon: The Allan Holdsworth Collection (2017), and The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever! The Allan Holdsworth Album Collection (2017), his unequaled and unparalleled guitar playing is featured on his frequent drummer Chad Wackerman’s solo albums Forty Reasons (1991), The View (1993), and Dreams, Nightmares, and Improvisations (2012), which is the last recording of original material by Holdsworth released before his passing.

--Raj Manoharan

Divine Tides (2021), by Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej, Wins 2022 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album

Congratulations to Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej, whose 2021 collaboration, Divine Tides, won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.

Here is my review of the record from July 25, 2021:

Police drummer and soundtrack composer Stewart Copeland broke major musical ground several decades earlier when he blended his patented percussion and other instrumentation with the tribal and ethnic sounds of the African continent on his 1985 album, The Rhythmatist.

Now Copeland’s at it again, this time in collaboration with Indian composer, keyboardist, and multi-instrumentalist Ricky Kej. Together, the international duo has cooked up a delicious and tasty smorgasbord of world music delights, with the sounds of South Asia at its base.

 

Kej brings to the table his lifelong love of and deep-seated passion for Indian music, along with a stellar line-up of accomplished and renowned Indian, African, and international musicians and vocalists. Copeland brings his unique sense of time and rhythm to the proceedings, as well as his kinetic compositional contributions.

 

The result is an eclectic musical mix of East and West that is an essential must-have for fans of Kej and Copeland – especially those looking for a perfect companion piece to The Rhythmatist. This is extraordinary music with epic global sweep.

 

--Raj Manoharan