Leverkusen ‘97 (2021), by Allan Holdsworth

Eleven years after his Frankfurt date, Allan Holdsworth returns to Germany for a generally reserved set that nevertheless provides yet another stunning display of the late, legendary electric guitar wizard’s unmatched virtuosity.

Holdsworth and his late bassist Dave Carpenter and drummer Chad Wackerman – the latter two of whom had also been members of Police guitarist Andy Summers’ bands – form a tight unit, but each player also gets moments to shine in the spotlight.

As always, Holdsworth is a revelation on electric guitar, with dizzying displays of frenetic yet refined fretwork. Also amazing are the various sounds Holdsworth is able to elicit from his guitar, including everything from violins to organs to accordions.

To top it all off, Holdsworth exhibits that famous self-effacing humility and sense of humor, never allowing his personality to overshadow his brilliant musicianship, thus making him the true master he was and will always remain.

 --Raj Manoharan

Road to the Sun (2021), by Pat Metheny

In his follow-up to 2020’s impeccably crafted, exquisitely cinematic, and lushly orchestral From This Place, jazz superstar Pat Metheny puts aside his guitar – for the most part – and instead composes two multipart suites for classical guitar performed by five masters of the genre.

The first four tracks, “Four Paths of Light Parts 1-4,” are performed by Jason Vieaux, followed by “Road to the Sun Parts 1-6” courtesy of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.

Metheny plays some guitar on a couple of the tracks before closing out the proceedings with his solo rendition of Arvo Part’s “Fur Alina” on his custom 42-string, multi-neck Pikasso guitar.

Solo and even group classical guitar can make for challenging listening, but Metheny makes it all accessible and enjoyable with exuberant, engaging, and vibrant compositions that run the gamut of moods from solemn and subtle to soaring and serene. Of course, Vieaux and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet make it all happen with their exceptional virtuosity and their ambidextrous prestidigitation. And Metheny caps it all off with evocative and ethereal sounds that extrapolate the esoteric and the experimental and forge new paths and roads ahead.

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Andy Summers!

On New Year's Eve, Thursday, December 31, 2020, Andy Summers – my favorite guitarist and musician of all time – turns 78 years old.

I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite rock band of all time.

Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early 1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals, and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at Northridge University in California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and international stardom with The Police.

After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, new age, and world music.

I was privileged to interview Summers by telephone in Fall 2000 for the January 2001 issue of DirecTV: The Guide. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Summers posted a notice of the interview in the news section of his Web site. Later, I met Summers in person during his book tour in Fall 2006, just a few months before The Police reunited for a 30th anniversary reunion tour, which I was fortunate to attend twice in August of 2007 and 2008.

For a good overview of Summers’ solo work, I highly recommend the following albums: Mysterious Barricades, A Windham Hill Retrospective, Synaesthesia, and The X Tracks. My personal favorite Summers albums are XYZ, Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth + Sky, Fundamental (with Fernanda Takai), Circus Hero (with his rock band Circa Zero), and Triboluminescence.

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Michael Nesmith!

On Wednesday, December 30, 2020, The Monkees' Michael Nesmith (the one with the green wool hat) turns 78 years old.

Of all of The Monkees, Nesmith has had the most prolific and successful solo career. He pioneered the country-rock music format in the early to mid-1970s, founded the music and video label Pacific Arts, and basically created the concept of MTV. In addition to producing films and music videos, Nesmith also won the very first Grammy Award for Best Home Video for Elephant Parts, which later led to NBC’s short-lived Television Parts. In an interesting side note, Nesmith’s mother invented liquid paper and sold it to Gillette for a substantial fortune, which Nesmith inherited.

For a good overview of Nesmith’s music, I recommend The Older Stuff, The Newer Stuff, Tropical Campfire’s, Live at the Britt Festival, Rays, Movies of the Mind, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs -- The Music, and Live at the Troubadour.

More information about Nesmith is available on his Web site at www.videoranch.com.

--Raj Manoharan

David Prowse (1935 - 2020)

Star Wars has been a major part of not only American and world popular culture, but also my personal and professional life, for the last 43 years.

My first movie memory is seeing Star Wars literally under the stars at a drive-in movie theater during its original release in 1977, when I was four years old.

Later, I found myself in the presence of Darth Vader himself, or at least the iconic voice of the fearful Dark Lord of the Sith, when James Earl Jones, along with Joe DiMaggio, spoke at my NYU commencement ceremony in 1994. Thank the Force that I graduated one year ahead of my class!

Only three years after that, I interviewed Darth Vader's son, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), on the phone for my first freelance article, which was published in Starlog, an iconic global science-fiction entertainment magazine that I had grown up reading as a teenager and young adult.

While James Earl Jones is synonymous with Darth Vader for his menacing and metallic baritone intonation, it was the seven-foot-tall British stuntman and actor David Prowse who brought the black armor-clad villain to life. Prowse's less than adequate vocal prowess necessitated the overdubbing of Jones, but it was Prowse's towering figure and commanding stage presence that made a visual impact on the big screen.

Body language is a big part of acting, and in that context, nobody wore that heavy suit quite like Prowse, not even Hayden Christensen, who played Vader's former self, fallen Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, in the prequel trilogy. Prowse's physical gesticulations and movements defined Vader's imposing and intimidating villainy.

Prowse's finest acting scenes occur in the exchange between Vader and Luke on the forest moon of Endor, in their duel in front of Emperor Palpatine, and just before the dying and redeemed Vader's mask comes off, in the original trilogy's finale, Return of the Jedi. Prowse aptly and deftly communicated Vader's confusion, regret, concern for his son, and his ultimate rapprochement with his son, all without the benefit of his face or even his own voice. That is quite the thespian accomplishment.

May the Force be with you, your family, your friends, and your fans, Lord Prowse.

--Raj Manoharan

Sean Connery (1930 - 2020)

Sean Connery was the first big-screen James Bond, perhaps the most memorable, and definitely the only Bond actor to evade the stigma of typecasting and forge a cinematic career and identity all his own, far beyond the confines of Ian Fleming's famed British secret agent.

In addition to his high-profile Academy Award-winning role in The Untouchables, Connery built an impressive filmography that includes Robin and Marian, Outland, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, First Knight, The Rock, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Also, when you watch him in any of his post-Bond roles, you are watching and thinking Sean Connery, not James Bond. Even when you go back and watch his Bond films, you are watching and thinking Sean Connery, not James Bond.

The name was Connery, Sean Connery, and he both shook and stirred films and film fans around the world alike.

--Raj Manoharan

Eddie Van Halen (1955 - 2020)

I was never a fan of the band Van Halen, but being among the first generation of MTV viewers, I grew up watching and enjoying their outlandish and flamboyant music videos, especially during the tenure of their first lead singer, David Lee Roth.

As a casual admirer, I definitely enjoyed their songs – particularly “Jump” – and the guitar artistry and wizardry of Eddie Van Halen. His guest solo on Michael Jackson's “Beat It!” was and is perfection.

I wish EVH recorded and released instrumental solo albums, because I would have definitely bought them. Unlike the rest of the “shredders” out there, he had a keen sense of composition and melody, providing tasteful and accessible context for his fretboard pyrotechnics.

I will also always be grateful to EVH for “discovering” one of my favorite guitarists, new age jazz/rock fusion impresario Allan Holdsworth, who was nine years EVH's senior.

EVH was one of the last generation of true guitar heroes. No guitarist has emerged in the last twenty to thirty years that matches the iconic status and achievements of the prominent guitarists of the 1960s through the 1980s.

Eddie Van Halen was and will always remain a giant in the pantheon of six-string slingers.

--Raj Manoharan