The Eddie Van Halen/ Holdsworth Jam Session (circa 1984?)

[WARF]

Here's the complete 13 minute Jam Session...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivN2n0KzRxg

[VAiN]

Man, I wish Eddie would have doe more of this kind of shit.. Eddie still sounds fresh here for the most part, you can tell he was challanged and rose to the occasion - before the auto-pilot of 86-96. Too bad there wasn't more jam in the VH catalog.

[Momshell]

Holy shit..this was at GIT/Musicians Institute out in Hollywood. My hubby went there. :)
Very cool..thanks for posting!

[VAiN]

Holy shit..this was at GIT/Musicians Institute out in Hollywood. My hubby went there. :)
Very cool..thanks for posting!

Was he there in 82/3 when this happened?

[Momshell]

Was he there in 82/3 when this happened?

Unfortunately not..he was there in 1988.

[fryingdutchman]

EVH always dug Holdsworth...I'm sure that's why his playing was so inspired.

Very cool stuff. Thanks for posting.

[DavidLeeNatra]

that sounds like shit...ed is anything but a guitar player who can jam to something...the first 2 minutes he seems to look for the right key to play his solo to...and I can't hear him playing WITH the band but just noodling OVER them...but hey...what happens if free jazz musicians fuck up? they play a melody...

[conmee]

DLNat-

Indeed, this wasn't very good. For a session like this, you need to ease in and find a bit of a groove, before going straight to some convoluted mismash of your own (EVH's) signature sounds... Outside the context of his own work, I've never been super impressed with Edward's ability to seamlessly join in with other musicians (at least not for any length of time) ad hoc/impromptu and come across not being just a caricature of himself. I want to say, "Bro, you can just relax, you don't have to be THE EVH, just be a cool dude guitar player." I think another example, was it the Les Paul or something tribute (?) that he was hanging out with a bunch of greats and then he did his standard bendy/twisty/tappy stuff. Look, obviously, don't NOT be yourself, but man, a jam session musician Edward is not.

That is all.

Icon©®™

[atlantakat]

A couple of thoughts:

1. It is wonderful to be reminded of the days when Edward was secure enough about his chops to jump into the deep end of the guitar pool and play out of his comfort zone. And getting up and jamming with Allan Holdworth, Jeff Berlin et al at a GIT show is the deepest end possible at that time short of trying to improv with the Romero brothers or DeLucia/DiMeola/McLaughlin. Too bad that Ed got murdered in Musician Magazine after a similar one-off with Steve Morse and Alvin Lee (yet another real deep end gig). I don't recall Ed ever trying another jazz oriented session in public after that article. Small aside, I talked with Steve Morse at a workshop shortly after the article came out and Steve said Ed played great, he appreciated and admired Ed taking a risk and thought the article was totally unfair.

2. Ed is playing over some tonally ambiguous changes and therefore sounds "outside" much of the time but so does Holdsworth. Allan plays in a free form horn-like style blowing tons of extremely fast legato figures that do not conform to diatonic scales or modes. Some people dig Holdsworth, some find his playing too esoteric and too dense. Given the context of the jam, I think Ed more than held his own.

3. This is a jam that would have been transcendant live in the early 80s (particularly with a bit of a buzz on) but does not translate very well as an audio clip 30 years after the fact. As a guitarist, I for one would have been fascinated watching Ed use two hands on the neck to emulate what Holdsworth does with his left hand in real time. It sounds to me that Ed was really trying to keep up in a jazz idiom and was not just relying on recycled tricks for the n'th time.

In short, the fingers were flying that night and Ed was pushing his boundaries and taking chances. I would have loved to have been there.

[flappo]

sounds like a car crash in slow motion

[Diamondjimi]

EVH= VERY high and in way over his head.

Definitely inspired around this time by Holdsworth. You can hear it on the ending jam on Drop Dead Legs.
But Ed seemed to run out of ideas quickly on this one and fell back on his usual tricks/techniques .

[jhale667]

EVH= VERY high and in way over his head.

Definitely inspired around this time by Holdsworth. You can hear it on the ending jam on Drop Dead Legs.
But Ed seemed to run out of ideas quickly on this one and fell back on his usual tricks/techniques .

I remember when I was a kid hearing about this, my then guitar teacher ALSO said EVH was "in way over his head" which would've offended me, but my teacher was one of the only two dudes in town that could play Holdsworth's solo from UK's "In the Dead of Night", so I figured he knew what he was talking about...






:guitar:

[ThrillsNSpills]

..............

[ThrillsNSpills]

This is for anyone who wants to hear Holdsworth's style in a rock format. (right channel)

[atlantakat]

Thanks Thrills. I had not heard the Watson track before.

I like Allan's heavier tone on that one. He sounds more than a bit like Eric Johnson in places!

[L13]

ed has said in the past"it takes me 2 hands to cop half of what holdsworth does with one"