Willie’s Knee

Soft Works: Elton Dean (alto sax, Fender Rhodes), Allan Holdsworth (electric and synthesized guitar), Hugh Hopper (electric bass) and John Marshall (drums). From the album Abracadabra (2003).

In 2002, Holdsworth joined Soft Works with former Soft Machine members Elton Dean on alto sax and Fender Rhodes, Hugh Hopper on electric bass and John Marshall on drums, and released Abracadabra in 2003. In addition, his albums recorded live All Night Wrong (2002) and Then! (2003), and the compilation double album The Best of Allan Holdsworth: Against the Clock (2005), went on sale. In the second half of the 2000s he toured extensively throughout Europe and the United States, and was invited to play on albums by numerous artists, such as Mythology (2004) by keyboardist Derek Sherinian and Quantum (2007) by progressive metal supergroup Planet X.

Other collaborations include Conversation Piece - Part 1 & 2 (2001), again with jazz pianist Gordon Beck; Propensity with bassist Danny Thompson and drummer John Stevens, recorded in 1978, but published in 2009; and DVD Live at Yoshi’s (2007) and double album Blues for Tony (2009) with jazz pianist Alan Pasqua, electric bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Chad Wackerman, which contains a live performance in 2006 as a tribute to the extraordinary drummer Tony Williams. In 2015 Holdsworth started a campaign with PledgeMusic (an independent online platform) to promote new songs, which became the 2016 album Tales From The Vault.

In 2017 the recopilatory double album Eidolon and the 12 CD box set The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever! went on sale, in which all his solo albums are collected plus extra material. Allan Holdsworth died that same year at the age of 70 from heart disease. He left a large number of disciples of his technique and style, such as Neal Schon, Yngwie Malmsteen, Alex Lifeson, Tom Morello, John Petrucci, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and Gary Moore. Robben Ford said of him that he was the John Coltrane of the guitar, and John McLaughlin, that he copied from his way of playing everything he could.