His playing blew the minds of Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen, while his improvisation was up there with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker – here’s how Allan Holdsworth reinvented the way we approach the electric guitar

Allan Holdsworth frets a chord on his headless electric guitar, onstage in Spain, 2006. A white stage light illuminates the right-hand side of his face.

In the evolution of fusion guitar, Allan Holdsworth’s contribution can only be compared to that of Jimi Hendrix’s role in the foundation of rock guitar, and Django Reinhardt’s in the development of the instrument in the jazz world.

Holdsworth essentially reinvented the instrument through numerous aspects of his approach: through his fretboard concept which involved seeing every available note across the guitar neck at a glance, free of positions and fingering but also, crucially, in his harmonic concepts.