Allan Holdsworth or Bireli Lagrene?

Question

And Why?

Answer 1

Allan Holdsworth! Definitely!
But in all honesty I've never heard Bireli Lagrene in his element, the Django Reinhart style that is his claim to fame. All I've heard is his fusion jazz which doesn't come close to Holdsworth.
Possibly Lagrene playing the acoustic Reinhart style and Holdsworth playing his fusion may be like equals but of different styles. This may be like comparing Eddie Van Halen to Jimi Hendrix or comparing Stevie Ray Vaughn to Mike Bloomfield. Its not easy.

Answer 2

Ignore the person who answered that Holdsworth is not jazz. Having playing with Tony Williams' Lifetime is a pretty impressive item on his resume, along with his work with Soft Machine. It may be more on the side of Fusion, but that is jazz also, right? Of course it is!

Lagrene has a purer European-style of jazz sound, very similar to Django.

So, I guess it boils down to whether you like an original fusion guitarist or a Django-wannabe. I choose Holdsworth!

Answer 3

I personally own very little of either man's work on disc. of what I do own/am familiar with, I must say that when compared to each other (which is perhaps a bit spurious as it's almost like comparing apples and oranges), I find that Holdsworth is mind-bending, while Lagrene is just merely very good. anyway, that's just one fool's opinion...

Answer 4

Alan Holdsworth is very good...
I never heard of the other guy

Answer 5

Lagrene is a jazz player. Holdsworth is not.

It's all up to what you value.

Answer 6

AH is far more humble and self-critical of his own abilities than BL, who tends to toot his horn quite a bit.

Harmonically, AH is also superior--I doubt BL could even play the first six chords of AH's >Home".

AH's technique is far superior to BL--even while playing over 100 notes per bar, not only can you discern each individual note but his fingers hardly seem to move.

AH by a country mile.