User:CalmonTellechea/sandbox

Al di Meola

• [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

• Facebook: [11][12][13][14][15][16]
• Instagram: [17]

Billboard

• Where Have I Have Seen You Before (1974): [18][19][20][21][22][23][24].
• No Mystery (1975): [25][26][27].
• Romantic Warrior (1976): Debuting at #170, Romantic Warrior peaked at #35 on May 1975, spending 3 weeks on the Billboard Top 40 and a total of 15 weeks on Billboard 200. The album went on to win a gold RIAA certification on May 24th, 1990 for selling an excess of 500,000 copies.

Sadly, Romantic Warrior was the swansong of the "classic" RtF line-up. Chick Corea, "out of the blue", announced he was dissolving the group, leaving the other members stunned with the news.

[28] [29]

History

1970s

I mostly practiced what [Robert Aslanian] showed me, and although there were little groups here and there, I never really made it in any rock bands at the time. I was sort of rejected by a lot of friends of mine and people in the area because my style was so different. To be accepted you had to play like Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, and I couldn't - not that I didn't wanto to. And even though I listened to that music a lot and I really liked it, I found that due to my traing I couldn't play it. When I tied that style it came out sounding weird - only because I would use all four of my fingers; I played scale-like lines, instead of rock riffs. At that time, it wasn't accepted. Later on, I suppose it became the "in" thing or the new thing.

First Return to Forever gig: [30].

Pidgeonholed. [31] - 20:08

While going thru some old stuff, we just found the movie script of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Al was offered a role, flew to LA to meet with the producers but then turned it down to record "Casino" instead... Al: "My intuition was telling me this movie will be an instant flop! The choice of director was known for a movie called "Car Wash" He had no clue about the integrity of the Beatles catalog! My gut said this is not going to ever work!"

Jazz rock faced considerable backlash in the late 1970s. A Rolling Stone piece criticized everything; from deeming Miles Davis' creation of fusion a cash grab, to calling ECM's roster "somniferous" and accusing Herbie Hancock of mining funk dry. Fusion musicians were also distancing themselves from the genre. John McLaughlin declared in 1978 that fusion "bores me to tears; it just doesn't go anywhere." The "godfather of fusion" himself, Larry Coryell, was critical of his creation. Regarding the state of affairs of fusion circa late 1970s, Coryell said:

What happened, in my opinion, was that guitar playing just got too fast, [...] and it also got highly competitive. For years I thought, "All I want to do is become the number one-rated guitarist in DownBeat by the time I'm 30." It was that whole adolescent attitude, placing more importance on the arriving than on the striving. Everything just got so intense.

1980s

Airto Moreira was part of Davis' personnel on the double-LP Bitches Brew (1970) and the live albums Miles Davis at Fillmore (1970), Live-Evil (1971) and Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West (1973). After his brief stint with Miles he was recruited by Chick Corea, along with wife/singer Flora Purim. They exhibited their talents on Corea's Return to Forever (1972) solo album and RtF's debut, Light as a Feather (1973).

[32][33].

1990s

A fase "argentina" de Al Di Meola. Later on, he released a tribute album to argentinian nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

Kiss My Axe (April 5th, 1991)

What instruments are you currently playing?

On Kiss My Axe, I'm back to playing my '58 Les Paul with new custom pick-ups made by Steve Blucher at DiMarzio. The other main guitar is my Gibson 175 - a late-'50s model. I use a custom Abe Wechter acoustic on a couple of tracks. It's a beautiful instrument. I told him to make me the best-sounding guitar he's ever made, and not to send it to me until he really feels it. It took him close to a year. And I can't leave out my Paul Reed Smith - the only hollowbody he's ever made. It's very thin; it looks like a regular solidbody, but it's hollow. I primarily use it with my Roland GR-50 guitar synth setup.

How did you record your guitar tracks?

World Sinfonia (November 19th, 1991)

World Sinfonia, released later that year, was deemed a "radical departure" from Al Di Meola's "typical" fusion sound. The guitarist somewhat described it as world music structured like a classical chamber ensemble, with "jazz harmonic [...] improvisational elements running throughout".

While incorporating his perennial love for latin rhythms, World Sinfonia is "heavily" "steeped" in tango. Al Di Meola [...] is heavily into tango. World Sinfonia, one of Al's two recent albums, is steeped in tango. "Tango is strongly connected to my Italian roots. It originated in Napoli; it's very passionate. My parentes are Napolitano, so it's similar to the music I grew up with". Through Argentinian nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

This music conjures up images from diferent parts of the planet. It incorporates the finer points of jazz harmonic improvisation with Third World elements - Latin rhythms, sounds from Argentina, and even Middle Eastern overtones. Yet the structure is classical. In a way, it's a modern chamber ensemble with improvisational elements running throughout.

How did you get involved with tango?

Through [Argentinian composer] Astor Piazzolla, the father of modern tango. His music was a major discovery that touched my heart, made me cry. Knowing Astor opened up a big door, both musically and personally. We met in '85 while playing festivals in Japan with our respective groups and subsequently became very good friends. He sent me a piece of music, the Tango Suite, which is on the album. It's extremely challenging to peform: The chart was forty-some pages long. The suite has three movements; I had to leave out the whole second section or it would have been too long for the record. You hear Parts I and III, primarily.

Was it hard to adapt the music to your band?

I completely rearranged some sections and added some music as well. On the recording, I opened up the areas for improvisation. I opened up areas for improvisation. I wanted this rendition of Tango Suite to be a tribute to Astor, who experienced a stroke in August 1990. We once talked of playing together; it's impossible now.

• [34]

2000s

• [35]
• [36]
• [37]

2010s

Álbum do The Beatles, de 2013. Entrevista à revista Roadie Crew: [38].

2020s

• Al Di Meola, a new signature series: the 1769 acoustic guitar model from Ovation: [39][40][41]
• Álbum: Across the Universe (2020), the same title as the song from Let It Be (1970). [42]. He used the Ovation on his version of "Strawberry Fields Forever".

A Fine Taste and Music

He also, apparently, makes a mean pasta, as he demonstrated in 2020 with his A Fine Taste and Music house events, whereby fans were able to visit Al at his New Jersey home for a night of great food (his specialty: “Cavatelli alla Di Meola”), wine and conversation, as well as intimate, one-on-one performances, guitar lessons and a chance to check out and play Di Meola’s collection of instruments…and possibly even go home with one. “My whole life is on display at the house,” Di Meola says. "So when people come over for dinner, they wind up getting a tour of my world.” "It was a Sunday in August, and I had a friend and his wife over at the house. My wife normally makes dinner and I said, 'Why don’t you let me cook up something really special? One of my special Italian dishes.' I was feeling real good, had a couple glasses of wine, it was a beautiful day. So I’m in the kitchen, I’m adding all these ingredients to the pasta and I was a little tipsy and I said to my wife, 'You know what? Just for the fun of it, start livestreaming.' She said, 'What?' And I said, 'Yeah, let’s do it.' "And all of a sudden we had people checking in from all over the world – from Africa, from Asia, from South America, one after the other. And I made a joke as I was doing it, I said, “If you like what you see you can come here, live in person! I’ll cook and we can talk and we can have dinner together…” "And all of a sudden we had people checking in from all over the world – from Africa, from Asia, from South America, one after the other. And I made a joke as I was doing it, I said, “If you like what you see you can come here, live in person! I’ll cook and we can talk and we can have dinner together…”

"I was just joking when I said it, but then afterward we read the comments and people were saying, 'Wow, what will that take? How much will that cost?' At first we thought, 'This is crazy…' But then then it became, 'Well, maybe after dinner we go downstairs and I play a private show…'

"So my wife conceived three different plans, one was dinner, one was dinner and a show, and the best package, the diamond package, that included dinner and a show, plus you get a lesson, a jam session, a signed guitar…and you get to pick the guitar. I thought, this is so unique, so original. I don’t know anybody else in the world that does this."

Experiencing a one-on-one concert is a pretty cool feature. What’s in the setlist?

"I play a combination of things, but mostly I play a lot of new stuff that I’ve been writing. Then I’ll go into maybe a couple of Beatles songs, because that was my last record [2020’s Across the Universe]. And then some things from previous albums. But I’m always playing some new stuff, because it’s a chance for me to try out material in front of diehard fans. And the fans get the first shot at hearing it."

You also put your guitar collection on display for you guests. Does that include the famous instruments, like your black Les Paul Custom?

"Oh, yeah. The ’71, which weighs about 400 pounds. [laughs] That’s the one I started using with Chick Corea. Which I’m selling, by the way, for the right price. And then I have a ‘59 Les Paul that was originally a sunburst, but when I got it I didn’t realize what I had and I had Gibson paint it black. That’s the one I used on [1991’s] Kiss My Axe."

So the black Les Paul you’re holding on the cover of Kiss My Axe is actually a ’59 burst?

"Yes. And you can also see my playing it in its original form in older photos. One was actually the cover of Guitar World. The only cover I was on! This goes back to the 1800s. [The issue in question is actually Guitar World November 1980.]"

Musical style

Picking technique

Besides the daunting speed and spotless accuracy of his alternate picking, another hallmark of Al di Meola's style is his palm muting. In an interview to Rick Beato, di Meola explained how he developed and practiced this technique: "[...] when I was younger, and the neighbors downstairs in the next yard, I didn't really want them to hear me play. So I would mute my strings. So I got kind of got used to the palm on the bridge and muting. But I also liked the fact that the notes popped".

You can spend a lifetime playing with the "thinking" process of what scale to put against what chord, but I am not into analyzing at this point. I prefer to play by feelings. I am aware that if you were to analyze my playing, you would find elements of the phrygian, dorian, myxolydian, and locrian modes. But when I play, I don't have to think that technically.

Guitar solos

"To answer that, I have to look back to my early days playing fusion in the ’70s. My electric solos were so often based on the static harmony—a single chord, like E minor or A minor, for a long period of time—that was so popular then. There wasn’t much I could do on that one chord except build up to the sort of highly technical, velocity-laden type of climax that audiences ate up. It was certainly exciting at the time, but I’ve come to appreciate a lot more harmonic movement in music, as well as strong balance—a good combination of space and lyricism, with speed and technique thrown in there at the appropriate moments. How I play the electric guitar has as much to do with my focusing on the acoustic guitar—where every little nuance is important—as it does simply evolving as a musician. I can now say more with an interesting progression or a syncopated rhythm than with a barrage of notes at high volume" [43].

Al di Meola's soloing style evolved through time. Early in his career, his solos generally relied upon tonal harmony. A single chord, like E minor or A minor, for a long period of time that was so popular in the ’70s. In this tonal harmony... "There wasn’t much" to do, he said, "except" to "build up to the sort of highly technical, velocity-laden type of climax that audiences ate up." "It was certainly exciting at the time", tough he grew to appreciate modal harmony.

Playing on one string. Breaking the habit of playing in one position. [22:08]

Linear soloing. Playing scales horizontally. Single-string patterns. In other words, di Meola's suggests a surefire strategy to break free of the so-called pentatonic "box" or shape.

"Al di Meola has long been admired by guitarists for his tremendous right hand picking technique." [26:22-26:26]

Legacy

Al di Meola made an impression on a whole generation of hard rock and heavy metal "guitar heros". The list includes neoclassical legend Yngwie Malmsteen, Mr. Big's Paul Gilbert, Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt, Dream Theater's John Petrucci and former Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde.

• Zakk Wylde: [44].

Guitar World magazine included Al di Meola on their top 50 fastest "shredders" of all time list, alongside other luminaries such as Jason Becker, Buckethead, Marty Friedman, Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth, Richie Kotzen, Shawn Lane, Jeff Loomis, Vinnie Moore, Steve Morse, Randy Rhoads, Uli Jon Roth, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Gary Moore and Zakk Wylde.

Celtic Frost

Into the Pandemonium (1987)

Helpful links

• [45]. 23:12, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Temporary texts

A major problem the band faced during the album's 4-month production was finding the proper producers and engineers for the task.

Another facet of Celtic Frost's radical marriage between high and low culture showed up on the lyrical department.

"Pulling the plug" on tour support, video support and other marketing costs.

189.82.170.187 (talk) 13:49, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Death-doom

History

Early days

• Dream Death.
• Autopsy.
• Paradise Lost.
• Another major player was New York's Winter, which originally came from the unlikely punk background.
• Cathedral.

The "Peaceville Three"

My Dying Bride and Anathema.

Death-doom worldwide

By the early 1990s, death-doom groups sprang all over Europe. Notable examples being Sweden (Katatonia), Finland (Amorphis, Funeral, Theatre of Tragedy), The Netherlands (Celestial Season), Australia (diSEMBOWELMENT, Paramaecium) and the USA (November's Doom). From these, Amorphis was probably the most commercially sucessful. Their sophomore album, 1994's Tales from the Thousand Lakes, sold an excess of 400,000 records worldwide.

Later developments

The dustbin of history. By the late 1990s, most of the original death-doom groups either disbanded or moved away from the style. Amorphis, Anathema and The Gathering being dabbling with psych rock and prog. Others eschewed the romantic aesthetic of the "Peaceville Three" and moved into the darker waters of funeral doom, maintaing true the death-doom's original, lugubrous tone.

Funeral doom

I was reviewing the changes you made on the text of the article, and I'd like to make some comments. Dirge music. Actually, dirge music is not only a specific form of funeral music, but it's also a specific English form of funeral music. Also, from a specific band - in this case, Skepticism.

Gangrena Gasosa

Links

• [46]: No começo, essa história de “saravá metal” era para desviar a atenção de que ninguém tocava bem. Era uma coisa para causar aquele impacto visual, que fosse brasileira e que fizesse sentido para a galera do subúrbio do Rio de Janeiro. No final da década de 1980 e início de 1990, o subúrbio do Rio de Janeiro era um despacho [oferenda] a cada esquina. Onde eu morava, pelo menos, tinha muito despacho na rua, era bem difundido, e todo mundo que era religioso ia na igreja. Então, esse ambiente do cultismo, que faz todo sentido dentro do heavy metal, desviava a atenção de que ninguém tocava bem. O primeiro impacto foi bacana, só que tinha gente dentro da banda que tinha os pais evangélicos, e estava começando a se cristalizar o neopentecostalismo americano no Brasil. Mesmo a banda fazendo isso só na galhofa, já foi capa da Folha Universal mais de uma vez, lá no comecinho da década de 1990. São suburbanos com mestiços e negros na banda e que não se prendiam só ao rock. De dureza, que não tinha grana.

• [47]: Gangrena Gasosa prepara disco via crowdfunding e mostra músicas novas em show no Rio.

Early days

The poverty-stricken suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.

1993-1995

• [48]: O primeiro trabalho do grupo foi “Welcome to Terreiro”, lançado em 1993. O CD trazia músicas que logo chamaram a atenção dos fãs de metal brasileiro, como “Exu Noise Terror” e “Troops of Olodum”, uma “paródia”, digamos assim, da música “Troops of Doom”, do Sepultura. Em 1996 foi lançado a demo, sem trocadilhos, “Cambonos From Hell”, outro paralelo, desta vez com o disco “Comboys From Hell”, do Pantera. No ano 2000 a banda gravou o CD “Smells Like a Tenda Espírita”, outra brincadeira, desta vez com a música “Smells like teen spirit”, do Nirvana. Nesse disco está a singela canção “Centro do Pica-Pau Amarelo”, onde a letra faz com que todos os personagens do livro de Monteiro Lobato virem uma entidade de Umbanda.

• [49]: O que mais chama a atenção, no som do grupo, é a mescla de death metal, black metal, punk, hardcore e outros gêneros musicais, aliados à batida inconfundível da macumba brasileira. Angelo explica como foi criado o “conceito” do saravá metal. “Surgiu da vontade de aproximar os ‘camisas pretas’ brasileiros do ocultismo da sua própria terra. Para que louvar os demônios ‘from Hell’, de raízes gringas se, aqui no Brasil, temos um leque infinito de entidades que fazem parte do nosso dia-a-dia?”, conta.

Musical style

• [50]: Gangrena Gasosa, from the start, exhibited a wide variety of influences. Apart from homegrown acts Sepultura, Ratos de Porão and Mystifier, Arede ("Zé Pilintra") also points out that thrash (Slayer), crossover (S.O.D.), death metal, grindcore (namely Anal Cunt and Brutal Truth) and industrial metal (Ministry, Fear Factory, Nailbomb) were part of their listening habits.

Assorted punk/hardcore units were, initially, their main inspiration. Brazillian side, jazz multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and controversial samba composer Bezerra da Silva.

• [51]: O TOP 10 entre a gente atualmente é BRUJERIA, HELMET e SLAYER (“Reing in Blood”).

Themes

Supernatural agents are typical themes of heavy metal. It was the first brazilian heavy metal band to incorporate Umbanda and Quimbanda themes in their presentation and lyrics, which immediately caused a huge impact. Parents... And neopentecostal. Where the cover... For... Brazil's biigest neopencostal church.

There was a yearning to... Brazilian metalheads... Instead of focusing on their native magic and occult traditions.

Jan Akkerman

Musical style and influences

Classical music has been a perennial influence on Akkerman's oeuvre. In his own words "what I've essentially done since childhood" is to "turn classical music into blues." He spoke highly of classical guitarist and lutenist Julian Bream. Here's some examples:

• His third solo album, Tabernakel (1973).
• The title track of Focus'es fourth album, Hamburger Concerto (1974), incorporates "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" by Johannes Brahms.
• His 1977 "easy listening" album, Aranjuez, features compositions by Joaquin Rodrigo, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Gasper Sanz and Maurice Ravel.

Jimi Hendrix

Jazz fusion

Hendrix was fundamental to the inception of jazz-rock, aka fusion. Larry Coryell, considered the "godfather" of the genre. Hendrix and Eric Clapton were the two "guitar gods" that inspired him to initially mix jazz, country and rock 'n' roll. Miles Davis. Former Davis sideman and Mahavishnu Orchestra leader John McLaughlin said Jimi was a "revolutionary", a musician that "turned the world on its ear. He had the most profound effect, and lasting effect, because the effect of Jimi Hendrix on guitar players is with us still today. And he changed the course of rock music, and blues, and pop music." Another Davis sideman, Return to Forever leader and keyboardist Chick Corea, said he grew up listening to John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix, which defined his musical path. [52][53][54][55]

John McLaughlin

Birds of Fire

Challenging compositions. Devices and technique. Features odd time signatures, changing tempos midsong, weird chords. The Birds of Fire title track uses a 9/4 meter, and played at a fast tempo: 192 beats per minute. It's main riff is built upon two rapidly arpeggiated, alternating chords: A#b9#11 and G#7#9b13. In the middle of the song it changes the BPM, slowing it down to 162.

Criticism

Although a successful and critically acclaimed artist, McLaughlin's rapid-fire alternate picking and unorthodox note choices drew some criticism, especially in the 1970s. Frank Zappa, who toured with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in May 1973, made some back-handed compliments to the English player. Former Deep Purple and Rainbow leader Ritchie Blackmore, a notoriously abrasive character, also critiqued his and friend Carlos Santana's playing. In an interview to Cameron Crowe, Blackmore stated:

“ People must be completely sick of guitar solos by now. I think my solos are better than the others, without being conceited, but still, if I wasn’t a musician I’d be bored stiff. [...]. The guitar has become too trendy. People like John McLaughlin... he’s a jazz guitarist who thought that playing with a fuzz would make him a rock ‘n roller. He leaves me cold. He’s influencing a lot of people, though, whereas the (Carlos) Santana guy is just plain rotten. I don’t why he’s got such a name. ”

McLaughlin himself disavowed jazz-rock in 1978, calling it boring. "It bores me to tears; it just doesn't go anywhere."

• "Electric Etudes: John McLaughlin": [56]
• "My whole life has been dedicated to music. And of course, I’ve been accused a million times of playing too fast or too many notes, and I’m sure justifiably sometimes": [57]

In their 25th anniversary edition, Guitar Player magazine... "25 Who the Shook the World", naming McLaughlin for the short list. McLaughlin was one of 25 "musicians who have [...] forever altered the way we play and think about our instrument".

Jimmy Page: "Well, I did meet—not at this point, he wasn't working there at this time—but later on I was to go in there and meet John McLaughlin, who was working in there. He came down from [Doncaster], and he was living in London. He was sort of introducing himself on to the jazz scene and welcomed with open arms, as you can imagine. He was instinctively the best, I could tell. I didn't listen to a lot of jazz—or it was selective, what I listened to—but I could tell from what I knew that he was easily the best that I was gonna hear [laughs] or witness in front of me. He was the best one I was going to see, that's for sure. He was working there, really, to practice all week, because the only day that was busy was Saturday. That's what he said. Fantastic! This bloke knows what he's doing and he knows where he's going" [58].

Kirk Hammett: "John McLaughlin is my kind of guy. He is spiritual. He meditates. He does yoga. He’s a vegetarian. Boom!" [59].

• [60].

Bibliography

• "25th Annual Guitar Player Readers Poll Awards". Guitar Player. Vol. 26, no. 2. San Francisco, CA. February 1992. pp. 103–106. ISSN 0017-5463.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• "Down Beat's 37th Annual Readers Poll". DownBeat. Vol. 39, no. 21. Chicago, IL. 21 December 1972. pp. 14–18. ISSN 0012-5768.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• Ferguson, Jim (January 1992). "25 Players Who Shook the World: John McLaughlin". Guitar Player. Vol. 26, no. 1. San Francisco, CA. pp. 19, 79–80, 134. ISSN 0017-5463.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• Resnicoff, Matt (April 1996). "John McLaughlin fulfills the promise". Guitar Player. Vol. 30, no. 4. San Francisco, CA. pp. 92–95, 97–98, 100, 102. ISSN 0017-5463.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• Menn, Don; Stern, Chip (August 1978). "John McLaughlin: after Mahavishnu and Shakti, a return to electric guitar". Guitar Player. Vol. 12, no. 8. San Francisco, CA. pp. 40–42, 114–123. ISSN 0017-5463.

Larry Coryell

Origins

• [24:54]
• Q: Is is true when you started out and... In Texas the first band was a rock 'n' roll band? It was rock 'n' roll music?
• A: Yes.
• Q: Was it the music you enjoyed or was it only part from going...
• A: Well, it actually wasn't in Texas. It was in another state. I had moved. Uh... And I... Enjoyed Chuck Berry's guitar playing, because I had been a big fan of the rock 'n' roll singer Gene Vincent. Do you remember him?
• Q: Yes, yes!
• A: And I asked... Very long... Oh shit! He, uh... I asked him who his favorite guitar player was, and he said: "Chuck Berry". And, uh... Then I bought a Chuck Berry record and I tried to learn... And of course, years later I realized that Chuck Berry was influenced by Charlie Christian. And, uh...
• Q: Another fantastic player.
• A: We had a lot of fun playing, uh, in rock 'n' roll bands, because that was the music of our generation. But as soon as I heard, uh... Jazz... I was completely... In a dream. OK, rock 'n' roll was nice, but this other stuff... I can learn a rock 'n' roll song in one minute, but it would take me a lifetime to learn jazz.

• [26:41]
• Q: Piano.

1960s

"I could write thousands of pages about the importance of Jimi Hendrix's music to me. I agree with Eric Clapton, who once told me that Jimi had 'strong fingers' - he sure knew how to shake them strings. I have many fond memories of watching Hendrix play."

"The first time I saw him, I was with Danny Kalb at The Scene in New Yok, around 1967, when he had just hit the top with Axis: Bold As Love. Most of Jimi's equipment wasn't working that night, and though I was very impressed by him, I was more amazed by Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. As a matter of fact, that was the best I ever heard any bass player or drummer sound for that idiom. The first time I saw Jimi when he really got it on was at a jam session with drummer Buddy Miles - they were just doing their thing and Jimi's true creative magic hapenned."

"Jimi was very conscious of being in tune. He was the most incredible natural musician up to that time. He didn't know the names for the truly advanced musical forms he created, but he didn't need to know them - that's for the academicians. To my knowledge, he hadn't had classical or any other kind pf training, yet he had the talent of someone like Stravinsky or Berg. Actually, it's not very good to compare. There was nobody like Jimi Hendrix."

"Starting with that strength in the hands, Hendrix branched out into areas where previous blues and rock players had never ventured, especially in the processing of his sound through pedals, like wah and distortion, and also just the sheer volume of the wall of Marshalls that he plugged into."

He pointed out that Hendrix's use of guitar pedals, such as the wah-wah and fuzz pedals, were also revolutionary.

"My problem, my challenge, back in 1966-1967, was to digest all this loudly amplified pentatonic-scale music coming from the likes of Clapton and Hendrix and somehow combine that with other important influences to create my own style. I wanted to find a concept that would infuse the fresh, contemporary sounds of rock and pop with the jazz tradition."

Legacy

Coryell had a sizable impact on other fusion players, such as Jan Akkerman, and especially Al Di Meola. The latter elaborates on Coryell's influence, acknowledging that his "unique approach" gave him the "confidence to continue in my direction." Hearing Coryell and other jazz musicians play live in NYC not only was "a real thrill", but also a "turning point."

Links

• [61][62]

Ritchie Blackmore

Influences

• "So I decided to gravitate more toward the ballads and Medieval/Renaissance music, which of course has been my favorite music since 1972." [63]

• "My biggest influences were Vanilla Fudge and Mountain. I remember Ian Paice and I were out for a drink in a bar in Germany, in 1970 I think it was, and we were pretty pleased with our record In Rock, and they were playing it. And then this other record came on, and we didn't know who it was, but it was such an amazing, big, hard sound. We looked at each other very nervously and thought, "Who the hell is that?" We asked the DJ and it was Mountain, with "Mississippi Queen," and that thundered!" [64]

• "When they did "Can't Explain" that was an eye-opener. When I heard "My Generation," with that feedback, I thought it was wonderful. A guitarist would do a solo and have a feedback part. Whereas I used to do sessions, and heaven forbid, if I came up with any feedback, I was thrown out of the studio. I knew [drummer] Keith Moon a little bit. I always liked his antics. Very, very funny, great man he was. He would make me cry laughing all time." [65]

• "I always loved watching Keith perform. I was a big fan of the Nice [the group Emerson was in before joining ELP]. We used to play the rounds together back in '68, '69. To me, he was one of the best showmen and players. A very nice guy. I always liked watching him. Some of the favorite frontmen would be Freddie Mercury [of Queen], Ian Anderson [of Jethro Tull], obviously Jimi Hendrix and Keith Emerson. People like that were so good at doing the show as well as playing the music." [66]

• [67].
• [68].
• [69].

Blues origins

This remained a prominent feature in his riffs, melodies and solos throughout the Deep Purple and Rainbow years. His playing show typical techniques of the style: hammer-on and pull-offs, string bending. Particularly Eric Clapton, with the use of quarter-tone bends. His approach to blues wasn't typical... Although he wasn't a typical blues player. Natural minor scale.

Rhythm guitar

Blackmore is also known for unapolegectly borrowing riffs from other artist's music:

• "Mandrake Root" was inspired by Hendrix's...

The trend constinued in Rainbow...

Guitar soloing

Along with his classical leanings (exotic scales, pedal point, circle of 4rths), Blackmore's solos include contrasting long and staccato notes, repeating string bends, arpeggio fragments.

Blackmore is also known for switching between scales in the same solo. Such a change can be seen in the "Burn" solo. Blackmore starts the solo, at bar x, with a G major scale. He then proceeds to change to the G Blues scale (bar xx) and on bar xxx, switches to G minor.

His agressive use of the whammy bar. He was originally inspired by... Hendrix. To a point he was constantly snapping the tremolo bars. Just "went crazy" to a point that he was constantly snapping the tremolo bars.

• [70]
• [71]

Legacy

For his part Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who praised Blackmore on numerous occasions, highlighted that his "wild stage presence" led him to buy Deep Purple's Fireball, his first album ever. The drummer also claimed that the guitarist's riffs from his time with Rainbow had a significant impact on Metallica. Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen acknowledged having been early on influenced by Blackmore; during his childhood he learned to play Fireball in its entirety. He even dressed like him onstage. Malmsteen also hired three Rainbow vocalists for his band; Joe Lynn Turner, Graham Bonnet and Doogie White.

Sepultura

Chaos A.D. (1993)

• [72][73][74][75][76]
• [77]
• [78]
• [79]

Roots (1996)

• [80][81][82][83].

Shred guitar

Shred guitar aka Shredding is a style of virtuosistic electric guitar playing, closely tied to the hard rock and heavy metal genres. It was born out of amalgam of British blues, jazz rock/fusion, Neoclassical metal and it's own, mostly novel, niche-specific stylings and techniques, such as tapping, whammy bar "dive bombs", sweep picking, pinch harmonics and such. It reached peak popularity in the 1980s, and then suffered sharp decline after the alternative rock explosion of the early 1990s. What "shred" meant changed with time, now being applied to players from genres such as jazz and bluegrass.

Origins

Jazz fusion

Mahavishnu Orchestra founder and ex-Miles Davis sideman John McLaughlin was the first guitar played to use ultra-fast alternate picking. Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow (1975) had a definite influence on the instrumental rock guitar of the 1980s.

• [84]
• [85]

Decline

On January 1990 Guitar Player run a piece that inquired about the future of the instrument. The list of notables included Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Michael Hedges, among others, were asked to make predictions. To some, there was already a sense the shred movement might have gone stale. In a characteristically humorous tone, Zappa thought that "there's going to be more interest [...] in doing things other than playing scales real fast. I'm hoping that the new generation is going to be more interested in music and less interested in gymnastics, both physical and finger-wise".

Despite the ominous predictions, Steve Vai's sophomore album Passion and Warfare (1990) came out. Even more impressive was the track of Eric Johnson's sophomore album Ah Via Musicom (1990). It was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Joe Sartriani's The Extremist (1992) and the odds and sods Time Machine (1993) compilation also fared well, each earning a gold certification.

By the mid-1990s, though, after alternative rock went mainstream, there was a conscensus that shredding was done for. Though impressive, it was viewed mostly as souless noodling. The excess and the attitudes were also frowned upon. But alt-rock itself fizzled out by the late 1990s, mainly due to bland, MTV-friendly Nirvana clones and the rising popularity of “techno” (i. e., electronica) acts such as The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. “Techno became new rock”, wrote Matt Marshall for Rolling Stone magazine.

Metal, shredding’s most radio-friendly vehicle, also redefined it’s stance on virtuosity. Industrial metal, briefly touted as “the-next-big-thing” after alt rock… Despite being guitar-driven. Nu metal largely shunned guitar gymnastics. Creator Korn's innovative playing style, was closer to grunge's anti-shred ethos than Malmsteem's neoclassical work-outs.

"[In] the Nineties, as well, [...] many bands opted for the one-fingered simplicity of drop-D tunings."

The Future of the Guitar

Matt Resnicoff: The Future of the Guitar: Into the '90s (1990)

• "[Frank Zappa]: I think there's going to be more interest in learning how to read music, and in doing things other than playing scales real fast. I'm hoping that the new generation is going to be more interested in music and less interested in gymnastics, both physical and finger-wise" (RESNICOFF, 1990, p. 92)

• "[Michael Hedges]: The guitar is very valid for the future. Take whatever is happening now, lie the two-handed stuff, which is fairly new to the '80s. You get guys who are innovators, like Stanley Jordan and Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai, the whole guitar world goes crazy and does it, and the two-handed technique gets into its classical age. Then people get tired of it, and somebody has to break through to something new. It's really up to the composer" (RESNICOFF, 1990, p. 92)

• "[Robert Quine]: There's no way you can look at the 'future of guitar' without considering the overall music scene, which I do not relate to. There are very good players, like Bill Frisell - every record he comes out with has something that surprises me. But I keep looking to the overall 'rock scene,' and although the players are excellent in many respects, I simply don't relate to what they're doing. I'd like to see a movement back towards the more basic styles, away from where you go into Manny's on a Saturday afternoon, and there are four or five kids doing their Eddie Van Halen thing. Whatever the validity in what he did, in the hands of others it certainly has become a major cliché"(p. 93)

• "[Frank Zappa]: I think there's going to be more interest [...] in doing things other than playing scales real fast. I'm hoping that the new generation is going to be more interested in music and less interested in gymnastics, both physical and finger-wise" (RESNICOFF, 1990, p. 92)

• "[Michael Hedges]: The guitar is very valid for the future. Take whatever is happening now, lie the two-handed stuff, which is fairly new to the '80s. You get guys who are innovators, like Stanley Jordan and Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai, the whole guitar world goes crazy and does it, and the two-handed technique gets into its classical age. Then people get tired of it, and somebody has to break through to something new. It's really up to the composer" (RESNICOFF, 1990, p. 92)

• "[Robert Quine]: There's no way you can look at the 'future of guitar' without considering the overall music scene, which I do not relate to. There are very good players, like Bill Frisell - every record he comes out with has something that surprises me. But I keep looking to the overall 'rock scene,' and although the players are excellent in many respects, I simply don't relate to what they're doing. I'd like to see a movement back towards the more basic styles, away from where you go into Manny's on a Saturday afternoon, and there are four or five kids doing their Eddie Van Halen thing. Whatever the validity in what he did, in the hands of others it certainly has become a major cliché"(p. 93)

Shred is Dead

• "The player who started the whole speed thing was John McLaughlin".
• "The Return to Forever came around, and people started copying Di Meola".
• The first ones to play ultra-fast alternate picking were jazz rock pioneers John McLaughlin and Al di Meola, along with Allan Holdsworth and Steve Morse, then performing with the Dixie Dregs.
• While some might argue Kim's claim, no one disputes the revolutionary impact of Eddie Van Halen.
• Friedman is quick to single out Uli Roth as a vital influence, and many speed players have cited the fluid style of his Scorpions successor, Michael Schenker, as a critical European ingredient in the simmering shred stew. That European spice would come to full flavor in a young, edgy Swedish virtuoso name Yngwie Malmsteen.

Social media, especially Youtube channels and Instagram profiles, have been important in the shred revival. Some popular... Animals as Leaders. Bernth. Polyphia.

• A lot of the grunge guys just seem to be heavy metal players, which is what the shred guys are.
• Assuming that shred now does have a less central place in the media and in pop music culture, it is ever going to be big again?

It was still a commercial force to be reckoned with. The first G3 tour produced the successful G3: Live in Concert album, whose DVD...

Revival in the early 21st centry. [86]

The 100 greatest guitarists of all time. [87]

The Art of Shredding

• The eighties were a time of gloriously unashamed soloing and shredding excess. The metal world was dominated by players who were only too happy to stretch out in virtuoso efforts that not only took guitar playing to new realms but also inpsired others to reach for a higher level of musicianship.
• Then came the Nineties, a decade that was, for the most part, a lead-deprived wasteland. While the likes of Kirk Hammett, Zakk Wylde, Joe Sartriani. Stefve Vai, Marty Friedman, Dave Mustaine and Zakk Wylde were fighting to keep the sacred art of shred alive, most everyone else was doing their best bury it. Not playing lead guitar became a badge of honor.
• In truth, the Nineties were such a bad time for guitar solos thta just one true metal guitar hero emerged in that decade: Dimebag Darrell. At an Ozzfest several years ago, Zakk Wylde surveyed the names of bands on the tour and, turning to his pal Dime, said, "It looks like you and me are the only ones on this bill that can safely go from low E string to the high E and back again, bro." His comment speaks volumes about the state of shred in the post-Eighties music world.
• Rhythm chops suffered in the Nineties, as well, as many bands opted for the one-fingered simplicity of drop-D tunings. While simple riffs make up the majority of metal's most memorable, crushing motifs - from "Smoke on the Water" and "Paranoid" to "Walk" and "Man in the box" - it's nice to come across a challenging riff from time to time. But never have we had to wait so long.
• Well, my friends, we are glad to say that the wait is over. Thanks to a new breed of bands - including Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Trivium, Nevermore, Children of Bodom, Dragonforce, Shadows Fall, Mastodon, Opeth and Avenged Sevenfold - as well as seminal metal icons like Slayer and Megadeth, shredding is very much alive and kicking ass in 2007.
• Speed picking.
• Sweep picking is probably the most famous shred technique out there. Yngwie Malmsteen is its undisputed master and the guy who put it on the metal map.
• "Legato" is a fancy Italian musical term for "smooth." For shred guitarists, playing legato requires using numerous hammer-on and pull-off combinations to make lines sound as smooth as possible. Once again, there is no magic shortcut. Mastering this way of playing will take practice, and lots of it.
• With sweep arpeggios, diminished licks and Hungarian scales being tossed about, let's not forget the almighty minor pentatonic and blues scales.

Bibliography

• Bowcott, Nick (2017). "The art of shredding". Guitar World. Vol. 28, no. 1. New York, NY. pp. 62–64, 66, 68, 70, 72. ISSN 1045-6295.
• DiPerna, Alan (November 1993). "Shred on arrival". Guitar World. Vol. 14, no. 11. New York, NY. pp. 46–49, 59, 61, 64, 186, 189. ISSN 1045-6295.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• Prato, Greg (2017). Shredders: the oral history of speed guitar (and more) (First ed.). London: Jawbone Press. ISBN 9781911036210.
• Resnicoff, Matt (January 1990). "The future of the guitar". Guitar Player. Vol. 24, no. 1. Boulder, CO. pp. 90–95, 97–99. ISSN 0017-5463.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
• Rotondi, James (August 1993). "Is shred dead?". Guitar Player. Vol. 27, no. 284. Boulder, CO. pp. 30–32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44. ISSN 0017-5463.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: year (link)

Steve Morse

“ When I first heard Jimmy Page play... Was it "Communication Breakdown"? Where he had some busy solos. One of my friends had a magazine, [he] said: "Look, he practices nine hours a day and he picks every note!" [...] And so, I said: "I've got to try that." So I switched, then. I think it was 15. And I lost a lot of the soul and fluidity of my playing, but I kept at it, and I kept at it, and I kept at it, and I kept at it, and finally I started to get a breakthrough, where one day I could feel like, "Oh, wow! I think I can play this," you know, this really difficult thing and feel it, rather then struggling. ”

Once I saw John McLaughlin with Mahavishnu Orchestra doing Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and see them live at the University Music School. It was raining when they set up. So they moved in the cafeteria and I happened to be in the right place at the right time, getting my peanut butter sandwich from the cafeteria. They said, "They're going to be plating here in an hour and a half." So I sat there right in front of that Marshal stack. So I saw... That made a big impression, nut... He was picking everything. And then, later on, when I got to work with John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía and Al Di Meola, that brought up another whole notch of awareness, because [of] Al's super rhythmic, incredible playing, [and] Paco's flamenco playing with fingers and, of course, everything John did, you know, I was already [a] fan. That elevated my awareness.

Morse saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the University of Miami's cafeteria playing Inner Mounting Flame (1971) live. That "made a big impression." John McLaughlin "was picking everything."

TangoTizerWolfstone

Greetings! Thanks for your edits on the Into the Pandemonium article. The Chuck Eddy bits you added are interesting, especially the ones in the last paragraph of the Musical style section and first paragraph of the Legacy action. I'm not so sure about this, though:

“ Chuck Eddy deems the group to be "avant-gardy opportunists" who—having recognised that both disco and heavy metal's respective percussion elements "in fact makes the phyla kissing cousins"—effectively "go disco" on the record with the presence of specifically rhythm-based songs. ”

A band is being "oportunistic" when it's jumping on a bandwagon. You can say that about Cold Lake, that hair metal tragedy... But, in 1987, avantgarde metal was no bandwagon to jump. They would be following the herd if they played straight thrash metal - what suggested. And, for all intent and purposes, "One In their Pride" was a failed experiment. They were literally starving at that point (I'm going to include this in the article later).

And the phrase "having recognised that both disco and heavy metal's respective percussion elements 'in fact makes the phyla kissing cousins'" - Eddy seems to be describing industrial metal, and not Celtic Frost. Furthermore, there's no disco elements on Into the Pandemonium. The closest we get to disco might be "One In their Pride", which is way closer to Freestyle (example: Noel's "Silent Morning") than Donna Summer.

About the "specifically rhythm-based songs" - those same rythms were already present in CF's To Mega Therion (1985), but played considerably slower fashion. Some examples:

• This drum beat from Babylon Fell - Circle of the Tyrants
• This drumbeat from "Mesmerized" is a classic John Bonham pattern. Listen to Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times]]."

Tiamat

• Links: [88]. CalmonTellechea (talk) 22:04, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Xtras

Korn

Controversies the heavy metal community

Korn, from the onset, had a confrontational attitude towards the metal community. The band consciously and willingly / agressively defied the genre's conventions, from the music, to the lyrical themes to their dressing code. Even the band's characteristically low-tuned guitars, which might approximate the band to certain extreme metal subgenres. "We've always wanted that heavy, agressive sound of a detuned guitar without sounding like Carcass or those other death metal bands", remarked James "Munky" Schaffer.

The band were dead set...

Although have been tagged as rap metal... Korn insistently not ony denied that they weren't a metal band, but that they belonged to any particular genre of rock music. "We just only want to play heavy, man", said singer Jonathan Davis, saying metal was Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, not them.

Although Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante loved “Blind”, he adds: “I don’t think they knew they were opening the door for all these other shit bands to walk through.”

• [89].

Vocal Delivery

Whispered, whiny and all-out psychotic screaming. The death growls and the faux-operatic falsettos typical of traditional metal or the angry shooting of thrash metal. A possible inspiration for Davis' unique style of singing is the late Rozz Williams, former frontman of death rock pioneers Christian Death and Shadow Project.

Themes

Abuse. Again, the themes make it closer to the navel-gazing horror of grunge heros than your typical metal fare, such as fantasy themes (power metal), gore (death metal), politics (thrash metal, grindcore).

Life Is Peachy

"Head" and "Munky" continued using Steve Vai's custom-built Ibanez 7-string guitar on their sophomore record, tuned one step down. Remarked that Vai... New sonic possibilities off his signature series guitar.

• Steve Vai: [90][91][92].

"We've always wanted that heavy, agressive sound of a detuned guitar without sounding like Carcass or those other death metal bands", remarked James "Munky" Schaffer.

YouTube

• (4:44): Took the "weirdness" of Mr. Bungle.
• (4:50): The "heavy groove" of Sepultura, Prong, Biohazard.
• (6:52): The unique, Soundgarden-inspired "Bumblebee" bend. The band used it on the verse of the song A.D.I.D.A.S., the second single off Life Is Peachy (1996).
• (8:10): Our live show was heavily influenced by Rage Against the Machine.
• (9:02): Fieldy and his love for LA's gansta rap scene.
• (9:11): But Fieldy also loved Pantera.
• (11:52): Brian "Head" Welch loves Megadeth.
• (12:09): Brian "Head" Welch says "Ozzy was my jam when I was little."
• Source: [93].
• A prime source of inspiration was Californian funk metal, especially Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
• In a broader sense, the band took the "weirdness" of Mr. Bungle and mixed it with the "heavy groove" of Sepultura, Prong and Biohazard. Especially Chaos AD (1993). Pantera and Rage Against the Machine were also mentioned.

Nine Inch Nails

• Nine Inch Nails: [94].

Assorted Articles

• Articles: [95].