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InstruMentalCase.com has posted an interview with guitarist Prashant Aswani. Prashant teaches at GIT, and just re-released his 1998 album "Revelation". The new release, entitled "Revelation: Fully Loaded" features 3 new tracks that did not appear on the original album.
The 2007 incarnation of G3 will feature Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, and Paul Gilbert (!) The new tour will kick off March 14th in Phoenix, with more US dates throughout March and April. There are 5 dates confirmed so far, with more to follow shortly.
On 1/20/07, The Jazz Ministry played 2 shows at the Baked Potato with Michael Landau on guitar. A review of the late show has been posted at Guitar Jam.
The Allan Holdsworth & Alan Pasqua Live at Yoshi's DVD is now available for pre-order directly from the Altitude Digital website. This short clip is one of several from the DVD that Altitude Digital has uploaded to YouTube. The DVD was recorded live at Yoshi's in Oakland California last year, during a tour Holdsworth and Pasqua did with Chad Wackerman (drums), and Jimmy Haslip (bass). On the tour, the band played material from the old Tony Williams New Lifetime band, which Holdsworth and Pasqua were both members of. The show was filmed in HD, but it's not clear from the pre-order page if this is a standard DVD, or an HD-DVD. I'm assuming it's standard. There's no release date listed either, but all indications are it should be released soon.
2/2/07 Update: The release date should be March 6th or 13th, and it's confirmed to be a standard DVD. Check out this thread on the Holdsworth forum for more info.
5/7/07 Update: Read my review of this DVD here.
Keyboardist Derek Sherinian has posted a message on the official Planet X forum regarding the long-awaited new Planet X album. The album will be called "Quantum", and should be released this summer. Allan Holdsworth appears on 2 tracks - "The Thinking Of Stones" and "Desert Girl". Bassist Jimmy Johnson is on the album as well, playing on "She Tyranny", "Poland" and "Alien Hip Hop".
I'm a little surprised that Holdsworth only plays on 2 songs. It originally appeared that Holdsworth would have a more prominent role on the album. Then we learned Brett Garsed plays on a few songs. Now it looks like Garsed is the main guitarist, with Holdsworth playing on just 2 tracks as a "guest". This album has been in the works for a long time now, but it should be worth the wait.
Keyboardist Steve Weingart (Dave Weckl Band, El Grupo) recently released his second solo album, "Dark Blue Dream" (Skeewa Music). Joining Weingart on this album are Frank Gambale - guitar, Jimmy Earl - bass, and Tom Brechtlein - drums; with guest appearances by Ernie Watts - sax, Ronnie Gutierrez - percussion, and Renee Jones (Weingart's wife) - bass and vocals (there's no lyrics on the album, but Jones sings some supporting melodies on 2 tracks). I really liked Weingart's work with Steve Lukather's El Grupo band, and Frank Gambale is one of my favorites, so I was eager to check this disc out.
The album features full band tunes, plus some compositions that Weingart put together completely on the computer. The group performances on the band tunes were all recorded live in the studio; a cool approach for a fusion record. Weingart later added some effects while mixing the tracks. The whole album has a west-coast feel to it, but it's very fresh. The combination of Weingart's writing, his use of ambient sound effects, and the live band recordings give the album a very "new" sound.
The opening track, "Night Visitor", is one of the strongest tunes on the album. The main melody is great, and Gambale takes a nice solo over some cool changes. Plus, there's some intertwined guitar/keyboard lines in this song that almost give it a prog-rock feel in places. "3 Till Dawn" really shows Weingart's strengths as a composer and arranger as well. This tune is chock-full of great chords and melodies.
"Dark Blue Dream" has a cool deep-funk groove. I love the way Gambale builds his solo on this piece. He starts with a measured approach, playing some sparse bluesy phrases with lots of space, before kicking it up a notch with some nice sweep patterns. Gambale also sounds great on "Pursuit"; a wicked funk tune where the band sounds tight and well-rehearsed.
"Outside In (Part 1)" is a good example of how the live-in-the-studio approach really enhances the band tunes. Gambale and Weingart do some nice trading-off in the tune, and it definitely has a "live" feel. This is some of Gambale's best work on the album. For "Outside In (Part 2)", Weingart took some of Gambale's guitar lines from Part 1 and created an entirely new piece using drum loops and synth sounds. Pretty cool.
Overall, this is a very fresh-sounding album. A lot of keyboard-heavy jazz fusion records sound stuffy to me, but that's not the case here at all. Weingart's writing and playing are great, and his use of effects and different synth sounds always keep things interesting. And if you're a Frank Gambale fan, you'll definitely want to pick this up. He plays some great stuff here, and knowing his solos were done live with the band make them all the more impressive.
Visit Steve Weingart online at http://www.steveweingart.com
In the final installment of their G3 interview series, Ultimate-Guitar.com has posted an interview with Steve Vai. He talks a bit about his writing process, his gear, and of course G3.
Ultimate-Guitar.com has posted another G3-related interview, this time with John Petrucci.
Former Spock's Beard frontman Neal Morse will release his 4th prog-rock solo album, Sola Scriptura, on February 26th. Joining Neal on this album are Mike Portnoy on drums, Randy George on bass, and special guest Paul Gilbert on guitar. Here are some links with more info:
All About Jazz has posted a review of guitarist Michael Landau's new Live album.
Ultimate-Guitar.com has a new interview up with Joe Satriani. He talks about the success and future of G3, and his upcoming projects.
Scott Henderson has listed the following "confirmed" tour dates on his website for spring 2007:
March 15 Athens, Greece - Athina Club
March 16 Athens, Greece - Athina Club
March 17 Athens, Greece - Athina Club
March 19 Prague, Czech Rep - Lucerna Music Bar
March 20 Ostrava, Czech Rep - Parnik Club
March 21 Plzen, Czech Rep - House Of Blues
March 25 Urbania, Italy - Teatro "D.Bramanta"
March 26 Foggia, Italy - Cafeteria Del Centro
March 27 Pontassieve, Italy - Teatro Accademia
March 28 Rubiera, Italy - Teatro Herberia
March 30 Forli', Italy - Naima Club
March 31 Velden, Austria - Bluesiana Rock Cafe
April 1 Graz, Austria - Generalmusikdirektion
April 3 Istanbul, Turkey
Eric Johnson is on the road this month in support of his latest album, Bloom, as well as his Live From Austin, Texas DVD and CD. Select
dates will also feature Johnny Lang.
Jan 10 - Hollywood, FL at Seminole Hard Rock Live (with Johnny Lang)
Jan 11 - Orlando, FL at Hard Rock Live
Jan 12 - Saint Petersburg, FL at State Theatre
Jan 13 - Jacksonville, FL at Freebird Live
Jan 14 - Atlanta, GA at Variety Playhouse
Jan 16 - Austin, TX at One World Theatre
EIG Events Group has announced the launch of a new international event called GuitarXPO which will take place at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California on July 7-8, 2007. GuitarXPO will be the largest manufacturer-driven event open to all guitarists, professional and enthusiast alike.
Chris Poland's band OHM will be playing 3 California gigs during the week of this year's NAMM show.
Jan. 18 - The Baked Potato - Studio City, CA
Jan. 19 - The Blue Café - Huntington Beach, CA
Jan. 20 - Winston's San Diego - San Diego, CA
On February 9th and 10th 2007, Steve Lukather and Greg Mathieson will be peforming a bunch of old material from their 1981 Super Live record at the Baked Potato. Filling in for Jeff Porcaro and Pops (Robert Popwell) are Lee Sklar on bass and Abe Laborial jr on drums.
Gustavo Assis-Brasil - Hybrid Picking Exercises - Single Note Permutations (Book)
Return to Forever - Chicago, IL 6/20/08
John McLaughlin - Floating Point
Paul Giibert - Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar
Allan Holdsworth - Live at The Baked Potato 1/18/08
The Jazz Ministry - Live at The Baked Potato 1/17/08
Greg Howe: Sound Proof
Howe's latest is fantastic. Great grooves and awesome jazzy shredding.
John McLaughlin: Floating Point
Western jazz-fusion played by eastern musicians. One of McLaughlin's most inspired studio albums in years.
John McLaughlin: Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point (DVD)
Awesome, insightful studio footage chronicling the making of McLaughlin's latest album Floating Point.
Paul Gilbert: Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar
Gilbert's second all-instrumental album. Great writing, slick production, scary shredding.
Dig Trio
Great jazz fusion album featuring hybrid-picker Gustavo Assis-Brasil. Available as an MP3 download.
Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, Matthew Garrison: Improvision
Incredible writing and playing. A remarkable album.
