The Guitar Channel

Upcoming Virgil Donati live dates

Here are some upcoming gigs of interest featuring drummer Virgil Donati. The gigs with CAB will feature some songs from their upcoming album Theatre de Marionettes. No word yet on a release date for this album, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

CAB (featuring Tony MacAlpine - guitar, Bunny Brunel - bass, and Otmaro Ruis - keys)
June 29 - Anthology, San Diego
July 11&12 - Baked Potato, Los Angeles

Virgil Donati Band (featuring Alex Machacek - guitar, Rufus Philpot - bass, and Matt Rhode - keys)
July 5th- Baked Potato, Los Angeles

Virgil Donati & Brett Garsed
India July 25 - Aug 9 (to be confirmed)

Machacek, Sipe, Garrison live dates plus DVD shoot

Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, and Matthew Garrison will perform three live shows in North Carolina at the end of June. The final show will be filmed for a live DVD release. Dates and locations are below. These three musicians are responsible for one of the best albums of 2007, Improvision.

June 27 - Soapbox, Wilmington, NC
June 28 - Double Door, Charlotte, NC
June 29 - Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh, NC (DVD Shoot)

via Abstract Logix News

Virgil Donati video with Alex Machacek

Here is some official video of the Virgil Donati Band at the Baked Potato last Saturday with Alex Machacek on guitar. This video mainly focuses on Donati's drumming, but there's some great Machacek stuff in here as well. Mitch Forman is on keys, and Rufus Philpot is on bass. Here are Donati's comments on the gig from his website:

It was a great feeling to be back on stage with my band after such a long time. This music takes exceptionally talented players to pull off, and I extend gratitude to my collegues who joined me on stage last night. The video highlights include parts of Thinking Stone, and Iceland. When I find some more time, I will upload further highlights, (sometime between now and the next gig). Here is a set list of the music we played:

Set 1
Desert Girl
Mind Over
The Thinking Of Stones
Iceland
Actual Proof
Donna Lee
Kymera

Set 2
The User
Nothing Personal
Kingdom Of Dreams
Alien Hip Hop
Proto Cosmos

Alex Machacek teams up with Virgil Donati

Huge News! Drummer Virgil Donati has reformed the Virgil Donati Band, with Alex Machacek on guitar. The band will play their first gig at The Baked Potato on May 3rd. Word is the band will be playing some of Donati's material from the Planet X Quantum album, and some new arrangements of Donati's older stuff. Joining Donati and Machacek will be Mitch Forman on keys, and Rufus Philpot on bass.

Alex Machacek on his Tonica Masterclasses

Alex Machacek discusses the concepts and ideas he passed along during his masterclasses this past February at Tónica Ciclo Internacional de Jazz GDL in Mexico.

Machacek/Eckhardt/Minnemann - Live 1/25/08 video

Some great footage of guitarist Alex Machacek's gig at the Baked Potato on Jan 25th, 2008. With Marco Minnemann on drums, and Kai Eckhardt on bass.

Alex Machacek - "Austin Powers" from Mexico workshop

I normally don't post this many videos, but there's some good stuff popping up on YouTube lately. Here's some more excellent footage of Alex Machacek from his recent workshop in Mexico. This is the song "Austin Powers" with Hernan Hecht (drums), and "Chumino" Guardado (bass).

Video of Alex Machacek in Mexico

Here is some footage of a recent Alex Machacek workshop performance in Mexico.

Favorite albums of 2007

There have been some great jazz fusion/progressive guitar albums this year. While 2006 was one of the best years in guitar music in some time, this year was arguably better. Here are my favorite albums of 2007 in order of their release.

Uncle Moe's Space Ranch - Moe's Town

Highly creative fusion featuring incredible playing by guitarists T.J. Helmerich and Brett Garsed. Review

Cosmosquad - Acid Test

Great heavy fusion disc featuring guitarist Jeff Kollman.

Oz Noy - Fuzzy

A fantastic fusion of funk and jazz. Awesome funk rhythm guitar on this disc. Review

Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, Matthew Garrison - Improvision 

Incredible writing and playing. Best album of the year. Review

Jonas Hellborg - Art Metal 

Heavy fusion mixing eastern and western influences. Features Mattias IA Eklundh on guitar.

T Lavitz - School Of The Arts 

Acoustic progressive jazz with Frank Gambale and Steve Morse on guitars. Great writing. Review

John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension - Official Pirate 

Download-only album featuring the best performances from McLaughlin's 2007 tour.

Other albums that deserve mentioning:

Marc Norgaard - Tolerance  Review
Planet X - Quantum
Ed DeGenaro - Dog House  Review
Freeway Jam - To Beck And Back  Review
John McLaughlin - The Essential John McLaughlin 

Rich

UKZ postpones debut concert

Eddie Jobson's new band UKZ has postponed their planned Jan 25th 2008 debut concert, citing labor disputes and a revised recording schedule.

Jobson:

"With the escalating union strikes, Los Angeles is a precarious place to stage a major event right now, there is a ripple effect that impacts the whole community. Furthermore, the album is still a few months away from release and we decided it would be better if more people knew our music ahead of time. Both issues have factored into the decision."

UKZ features Jobson on keyboards, Trey Gunn on the Warr guitar, Marco Minnemann on drums, Alex Machacek on guitar, and Aaron Lippert on vocals.

Alex Machacek radio interview

Guitarist Alex Machacek will appear on Tony Palkovic's Radio Show in Los Angeles today discussing the Machacek, Sipe and Garrison album Improvision. The show can be heard from 12:00pm-2:00pm Pacific on KSPC 88.7FM or on the web at http://www.kspc.org, with a rebroadcast tomorrow from 4:00am-6:00am.

KSPC live webstream URL - http://216.235.81.103:15302 (open in Winamp, iTunes, etc)

Machacek, Sipe, Garrison interview at All About Jazz

All About Jazz has a fantastic round table discussion with Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe and Matthew Garrison regarding the Improvision album.

Alex Machacek / Jeff Sipe / Matt Garrison: The Improvision Round Table

See also: My review of Improvision

New Eddie Jobson band featuring Alex Machacek

Saw this on Abstract Logix and also the fusenet Yahoo group (thanks John!): Keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson (co-founder of the legendary prog-rock band UK) has announced his new band - UKZ. The band features Aaron Lippert on vocals, Trey Gunn on the Warr touch guitar, Marco Minnemann on drums, and yes, Alex Machacek on guitar. Their debut album is slated for a February 2008 release. They will also be performing a special-event premier concert in Los Angeles on January 25, 2008.

Cool video featuring Alex Machacek

This is JK Kleutgens, Gary Novak, Antti Kotikoski, and Alex Machacek performing the song "Final Notice" at the Baked Potato in Nov 2005. The video quality isn't great, but Machacek's solo makes up for it.

Machacek, Sipe, Garrison video - "There's a New Sheriff in Town"

Here's some in-studio footage of Alex Machacek, Jeff Sipe, and Matthew Garrison recording the track "There's a New Sheriff in Town" for the Improvision album.

Another Improvision review at All About Jazz

All About Jazz has posted a second highly positive review of the Machacek, Sipe, Garrison album Improvision, this time by writer Ian Patterson.

Ian Patterson reviews Improvision

See also: my review of Improvision