PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[steve]

Went to a big drum convention last night in Perth W.A. had a series of different drummers strutting their paradiddles etc (including Will Kennedy, what a treat, such great taste and musicality, and the only one who made full use of the dynamic spectrum from pp to ffff)

The last band was Virgil Denati's band of Steve Vai ish polyrythmic widdle widdle music. Not my cup of tea but a great band never the less.

The guitar player was Tony McAlpine, who I remember from the eighties
days of "shred is everything" (not that I can complain, I developed most of my technique from trying to play the strangled cat licks of Vai at a million bpm). It's funny, I remember waiting through a whole song for a bit of widdle widdle, that's all that mattered!

Anyway, the last song of the night was a Mr PC type fusion piece that was great, and MvAlpine showed a whole different (and much better to my ears, and the group of young drummers that were in my party who found his widdle and sweeping all a bit boring) angle. Very bop influenced and still with the technique. Worked well.

My point (finally ) I just wondered what you guys thought of the shredders in the jazz scene, especially McAlpine. (what about that Baxter fella?)

Steve
_________________
Miles is the answer.

[Skon]

I think he's great... I don't know why people have a problem with "shredders". Some of them are brainless, but clearly guys like tony mcalpine and john petrucci aren't mindless speedfreaks with no musical taste.

[dkaplowitz]