Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
Regarding Steve Vai, I do believe that he has had hand in the beta test and preset design of the some of those Eventide presets. DR Z would have set us strait on that one, but that is what I recall. I met him years ago out in front of the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium before a Frank Zappa show. I was at the will call hoping my friend Scott Thunes had comped me a ticket (he hadn't, I guess we weren't that close :o) Steve Vai happened to be standing in line behind me, overheard my conversation, and offered to go find Scott to get me in. Those were my early 20's, the ramen years....and I only had half the ticket price on me. Sure enough 5 minutes later Scott comes running up to the front door, explains that Bill Graham presents was tight on the guest list, and slips me 5 bucks to cover the ticket. Thanks Scott, where ever you are! Later, after the show I met Steve again and thanked him, and also met the hilarious Ray White. Even back then Steve had an aura about him and a little brace of male guitar groupies crowding around him as he showed some of the charts to Franks music, including the infamous Black Page...He was very generous with them, and generous toward me. I've always had a soft spot for Steve since, though I can't say I really listen to his music. I really appreciate what he has done to expose other talent with his favored nations label, though I can't say I've listened to a lot of those artists either, but the point is that its a musician calling the shots rather than some bean counter, and I appreciate that. Seemed like a genuine guy, and I'm sure he still is. Now Yngwie on the other hand, from everything I've heard, is not a nice person, some what of a brat, and a bully and mean drunk, so as far as I'm concerned you can bash him all you want;-) I think that often times the pitfall of virtuosity, is the constant need to best oneself technically. At what point is a composition fast enough or complex enough? for me, it gets to a point where I can't process that much information. Alan Holdsworth is the same for me, its just too many ideas , bam bam bam. When I was younger I could enjoy it more, now it just sounds like a cat piano. I remember someone I know who was close to Michael Hedges saying that he was really rebelling against his Audiences desire to have him keep writing Aerial Boundaries over and over again, i.e. keep exploiting his prodigious two hand technique, and that he wanted to show himself as a more complete musician, playing keys and flute, and singing. I must say, I was one of those captivated by his unique brand of virtuosity, but I'd gladly sit through an evening of him playing flute or quoting Jabberwocky, to have him back among us. perhaps one day when Vai is in his 60's, he will record that slow languid lyrical ambient CD he has been keeping in the vaults... or he'll put out a smooth jazz CD, shudder to think! Bill -----Original Message----- From: Per Boysen [mailto:perboysen@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 10:29 AM To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: Sloppyness (was: Re: Hiromi) On 21 jun 2006, at 19.11, mark sottilaro wrote: > Now, I know a lot of you probably like Steve Vai I don't. But my brother does. Once he played me "a cool Vai tune" and what I heard was Vai playing guitar, just like he always does, but this time through a certain default preset of the Eventide Eclipse. I couldn't believe he just plugged into the Eventide like any simple effect box and shredded away! But I guess I would enjoy hearing Vai live, just as I did when hearing Dexter Gordon doing his "Juke Box Game Thing" without almost playing a single original note. > While > I'm at it, have you ever listened to how sloppy The > Jimi Hendrix Experience is? I love every moment of > it. Yeah, wonderfully sloppy! When "sloppyness" oozes of that what-the- hell attitude I do love it. But when "sloppyness" oozes of ignorance I just can't stand it. Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se (Swedish) www.looproom.com (international) http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast) http://www.myspace.com/looproom