Modern Guitarist

The first G3 tour in 1996, featuring Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai, played to sold-out crowds throughout North America, Europe, South America, Japan and Australia. The most recent G3 tour in 2007 with Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert, marked the 5th North American G3 tour and the 12th one worldwide since its inception in 1996. Throughout these years Satriani’s G3 tours have showcased: Yngwie Malmsteen, Adrian Legg, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Fripp, Michael Schenker, and Uli Jon Roth. Special guest guitarists have also been invited to join at some point in the jam, including: Neal Schon, Gary Hoey, George Lynch, Billy Gibbons, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Brian May.

After more than 10 years of G3 tours it’s impossible not to wonder who will come next? Some names come to mind: Steve Morse, Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Kirk Hammett, Vinnie Moore, Blues Saraceno and Nuno Bettencourt. Who knows, maybe even jazz fusion guitarists Allan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin. Hey, how about Eddie Van Halen?

Who would you like to see?

A Jeff Beck tribute album called “Freeway Jam – To Beck And Back”, will be released on July 17 by Tone Center Records. The album containing ten tracks, was produced by guitarist Jeff Richman and features quite a few big names in jazz/fusion, blues, and rock guitar. The guest guitarists are John Scofield, Adam Rogers, Mike Stern, Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, Greg Howe, Warren Haynes, Chris Duarte, and Walter Trout. The rhythm section features names like bassist Stu Hamm, keyboardist Mitchel Forman and drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Simon Phillips.

Track Listing:

• “Freeway Jam” – Steve Morse
• “Over Under Sideways Down” – John Scofield
• “Beck’s Bolero” – Eric Johnson
• “Led Boots” – Adam Rogers
• “El Becko” – Jeff Richman
• “Diamond Dust” – Mike Stern
• “The Pump” – Warren Haynes
• “Behind The Veil” – Chris Duarte
• “Blue Wind” – Greg Howe
• “Brush with the Blues” – Walter Trout

Dream Theater’s upcoming release “Systematic Chaos” will be out on Tuesday June 5th. The album containing eight tracks, will be available in two formats: a regular edition CD, and a special edition CD and DVD including a 90-minute documentary directed by drummer Mike Portnoy. You can find more information about this record and photos of the band at the Roadrunner Records site. A nine-minute video clip shot during the the recording of the song “The Dark Eternal Night” from “Systematic Chaos” has been posted at YouTube. You can watch John Petrucci and the band here. The North American tour will start July 24 in San Diego, following with an European tour in September and lastly with an Asian, South American and Australian tour.

Back in 2004 Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist, John Frusciante, along with bassist Joe Lally of Fugazi and drummer Josh Klinghoffer, released an album called AW (Automatic Writing). The name they gave to the band was “Ataxia”, which in Greek means “disorder”. These next words were taken from Frusciante’s website, where he talks about the Ataxia sessions:

“We played two shows and recorded two records. The first record was released in August 2004. It was named after the surrealist activity called Automatic Writing. That was where people like Andre Breton and Max Ernst would write words in the form of sentences and paragraphs, but with absolutely no conscious attempt at meaning. They would observe the structure of their subconscious and it’s peculiar methods of organization (or the lack thereof) this way. And if there is one sure answer I can give to the question, ‘How did you write and record two albums in a week and a half?’, it is that we gave absolutely no thought to what we were doing, whatsoever. This music is unblemished by any expectations of a specific result, on our part. The three of us simply got together to hear what music had to say that week. We had fun together and this is the record of that fun”.

The second half of these 2004 sessions, which includes five tracks, will be out in a couple of days, on May 29th.

The Police 30th Anniversary reunion world tour will kick off this May 27. The legendary trio will start its North American tour at Vancouver’s GM Place and travel through different cities in Canada and the United States until early August, and will be back again for a couple of concerts in November after the European tour. The tour sold out almost immediately in all centers but tickets are still available in some cities. Check the schedule for more information. “We’re still getting our act together and finding our groove as a band,” Stewart Copeland said in an interview to the New York Post. “Last time we toured together, we were 24 years old. After all this time [apart], we had a lot of melding to do. We can see and hear where our weaknesses are and what we need to work on.”

Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland had made a few impromptu reunions at parties and weddings, but it appeared that a full-scale reunion was out of the question.”It was harder to get back together than any of us thought it would be,” Copeland says. “Sting, Andy and I have each been master of his own universe for more than 20 years and we’ve not used to collaborating.” The Police will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their recording debut with their first double-disc CD ‘Best of’ collection entitled, The Police (A&M/UMe), to be released June 5, 2007.

In 1973 and 1974 Zappa recorded “Overnite Sensation” and “Apostrophe(`)”, which would later become two of his most popular albums. Containing classic tracks like: “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow”, “St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast”, “Dirty Love”, and “Montana”, these albums exemplify Zappa’s distinct creative voice and musical genius. Just some days ago, a 97-minute documentary was released on DVD, that focuses on these two early seventies albums (Frank Zappa: Apostrophe / Over-Nite Sensation DVD). The documentary features interviews with Dweezil and Ahmet, daughter Moon, and wife Gail Zappa, as well as interviews with Billy Bob Thornton (yes, you heard right), Alice Cooper, guitarist Steve Vai, Rolling Stone critic David Fricke, and many of Zappa’s closest associates and collaborators. The DVD features excerpts from: “Dinah-Moe Humm”, “I’m The Slime”, “Montana”, “St Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast”, “Dirty Love”, “Cosmic Debris”, and “Stink-Foot”. In addition to vintage archival clips of Zappa discussing his music and career, and home movies of Zappa’s band on tour during the mid-1970s, the DVD also includes the performance of “I’m the Slime” on Saturday Night Live in 1976 and live footage of a 1973 performance of “Montana”. Zappa’s studio process is revealed when Dweezil and Joe Travers (“Vaultmeister”) sit down at the mixing table to analyze the master tapes of classic Zappa tracks.