Artist: Steve Vai Genre(s):
Rock
Instrumental
Rock: Hard-Rock
Rock: Progressive
Rock: Guitar Virtuoso
Discography:
Sound Theories, Volume 2 - ''Shadows and Sparks'' Year: 2007
Tracks: 6
Sound Theories, Volume 1 - ''The Aching Hunger'' Year: 2007
Tracks: 11
Real Illusions: Reflections Year: 2005
Tracks: 11
The Infinite Steve Vai: An Anthology (CD 2) Year: 2004
Tracks: 15
The Infinite Steve Vai: An Anthology (CD 1) Year: 2004
Tracks: 17
The Elusive Light and Sound Vol. 1 (Part 3) Year: 2002
Tracks: 13
The Elusive Light and Sound Vol. 1 (Part 2) Year: 2002
Tracks: 13
The Elusive Light and Sound Vol. 1 (Part 1) Year: 2002
Tracks: 14
The 7th Song: Enchanting Guitar Melodies - Archive Year: 2000
Tracks: 10
7th Song: Enchanting Guitar Melodies Archives Vol. 1 Year: 2000
Tracks: 11
The Ultra Zone Year: 1999
Tracks: 13
Fire Garden Year: 1996
Tracks: 18
Alien Love Secrets Year: 1995
Tracks: 7
Sex and Religion Year: 1993
Tracks: 13
Passion and Warfare Year: 1990
Tracks: 14
Flex-Able Leftovers Year: 1984
Tracks: 13
Along with his one-time teacher Joe Satriani, six-string virtuoso Steve Vai home the standard for rock music guitar virtuosity in the '80s. Born on June 6, 1960, and raised in Carle Place, NY, Vai became interested in the guitar via such fabled artists as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Alice Cooper as a teen and, upon starting senior high school, took lessons with an elder histrion from his fourth-year high schooltime school, Joe Satriani. Playing in several local bands, Vai rapidly picked up on the cat's-paw, and by the eld of 18 was attending the famed Berklee School of Music in Boston. As a educatee there, Vai canned several of Frank Zappa's almost technically demanding compositions for guitar, and regular sent a copy of i such arrangement, "Black Page," to Zappa himself. Zappa was so impressed with the young guitar player that upon group coming together him, he invited Vai to link his ring.
Later on, Vai toured the populace with Zappa (giving Vai the nicknames "Stunt Guitarist" and "Little Italian Virtuoso") and played on such albums as 1981's
Tinsel Town Rebellion and
You Are What You Is, 1982's
Ship Arriving Too Late, 1983's
Man from Utopia, asset 1984's
Them or Us and Thing Fish, earlier going away to set out on his own. First off was a partner off of self-financed, recorded, and released solo albums in 1984,
Flex-Able and
Flex-Able Leftovers, both of which showcased Vai's guitar playacting and songwriting talents, until now were motionless heavily influenced byZappa.
With Van Halen all the madness by the mid-'80s due to their massive toilsome rock/pop crossover success, Vai replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in a similarly styled kit called Alcatrazz (which featured previous Rainbow vocalizer Graham Bonnett), playing on their unnoted 1985 freeing
Distressful the Peace. The same year, Vai made a cameo appearance in the motion picture
Juncture (playing the devil's guitarist and shredding away in a guitar duel with Ralph Macchio) and got an invite from his friend/bass maestro Billy Sheehan to seek out for the guitar pip in singer David Lee Roth's solo band (Philip Milton Roth had merely rent from Van Halen), and finally landed the fishgig. 1986 adage the debut release from Roth and his astral solo band,
Eat 'Em and Smile, which went on to suit one of the year's top difficult john Rock releases. Both Vai and Sheehan were catapulted to superstardom referable to their instrumental talents, as they took top honors in numerous guitar magazines for days afterwards.
Merely although the quartet showed smashing promise, Sheehan jumped ship exactly subsequently their sophomore record album,
Skyscraper, was issued in 1988. Although the album was more pop-based than its predecessor, it became another ample hit -- with Vai earning a co-producing deferred payment on the album along with Roth. The same class, Vai issued his have railway line of snazzy guitars, the Jem 777 series, via the Ibanez company. After the ensuing go with Roth absorbed up in late 1988, it was Vai's turn to leap transport. In addition to running on another solo record album, he was invited to fall in up with chart-topping pop-metallists Whitesnake, an extend he recognized. His one and only if album with Whitesnake,
Parapraxis of the Tongue, was issued in 1989, as was his third solo album overall,
Passion and Warfare, a year by and by. The album was based on dreams that Vai experient as a adolescent, as the largely instrumental record album became a goodly attain, earning gold certificate and curing Vai's standing as one of the top guitarists of the day. It was besides around this time that Vai created a seven-string guitar through Ibanez. Although the tool didn't catch on initially, it would by the mid to recent '90s, when the guitarists in such alloy acts as Korn and Limp Bizkit would utilize the instrument to attain super-low tunings.
After an extended foramen, Vai formed his number one conventional rock band (called...VAI) along with newcomer Devin Townsend on vocals, T.M. Stevens on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums -- offering their one and only album in 1993,
Sex activity & Religion. When the album proved to be a disappointment both critically and commercially, Vai returned back to all-instrumental exploit with the 1995 EP
Alien Love Secrets. For the oddment of the ten, Vai continued to egress solo releases, including 1996's
Fire Garden, 1998's
Flex-Able Leftovers (a re-release of his long out of print second solo album, with added tracks), and 1999's
The Ultra Zone. It was besides during the late '90s that Vai and Satriani reunited for an yearly co-headlining go (with a different third creative person added each class), called G3, unleashing a live album,
G3: Live in Concert, in 1997.
The early twenty-first century proverb a ado of releases from Vai, including a compiling of instrumentals,
The seventh Song: Enchanting Guitar Melodies Archive, in 2000, and his number one full-length live release,
Alive in an Ultra World, in 2001, as well as his mammoth career-encompassing ten-disc box determine The Secret Jewel Box. In 2002, he equanimous several pieces that he had contributed to films through the years, including the guitar duel from
Crossroads and the melodic theme to
Federal Reserve note and Ted's Bogus Journey and place them together in a 40-track accumulation called
The Elusive Light and Sound, Vol. 1. A series of compilations came next and subsequently a five-year respite from the studio, Vai returned in 2005 with
Real Illusions: Reflections. A turn with the Metropole Orchestra followed and he released a challenging duple live determine documenting his performances, coroneted
Sound Theories, Vols. dozen, in 2007.
Over the long time, Vai guested on unnumerable albums by other artists, including Gregg Bissonette's self-titled debut and Submarine, Alice Cooper's
Hey Stoopid, Randy Coven's
Casimir Funk Me Tender, Al di Meola's
Countless Desire, Public Image Ltd.'s
Album, Joe Jackson's Symphony 1, and Billy Sheehan's
Compression. He can likewise be ground on such additional Zappa releases as
Jazz from Hell,
Exclude Up 'N Play Yer Guitar,
Guitar, and on several volumes of the ongoing
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore series and the live protection phonograph record,
Zappa's Universe. As if his busy schedule weren't full enough, Vai pursued a lifelong interest when he began harvest honey among five-spot bee colonies in the backyard of his rest home.
Dargaard
