RE: Sloppiness (was: Re: Hiromi)

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

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