Born 1960
Genre: Rock/Progressive Rock
Of all the rock guitarists in the modern age, Steve Vai perhaps best fits the role of the eccentric genius virtuoso. His playing can be described as eccentric, quirky, intelligent and technically astounding. Although he has been able to slot into session musician and touring roles for a variety of musical heavyweights, his most impressive work has come out of his solo releases. On those albums he has gone beyond just being a superpicker and shredder of the highest order, establishing himself as an avant-garde artist whose ability to push the sonic palette of the guitar to new extremes is unmatched.
Born in 1960 in New York, the young Steve Vai was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper. As a teenager he took lessons from Joe Satriani who was an older player from his high school. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship, and the 2 would go on to be considered the leading instrumental rock guitarists to achieve crossover commercial success in the mid to late 80’s. They would also reunite for an annual co-headlining tour (with a different third artist added each year), called G3.
Vai also spent his teens playing in numerous local bands before entering Berklee School of Music in Boston. Whilst still attending Berklee, he sent Frank Zappa a transcription of a technically demanding Zappa composition entitled ‘Black Page’. Vai was subsequently hired as a transcriber by Zappa and went on to tour with him as well as playing on several albums including 1981’s ‘Tinsel Town Rebellion’ and ‘You Are What You Is’, 1982’s ‘Ship Arriving Too Late’, 1983’s ‘Man from Utopia’, plus 1984’s ‘Them or Us’ and ‘Thing Fish’.
Vai left Zappa’s band in 1984 and recorded ‘Flex-able’, his first solo recording. ‘Flex-able’ was very Zappa influenced and didn’t reflect what was to come later in his solo career. He then played lead guitar for Alcatrazz, filling in after the departure of Yngwie Malmsteen. He recorded 1 album with the group entitled ‘Disturbing the Peace’ released in 1985. Later that year, Vai’s visibility to the general rock audience was assured when he joined David Lee Roth for Roth’s first 2 post Van Halen albums, ‘Eat em and Smile’ and ‘SkyScraper’. Vai’s playing on ‘Eat Em and Smile’ was always going to be under the microscope as Roth’s solo career and band was being compared to Van Halen, and inevitably Vai’s guitar skills would be compared to Eddie Van Halens. Vai proved he was his own man with his own style and that he was capable of standing up to any comparison with any guitarist.
Also in 1985, Vai made a cameo appearance in the movie ‘Crossroads’ playing the devil’s guitarist Jack Butler during the guitar duel scene. He contributed guitar overdubs to the classical piece played by Ralph Macchio which ultimately wins the duel. In 1988 via Ibanez, he released the range of Jem guitars. The range is still going strong today and was followed a couple of years later by the 7 String Universe models. In 1989 he again proved his chameleon-like ability to fulfill lead guitar roles in commercial bands, playing on Whitesnake’s ‘Slip of the Tongue’.
Ibanez JEM77V Steve Vai Signature
A year later he released his landmark instrumental album ‘Passion and Warfare’. Vai has described this album as ‘Jimi Hendrix meets Jesus Christ at a party that Ben Hur threw for Mel Blanc’. The album is both technically astonishing and eccentrically idiosyncratic, and established Steve Vai as one of the best guitarists of his generation. It also features ‘For the love of God’ probably regarded as his best work. In 1993 Vai released ‘Sex and Religion’ a rock album which featured Devon Townsend (pre Strapping Young Lad) on vocals, however the album was a critical and commercial disappointment.
For the rest of the 90’s, Vai continued to issue solo albums, including the 1995 EP ‘Alien Love Secrets’ 1996’s ‘Fire Garden’, 1998’s ‘Flex-Able Leftovers’ (a re-release of Flex-Able, with added tracks), and 1999’s ‘The Ultra Zone’. In 2000 he released ‘The 7th Song’ – along with 4 new tracks it features a collection of songs from his previous releases which were the number 7 tracks. The new millennium also saw the release of a number of a live albums, anthologies, and a new studio album ‘Real Illusions: Reflections’ (2005).
Elements of Vai’s guitar style include angular, almost lyrical melodies, mastery of slurring techniques (hammer-ons, slides, vibrato), advanced whammy bar theatrics and progressive use of time signatures and exotic chords and scales. He is a master of studio techniques and is adept at creatively using effects to turn his guitar into a sonic paintbrush. An example of this are the tracks ‘Ballerina 12/24′ and ‘Alien Water Kiss’ from ‘Passion and Warfare’. Both are examples of Vai’s use of the Eventide H-3000 harmonizer.
Steve Vai has won 3 Grammy awards and has been nominated a further 8 times. The number of Awards he has received from guitar magazines, websites and publications are too many to list here.
