Winner of the Best Instrumental Rock Performance GRAMMY for “Zappa Plays Zappa”, which features him along with Napoleon Murphy Brock, at the 51st GRAMMY Awards this year, Steve Vai with his highly advanced technique and deep knowledge of music theory is rightly described as the Virtuoso in the world of guitar music. 

Vai has trained under Joe Satriani and at The Berklee College of music and acknowledges the influence of many guitarists including Jeff Beck and fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Hired initially as a transcriber by Frank Zappa, joined the band and toured extensively with them. Vai has done acts with Alcatrazz(replacing Yngwee Malmsteen), G3, Billy Sheehan and Ozzy Osbourne and has been associated with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. 

While many musicians fit easily into a single category, Steve Vai’s unique musical vision remains unclassifiable. After more than 20 years, Vai continues to use unbridled guitar virtuosity and soulful artistry to explore the spectrum of human emotion. Though Vai first stepped into the spotlight in 1980 as a guitarist in Frank Zappa’s band, his contribution to music came during his solo career starting with “Flex-Able”, which set stage for “Passion and Warfare”, which expanded the lexicon of rock guitar. Ironically, two record labels dropped Vai while he recorded the breakthrough album!!

Not only did Vai’s music have a huge on influence contemporary hard rock,including James “Munky” Shaffer of Korn, Mike Eizinger of Incubus and Tom Morello of Audioslave so did his guitar. In 1987, Vai helped guitar-maker Ibanez design the JEM, and then in 1989, the Universe 7-String guitar, which provided the low-end rumble many guitarists were craving. Vai continues to work with Ibanez, and literally put himself into a recent collaboration dubbed the JEM VAI2K DNA guitar – a limited-edition release of the JEM.

Going forward, one of his major aspiration is to record the quintessential solo guitar record while he still has the dexterity to pull it off and then to become a composer. We can definitely look forward to some brilliant music from the Virtuoso.

Yngwie malmsteen with his Signature Stratocaster

“The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar playing Malmsteen was born” – yngwie.org

An accomplished guitar god to start off with!

Yngwie Malmsteen was a musical prodigy, having picked up the guitar at a tender age of 7. With tremendous perseverence and dedication, he set off on a great journey into the world of music, following bands like Deep Purple. His admiration for Richie Blackmore took him to follow classical music and ultimately led him to his greatest creation: Neo-classical Metal.”

Born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerback, Malmsteen’s music transcends the traditional boundaries of rock music, fusing elements of classical music with heavy distortion patches. His admiration for Bach, Vivaldi, Beethovan and Mozart was unbounded, but he was profoundly taken by awe by Niccolo Paganini.By the age of ten, he formed his first band, “Track on Fire”.

The next biggest milestone in Yngwie’s musical journey is the adoption of the scalloped neck fretboard. Though this was much more difficult to play, this was but a small challenge for the virtuoso, and became a permanent fixture of his playing style.

After brief stints in two bands(Steeler and Alcatrazz), the guitar maestro produced his first solo album, Rising Force, which is now considered the bible of Neo Classical metal and received a Grammy nomination for all the mastery. He was voted Best New Talent in several reader’s polls, Best Rock Guitarist the year after, and Rising Force became Album of the Year.

The 1990s saw the release of “Marching out”, “Trilogy”, “Odyssey”, “Fire & Ice”, “Seventh Sign”, “Magnum Opus”, “Facing the Animal”, “Alchemy” and “Attack!!” and live albums such as “Live in Leningrad/Trial by Fire”. He also recorded an album of covers called “Inspiration”, covering the music of his greatest musical influences like Deep Purple, Rainbow, U.K., Kansas, Scorpions, Rush, and Jimi Hendrix.
The desire to create a classical album led to the recording of what many people, including yours truly regard as a masterpiece: Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb minor, Op. 1. The orchestration was provided by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, he feels through all the evolution of his music, the essence is still one and the same. “I think attitude-wise I’ve always been on the same track. Nothing is really good enough. I always think I can do one better. And I never think like ‘well, now I’ve got a Grammy so it’s time to slow down’…I just don’t do that.”

Two of his obsessions are: Fender and Ferrari(He owns 3 of those babies!!). The Fender Guitar Company has recently released a version of  his “Play Loud” Stratocaster.  He talks about this in an interview to Music Street Journal.

“When I got approached to do a Signature model back in 1986, it was a great honor. They’ve made that guitar since 1987, but now the guys at Fender wanted to make an exact replica of the guitar I brought over here with me from Sweden when I was a kid. That guitar is very worn…it’s nicknamed ‘The Duck.’ I gave the original Duck to them to use as a template. They wound up making exactly the same guitar…it’s virtually identical. Every scratch, every stress mark is on it.”

We can still expect great things from this maestro!