| CD REVIEW Greg Howe |
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Band : Greg Howe Back in 1980, one Mike Varney started a guitarist-oriented label which was to be the stuff of dreams for guitar virtuoso music lovers all over the world. He named it Shrapnel Records, and started off several up and coming shred guitar masters on their road to stardom: Marty Friedman, Yngwie Malmsteen, David Chastain, Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Paul Gilbert, Joey Tafolla, Jason Becker, Richie Kotzen...and of course Greg Howe (whose style was rather rooted in Jazz than in the Neo-Classical of his contemporaries, borrowing from the Jazz sensibilities of Allan Holdsworth, but also mixing in a Bluesy, groove-laden vibe and the frequent induction of odd time signatures. He issued his self-titled debut album on the label in 1988)! For Howe, it would be the inscentive needed to start his band Howe II (with Greg's brother Al as vocalist), who released the albums High Gear (1989) and Now Hear This (1991), both issued through the Roadrunner label. The early '90 being what they were in term of music, Greg reverted to his "solo" career in 1993, surprisingly bringing a series of guitar-oriented albums in that period of Grungy turmoil: Introspection (1993), Uncertain Terms (1994), Parallax (1995), and Fire (1996)...while also doing some collaboration albums: Tilt (1995, with Richie Kotzen), Project (1997, also with Kotzen), and High Definition (1997, with Vitalij Kuprij)...and doing a guest appearance on the James Murphy album Convergeance (1996). Apart from his solo career, Howe established himself as a highly sought-after session musician, and has been hired by such mainstream acts as Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, *Nsync, and Justin Timberlake for touring duties. Since moving to Southern California, he also started working as producer and guitar instructor. Howe closed the '90s with the 1999 album Ascend.... And opened the new millenium with Hyperacuity. Between then and the current new album, he's collaborated with Tetsuo Sakurai on their Gentle Hearts album (2001), released his 2003 solo album Extraction (actually a collaboration with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers, but it was released under Howe's name only), and made guest appearances to Jordan Rudess' 2004 album Rhythm Of Time, the 2004 A Guitar Supreme (a compilation to which a variety of guitarists participated), the 2004 Jimi Hendrix tribute album The Spirit Lives On, and the 2005 Visions Of An Inner Mountain Apocalypse: A Fusion Guitar Tribute compilation (again several guitarists contributed). During 2001, he also ventured in a band project with guitarist/ bassist Brian Bart (worked with Kelly Keagy), ex-Prince drummer Michael Bland, and former Allan Holdsworth bassist John Purtle (but apparently nothing came of that). Stylistically, Howe underwent a change over the years: while being counted as one of the leading guitarists in the shredder scene of the early '90s, he later started blending elements of Rock with Blues, Latin and Jazz music into a very personal stylized Fusion sound which is always highly melodic and expressive, yet also technical. Forhisfirst studio album in five years Howe recruited keyboardist David Cook, bassist Jon Reshard (with a background in Progressive, Rock, and Funk), and Italian drummer Gianluca Palmieri to be his band, allowing also Dennis Hamm (from the world of Jazz, most current new band is Los Cuatro) to bring a keyboard solo to one track (the lengthy "Side Note"). It's still mainly an instrumental album, but Howe has added a total of five vocal tracks (brought by Elvio Fernandez and Dale V. Fischer) to the album, two of which open (with sóme music to it) and close the album. Most of those vocal tracks come in the form of telephone conversations (the first being the exceptions), or at least so-called answering machine recordings. In between you get a total of nine very fine instrumental pieces with a length varying from just over 4 minutes to 7 ½, and I swear each and every one of those is equally as diverting! And rather diverse as well. With the Hard Rock intensity being primordial, you'll get moments where the guitarist suddenly goes into a shredder more, with the background (and the keyboards actually have the biggest freedom here, also the main conveyers of the alternating undertones which may go from Jazzy to Latin, or give a more atmospheric background, etc...) goin' off from a mostly Jazzy sustaining role into one that puts the keys to the forefront. According to the info I found, Howe has endeavoured to make this an album open to the masses, something people in general could relate to thanks to the abstract language called music. He's wanted to expand on methods of experimenting more with sounds and tones as opposed to focusing primarily on intense compositon and technique. Which doesn't mean there isn't enough of that around on the album, of course, but because the writing was done in the studio, the music has a feeling which is closer to a spontaneous jam session rather than the very technical works the guitarist delivered in the past! The fun thing this time around, is that each song somewhat stands on its own with a slightly different undertone...although always with that Hard Rock prevalence, of course! For some audio of the new album, I've had to search far enough, because Howe's own MySpace myspace.com/greghoweguitarist only caries the one track off the new album (alongside several others from various previous albums). For one more track off the new album, you'll have to surf to myspace.com/gianlucapalmieridrums! Ooh...last minute find: surf to abstractlogix.com/xcart/product.php?productid=23731 for samples of 3 additional tracks! I've always been a fan of the instrumental album, and back in the days I was totally into the Shredder thing. What with my musical tastes over the years expanding towards stuff far outside the Rock and Metal areas (yes, even including several kinds of Jazz, as well as old Blues, and '40 Bigband music...not to speak about an ever expanding Classical interest, etc...) I can enjoy a fair dosis of any kind of hybrid music, say Fusion. Therefore, don't be so surprised to find Sound Proof in that "Best Albums Of 2008" list of mine 98/100 Tony. |