***** Fire Garden by Steve Vai – Highly Recommended Progressive Rock Soul Music

What separates Steve Vai from the other leading brands are that able to shred faster than him is that he is better able to put his soul into his music.  I realize that I am invoking supernatural powers to suggest Steve Vai is just a better musician than the competition.  I am a spiritual person and I hope that is okay with my audience.  If you don’t believe in Steve Vai’s supernatural powers, I suggest seeing him live.  He puts on a good show, and you will see progressive rock soul music looks like.

While I owned some of Vai’s music prior to when the Ultra Zone came out, the Ultra Zone is what got me into him.  I would imagine that Fire Garden would have captivated me just as much as the Ultra Zone had I experienced it first.  My first experience with Steve Vai was Sex and Religion, and when I was in high school, I thought that album was just terrible, but now I love it.  Sex and Religion has very little shredding and is about song craft, but not usual song craft.  It is more like song craft from planet q.  That album, Sex and Religion, actually turned me off to Steve Vai, and it wasn’t until one of my friends played Ultra Zone, c. 2,000, for me that I was hooked.

I wish I had got Fire Garden earlier.  It has been in my 100 disc changer for many years now.  It is a true favorite of mine, even to the extent that I would probably have a difficult time getting along with someone who wasn’t able to appreciate this album for its greatness, technicality aside.

Fire Garden - like every five star album should be - is superior quality music from start to finish, while at the same time providing a lot of music.  Vai has a lot to say on this one with his guitar, and if you get it, I don’t think that you have to be some sort of genius to appreciate this one.  IMHO this one has been good from start to finish year after year.  It didn’t require me to adjust my musical taste to appreciate it.  It wasn’t hard to get into.  It is a readily accessible work art.  What more can I say?

 

 

***** When Gravity Fails by Neil Zaza – Like Many Musicians, Zaza Is a Nobody That Deserves More

If Zaza was born a little earlier, so that he fit in right in the time when music was getting to be put on higher quality formats, back in the early kingship Joe Satriani, or even the kingship of Jeff Beck, and also Eric Clapton ruled, Zaza would have been a somebody. However, as Zaza pursues his career there is practically an infinite wall of good progressive music on record, such that there is no demand for someone like Neil Zaza, and that is a real shame because he is a tremendous musician.

I will admit there are a few that are better than Zaza, and that there could be some improvement of this album. However, I’m on Zaza’s side. I want to see him succeed. I won’t say that he is as good as Joe Satriani, but Joe Satriani is only as good as his background music, and I will say this; Satriani often plays to terrible background music. Zaza on the other hand solos to well crafted songs, where his part is central, but it fits in with the music and it doesn’t sound like there is someone who wants to be God who makes sure that no musician in the band challenges his power.

Zaza is at his best when he is playing thoughtfully, trying to craft excellent songs, and this album is chock full of them. I highly recommend this album!