Skol

Skol

ASIN: B000000YRP

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This 1979 meeting of Oscar Peterson with the ebullient French violinist Stephane Grappelli at a Danish jazz festival is a pure delight. Grappelli, whose unassuming virtuosity rivaled that of Peterson, takes a brilliant solo on Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" and trades hot licks with Peterson on "Skol Blues." They are joined by guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen (who had recorded a trio album with Grappelli the day before), plus drummer Mickey Roker. With so much talent surrounding him, Peterson felt no need to take over the performance with his customary showers of notes. --Rick Mitchell

Tracks:

Detroit Rock City
Dream On
No One Like You
Goodbye To Romance
Still Loving You
Skol Blues
Pinball Wizard
Ofri
War Pigs

Album Description

Take classic hard rock tunes from the 70s and 80s by the likes of Kiss, Scorpions, Black Sabbath and others. Rearrange them with rich harmonies and pulsating grooves of swing, funk and Latin. Throw in fiery improvisations on hollowbody guitar, double-bass and drums. What do you get? The Alex Skolnick Trio. At age eighteen, Alex Skolnick became a guitar hero with the metal band Testament. A few years and several albums later, he went on to perform and study jazz in New York, earning a music degree. Now, the worlds of metal and jazz have come together. Hear the result on "Goodbye To Romance: Standards For A New Generation."

Customer Reviews:

This is the album I have been looking for, for years.......2005-10-18

I love both heavy metal and jazz, and I have been looking for a good confluence of the two. I've found some swingcore (Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Hipster Daddio & The Hand Grenades, Leslie Bell & The First Bang Band), but most of it never lived up to its potential. The Lukather/Carlton collaboration was good but also fell short, and Stanley Jordan's experiments were too tentative.

This, however, is terrific. Skolnick is a great guitar player with serious knoweldge of music theory. The arrangements are truly in the jazz idiom, with the requisite improvistational feel and the triad chord structure, but the melodies are metal all the way (if tamed a bit). I've been listening to this album a lot.

I dream of Hairbands . . . ........2005-04-02

It came to me in a dream that I should get a big band together (like count basie's) and do covers of megadeth!

This disgusts me........2005-03-21

His tone is ugly, there is no soul, he is just shredding scales with no melodic content. This is not jazz. I have a hard time writing this without cursing. I am almost ashamed to be a guitarist because of garbage like this.

Alex Skolnick's solo offering rules!.......2004-04-20

After playing in two of the biggest and most important metal bands (Testament and Savatage) in the world, Alex Skolnick decided it was time to move on and explore different musical textures. Alex has always been so much more than just a typical metal guitarist who can shred his heart out. Even when he was in Testament, one of the leading forces of thrash metal, his sense of melody made him stand out among any other guitar player in the genre. His bluesy and jazzy feel became an indispensable part of his musical vision and it was clear that he would have to move on to broaden his horizons.

I bought Goodbye to Romance as soon as it was released in 2002 through Alex's independet label Skol Productions and was greatly pleased when I saw he'd taken the time to sign the CD for me. Upon reading his message in the booklet, I was even more intrigued than before. This isn't just an average cover album of a once-metal guitarist. While Alex covers and pays tribute to lots of rock and metal classics of bands including KISS, Aerosmith, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, The Who and Black Sabbath, he also plays two of his own songs ("Skol Blues" and "Ofri"). Moreover the tunes sound nothing like the original versions, they are all re-worked and put into the framework of Alex's jazzy musical direction. The song patterns are quite different (and sometimes even more interesting) and rich with variety, melody and warmth.

This project took off the ground when Alex had a dream in which he heard a very beautiful melody and had to wake up. As he couldn't place the tune, he felt compelled to pick up his guitar and work it out, only to find the melody he'd heard was a jazzified version of Scorpions' "No One Like You" and the rest is history. He put together a great band employing two very talented young musicians: John Graham Davies (double bass) and Matt Zebroski (drums).

Miles Davis has always been a great influence on Alex's songwriting. This solo release also seems to follow the path opened up by Davis decades ago. The music here is unbelievably eclectic and borrows elements from rock, funk and blues. It's an amalgam of all of these textures centred around a strong jazzy background. It's very deeply constructed, yet it flows so naturally. The interplay between all the instruments gives the album its final shape.

The title Goodbye to Romance actually has a very special significance, because as we all know, the song "Goodbye to Romance" was a song on Ozzy's debut album with guitar god Randy Rhoads, who was one of Alex's idols and biggest influences. Back in the mid-90's Alex played with Ozzy for a handful of shows in England and felt deeply honoured about playing Randy's songs so when he decided to release his solo album he titled it after this tune. As stated in the booklet, it is commonly known that Randy was planning to eventually leave the band to pursue his classical music education, but was unable to due to his untimely passing. Alex, on the other hand, just like Randy, was bold enough to leave his rock stardom behind and went back to school for his music degree. Randy's spirit guided him through all the way.

This is one of my favourite instrumental albums ever and I wish Alex nothing but all the best in his future career. I know it must be hard to create something like this, but if he ever gets to put another solo album I'll be one of the first to buy it.

Alex Skolnick Rules!!!.......2003-10-13

I saw the trio perform live in Indy. IT WAS AWESOME... I remember Alex from back in the Testament days... It is great to see him doing something like this that he really loves. The show was great start to finish... A CD can never do justice to a live jazz concert... but this one is good. I got to hang out with Alex for a bit after the show. Truly an artist that appreciates his fans. I would highly recommend this treasure to jazz and metal fans alike.

Average customer rating:

Skol
Oscar Peterson
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000000YRP
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Tracks:

Nuages
How About You
Someone To Watch Over Me
Makin' Whoopee
That's All
Skol Blues

Amazon.com essential recording

This 1979 meeting of Oscar Peterson with the ebullient French violinist Stephane Grappelli at a Danish jazz festival is a pure delight. Grappelli, whose unassuming virtuosity rivaled that of Peterson, takes a brilliant solo on Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" and trades hot licks with Peterson on "Skol Blues." They are joined by guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels Henning Orsted-Pedersen (who had recorded a trio album with Grappelli the day before), plus drummer Mickey Roker. With so much talent surrounding him, Peterson felt no need to take over the performance with his customary showers of notes. --Rick Mitchell

Average customer rating:

Skol
Oscar Peterson
Manufacturer: Pablo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0001Z4OY2
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Tracks:

Nuages
How About You?
Someone to Watch Over Me
Makin' Whoopee
That's All
Skol Blues

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Skol Brothers

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Binding: Audio CD

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Release Date: 2004-09-07

Skol Beats: A Festa Mais Redonda Do Planeta

Average customer rating:

Skol Beats: A Festa Mais Redonda Do Planeta
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Manufacturer: Trama
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ASIN: B00029CUMU

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