Jazz soloist or water torture?
Alex grew up in the San Fransisco Bay Area, joining his first band – the worryingly hair-metal sounding Testament – at the lowly age of sixteen. He stayed with the band for seven years, recording five albums and enjoying not inconsiderable success with tour-support slots for Megadeth, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest – a cover of their song ‘Electric Eye’ is actually included on this album. Although metal may have been his first love, the music of Miles Davis instilled a love of jazz, inspiring him to earn a BfA from New York’s prestigious New School University. This proved to be an important time for Alex in more ways than the mere accrual of qualifications, as he met and studied with several great jazz musicians, including Cecil McBee, Hal Garper, Richie Beirach, and more importantly Matt Zebrowski, who would later drum in Trio.
Alex is clearly one of those people that isn’t happy just chilling out and relaxing, as illustrated by the frankly intimidating number of other bands and musicians that he plays with in his ‘time off’ from Trio: the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Debbie Friedman and Parisian world-music type Ishtar: Voice Of The Alabina to name but a few. Just in case that wasn’t a hectic enough schedule, he is also on the staff at the American Institute Of Guitar in New York City. His influence and appeal isn’t just limited to pretentious arty intellectuals though, with parent-worrying metallers Lamb Of God big enough fans to ask Alex to play on their debut album.
So his CV is undeniably impressive, but is the album any good?
Just over half of ‘Transformation’ is new material, featuring guest appearances from Dave Eggar on cello and Grammy nominee Charlie Hunter, with his inimitable 8-string guitar/bass hybrid monstrosity. The remainder of the tracks are covers of an interesting mix of bands, including Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and the aforementioned Judas Priest.
The opening title track has a great moody intro, which then slides into lounge jazz with a pretty catchy main melody. It actually sounds a bit like the main ‘garage’ screen music from the game Gran Turismo – strange but true. The unremarkable ‘Fear Of Flying’ has no problem in flying in one ear and right out the other, and ‘Both Feet In’ – an attempt at a more bluesy number, is hampered by a guitar sound that is too cheery to sit comfortably. 'Scorch' is similarly encumbered with an accordion-like guitar effect that grates annoyingly over the seemingly endless seven minutes – entire generations passed while I was waiting for the track to end. 'Blackout' is preceded by a soundbite of “I was blacking out as it was happening”, and I find myself wishing that was the case with me, then this would be all over, or at the very least I wouldn’t be aware that it was continuing. After realising that slapping myself is going to do little besides making my face red, I carry on – besides, I’m not sure that I fancy having this pouring into my subconscious, as I don’t know what effect it would have on my inner psyche.
The covers are a mixed bag. Judas Priest’s ‘Electric Eye’ has predictably had all the metal sucked from within it, leaving a hollow shell of the original, that is filled with soloing far too noodly for it’s own good. The funk-laced cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ is actually quite decent, with the famous chorus riff still present and correct, a jazzy guitar refrain mimicking David Gilmour’s vocal line. My favourite track on the album (and what a hard choice that was) is the cover of ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ by Dio, which has been given a tasteful acoustic re-working, sounding a bit like a South American Kathryn Williams. ‘Highway Star’ contains an unexpected burst of unrestrained distortion that Deep Purple would be proud of, but it’s a case of too little, too late.
Whilst the album is incredibly musically accomplished, it is a bit cheesy, and sounds a little too close to elevator music (albeit a very classy elevator, in a very classy establishment) for my liking. One thing that can be said for ‘Transformation’, is that with a running time that breaches the hour mark, you get a lot of double bass for your buck.