The 1990s continue the tradition of standing on the shoulders of giants. What it takes to be considered a virtuoso keeps having its bar raised. You master your instrument, typically within a specific style, and then you try to take it to some new level. The 1990s is no exception to this.
This series will continue as long as people like it and vote for it. It has two prior posts.
Part 1 - Birth of the Guitar and Pre-1980
Part 2 - 1980s Guitar Virtuosos
I will not list all guitarists. I can't remember them all, and likely some I did not know about. Feel free to comment on this post and link videos or samples if you know someone I forget that you think is worthy of being considered a virtuoso. This will enable readers to share with each other, and I'll get to learn some cool new musicians as well.
Guitar Virtuosos of the 1990s
The 1990s are another big group of guitarist. Every decade we have more and more people taking the crazy things that people before them did and taking it to the next level. At this point I do want to say that virtuoso level music is not always pleasant to the listener. Technical skill is sometimes difficult to appreciate when approaching it purely from a SOUNDS GOOD perspective. It can take a discerning ear and/or musical background. That doesn't mean it sounds bad, but to the layman it often could sound like a jumble of notes. I have a trick to share with you.
I've grown up hearing that is just noise applied to various musical styles. With the exception of freeform Jazz most music is repeatable. Thus, if it is controlled and can be reproduced exactly it is not actually noise. So if you hear some weird bent out of tune or garbled notes thrown together consider this. Do they replicate that out of tune and garbled sound every time they play it? If so... that is hard to do. It is actually far more difficult than playing something ordinary. It kind of adds a new facet to the term music appreciation. If you want an example of this with vocals since we all have a voice. Sometime check out the song by The Clash called Rock The Casbah. It is not particularly technical, but what they intentionally do with the singing will illustrate what I am talking about in terms of guitar.
Another thing that can up the difficulty. It is much easier to do things with what is known as standard time signatures and beats that fall at regular intervals (basically think of anything easy to dance to). So when you hear something that would be difficult to dance to that usually means its beats are not falling at regular intervals. This is sometimes called an odd time signature. Odd time signature songs can be more difficult to play, especially if they change from one odd time signature to another throughout the song. It takes much more careful timing between the musicians in the band and raises the difficulty of being able to perform it live a great deal.
So why did I mention this. One virtuoso that doesn't sound like a virtuoso until you realize he can repeat this apparent chaos every time stands out... Without this consideration he wouldn't make this list.
Larry LaLonde
Larry LaLonde - 1968-
Larry LaLonde is the guitarist for the very unique band Primus. It should be noted that Larry is another Joe Satriani student. His playing style sounds like chaos. Yet he can repeat it with precision every time. This makes it extremely difficult and noteworthy. It also can't be considered anything but a unique sound.
Crazy Solo - Live - seriously he can repeat this stuff
Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde - 1967 -
He actually started his career in Ozzy Osbourne's band in 1987 so technically he should be in the 80s. His career really took off in the 80s. He is one of those that practiced like a madman. He has been in movies such as Rockstar as the long legged flying V playing band member of Steel Dragon. I think his one line is like "Keep your dick away from me" or something like that. When he left Ozzy he went on to make his own band Black Label Society. I am going to show a few songs here as he has some different sounds. He is great at artificial harmonics (squeel/pinch harmonics), and is fond of a technique known as chicken pickin which is not actually a technique normally used in metal. He is really good at making you think he is using a whammy/tremolo bar without actually using one. A master.
Solo - with Ozzy
Improvised Solo - solo made up on the spot over a Andy James track
Stillborn - a Black Label Society video
Dimebag Darrell
Dimebag Darrell - 1966 to 2004
When I first encountered him his name was Diamond Darrel land it later would be changed to Dimebag. He is the guitarist for the band Pantera. He was well respected as one of the best in the business when he was around. He was killed in Columbus, Ohio when someone opened fire on the stage with a gun. Zakk Wylde and many others considered him a great friend. He was well respected for a reason. He was known at an early age for entering guitar contests in the Dallas, Texas area and always winning. Finally they asked him to be a judge only so other people would have a chance. He was an amazing lead/solo artist, but he had decided the rhythms themselves needed to be more dynamic and complicated. This is where a lot of the signature sounds of Pantera would come from.
11 Unforgettable Moments - not all guitar playing, but it shows his character and is a tribute
Cowboys From Hell
John Petrucci
John Petrucci - 1967-
John Petrucci is the guitarist for Dream Theater and one of my personal favorite guitarists. He has performed on side projects like Liquid Tension Experiment and has been one of the featured guitarists on the G3 tours with the likes of Joe Satriani. He was inspired by a lot of metal and progressive rock bands. That lifted his technical prowess up there. With his other band members they have written what I believe is some of the most technically complicated music to perform live that I've ever seen.
Glassgow Kiss - Live performing on the G3 Tour
Instrumedley - Live with Dream Theater at the Budokan - (this is a mind melter)
Adrian Legg
Adrian Legg - 1948-
I didn't know who this guy was until I caught him as an opening act for the first G3 tour. I was front row and I'll say if you ever wondered if someone could purposefully tune and detune their guitar and make music while doing it then wonder no more. This guy does it and he is amazing at it. I'm kind of surprised more people don't know about him.
Norah Handley's Waltz
More Fun In the Swamp - damn this guy is good... this is not close to what he normally plays
Jeff Loomis
Jeff Loomis - 1971-
Jeff Loomis was the main guitarist for the band Nevermore. When that band broke up he went on to become one of the guitarists of the band Arch-Enemy. He is particularly gifted at technical guitar playing. I am going to show you two different videos. The first is of him performing in a guitar store just playing the guitar parts of a song. The second will be something actually from the 1990s.
Obsidian Conspiracy - Live guitar part in a music store
C.B.F. - not a very good video but you can get a hint
Here is a link to the studio version of that song.
Michael Angelo Batio
Michael Angelo Batio - 1956 -
I have only a peripheral awareness of MAB. I do know his name comes up a lot if you research guitarists. Here is a quote from wikipedia.
Batio is known for his technical mastery of the fretboard and his extremely fast picking and sweep picked arpeggios. He is also known for his showmanship during performances, particularly his use of the "Over-Under" technique, and for his ability to play a double and quad guitar, using both hands to play. Batio is also noted for his guitar instruction DVDs in the "Speed Kills" series which teach shred guitar techniques and how to "master the art of playing lightning fast". Batio was voted the "No. 1 Shredder of All Time" by Guitar One Magazine in 2003.
A lesson from Speed Kills
Freight Train Solo
Vinnie Moore
Vinnie Moore - 1964-
Another member of the band UFO that is known for his emerged from what wikipedia refers to as the virtuoso boom of the mid to late 80s. I don't think the boom actually stopped, it just became far more common. All of the young up and comers standing upon the shoulders of the virtuosos that came before them.
Tony McAlpine
Tony McAlpine - 1960-
Tony is known for being an instrumental rock solo guitarist who exploded onto the scene in the 1990s. He has a very Satriani like sound in this song I am sharing with you. (Standing on the shoulders of giants)
Greg Howe
Greg Howe - 1963 -
Greg Howe is most known for collaborating with a lot of other musicians. I often encounter his name when I am reading interviews from the whos who of musicians. This is some funky shred I share with you here.
Chris Poland
Chris Poland - 1957 -
Chris was a member of Megadeth from 1984 to 1987 and has since gone on to gain a reputation as an American jazz fusion guitarist.
Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno Bettencourt - 1966-
Nuno is another one of those Guitar Institute alumni that gained some fame. He had very funk and groove based metal songs. Some of his fame may have arrived in the late 80s, but primarily his fame was from being the guitarist of the band Extreme when they had a lot of hit songs such as More Than Words, Decadence Dance and others. The song that Bill and Ted rock out to in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in the scene with Beethoven is actually Extreme and the guitar parts are pure Nuno. You'll see that solo in this video.
Mattias Eklundh
Mattias Eklundh - 1969 -
Mattias is a Swedish guitarist and known for his work with Freak Kitchen, Jonas Hellborg Trio, and Art Metal. He holds and an annual Freak Guitar Camp in the woods of Sweden dedicated for guitar players from all over the world.
Joe Stump
Joe Stump - 1960 -
Joe plays for the bands Exorcism, Raven Lord, and HolyHell as well as solo projects. He is known for sometimes playing in a style similar to that of Yngwie Malmsteen.
George Bellas
George Bellas - ?
He became a guitarist for UFO which is another band famous for producing great guitarists. Ozzy tends to attract great guitarists, so did The Yardbirds and the same can be said for UFO. George Bellas is one of those.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd - 1977 -
Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a young musician in terms of when he found success as a blues artist.
Neil Zaza
Neil Zaza - ?
Neil Zaza is an instrumental guitar known for adapting classical works by the likes of Bach and Mozart. He is a neo-classical guitarist. Here he has rearranged the 1980s pop song Take On Me.
Rusty Cooley
Rusty Cooley - 1970-
Rusty is regarded as one of the fastest guitarists in the United States. His musical influences are from all the people you've seen in previous editions of this blog. Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, and Tony MacAlpine. Some of those people are in this blog.
Theodore Ziras
Theodore Ziras - ?
Theodore is from Greece. He is heavily influenced by Classical Music, Rock, Metal, Jazz, and Fusion. He is an alumni of the Guitar Institute of London.
Some observations
If you don't get the Standing on the shoulders of giants reference I made. Each generation tends to be inspired by the greats that came before them. Thus to pick a BEST guitarist is highly subjective and tends to be something you need to decide if you are going to compare them to the knowledge and other players at the time. If you were to take the guitarist in this particular blog post and compare them to the guitarists of the previous posts these guys would make those guys look like they are standing still. Does that mean this group is better? No. It means they had teachers who those previous guys didn't and they took it somewhere new. If you were to watch these blog posts backwards you would reach points where the older bands and players seemed like they are going in slow motion compared to these guys. This trend will continue into the future. Each generation learns from the one before it and takes the music somewhere new. To those Clapton is God, Page is God, Van Halen is God people... They might have been for one brief snapshot in the history of the guitar, and then new guitarists are birthed who take it further. Clapton, Jeff Beck, Page, etc all of those guys might as well be using training wheels if they are compared to those who came after them. That is an unfair comparison though. I instead like to look at each musician from the perspective of what they contributed to music. In that sense Clapton, Hendrix and many others are MORE important in the scheme of music moving along to somewhere new. You see many of these people in this particular entry are technically skilled beyond imagining yet they don't always take the music to a new place. Instead they try to perfect a style or sound that existed before them. It becomes difficult to push the instrument to produce sounds and styles that have not existed before. When that happens that is truly a moment of wonder. I do believe that is increasingly difficult to do. Thus, we are now in the stage of ever increasing technical prowess. Occasionally we'll have the Adrian Legg and Larry LaLonde type players that instead of trying to be the fastest and most technical instead try to do things we haven't seen before.
Conclusion
I am going to stop here for this blog post. It is quite long already. If there are votes and interest I will continue where I left off and do another post starting with the 2000s.
Part 4: 2000s is now posted and can be found HERE.