August, 2008

It's been a while since I updated my website, so here we go:

- At the end of June I did a workshop for a week at ToneZone in Cary, North Carolina. Thanks again to Derek Butler for having me.
The flight from LA to North Carolina was an absolute nightmare - it only took 26 (!) hours to get there - traveling is sooooo much fun.

- After this workshop I played 3 gigs with Jeff Sipe and Neal Fountain. We record all those gigs and the last one will be very soon available
for as digital download at Abstract Logix.
Originally there was a DVD shoot of the original "Improvision" trio planned, but Matt Garrison had to cancel. We might do this at a later point.
Neal Fountain helped us out and man, what a pleasant surprise - he is a great player and a great guy to hang with!

- At the first gig in Wilmington I met Daniel Klein from Port City Amplification who told me about the new speaker cabinets he is building and asked me if I wanted to try one out. I did and I was blown away. It was a 2x12 cabinet (the OS version) and it sounded HUGE! Guess what, now have one at home and I can't recommend those cabinets highly enough. Check out the Port City website.

- In May I got an endorsement from Godin Guitars - I am now the proud owner of a Freeway SA - which is a wonderful guitar that I will use as much as possible. I already used it on an instructional DVD that I did for LickLibrary in May.

- UKZ: We finally met! In July we rehearsed for 2 days in Los Angeles.

- I played 2 gigs with the Virgil Donati band (one in May and another one in July). The music is very challenging but also fun to play. Virgil put up to short clips of those shows on YouTube.

- Tomorrow I am going to Austria for 2 weeks. I will teach at a summer seminar in Schoenbach.

- Normalizer 2 is still in the works. I finished a couple of tracks last week and will continue working on this as soon as I am back from Europe.

April, 2008

- Virgil Donati invited me to join his band - we will play our first gig on May 3rd at the Baked Potato (see dates)

- in January I did some weblessons for LickLibrary. In these lessons I covered a couple of concepts for chord voicings.

- Here is a YouTube clip from the gig with Kai Eckhardt and Marco Minnemann at the Baked Potato.
The video was shot in "night mode" which is the reason why we are all a bit green.

- I am still working on Marco Minnemann's Normalizer 2 project ...This CD should be finished and released this year.
I'll keep you updated about this...

- UKZ: ...in the works...

- in May I will do an educational DVD for LickLibrary.

December, 2007

Here is the YouTube video from the Improvision recording session with Matt Garrison and Jeff Sipe:

- the UKZ gig in January has been postponed - check out the UKZ website for more details

- new dates added
don't miss the show in January with my trio (Machacek, Eckhardt, Minnemann) at the Baked Potato!!!
We played 2 shows in Mexico this year which I enjoyed very much!

- in February I will teach at the Tonica Guitar Camp in Guadalajara, Mexico

October, 2007

- Here is a video from the "Improvision" recording session: click this link

- UKZ
Eddie Jobson invited me to join his new band called UKZ.
The line up is: Eddie Jobson (keys, violin)
Aaron Lippert (vocals)
Trey Gunn (warr guitar)
Alex Machacek (guitar)
Marco Minnemann (drums)

to read more about this go the UKZ website.

We are working on a CD which will be released in early 2008 and there is also a concert scheduled for January 25th, 2008.

- The Jazz Workshop in Schoenbach, Austria (August 2007) was a highly enjoyable experience! I will be teaching there again in August 2008.

July, 2007

Finally another update...

- Here are a couple of pics from the gig with Matt Garrison and Jeff Sipe.

- for the next 2 days we went to a studio and recorded an album (entitled "Improvision") which will be released mid August 2007.
During April, May and June I edited, "re-composed" , overdubbed and finally mixed it. Well, I hope you'll enjoy it.
Here are some pics from the studio.

- new gigs added ->see "dates"

March, 2007

- In April 2007 I'll be recording with Matt Garrison and Jeff Sipe! The CD will be ready by summer 2007. Before the studio session we will play a gig in Raleigh, NC -> see "dates"

- The "music-section" has been updated.

- gigs with Sumitra -> see "dates"

February, 2007

- Out Trio tour Japan: we had 6 great shows and 2 clinics and I really enjoyed my trip to Japan! Special thanks again to all the people who
made this tour possible: Kana, Naoju, Leonardo and Mici. I put some new pictures in the gallery - more to come soon...
And the biggest thank you goes of course to the audience!!!

- Terry Bozzio joined Korn: yes, the rumors are true...therefore the gig at the Zappanale 2007 is cancelled. Chad Wackerman will play instead of the Out Trio. The proposed European tour 2007 is also cancelled.

- Some idiot hacked my website twice. Why? I don't know .
So, to whom it may concern, yes, I admire your computer skills, you are superior, yes, you are annoying me, yes, you win - and yes, I'll fix it everytime I'll notice it...as if I had nothing else to do...

- CD-Projects for 2007: Marco Minnemann asked me to compose around a 50min drum solo of his. The project is called "Normalizer2" and there will be several people composing around the same solo: John Czajkowski from Hectic Watermelon, Mike Keanelly, Mario Brinkmann and Marco Minnemann. This will ultimately end in a 5 CD package! I am sure it will be interesting to hear all the different approaches/results! The proposed "deadline" for this project is the end of the year.

I am already working on my next CD which will be again "composing around drumsolos". So far I have material from Terry Bozzio, Marco Minnemann, Herbert Pirker and I should receive solos from Jeff Sipe, Chad Wackerman and more well known drummers who already commited to this project. Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated about the progress.

The new Out Trio CD (which was recorded/jammed) last year and is still waiting for some heavy editing is on hold now - see above -> Terry joined Korn...

- In January I played a nice gig with Adam Nitti and Marco Minnemann at the Namm "Bass Bash" . I had a lot of fun!!!

- [sic] was voted CD of the month in the British drummer-mag.com - go to the press section to check out this review.

That's it for now!

January, 2007

- here is the link to the All About Jazz interview with Ian Patterson

- I did a "Woodshed"-column for the February issue of the GuitarPlayer magazine. It's called "Triadic Trickery"...

December, 2006

- [sic] made it into John Kelman's Best of 2006 - under "New Discoveries"

- My first album "Featuring Ourselves" (originally released 1999) is finally available again as digital download. This album was out of print for many years.

  click on the thumbnail to go to the Abstract Logix download site.

- "dates" section is updated

- "Rave" magazine interview is up on the site ("press section")

- Ian Patterson recently interviewed me for www.allaboutjazz.com
  The interview should be up on their site by the end of the month.

- article about [sic] in the current issue of "Guitar One"

- a personal note: I want to warn you to do business with Mille Records in Rome, Italy. These guys got 100 copies of the BPM album but never   paid for it. I tried to get this issue solved (for a couple of years!) - but they obviously refuse to get back to me
  zero, null, nothing!!!
So much for the fun in the music business...

November, 2006

  
- I recently aquired new pick ups from Suhr Guitars (V60LPs and SSV) for my Steinberger and they sound awesome!
Highly recommended!!!  

- more gigs (->dates)
...with Marco Minnemann, JK Kleutgens and Antti Kotikoski @ the Baked Potato
...with Sumitra and Mario Lackner @ Alvas, San Pedro

OUT TRIO - Japan Tour (Jan. 2007) confirmed!!!
I haven't been to Japan yet (except for a short lay over in Tokyo) and I am pretty excited about this.
There are plans to film the shows in Tokyo for a "Live in Japan - DVD" - this time it will be filmed in HD and with 7 cameras!

- Since October I am teaching at the GIT, Hollywood - so far so good

- New article about [sic] in the Indian "Rave" - Magazine. As soon as I have it I'll put it on the site.

- I recently contributed an article/workshop about chord voicings for the GuitarPlayer magazine. This should be in the next issue in the
"woodshed" - department.

- Alex Machacek - interview for the Guitar Channel

- new reviews of [sic] in the press section

August, 2006

- New gigs added under "dates".

- Finally the "gallery" is updated. Once there, click "main menu -> library -> and select a folder.

- Alex Machacek interview for the Gagliarchives: Click here to listen to it.

- By Monday, August 28, 2006 [sic]     will be available for download from Abstract Logix!

- I recently held a guitar clinic at ToneZone in Cary, NC. Thanks again to Derek Butler and Tom Yoder for having me.
 Here are some pictures...