Stupendously talented guitar acrobatics were always going to be on display at the 2024 Vai Academy, but this Steve Vai, Mateus Asato, and Marcin Patrzalek-propeled jam session – captured with official footage – takes things to another level.
Patrzalek, who has the honor of kickstarting the jam, employs a number of finger-strummed classical rhythms, string-skipping lead lines, and some colorful, chordal lead playing.
There are elements of Vai in Asato’s space-pocked solo seen early on the jam. He leans tightly into a fusion tonality, with his whammy bar getting plenty of spanks throughout.
Meanwhile, Vai waits patiently – almost three minutes – before his turn to grab the limelight. It’s a baton pass transition as Asato dumps his whammy bar to end his extended solo, and Vai brings his own dropped strings back up to tension.
He brings a surge of purring Eastern flavors out of his guitar, with the sheer accuracy of his slides a highlight outside his ethereal realm of bend-heavy playing.
As the improve-fest cranks through the gears, the bars per showcase get shorter and shorter, with Patrzalek’s clean and crisp acoustic offering an extra potent timbre amongst the slew of soaring electrics.
During the jam, Patrzalek is seen wielding his signature Ibanez MRC10 acoustic, with Vai armed with his trademark white Ibanez Vai JEM-EVO signature guitar. Asato, meanwhile, who recently played with Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda as part of the Already Over sessions, doesn’t play an Ibanez; he’s opted for his EMG-loaded black Suhr Classic S Strat.
The seventh edition of the four-day Vai Academy event also featured Polyphia’s Tim Henson and Scott LePage, fingerpicking maestro Matteo Mancuso, math-rock genius Yvette Young, and Dream Theater’s keyboardist-cum-guitarist Jordan Rudess.
With this year’s event, Vai revealed how he wanted to curate a line-up of the next generation’s most innovative players. Of players like Young and Henson, he says he’s “fascinated by their talent, technique and creativity.”
For Brazil-born Asato, the event opened a new door for him in his rapidly rising career. Posting on Instagram he said how teaching “was something that I never considered doing as a musician but these past three years have showed me how incredible this is. It’s been a pleasant honor to share some of my experiences at the best guitar camps in the scene. John Petrucci, Joe Satriani – and now with the legendary Steve Vai. Unforgettable memories.”
The Vai Academy is sandwiched in Vai’s busy touring schedule in between his recently complete G3 tour, and dates with Joe Satriani. The Satch/Vai tour begins March 22 in Orlando, Florida, at the Hard Rock Café. In mouth-watering news, the pair are working on new music together.
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