Michael Angelo Batio playing jazz, everything is possible now!

5 Responses to “Michael Angelo Batio playing jazz, everything is possible now!”

1. Sammy
   April 16th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

   

   What was nice about it was it didn’t show him, for once, as a one-sided, shred show off, with no real listenable musicality. He showed tasteful - along with very skilled - playing. Oh, and the wig - er, hair - doesn’t even look as ridiculous in this video.

2. Pribek
   April 16th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

   

   I guess sometimes you have to drop the hint twice, Ovidiu.
   “a professional guitar player has more tricks in the bag, right, Jack?”
   Right.
   I’m not surprised to see Joe holding a Les Paul or Michael playing over some ii-V-i’s.
   Music is a form of expression, a way to communicate. It is against human nature to self limit what we wish to convey, to transmit.
   A “professional” implies a person who is doing a job; well. If part of the job is to keep things within certain bounds, a pro is going to recognize that and do what’s best.
   If a cook is hired to fry chicken, that’s what he does. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t able to cook a wide variety of dishes, maybe even some that are far better than fried chicken. But, these people came for chicken.
   I know a few chefs, that work at nice restaurants. They are creative people, they think food all the time. If you are over at the house, kicking back, they say; “try this, it’s something I thought up”.
   Satriani; a good part of his living probably comes from product endorsements. So, when you see him, anytime you see him, he is on the clock and pushing those products.
   Michael; a good part of his living depends on promoting himself as a shredder and teaching people to shred. So, that is going to remain his public persona.
   Public persona-an image-is always one facet. People are always multi-faceted.
   It’s a difficult way to make a living, playing guitar. So, if something is working for you, it is often best to pursue it.

3. Ovidiu
   April 16th, 2008 at 8:23 pm

   

   @Jack: you are right, just that as far as I can remember I have seen Joe Satriani playing Ibanez guitars and nothing else, so I presumed he has either an exclusivity contract, either a public image that he is contractually bound to, so I could bet he would never show himself with something else than an Ibanez. So that picture with Joe Satriani playing a Gibson Les Paul was very strange to me, as with early pictures of Steve Vai playing Fender Stratocaster. But I could also bet that considering Satriani’s experience and creativity he can not be bound to Ibanez only.

   And you know what? I remember I have seen an interview somewhere, he was asked about his guitars used in the studio and he said his Ibanez and…a very old Fender Stratocaster!

   @Sammy: yes, it was nice to see him playing something musical and without his speedy licks. It is something new from his part. Just that I don’t know how well his fans will like this part of him

4. Mike
   April 17th, 2008 at 5:52 am

   

   As cool as it is to see something so different from his norm, you can tell it’s not particularly Batio’s bag. His playing was particularly dry. Skilled, but very dry. Not much passion or energy to it in my opinion. It’s when I hear people just starting out to play jazz. They’re playing the right notes, but you can’t feel it yet, because they’re not quite sure what they’re communicating.

   Philosophical babble aside, that video is a cool find.

5. Ovidiu
   April 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am

   

   You say not much passion in his playing, well, I would say that he played “tidy” and “clean”. I am sure it is not his music of choice but let’s not underestimate him, if you look on the suggested videos when this video is over you will see other videos from long ago with Michael Angelo Batio playing jazz and country. How about it? He seems to have the pleasure of playing acoustic guitars as well as electric ones.