Tony MacAlpine

CAB is a jazz fusion supergroup founded by bassist Bunny Brunel. Since their formation in 2000, they have released four studio albums and two live... albums. Their second album, CAB 2, received a nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 2002 Grammy Awards.
more

Ring of Fire is an American neoclassical/progressive/power metal band from Chula Vista, California formed in 2000. Fronted by former Yngwie J.... Malmsteen collaborator Mark Boals after the release of his solo album Ring of Fire, the band also included guitarist Tony MacAlpine, Planet X drummer Virgil Donati, grammy-award winning bassist Philip Bynoe, and keyboardist Steve Weingart. Ring of Fire released three studio albums between 2001 and 2004, as well as a live album, Burning Live In Tokyo 2002. After disbanding, Boals, MacAlpine, and Donati later formed Seven the Hardway.
more

Planet X is an instrumental rock/progressive metal supergroup, founded by keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Virgil Donati. Throughout a decade... of activity, they have released three studio albums and one live album, each with a variety of guest musicians and oft-changing lineups. After his four-year tenure with progressive metal band Dream Theater, Sherinian released his first solo album entitled Planet X in 1999. This concept was later expanded, in collaboration with drummer Virgil Donati, to form a group of the same name. Universe subsequently became Planet X's first studio album upon its release on June 6, 2000. For this recording, renowned guitarist Tony MacAlpine was brought in to replace Brett Garsed, who had played on Sherinian's original Planet X album. Live from Oz, a live album recorded during their 2002 Australian tour, was released on April 3 of that year. Their second studio album, MoonBabies, was released shortly after on July 29. Five years later, Quantum, their third album, was released on May 18, 2007. This lineup featured two guest appearances from acclaimed jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth, with Garsed returning for overall guitar duties.
more

Shrapnel Records is a guitar-oriented record label started in 1980 by record producer Mike Varney. Guitarist Marty Friedman , one of the label's most successful artists, first appeared on the album Unsung Guitar Heroes II in 1980 with the band Vixen. Vixen would later change their name to Hawaii... and release the album One Nation Underground for Shrapnel. In 1981, a friend gave Mike Varney a tape featuring a 17-year-old Swedish guitarist named Yngwie Malmsteen. A year later, Malmsteen wrote to the label stating that he wanted to export his music to America. Varney, who started writing a column called "Spotlight" for Guitar Player magazine in 1982, featured Malmsteen in his February 1983 column. The record executive flew Yngwie to California and set him up with vocalist Ron Keel's new band called Steeler. Steeler's self-titled album became a best selling release for Shrapnel Records. The Shrapnel Records label and a growing worldwide interest in virtuoso "neoclassical-fusion" guitar playing helped launch the careers of dozens of other technically adept guitarists such as David T.
more

PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group. In 1929, Decca Records licensed record shop owner H.W. van Zoelen as a distributor in the... Netherlands. By 1931, his company Hollandsche Decca Distributie had become exclusive Decca distributor for all of the Netherlands and its colonies. Over the course of the 1930s, HDD put together its own facilities for A&R, recording and manufacture. HDD was commercially successful during World War II because of the absence of American and British competition. Van Zoelen wanted to sell to Philips so that HDD would have sufficient financial backing when their major competitors returned after the war. This led Philips to buy HDD in 1942.
more

Metropolis Records is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based record label, distributor, and mail-order store specializing in the post-industrial field such as electro-industrial, synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, and gothic musical genres. Metropolis started business as a retail record store under the... name of "Digital Underground." Metropolis began signing acts as a record label in 1995, with groups such as Mentallo and the Fixer, Numb, and Front Line Assembly. It has arranged for its bands to tour together such as Numb and Front Line Assembly together in 1996, and Project Pitchfork and Front 242 in 1998. It also established extensive distribution channels to a variety of commercial channels, providing access to major commercial markets for typically niche-interest groups. By the late 1990s it had become the dominant specialty record label in North America for electro-industrial. Several groups once signed on Wax Trax! Records later released on Metropolis, including Front Line Assembly, Front 242, KMFDM, Doubting Thomas, PIG, Noise Unit, VNV Nation and Assemblage 23.
more

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the... United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most common. The blue notes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent in relation to the pitch of the major scale, are also an important part of the sound. The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles.
more