Steve Vai's Wild Things

[pro-fusion]

The problem with Vai getting into a fusion thing is that he'll undoubtedly do his whizzy-whizzy foo-foo stuff there, too. Chances are that all the little noise-maker things he does would get a wee bit too old in a hardcore jazz-fusion context, as it's all about chops and technique (as is obviously the case with Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, or Mike Stern) and not about how many different effects you can jam into a preset on your pedal board or how hard you can pull back on your Floyd.

He plays it pretty straight on the new Mike Stern album. His playing is actually pretty impressive there, though the overall thinness of his tone stands out more in that setting. Maybe that would improve if he'd ditch the JEMs and pull out his old bright pink Soloist again.

[Endrik]

The problem with Vai getting into a fusion thing is that he'll undoubtedly do his whizzy-whizzy foo-foo stuff there, too. Chances are that all the little noise-maker things he does would get a wee bit too old in a hardcore jazz-fusion context, as it's all about chops and technique (as is obviously the case with Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, or Mike Stern) and not about how many different effects you can jam into a preset on your pedal board or how hard you can pull back on your Floyd.

Umm, one of the reasons that fusion/jazz-rock was born is all the noise-making gadgets. Before that you had acoustic sounding instruments. Fusion took all the electric pianos with their effect modulators, electric guitars and basses with fuzz boxes etc.
While some players prefer more straight tone then there are many who go crazy with effects. McLaughlin often uses computer systems to create really wild effects.
When I saw Scofield a some years ago he used two incredibly huge pedal boards full of crazy effects which he used.
Btw. Chick Corea's rig during the late days of Return To Forever was bigger than most stages. He had at least 3 electric pianos, 3 synths, a big concert piano etc.

[Bri]

I saw the show here in L.A. and bought the blu-ray the day it came out. That sums up where I stand. I've read he hopes to use the String Theories line up for the next studio release. As far as I'm concerned I'd love to see him go back and forth between the The Breed and String Theories.