Yngwie Malmsteen - Jazz?

[BirdSong]

When talking about Yngwie Malmsteen you can't say "jazz melodic minor scales", since his influences come from rock and classical music and NEVER from jazz. Over the years, in many interviews I read, he says he hates using the pentatonic scale since it has a too rock or rock'n'roll sound. He likes to play some blues also and for the rest he uses the diatonic, harmonic minor, melodic minor and diminished scales to sound classical. You'll never hear Yngwie sound jazzy, though I'm sure he would learn jazz pretty quickly if he ever wanted since in his book he explains how he combines and mixes scales. He ain't the kind of metal guitarrist that sticks on the same scale and key in one solo, he changes them.

I actually remember an interview he did in the mid 80's where he specifically said he wasn't fond of jazz. His words were: "I don't care for jazz because it's a little too dissonant for my taste." I'm sure he could easily play anything he wanted to play - including bebop. He's just one of those natural prodigy guitarists who can do anything he wants on the instrument. I had an amazing guitar teacher like that when I was young. His main love was metal, but he grew up studying jazz and played in a jazz quartet every weekend with his old Dad who was the drummer. He is the guy who gave me the old vinyl records of Martino and Pass - getting me into jazz at a young age. He could bebop like the best of them, but most of the time he liked to shred on the metal once Eddie Van Halen introduced himself in 78'. This teacher was just a natural who had those God-given "guitar fingers" that most of us wish we had. He's actually pretty well-known, but I'm not going to mention him without his permission. Anyway, Malmsteen is like that.... just a natural no matter what he plays. These guys can do anything they want - but they go with what they like. I think a lot of inexperienced jazz players (I'm not addressing you Claudi) seem to think that if guitarists aren't jazz players, they cannot be considered "the best" players - which is just bias and hubris.

[RyanM]

Ok, to answer OP: no, not melodic minor, never. He uses harmonic minor and diminished arpeggios, which are big parts of his characteristic sound.

[Stevebol]

Yngwie plays a lot of notes so he's definitely jazz.

[kris]

Yngwie plays a lot of notes so he's definitely jazz.

Yngwie plays a lot of notes so he's definitely rock.

[larry graves]

Yngwie like a lot of shredders play a lot of notes but never play a recognizable tune. Jazz and classical musicians play "Tunes"

It's a cop out to say Yngwie could play jazz on the guitar if he wanted to, but of course he doesn't want to! "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!! Bias and Hubris! that sounds about right!!.....L..

[fumblefingers]

every now and then it seems like we have a thread entitled "[insert metal shredder name here] - is he jazz?".

lol. the answer is "no".


remember folks, there is only one kind of jazz, and that is swing!


uh. and... bebop, western swing, hard-bop, cool, Latin jazz, free jazz, post-bop, funk jazz, jazz-rock fusion, smooth jazz, disco jazz, Euro jazz, world jazz, acid jazz.......

[Greentone]

Interesting to see this thread resurrected. I agree with fumblefingers. The prime ingredient of jazz, in the final analysis, is swing. Rock--almost without exception--is an even eight feel music...or, in Malmsteen's case, even 64ths. Malmsteen _could_ play jazz, but the audience he projects to expects "four on the floor" music with an even four, even eight feel. Swing feels wonky, wobbly to the rock crowd.

Rock is great music; jazz is great music. They are rhythmically different art forms. Just ask your drummer.

[kris]

some people like rock and do not like jazz....some people like jazz and do not like rock...etc

[docbop]

Some people go to whole foods, buy a bunch of sugary, greasy processed foods, and continue living under an assumption that somehow their tastes are more sophisticated now.

I remember the old SNL skit with Mr. Rogers talks to the Jazz musician. In a gruff muffled voice this bass player saying "McMuffin! a jazz players breakfast"

[AlteredDave]

I am one of those who can listen to the masters of different music styles..One day I crave YM or Dream Theater and Wes M and Parker the other,Or a movie Sound Tracks..and both days I got musical orgasms after listen how each one approach the chord progressions in their genre..each one with their staple..aggressive ,melodic,harmonic complexity,incredible technique and mastery of their instruments..I feel sorry for the ones who cant appreciate this.. small minded people,what they're missing..(Musical Orgasm-the moment when the music sends electric run in your body and get chicken skin in your arms)

[ScoHolds]

Yngwie was quite exciting when he arrived on the scene with Alcatrazz, and his debut Rising Force album had a massive impact on the later genres of Shred and Power Metal. He was a truly great Rock/Metal player.

But it's hard to rank him with the people who influenced him (Uli Jon Roth, Edward Van Halen, Ritchie Blackmore), mostly because he never really broke away from their influence. He still plays leads that sound like Van Halen meets Uli Roth, and he is still trying to rewrite Machine Head and Rainbow Rising to this very day. And the other guys were all doing the diminished and harmonic minor runs first.

We can call all the above opinion, but anyone who studies his music objectively will see this is pretty much his career in summa. He plays the same harmonic minor scale over and over, and on the rare occasion he plays other scales he plays the same patterns. He once mentioned "I play real music, not atonal s*$%". He seems incapable of seeing that experimenting with a different sound and set of scales or ANYTHING would mean he'd finally produce something interesting.

I stopped buying his albums after Odyssey, but his lead guitar in particular was getting old before then.

That said, I work with two of his former singers, Graham Bonnet and Mark Boals.

[krueger]

I saw Yngwie in Sweden 15 years ago. He used a pair of pliers to cut of the strings of his guitar during a monster solo. That wasn't exactly jazz, but it definitely was cool (and strangely enough he made it sound good). I've seen a couple of other shredders live during the years, but Yngwie, I feel, was the most natural and effortless on stage of the bunch. With that said I can't say I listen to him much anymore. As a swede I see more of his escapades in the tabloids, though. He should get some kind of award for breaking the national stereotype if nothing else!