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Austrian Guitar Phenom Alex Machacek Makes Stunning Stateside Splash with [sic]

www.abstractlogix.com
www.alexmachacek.com

“Alex Machacek’s music starts where other music ends. He is playing some amazing guitar on [SIC]. He is going where other people stop. It is so nice to hear. So spontaneous. Wild New Music. Thinking and Deep Musician. He has done some very deep excavation in the mind of music.”
John McLaughlin, June 2006

One of the most extraordinary players to emerge in recent years on the contemporary guitar scene, Austrian six-string marvel Alex Machacek makes his stunning Stateside debut with [sic] on the Abstractlogix label. A resident of Los Angeles since October 2004, Machacek has been something of an underground phenomenon on the West Coast. His considerable talents have already been championed by such renowned guitarists as Steve Vai, Steve Khan and the late Shawn Lane and drew kudos from jazz critic Bill Milkowski, who wrote in his liner notes to [sic]: “Imagine a composite of Allan Holdsworth’s stunning legato chops and advanced harmonic language with Mike Keneally’s exacting virtuosity and Frank Zappa’s fiercely uncompromising ‘difficult music’ and you’re getting close to where this visionary new talent is operating.”

Accompanied by his Austrian homeboys Raphael Preuschl on upright bass and Herbert Pirker on drums, and featuring special guest drummer Terry Bozzio on a few tracks, Machacek brings astounding facility and a wickedly inventive streak to the material on [sic]. Using a method of recycling previously recorded tracks by composing and improvising new ideas on top of them, Machacek has reimagined older, existing pieces with a brand new suit of clothes. The tune ‘Djon Don,’ for instance, is cleverly built up from a track on Bozzio’s album Solo Drum Music (from 1994). As Machacek explains, “I imported his drum solo and composed an entire piece around it. Similarly, the title track of [sic] is a piece I composed around a six-minute improvisation that I asked Terry to do a few years ago. Again, I took his solo and worked up new material around it.”

Aside from creating these new “Frankenstein” works on his computer, Machacek also interacts organically and brilliantly in a live setting with bassist Preuschl and drummer Pirker on three exhilarating trio numbers — “Yellow Pages,” “Piano” and “Ballad of the Dead Dog.” Says Alex, “I’m really proud of the way my Austrian boys played. They are unknown and they are really young — Herbert was 21 when he recorded this and Raphael was 25. But I think they are really outstanding musicians.”

The hauntingly beautiful vocal feature “Indian Girl Meets Austrian Boy” is a collaboration between Machacek and his wife, singer Sumitra Nanjundan, while “Miss Understanding” is an after-the-fact guitar-bass duet built on a pre-existing improvisation by bassist Preuschl. Throughout [sic], Machacek can also be heard playing several other instruments — a piano solo and a bit of marimba on “Djon Don,” some accomplished Percy Jones styled fretless bass on “Out of Pappenheim,” a bit of bass clarinet on “Austin Powers.” But as the maestro admits, “I do it all with the mouse, punching sampled notes into the computer. The only thing I really play is the guitar.”

Born in 1972, Machacek grew up in Vienna, where he began studying classical guitar at the age of eight and continued for six years. While his early interest in guitar outside the classical field tended toward rock (Queen, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden), he later gravitated toward jazz, with a particular interest in jazz guitar great Joe Pass. “I was pretty much a straight ahead player back then because that was what the people played around me. I learned the Great American songbook and just played as much as I could. When I was 13 or 14, somebody gave me a Joe Pass record and I became the biggest Joe Pass fan in the 14th district of Vienna. I fell in love with this guy’s playing.” At age 16, Alex enrolled at the Conservatory of Vienna, where he studied jazz guitar. “Usually you go to school until you’re 18 and then enter the Conservatory,” says Alex. “But I convinced my mother to let me quit school so that I could attend the Conservatory earlier.”

During his formative years he gained invaluable bandstand experience in a wide variety of groups, from Dixieland to pop cover bands, big band to musical theater, singer-songwriter to contemporary classical as well as sitting in on jam sessions. A turning point in his development came after he encountered the music of guitar god Allan Holdsworth. “I was so attracted to his playing because I had no clue what was going on. All I knew was it was different, it was great and I wanted to figure out what he was doing. And I have to admit, I definitely became a Holdsworth addict. And while I don’t want to deny my influences, I’m also trying to get something identifiable happening in my playing.” Some years after his introduction to Holdsworth’s wholly unique approach to guitar playing, Machacek had a similar encounter with Frank Zappa’s music, which had a significant impact on him. “I always liked Allan’s playing but I was also looking for something else on a compositional level”,” says Alex. “Then I found Zappa. Other friends were turning me on to his music but I think his album Live in New York was one of the keys for me. I fell in love with that record. And, of course, Terry Bozzio plays on that record, so I also fell in love with Terry’s drumming.”

In 1993, Alex attended a summer course in Perugia, Italy, where he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was during his stay at Berklee that he fortified his own approach to the guitar. At the time, the prevailing attitude among aspiring guitarists was to emulate either Pat Metheny or John Scofield, while the strictly straight ahead contingent identified more with the Pat Martino-Wes Montgomery camp. “But I wasn’t interested in any of that,” recalls Alex. “All of those guitarists are great but I was looking for something else. And what I came away with was the idea: Learn from them but don’t play like them. Instead, I’m trying to push past boundaries and hope that something new will come out in my playing.”

After completing two semesters at Berklee, Machacek returned to the Conservatory of Vienna to complete his degree in Jazz Education. He was named Guitar Newcomer for 1998 in a European guitar competition and the following year debuted as a leader with Featuring Ourselves. That same year, 1999, he was introduced to his favorite drummer, Terry Bozzio, which later led to the formation of an unorthodox trio with saxophonist Gerald Preinfalk. In 2001, they recorded Delete and Roll under the collective name BPM (for Bozzio, Preinfalk, Machacek) in Austin, Texas, where Bozzio currently lives with his family. In 2002, BPM subsequently did two European tours. In 2003 Machacek and Bozzio performed with the former Zappa bassist Patrick O’Hearn (who had played alongside Bozzio on Zappa in New York). Their remarkable chemistry is documented on the DVD Out Trio.

In October of 2004, Machacek and his wife Sumitra moved from their home base of Vienna to Los Angeles, where the guitarist has since created quite a buzz with his local appearances. Bozzio and Machacek have also recently formed a new trio with bassist Doug Lunn. But for now, his focus is on his own auspicious Stateside debut, [sic].

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