Michael Lee Firkins' immistakable signature guitar tone and high speed picking, filled the hall, when he, Stuart Hamm, & Atma Anur, performed for a delighted audience, during the Jason Becker's not Dead' festival, at the Patronaat venue in Haarlem, The Netherlands, on November 13th, 2011.
The festival was a mind blowing, near six hour marathon of world class guitar performances.
This clip is a single camera view from audience position, but a professional camera crew was also present to record the event in full, so watch out for the official video, to be released in the near future.
About Michael Lee Firkins (extract from Wikipedia):
Michael Lee Firkins (born May 19, 1967) is an electric guitar player whose sound fuses bluegrass, country, blues, and jazz elements into his distorted rock sound. He is noted amongst guitarists for his prolific use of hybrid picking at high speeds. His sound would go on to incorporate even more diverse music styles, specifically jazz, as shown in a cover of Duke Ellington's "The Mooche" on Firkins' third album, Chapter Eleven.Cactus Cruz was his last recording for Shrapnel in 1996. In 1997, Firkins recorded Decomposition for Nuerra Records. An album composed of covers, Firkins pays tribute to some of his earlier influences, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Winter, and Jimi Hendrix. In the early 2000s, Michael teamed up with fellow virtuoso guitarist Gabriel Moses for a side project titled "Dose Amigos" which has been most frequently compared to the likes of Tenacious D. Both guitarists incorporated elements of bluegrass and heavy metal at extremely high speeds, with humorous themes. The project showcased Michael and Gabriel's original technique of emulating a slide guitar with the use of the tremolo arm.
About Stuart Hamm (extract from his website):
Through his innovative work as a solo artist and his contributions as a sideman to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, Stuart Hamm has firmly established himself as one of the most influential electric bassists of the past half-century. Extending the non-traditional function of the electric bass previously revolutionized by Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke in the 1970s, Hamm helped to reshape the contemporary concept of the bass guitar as an unaccompanied instrument with the utilization of polyphonic, two-handed tapping, slapping and popping techniques, chords, and harmonics. Although Hamm certainly wasn't the first bass player to debut during the 1980s and employ an unorthodox approach to playing the electric bass, he was undoubtedly at the forefront of his generation who effectively fused the application of these unconventional techniques.
About Atma Anur (extract from his website):
Atma became a valued musician and drummer for Mike Varney's Shrapnel records in the mid 80s, and recorded a great many CDs on that label. Most of these CDs were recorded at Praorie Sun Recordings, located in Cotati Ca. Run by Mark "mooka" Rennek, it is one of the Bay Area's best recording facilities. On Shrapnel, Atma played with pivotal musicians such as Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine, Cacophony, Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen and many more of Mike's amazing guitar discoveries. Under Mike Varney's direction many of these CDs were engineered and mixed by Grammy award winning producer Steve Fontano, and Prairie Sun's own "mooka" Rennick.
As Neal Schon of the rock band Journey said of Atma in Rolling Stone Magazine "Atma is the Jimi Hendrix of drums, the guitar player's drummer. "
Atma's guitar virtuoso sideman credits also include commercial guitar heroes Joe Satriani and Doug Doppler. Two of Doug and Atma's CDs: Ground Zero and Nu instrumental, were released in 2007 by Steve Vai's Favored Nations record label. Atma also recorded many CDs with Richie Kotzen, on various record labels between 1989 and 2005, including the Geffen Recordsrelease: Mother Heads, Family Reunion and the Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey sound track.
Related links:
http://www.michaelleefirkins.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lee_Firkinshttp://www.myspace.com/michaelleefirkinshttp://www.stuarthamm.net/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hammhttp://www.myspace.com/stuhammhttp://www.atmaanur.com/http://www.myspace.com/atmaanurhttp://jasonbeckerfest.com/index.phphttp://jasonbeckerguitar.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker
MICHAEL LEE FIRKINS, STU HAMM, ATMA ANUR, HAARLEM, 2011.
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