OCT. 20-26, 2016 FACEBOOK.COM/WHATZUPFORTWAYNE • WWW.WHATZUP.COM -------------------------------- Feature • Steve Vai -------------------------------- Passion and Virtuosity By Michele DeVinney with many 6-year-olds, Vai was absorbing the things I learned from that experience. He the music his parents enjoyed, and he said showed intense creative freedom and was As one of the most skilled musicians to the soundtrack was a musical awakening. constantly doing new things.” emerge from the 1980s – and having been “It had a huge impact,” he says. “It en- A recent inductee in the Long Island named one of the top ten guitarists by Gui- compassed everything I loved about music Music Hall of Fame, Vai is kept busy with tar World magazine – Steve Vai has worked – the melodies, the orchestration. It really his music and touring, but he also enjoys with a remarkable roster of artists while tweaked my interest in the realm of composi- down time at home. For 20 years he has carving out a niche uniquely his own. tion because before I was playing the guitar, maintained a very unique hobby, one Vai Having recently released a 25th anniver- I was composing, and listening to that record says more people should consider: beekeep- sary edition of Passion & Warfare, one of really made me able to see that mysterious ing. his most influential record- “My wife and children ings, Vai has been touring were living in Hollywood, October 26 | 7:30pm steadily in support of that and we had just bought a release, paying homage to house that had been vacant HYPNOTIC his past while continuing to for 10 years, so everything move forward in his career. was dead. I wanted to get His tour brings him to Wa- some fruit trees and my wife BRASS ENS E M B L E bash’s Honeywell Center wanted a garden, so I started next week, and fans can ex- reading up on things and pect him to perform Passion learned that the best way to & Warfare in its entirety. Re- pollinate your garden was visiting the album allowed to keep bees. I started back him to not only improve then, and it’s stuck. Stuck upon the original but also like honey!” fill in some missing pieces He has called the en- of his career. deavor a Zen experience and “I did the album for a encourages people to check number of reasons,” he says. it out for themselves. November 10 | 8pm “First of all, 25 just seems “It’s certainly a great like a good number. A quar- way to contribute to the en- ter of a century and all that. vironment, and it’s been a GOO GOO DOLLS But it’s also the amount of lot of fun. Bees are the most years it takes for something fascinating creatures I’ve to be considered a classic, if ever encountered. I have two it has withstood the passage hives, and people ask me all of time. And back when the time how they can do it. Passion & Warfare came There are stores in America out, the technology of con- that sell beekeeping equip- verting analog to digital was ment, and you can just have inferior and continued to be a beekeeper bring a swarm in the 80s and into the 90s. over and you get your queen There was a pretty severe STEVE VAI to work and you’re set. It’s loss when the music was fun, but the real work comes November 17 | 7:30pm transferred, so I wanted to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27 when you harvest the hon- go in and digitally remaster from the original Honeywell Center ey.” tapes using the newest technology, so now 275 W. Market St., Wabash Touring through the end of the year with Tede SC H I the CD is so much better. Plus I was able to his Passion & Warfare set, Vai has his Vai include four bonus tracks.” Tix: $29-$100 thru box office, Academy Camp in January, taking place in TRUCKS BAN D He also found a way to fill in a musi- 260-563-1102 Carmel, California. The annual event allows cal gap, one between his album Flex-Able Vai to share his expertise and invite special ON SALE NOW and Passion & Warfare, allowing his fans to language of music.” guests to allow blossoming guitarists to jam fully experience his evolution as an artist. Continuing his musical journey through with some of the best rock has to offer. Af- Joe Bonamassa ............................... Dec. 2 “When I went in to record Flex-Able, I high school, where he credits his music theo- ter the camp, Vai may take the tour to South Hal Holbrook/Mark Twain Tonight ...... Dec. 3 was discovering that I really loved the re- ry teacher with expanding his understanding America, Australia and Japan before return- Mannheim Steamroller ................. Dec. 6 cording process, the engineering and pro- of how music works, Vai eventually decided ing home for some relaxation and to start Moscow Ballet: Great Russian Nutcracker Dec. 7 ducing, but I didn’t know what I was doing, to attend the Berklee School of Music in recording for a new album which may be Straight No Chaser .......................Dec. 13 so I was just doing it to entertain myself and Boston. It was there that he came in contact ready by 2018. He hopes to challenge him- Cinderella ........................................Jan. 17 my friends. Then I got the offer to work with with Frank Zappa who he hoped might hire self by approaching his music in a different Tchaikovsky Spectacular .............Jan. 18 Alcatraz, and the music I was doing at that him for his band. When Zappa asked Vai his way with his next release. “Most of my records are pretty dense Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood .... Feb. 16 time with my band Classified just got put age and learned the young virtuoso was 18, on a shelf. Flex-Able and Passion & War- Zappa said “Well, that won’t work.” and can be kind of compositional, maybe fare are such vastly different records, that Instead, Vai became Zappa’s transcrip- even over-produced. So this time I really I thought if I released Modern Primitive it tionist, a job he continued until he was 20 want to strip it down, maybe do a trio album. Embassy Theatre would fill in the missing link between those and was finally hired to hit the road with It will require a lot of practicing on my part, 125 W. Jefferson Blvd. two albums.” Zappa’s band. but once you get comfortable with your own Although Vai is known for his heavy “I didn’t even realize back then the sig- style, you have to get creative and get your- Fort Wayne, Indiana rock guitar virtuosity, it may surprise some nificance of what I was doing,” says Vai. self out of your go-to riffs and the melodies to know that one of the first albums that real- “But I got some incredibly powerful tools you gravitate toward. You just need to wash ticketmaster.com ly inspired and influenced him was the film to be a musician for the rest of my life, and out the old and see things from a different soundtrack to West Side Story. As is the case not a day goes by that I don’t think about all point of view.” 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.whatzup.com ------------------------------------------------------------ October 20, 2016 whatzup Volume 21, Number 12 ou’ve got just a week or two to get in your last Halloween season scares before the Christmas holidays take over (in some stores, they already have). In the meantime, you might want to catch some non-seasonal entertainment Ybefore all those roasting chestnuts and open fires take over everything from the radio airwaves to in-store music systems. We’re thinking, specifically, Steve Vai, the legendary guitarist who takes to the Honeywell stage the last Thursday in October, and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, the pulse-pounding jazz ensemble from Chicago’s South Side who play the Embassy the preceding night. Attend either of these shows – or better yet, both – and we promise you’ll be treated to some extraordinary talent. Michele DeVinney talked to Vai for her feature story on page 2, and Steve Penhollow previews the HBE show on page 4. If you, like us, treasure the local arts and entertainment scene, then this week’s issue has three in-depth profiles and artists and business people who make it all happen. On page 5, Heather Miller profiles Nazar Harran, one of this area’s most extraordinary artists. On the next page you’ll find Ryan Smith’s feature on Last Call, the faith-based GET BACK TOUR ensemble put together by Ken and Jachell Tolbert, and Michele DeVinney’s profile of Special Guest Leo Vodde whose After Dark nightclub has been a gathering place for the LGBT com- munity for the past 35 years. As we like to say, there’s a whole lot more within these pages, so we encourage you to read every word so as to not miss anything. While you’re out and about not missing all the fun, please remember to tell all you meet along the way that whatzup sent you. Book signing with, John Lennon’s sister & author, Julia Baird inside the issue USF ROBERT GOLDSTINE CENTER (formerly Scottish Rite) • features ROAD NOTEZ .................................. 12 (formerly Scottish Rite) FLIX ................................................. 15 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 | 7:30 PM Deepwater Horizon STEVE VAI ....................................................2 Tickets @ all 3 Wooden Nickel Records’ locations & Passion and Virtuosity SCREENTIME ................................. 15 themerseybeatles.com/tour-dates An Affleck Hit & Cruise Musings HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE ...............4 Filtering Out the Chaos ON BOOKS .....................................