Music Maniac: Jason Becker

He was born July 22, 1969 is an American neo-classical metal guitarist and composer. He started playing guitar at the age of 5. At the age of 16, he became part of the Mike Varney-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988.Speed Metal Symphony is the most melodic sound that ever been recorded.

Jason Becker probably can be considered one the most unique and versatile guitarist known by the world, he have a very short time of playing guitar because of his ALS disease, I'm very sure that who ever know Jason Becker's high difficulty of guitar skills will agree that if he still can play today,the world of guitar shredding will become even better.

He was known for his insane guitar sweeping technique, not every great guitar player can sweep easily and smoothly as him, this was admitted by Paul Gilbert himself. Go try play Jason's compositions and you will know exactly how hard it is to play his composition. Becker's compositions often include sweeping, high speed scalar and arpeggio passages, all of which are trademarks of his 'shred' style of guitar playing. He demonstrated the arpeggio sequence during a clinic at the Atlanta Institute of Music.

Becker and Friedman toured together with Cacophony in Japan and across the United States. In 1989 Becker left to pursue a solo career, releasing his first solo album titled 'Perpetual Burn' in 1988, and has since released 'Perspective' and 'Collection' , as well as two albums of demos, entitled 'The Raspberry Jams' and 'The Blackberry Jams'.

When the ALS disease took his ability to play guitar, his friend and music producer Mike Bemesderfer helped him with a music-composing computer program which could read the movements of his head and eyes enabling Becker to continue to compose after he lost control of his entire body. Several years later Becker released Raspberry Jams (1999) and Blackberry Jams (2003), the first contained various unreleased demo-tracks and the latter contained demo-tracks and alternate versions of songs that were later reworked and published into other albums.

Two tribute albums to Jason Becker have been issued. Respectively entitled Warmth in the Wilderness I and Warmth in the Wilderness II, they feature guitarists such as Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Joe Becker, Rusty Cooley, and Mattias Eklundh. The album profits were sent to Becker to help him with his medical finances.

New album released in 2008 - Collection

On November 4, 2008, Shrapnel Records released a new Jason Becker album entitled "Collection". The album includes three new songs in addition to some older recordings (some never before released) and features Marty Friedman, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani, Michael Lee Firkins, Steve Vai, and Steve Hunter.

Track Listing: