KIRK HAMMETT On THE ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO - "Love Them"
September 25, 2008, 16 years ago
In the December 2008 issue of Guitar World, METALLICA guitarist KIRK HAMMETT is asked a question about THE ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO.
GW: One of your thrash metal contemporaries, Alex Skolnick of TESTAMENT, has recorded a couple of straight-up jazz albums as the Alex Skolnick Trio. Have you heard them?
Hammett: Love them. I love his work. What Alex is doing by putting heavy metal songs in a jazz context is completely refreshing. His take on 'Detroit Rock City' blew me away; that song has never sounded better to me. And when you think about, the old jazz standards were the pop music of their time. So Alex has updated the notion of what a standard is, and it's opened up all the current music to interpretation. The idea of playing KISS or THE SCORPIONS in the style of Dave Brubeck is great and quite radical. There are tons of people at Julliard who are playing 'Straight No Chaser' for probably the 50 millionth time, so it's about time somebody tried something new.
