Customer Reviews

Parallax View

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Greg Howe is truly one of the most underrated guitar player in the whole history of the instrument. Some people relate Howe to Satriani or Johnson but they are wrong. These are great players but they are neither near Howe's perfection! Greg is not another sophisticated rocker as the two aforementioned or just another shredder like some people say. Truly he's not. His music is intense, his solos are fast and furios yet always musical, his technique is beyond imagination but the best thing about Howe in my opinion is his compositional ability. People don't put his compositions in the right perspective. They don't give them the right attention. They pay attention only to Greg's solos which are great but not the only thing important in his music. Greg is a rhythmn monster. He is the perfect fusion musician. His compositions are so strong melodically, armonically, rithmically. You can't touch Howe. He's untouchable. He has a personal voice on the instrument, a personal vision of music, yet he' not afraid of taking risks. Each album from Greg is diverse from his others and still it shines. He seems to have no boundaries. He can play the fastest GOOD fusion ever played and masterful tunes in taste and sensibility such as The Portrait. If you don't buy Greg's album, you don' t like music in its purest, most contemporary, no boundaries form.

This guy can rip, and oh so smooth. You have to listen to this CD about 3 or four times to really appreciate how good this guy really is ( and his supporting band kicks ass as well). It's a bit different from the Vai, Satriani vein of guitar music, so those diehards may not like it,(maybe too much jammin for them) But I really like Vai and Satriani, and now I also really like Greg Howe. Introspection is also a very good CD. I have not heard any of the other CDs but "Howe bout it starts my morning drive to work in the car everyday, Can't get ENOUGH! Parallax gets 5 stars!

Greg Howe is the current greatest guitarist in the field today. His music shines past the whole Yngwie guitar hero crapuosity that followed the 80s. His playin is both dynamic and technical - filling rock composition and jazz scales. Parallax showcases Howe's intensified style. Similiar to Allan Holdsworth, Howe goes beyond the 'uncommon' chord that Holdsworth so talks and theorizes about. Howe is truly the definition of both technical precision and jazzistic artistry. - Tim Lee, San Francisco ...

Thanks to those who wrote reviews of this CD before me. Their words were enough to prompt me to order it, and I'm very glad I did. As a fan of both Larry Carlton and Eddie Van Halen all the way back to the mid-70's, it is a pure delight to listen to Greg Howe, who combines the best of both their styles and techniques. I honestly can't think of a guitarist with cleaner, faster technique. But Greg's music is more than just endless high-speed noodling. His compositions have a feel, a soul, to them that is sometimes lacking in the works of other guitarists.

To summarize, if you love guitar music, especially jazz-rock fusion played by someone without peer, go ahead and order this CD, or one of the others by Greg. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. As for me, I've already ordered another Greg Howe CD, and I have a feeling that before long, I'll own all of them.

Keep up the fine music, Greg!

Greg Howe on his "Parallax" CD took the words fusion, rock, shred, and melody and made them into one word, "Greg Howe". This Cd features Greg ripping and singing his heart and soul through the very music that has kept his fans coming back for more. Having the punch of "Tribal Tech" and the softness of Adrian Legg. "Parallax" takes his creative visions to the next level of great guitar playing and expressiveness.

3 1/2

Howe is an always engaging enough electric soloist, regardless if his early 90's output has too much of a generic rock-funk backbone, to keep things stimulating enough for the virtuoso enthusiast to enjoy, as well as the casual rocker.

Greg Howe es genial, su interpretacion es irrepetible, su composicion unica.

:i would advise new listeners to greg howe that are more rock oriented to first check out uncertain terms and then this album. i would advise new listeners to greg howe that are more jazz oriented to first check out hyperacuity and then extraction. i personally did not like ascend very much probably because its more in the neoclassical than in the jazz rock vein. newcomers to greg howe should be aware (beware) that this album is in an atypical style relative to his other solo albums.

:yes, it is true that greg does play "melodically, armonically, rithmically" (For Greg Howe five stars are not enough, July 30, 2003) as most musicians do. in fact, i can't think of a single musician who doesn't play rhythmically.

:"His technical ability is outstanding, but you can program a machine to mimick his play, so therefore it lacks any substance." (Speed speed speed but no feel., January 10, 2004) if music can be reduced to a written score then one can program machines to reproduce this music more or less accurately. hence, the only music that cannot be reproduced by a machine is that which cannot be reduced to a written score. i agree that there are elusive qualities of music that may not be able to be captured by a written score, however i do not believe the absence of these qualities necessitates a lack of substance. if this were the case then all electronic music would necessarily lack substance. and i do not believe that to be the case.

or perhaps the quoted author would go as far as to suggest that the musical output of greg howe could be mimicked sufficiently well by a virtual greg howe computer program. for the sake of argument, assume that this is possible. now consider some musician that you consider to have depth. if a virtual your-musician-with-depth computer program existed that was good enough to be produce music that would be indistinguishable from work your actual musician-with-depth might create then would you instantly lose respect for this musician? if so then i believe you should re-consider the depth of yourself.

:"His compositions have a feel, a soul, to them that is sometimes lacking in the works of other guitarists." (Just one word... WOW!, April 28, 2001) i hate it when people attribute "soul" to music they consider to be good. the word suggests that there is some intangible yet nevertheless objective quality to their appreciation. but what suggests that a piece of music is objectively good? if a large number of people whose opinions are respected consider it to be good. putting aside the question of whose opinions people respect (hopefully their own included), it is a GROUP of people that determine the objective quality of a piece of music and not an individual person. go ahead and state your own opinion but don't impose it on other people. i believe that this imposition is implicit in this usage of the word "soul".

Greg Howe was fantastic in Howe II and his first solo album was interesting. But there is more to guitaring then playing scales as fast as possible to backing music. His technical ability is outstanding, but you can programme a machine to mimick his play, so therefore it lacks any substance.