Instrumental rock

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Instrumental rock is

During the 1980s and 1990s, the instrumental rock genre was dominated by several guitar soloists, including Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. The 2000s gave way to a new style of instrumental performer. For example, John Lowery (a.k.a. John 5), released a series of solo instrumental albums. The 2000s also saw the rise of instrumental music by bands that have been labeled post-rock.

Early history

Instrumental rock was most popular during rock and roll's first decade (mid-1950s to mid-1960s), before the British Invasion.

One notable early instrumental was "Honky Tonk" by the Bill Doggett Combo, with its slinky beat and sinuous saxophone-organ lead. Jazz musicians who scored pop hits include Earl Bostic and Arnett Cobb. Several rhythm and blues sax players had hit instrumental songs, including Big Jay McNeeley, Red Prysock, and Lee Allen, whose "Walking with Mr. Lee" was quite popular. There were several notable blues instrumental songs during the 1950s; Little Walter's rollicking "Juke" was a #1 R&B hit.^[1]

Instrumental hit songs could emphasize

The Fireballs, featuring the distinctive guitar work of George Tomsco, began their career in the late 1950s with instrumental hits such as "Torquay" and "Bulldog." The band pioneered the guitar/guitar/bass/drums configuration, paving the way for the Ventures, the Shadows, and the surf music scene. The Fireballs were one of a few instrumental bands that successfully transitioned into vocal music, having the biggest hit of 1963 in the US ("Sugar Shack"). B Bumble & the Stingers gained hit "Nut Rocker".

The Ventures' precise guitar work was a major influence on many later rock guitarists; they also helped shape surf music. The band reached chart success with songs such as "Walk-Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O". In the U.S. they greatly escalated the guitar instrumentals and use of the vibrato bar on the lead guitar.

Surf music was quite popular in the early 1960s, and was generally rather simple and melodic—one exception being Dick Dale, who gained fame for his quick playing, often influenced by the music of the Middle East, and frequently using exotic scales.

Around the time of the British Invasion, rock changed appreciably, and instrumental hits came mostly from the

Just before the British Invasion, Lonnie Mack's version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" reached #5 on the Billboard Pop chart in June 1963. Employing both the blues scale and distortion, it ushered in the era of blues rock guitar of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac with bandleader Peter Green achieved number one chart positions with the guitar-based instrumental Albatross in February 1969. Previously, only three other rock guitar instrumentals had cracked Billboard's top five: the Virtues' "Guitar Boogie Shuffle" in 1959, and Duane Eddy's "Because They're Young" and the Ventures' "Walk, Don't Run" in 1960.

In August 1964, Checker Records released the album Two Great Guitars, recorded by rock and roll pioneers Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, which is one of rock music's first recorded guitar jam sessions.

1970s

During the 70s, some musicians released instrumental records such as Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio"(1971), Booker T & the MGs' "Melting Pot", Incredible Bong Band's "Apache", Hot Butter's "Popcorn"(1972) and Rhythm Heritage "Theme from S.W.A.T."(1976).^[4] The Allman Brothers Band is often not considered an instrumental rock band , but they play many instrumentals and include long instrumental passages in longer versions of their songs. A good example is the 22-minute version of Whipping Post in At Fillmore East LP. Their instrumentals, "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Jessica" are popular, with "Jessica" being featured as theme for both the 1977 and 2002 formats of Top Gear.

Jeff Beck also recorded two entirely instrumental albums in the 1970s: Blow by Blow and Wired. Successful among mainstream audiences, both have strong jazz influences, the latter featuring a cover of Charles Mingus's jazz standard "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat".

Several

One of the most acclaimed albums of the band Camel, 1975's The Snow Goose, was entirely instrumental. Many of Pink Floyd's early compositions were largely instrumental pieces containing structured jams fusing psychedelic, progressive and space rock. Frank Zappa was known for intermixing instrumental rock tracks with his novelty songs on his albums.

The

After Malmsteen left Alcatrazz, he was replaced by the extravagant Steve Vai, who had previously been playing with the Frank Zappa band. Continuing the tradition (and following a brief stint in David Lee Roth's band from 1986 to 1988), Vai went on to release a number of solo albums; one of the best-known of these was his 1990 release, Passion and Warfare.

Pepeu Gomes, a Brazilian electric guitar player, was considered in 1988 by American magazine Guitar World one of the ten best guitar players in the world. Although he has pure instrumental rock songs with no Brazilian flavour, he mixes the Brazilian rhythms and tunes from well known popular songs, or simply composes by himself using Samba, Choro, Maracatu etc.

1990s

In 1990, Steve Vai released Passion and Warfare. A fusion of rock, jazz, classical and Eastern tonalities, Passion and Warfare was a technical break-through in regards to what could be achieved in the field of guitar composition. This was followed up by the 1995 trio album Alien Love Secrets and Fire Garden, released a year after.

In 1995, Michael Angelo Batio of Nitro released his CD No Boundaries, which began his solo career. His albums predominantly feature instrumental rock, but have occasionally featured vocals by himself and other vocalists.

During the 1990s, instrumental music flourished among

Don Caballero gained notice for their instrumental math rock, as did neo-surf-rockers the Mermen and Man or Astro-man?.

With the rise of grunge, guitar-orientated instrumental rock of the type popular in the 1980s became less popular, and there were few artists who continued to thrive in that style.

2000s

There have been many new releases of instrumental rock albums in the 2000s. The majority of the popular performers from the 1980s have made rejuvenated and generally well-received comebacks, with a revitalized sound apparent on their recent releases. Artists such as Steve Morse, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Ron Jarzombek and Joe Satriani have continued releasing instrumental rock music and touring with success.

Within the indie rock label, bands such as Ratatat and Delicate Steve are popular instrumental rock acts.

Guitarist

In the late 2000s a new style of heavy metal called djent emerged. Some of the leading bands in the scene such as Animals as Leaders are instrumental acts, while many others started as instrumental acts before later acquiring vocalists.

A number of

• List of instrumental bands
• List of rock instrumentals
• Rautalanka

References