SF/NY Guitar Trio: Alex Skolnick, Ron Jackson, George Cole

Alex Skolnick is best known for his mastery of both heavy metal and jazz guitar (also fluent in a multitude of styles, from blues to funk to flamenco-inspired acoustic). While a sixteen year old student of Joe Satriani, Alex, the son of Ivy League academics, joined Bay Area thrash metal outfit Testament. He uplifted the band with a sense of harmony and technique unheard of in the genre at the time. At eighteen, he recorded the first of five albums with the band’s original lineup, touring almost non-stop until his early 90s departure from the group. By that time, he'd begun working with virtuoso bassists Stuart Hamm and Michael Manring. During the next decade, he left his touring life and guitar hero status behind in order to become a full-time University student. Inspired by the likes of John Scofield, Pat Martino, George Benson and others, he moved to New York to earn a BfA in Jazz from The New School. There he studied with such prestigious artists as Vic Juris, Cecil McBee and Reggie Workman, as well as taking classes in philosophy and creative writing. In the early 00’s, Alex released the first of several critically acclaimed albums with his eponymous trio, which had begun as a New School student ensemble. AST would go on to perform worldwide, receive extensive radio play and be described as such in Downbeat by journalist Bill Milkowski: “Skolnick runs the guitaristic gamut from lush chord melodies to Wes Montgomery-style octaves to screaming Sonny Sharrock-esque skronking” (Jan 2017). In the mid-2000’s, Alex reunited with Testament, the impact of which eclipsed the band’s initial run. The 2020s has found Alex in an exciting new musical collective, PAKT, featuring fretless bass legend Percy Jones, best known for the pioneering fusion group Brand X (with Phil Collins) and work with Brian Eno, along with acclaimed experimental guitarist Tim Motzer and Drummer Kenny Grohowski (Brand X, John Zorn). In addition, bass master Stuart Hamm – who’d hired Alex back in the 90s for the guitarist’s first instrumental music tour (and opening doors to music beyond metal) – released Hold Fast, Stu’s long awaited LP with Alex on guitar. He is also a featured guitarist on recordings by Jane Getter Premonition, a project co-produced by and featuring his former New School instructor Adam Holzman (longtime Miles Davis keyboardist and Steven Wilson collaborator) along with a rotating cast of top players including drummer Gene Lake and bassist Mark Egan (of Pat Metheny Group). Also in 2020, Alex launched Moods & Modes, a radio short-story podcast in which he is the host, producer and composer. With a unique take on musical thought, education, analysis, jam sessions and interviews, Moods & Modes has been a fixture on the Apple Podcast charts, ranking high in the category of “Musical Commentary.” Alex’s Moods & Modes guests have included Pat Metheny, Antonio Sanchez, bassist/rapper Divinity Roxx, Snarky Puppy’s Michael League as well as Frampton, Vai, Johnson and Satriani and Al Di Meola. In addition, Alex is a respected writer. His 2021 extended essay for the academic current affairs journal Newlines, “Shut Up and Play Your Guitar,” became the second most shared article in the magazine’s history. His widely read Substack newsletter includes longform essays exploring the work of Thomas Pynchon, as well as Jeff Beck.