The legendary guitar master Steve Vai praised Robert Fripp and pointed out some of the biggest challenges he’s facing now in learning King Crimson guitar parts.
This year, Steve Vai is getting together with former King Crimson members Tony Levin and Adrian Belew, as well as Tool drummer Danny Carey, to perform the iconic prog rock band’s 1980s material. It would be an understatement to say that the initial announcement caught everyone off guard. Earlier this year, Steve hinted in an interview for Ultimate Guitar’s On the Record podcast that he was working on some sort of a secret project, but no one really expected something like this.
Of course, they all have Robert Fripp’s blessing, and the newly formed lineup comes under the name Beat. However, as Vai told Rick Beato in a recent interview, he’s now facing new challenges in learning Fripp’s guitar parts.
“Intricate stuff for the sake of being intricate is never interesting,” Steve argued (transcript via Ultimate Guitar). “You lose the retention. But Robert’s stuff, it oddly falls beautifully on the guitar.”
“You know, when I was with Frank [Zappa], I [adopted a picking style that could pick out all these compose notes that just don’t belong on the guitar. But Robert’s stuff, it fits beautifully.”
“It’s like a guitar orchestration,” Vai added. “The way that it’s performed is unique to him.” However, despite being one of the most famous guitar virtuosos, often referred to as one of the “shred” pioneers, playing Fripp’s stuff is just on another level. He continued:
“As I work on it, I think I can get this, but the thing about Robert is, his guitar playing is relentless. It doesn’t let up… And I don’t know how he does it. He’s a freak of nature, man. His sense of timing; his sense of… There’s no real polyrhythms, [but] it’s all polymetric.”
But all these fancy ways of explaining music aside, Vai genuinely enjoys Robert Fripp’s music. All of these elements serve a purpose and that is to create an artistic piece that has some sort of meaning. He continued:
“I just love the atmosphere it creates, holding tight to it. And then, when the beautiful melody comes on top of it, it brings it right to your living room. I mean, it just makes it so beautiful and accessible.”
Fortunately for Vai, there’s a King Crimson songbook that he can always fall back to. One of the challenges of the band’s 1980s material is that Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp had pretty similar guitar tones. We definitely don’t doubt Steve’s ability to learn music by ear, but it gets almost impossible to get things right if you don’t have some sort of a guide to assist you. He added:
“But lucky that there’s that book, because you can’t really hear [everything] because their tones are so similar, and it changes, like 1/8th note here, right? Like, Robert will play something in thirteen, but then he’ll do a bar [in] 12.”
“And then, just good luck! I’ve only really looked at it and fingered through it right now. I’m going to be putting the screws on it. Luckily, I have that book. And I have a pretty good sense of that kind of polymetric thing.”
In a recent social media post, Belew also shed some light on how the whole band came to be, explaining:
“You may be surprised to know BEAT has been in the works for five years! here is a brief timeline of events.”
“In 2019, I began thinking about whether or not King Crimson might somehow tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ‘Discipline’, ‘Beat’, and ‘Three Of A Perfect Pair’ coming in 2021. Eventually, I decide to call Robert. I explain my thoughts and we have a good talk. he declines to be involved, with many legitimate reasons, but says, ‘If you want to ‘drive it’ Ade, you have my support.'”
“I call Bill Bruford and blurt out, ‘How would you like to be in a rock band again?!’ Bill says, ‘And do what? Sit around a luggage carousel all day?!!’ But he also gives the idea his blessing.”
“In the same period, I am working with Scrote (aka Angelo Bundini), who produces the ‘Celebrating David Bowie’ shows. now that I know it cannot be King Crimson, Scrote and I begin brainstorming. could we do this?! knowing the immensity of making that happen, I immediately ask Scrote to produce it and happily, he accepts. The brainstorming continues…”
“We feel Steve Vai is the only choice for guitarist. I had read somewhere he said he greatly admired Robert’s work and he seems like he can play anything!”
“Scrote passes Steve’s number to me. I call Steve from the parking lot of my local Publix grocery store! he surprises me by being genuinely excited about the idea!”
“Scrote begins partnering with Miles Copeland to produce tours and invites Miles Copeland and Stevo Glendenning to be part of this new tour idea.”
“Scrote contacts Steve again. he is still very interested and excited but has 18 months of backdates to honor!”
“Steve is nearing being available so I call Robert back to tell him how things are going. he says he supports the project and suggests we call the tour BEAT.”
“The bass player for this tour had to be the great Tony Levin. imagine! but we knew he was touring with Peter Gabriel. when the tour ends we ask Tony and he checks to be sure that Gabriel won’t be touring during our time frame. Tony says yes! now we have two of the original members! the stars are aligning.”
“Danny Carey was the drummer I imagined from the start, but I figured he wouldn’t be available since Tool was touring. still, I know how much music means to him.”
“Tool plays in Nashville in late January. I attend the concert and visit with Danny. He mentions that Tool touring is nearly over for the year. I tell him what we’re doing and ask him to join. he is stunned and beaming with joy but uncertain he can.”
“Three days later Danny calls to say he has cleared everything with his family and with Tool. (thank you!) And BEAT begins.”
Photos: Wojciech Pędzich (Steve Vai, 3-Majówka 2023 08), Sean Coon (Robert Fripp)
