Review by Howard Keith (Farmhouse Studios)
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Review by Patrick Harvey
Review by Robert Tomasuolo
Review by Alexei Sammut
Review by Samuel Sultana
Review by Daniel Rosner
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By Alexei Sammut
"Jean Pierre Zammit – a man with a life long vision. I have know Jean for the over 10 years now. I was introduced to him by a music shop owner after buying an amplifier. He was described to me as a Maltese Joe Satriani. That evening I phone him up saying that I wished to start lessons but I told him I am into styles such as bands the likes of Paradise lost not Satriani. Times change, and also influences change. He replied that he will teach me guitar and as far as styles go I would learn to play what style I wish as long as you know the basics. I was convinced and started attending lessons. I must say I have not been the perfect student as due to school, exams and nowadays work commitments I am very restricted. In the years to follow I have learned a lot, my skills have improved and also learned what is going on when I play guitar. Jean’s methods do not focus on just learning patterns and transposing them from a key to anther but rather he teaches you what is going on so that you can understand better. Apart from helping me with my guitar playing, Jean has also inspired me to learn about guitars, the history of guitars, the techniques used to build guitars, the different types of tone woods and also to set my own guitars. I used to be scared to touch anything on the guitar that so not related to actual playing, like truss rod, action, intonation etc. With the inspiration of Jean I learned to do this by myself and I thank him for this.
I had the opportunity to witness Jean’s work from an early stage to finally recoding his demo disc. I was always amazed by the versatility of his playing but also by the way that he manages to fuse acoustic rhythms with guitar lead solos. Consider that the songs are pure music, all instrumental. There are no vocals lines to hide the guitar parts behind, or one repetitive riff but it is all music derived from passion within. You may think that I am biased as I know the guy and he has been my teacher as still is, but if you do not believe what I am saying, check his songs out and you will see for yourself. In order to write such songs you have to be a very good guitar player, but even more an artist that can express his emotions in his preferred media and I must say that Jean does this amazingly through his guitar. I mentioned that Jean is regarded by many as the Satriani of Malta. True he is influenced by his playing and he is a big fan of Satriani but in no way he is a clone. Who has never been influenced by such great guitars players. Guitar players such as Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Slash and many more have influenced generations of guitar players but what is of note is not the ability to cover one of there songs but to master the techniques and innovation each player has brought to the game and develop it into something new, something your own and this Jean has excelled in. I have only words of praise for the man but I am sure that you an understand why by just listening to the songs but one thing have I must say is that Jean is my teacher but even more a friend and I am sure that whoever gets to know him, we will be mesmerised by his music but even more by his charisma. Best of luck for all your future projects and I know someday you will get the recognition you deserve.
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