Alex Machacek (born 1 July 1972,

Tulln an der Donau Tulln an der Donau () is a historic town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, the administrative seat of Tulln District. Because of its abundance of parks and gardens, Tulln is often referred to as ''Blumenstadt'' ("City of Flowers"), and "The ...

, Austria) is an Austrian

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

guitarist.

Early years

Machacek was born to a Czech family in

Tulln Tulln an der Donau () is a historic town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, the administrative seat of Tulln District. Because of its abundance of parks and gardens, Tulln is often referred to as ''Blumenstadt'' ("City of Flowers"), and "The C ...

, Austria. His family had moved to Austria in the 1960s as refugees. Since then, they have adopted Austria as their nation. He started playing the guitar at the age of eight by taking

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

lessons for six years at a music school in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Machacek's early influences were heavy metal musicians and bands such as

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harr ...

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Originally formed as ...

and

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. However, in the mid-1980s, he was attracted to the music of

Mike Stern Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, ...

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951), sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in th ...

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer. Holdsworth was known for his esoteric and idiosyncratic usage of advanced music theory concepts, especially with resp ...

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of ...

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

and John McLaughlin. He stated that he is influenced by all the music that he liked, including heavy metal and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest ha ...

Music career

Machacek studied jazz guitar and jazz education at the Conservatory of Vienna, Austria. He took classical lessons in percussion. After that, he attended

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

in Boston for two semesters. He won the European guitar competition Guitar Newcomer 98. His first album, '' Featuring Ourselves'', was released in 1999. He then met his idol, drummer

Terry Bozzio Terry John Bozzio (born December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Perso ...

. They collaborated on '' Delete and Roll'' as the band BPM. The album had elements of

avant garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

, and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. I ...

. Music critics compared the music to the complex rhythms of Frank Zappa and the atmospheric guitar synth backdrops of ECM albums. The albums contain many legato guitar solos. '' ic' was released in 2005.IC> His wife Sumitra Nanjundan sings on "Indian Girl". Machacek has toured as the Fabulous Austrian Trio (FAT) with bassist Raphael Preuschl and drummer Herbert Pirker. They have collaborated with Mario Lackner. In 2007, he was a founding member of

UKZ UKZ is an international progressive rock band, that was formed in 2007 by keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, who had played in U.K. History Formation After a failed attempt to work on a proposed U.K. reunion album with John Wetton, in Octo ...

with Eddie Jobson and Trey Gunn. He has also played in

Planet X Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...

, which toured in Greece and Armenia in November 2008, and with the

Virgil Donati Virgil Donati (born 22 October 1958) is an Australian drummer, composer and producer. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also proficient at the keyboard. Donati formed Planet X with Derek Sherinian and was the band's princ ...

Band. Machacek has taught at the

Musicians Institute Musicians Institute (MI) is a private for-profit music school in Los Angeles, California. MI students can earn Certificates and – with transfer of coursework taken at Los Angeles City College – Associate of Arts Degrees, as well as Bachelor ...

in Los Angeles. Machacek played with

Brand X Brand X were a jazz fusion band formed in London in 1974. They were active until 1980, followed by a reformation between 1992 and 1999, and were active following a 2016 reunion until 2021. Members have included John Goodsall (guitar), Percy ...

on the Cruise to the Edge 2019. Machacek is currently the substitute guitarist for John Goodsall of Brand X for all tours outside of the US. Machacek occasionally plays with the fusion band CAB led by bassist Bunny Brunel &

Scott Kinsey Scott Kinsey is a keyboardist and member of the band Tribal Tech. He is a 1991 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Career In addition to playing in Tribal Tech with Scott Henderson and Gary Willis, Kinsey has worked with phila ...

former keyboardist from the fusion band

Tribal Tech Tribal Tech was a progressive fusion band, originally formed in 1984 by guitarist Scott Henderson and bass player Gary Willis. From 1993 forward the band included Scott Kinsey on keyboard and Kirk Covington on drums, and released ten albums tha ...

Personal life

In 2005 Machacek married Sumitra Nanjundan, an

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

, after having worked with her for eight years. He produced her solo album ''Indian Girl''. He visited India in 2005 to perform as part of the annual jazz festival.

Praise for Alex Machacek

He has been praised by John McLaughlin,

, and Shawn Lane for his innovative style and the ease with which he shifts from legato to

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

."Alex Machacek-The Next John McLaughlin" in Rave Magazine Issue 45, Oct 2006 McLaughlin said, "Alex Machacek's music starts where other music ends".

Discography

* '' Featuring Ourselves'' (Next Generation Enterprises, 1999) * '' Delete and Roll'' with

, Gerald Preinfalk (Next Generation Enterprises, 2002) * '' ic' (Abstract Logix, 2006) * '' Improvision'' with

Jeff Sipe Jeff Sipe (born January 31, 1959), also known as Apt. Q258, is an American drummer. He is a rock and jazz fusion drummer but is proficient in other styles. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit with Bruce Hampton. He was a member of Lef ...

Matt Garrison Matthew Justin Garrison (born June 2, 1970) is an American jazz bassist. Since 2011, he has run ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, New York, with Fortuna Sung. Described by ''the New York Times'' as "an electric bass virtuoso", he has toured with He ...

(Abstract Logix, 2007) * ''The Official Triangle Sessions'' with Jeff Sipe, Neal Fountain (Abstract Logix, 2009) * '' 24 Tales'' with

Marco Minnemann Marco Minnemann (born 24 December 1970) is a German drummer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Career Marco Minnemann has released over a dozen solo albums as drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist, and performed on over 100 studio alb ...

(Abstract Logix, 2010) * ''FAT'' with Raphael Preuschl, Herbert Pirker (Abstract Logix, 2012) * ''Now'' with

Gary Husband Gary Husband (born 14 June 1960) is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer. Husband is a member of John McLaughlin's group The 4th Dimension, he also regularly ...

(Abstract Logix, 2013) * ''FAT: Living The Dream'' with Raphael Preuschl, Herbert Pirker (Abstract Logix, 2015) * ''#awesome'' with Raphael Preuschl, Herbert Pirker (Abstract Logix, 2018)

References

External links

Official site
www.AlexMachacek.com
Alex Machacek biography, discography and album reviews, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

Alex Machacek discography, album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

Alex Machacek albums to be listened
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

Alex Machacek albums to be listened
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machacek, Alex 1972 births Living people Austrian jazz guitarists Male guitarists 21st-century guitarists People from Tulln an der Donau