Tony MacAlpine

Tony Jeff MacAlpine (born August 29, 1960, in Springfield, Massachusetts) is an American guitarist and keyboardist. He is best known as a solo guitarist although he has worked with many different bands and musicians like Planet X, Steve Vai, Vinnie Moore, Mark Boals and Vitalij Kuprij. Besides being a guitarist, MacAlpine is also a classically trained pianist and violinist and plays all the keyboard parts on his own albums. He has also played and toured with other artists as the primary keyboardist.

Biography

One of Tony's principal musical influences is Chopin, (and perhaps in general the Romantic era of classical music), and tribute is given by beautifully played Etudes of Chopin on many of his solo albums. There is at least one display of Tony's piano/keyboard skills on each of his solo albums up to and including Chromaticity.

MacAlpine's influenced and contributed much to the neo-classical movement of the late 1980's. He is known for his style, blending elements of neo-classic and jazz fusion music. Together with his own solo albums Edge of Insanity and Maximum Security, MacAlpine played an indispensable role on other candidate albums for "Best Neo-classical Album Ever", with keyboard work throughout Vinnie Moore's Mind's Eye and Joey Tafolla's Out of the Sun.

As a further indication of MacAlpine's "ambidexterity" between the guitar and keyboard, he has made contributions as a guitarist accompanying world-class keyboardists (Vitalij Kuprij's K3) and as a keyboardist accompanying world-class guitarists (Vinnie Moore's Mind's Eye and The Maze). Additionally, MacAlpine successfully provides vocals for the only non-instrumental - (see instrumental rock) - album in his solo career, displaying further his technical versatility.

Noteworthy is MacAlpine's versatility in musical style. He has covered just about the whole spectrum of musical styles throughout his solo career, often with songs that would usually be considered to be in different genres appearing next to one another on the same album.

In the last recent years, he has played guitars and keyboards in the band Steve Vai and The Breed (i.a. the Real Illusions Tour 2005) and is featured on the band's Live at the Astoria London DVD as well as on the live G3 DVDs, G3: Live in Denver and G3: Live in Tokyo.

Discography

Solo career

• Demo 84 (1984)
• Edge of Insanity (1986)
• Maximum Security (1987)
• Freedom to Fly (1992)
• Madness (1993)
• Premonition (1994)
• Evolution (1995)
• Violent Machine (1996)
• Live Insanity (1997)
• Master of Paradise (1999)
• Chromaticity (2001)

All albums instrumental except Master of Paradise, in which Tony himself provides the vocals.

With Band "MacAlpine"

• Eyes of the World (1990)

With Planet X

• Universe (2000)
• Live From Oz (2002)
• MoonBabies (2002)

With CAB

• CAB (2000)
• CAB 2 (2001)
• CAB 4 (2003)

With Ring of Fire

• Burning Live Tokyo (2002)
• Dreamtower (2002)
• Lapse of Reality (2004)

With Vinnie Moore

• Mind's Eye (1986)
• The Maze (1999)

With Joey Tafolla

• Out of the Sun (1987)

With Project Driver

• Project: Driver (1986) - MacAlpine/Aldridge/Rock/Sarzo

With Vitalij Kuprij

• VK3 (1999)

With Mark Boals

• Ring of Fire (2000)
• Edge of the World (2002)

Solo Album Details

• Edge Of Insanity

1. Wheel Of Fortune
2. The Stranger
3. Quarter To Midnight
4. Agrionia
5. Prelude
6. Empire In The Sky
7. The Witch And The Priest
8. The Taker
9. Chopin, Prelude 16, Opus 28
10. Edge Of Insanity
11. The Raven
12. No Place In Time

Tony MacAlpine: Guitar and Keyboards
Billy Sheehan: Bass
Steve Smith: Drums

• Maximum Security

1. Autumn Lords
2. Hundreds Of Thousands
3. Tears Of Sahara
4. Key To The City
5. The Time And The Test
6. The King's Cup
7. Sacred Wonder
8. Etude #4, Opus #10
9. The Vision
10. Dreamstate
11. Porcelain Doll

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Bass, Keyboards
Deen Castronovo: Drums
Atma Anur: Drums
George Lynch: Guitar on “Tears Of Sahara” and “The Vision”
Jeff Watson: Guitar of “The King’s Cup”

• Freedom To Fly

1. Ice Princess
2. Box Office Poison
3. Salvation
4. Freedom To Fly
5. Champion
6. Stream Dream
7. Albania
8. Chopin Etude #2 Opus #25
9. Disciples Of Fear
10. Capistrano

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards and Grand Piano
Larry “Bones” Dennison: Bass
Mike Terrana: Drums

• Madness

1. Naked Nancy
2. Peruvian Power Layback
3. Albert's Fat Sister
4. Restaurant At The End Of The Universe
5. Realm Of The Flying Monkeys
6. Prelude #8 Opus 28
7. Confrontation With The Electric Bees
8. Dr. Garlic Breath
9. Houses In Motion
10. Muffin Bandits
11. Rats With Wings

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards, Piano
Larry Dennison: Bass
Glen Sobel: Drums

• Premonition

1. Opus 28 #18
2. The Violin Song
3. Ghost Of Versailles
4. Tower Of London
5. Rusalka
6. Rondeau Partita #2
7. Gila Monster
8. The Czar
9. Maestro Di Cappella
10. Inflection
11. Opus 28 #3
12. Animation
13. Winter In Osaka

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards, Piano
Tony Franklin: Bass
Deen Castronovo: Drums
Jens Johansson: Keyboards on “The Violin Song” and “Inflection”

• Evolution

1. The Sage
2. Oversea Evolution
3. Eccentrist
4. Time Table
5. Seville
6. Futurism
7. Etude Nr. 5 Opus 10
8. Powerfield
9. Plastic People
10. Sinfonia
11. Asturias KV467 Nr. 21

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards, Piano
Tony Franklin: Bass
Mike Terrana: Drums

• Violent Machine

1. Violent Machine
2. Unfortunate Lazarus
3. Circus Du Soleil
4. Sophisticated Domination
5. Chopin Etude #12 Opus 10
6. Shoe Shine Cyber Boy
7. Carolina Blue
8. Mr. Destructive
9. ARS Nova
10. Space Ritual

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards, Piano
Kevin Chown: Bass
Mike Terrana: Drums

• Master Of Paradise

1. Tears Of Darkness
2. Live To Die
3. Circus
4. Still
5. Time
6. Master Of Paradise
7. Imagination
8. Maker Is King
9. Final Hour
10. Au Bord D'une Source

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Larry Dennison: Bass
Atma Anur: Drums

• Chromaticity

1. Christmas Island
2. Chromaticity
3. City Beneath The Sea
4. Digitalis Destructi
5. Isis
6. Prince Of Light
7. Still Valley
8. Avenger
9. Eye Of The Soul
10. Etude Nr.8 Op.10

Tony MacAlpine: Guitars, Keyboards
Barry Sparks: Bass
Steve Smith: Drums

Trivia

• He played classical piano before he learned to play the guitar.
• He is the grandson of Mary Matilda Winslow, who was the first Black Canadian woman to graduate from the University of New Brunswick.

External links

• Tony Macalpine's official homepage

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