The Alex Skolnick Trio was born in 2001. A former heavy metal guitar hero with the San Francisco based group Testament, Alex had decided to leave the Bay Area, move to New York, soak up the jazz scene and go back to school to earn his music degree from New School University. It was here that he met a young drum prodigy named Matt 'Zebar' Zebroski who, as it turned out, had been a Testament fan as a youth in Pittsburgh. The two began rehearsing regularly with a bassist, practicing standards and reviewing homework assignments. ...show more

The Alex Skolnick Trio was born in 2001. A former heavy metal guitar hero with the San Francisco based group Testament, Alex had decided to leave the Bay Area, move to New York, soak up the jazz scene and go back to school to earn his music degree from New School University. It was here that he met a young drum prodigy named Matt 'Zebar' Zebroski who, as it turned out, had been a Testament fan as a youth in Pittsburgh. The two began rehearsing regularly with a bassist, practicing standards and reviewing homework assignments.

Around this time, Alex had a dream in which he heard a beautiful melody played as bossa nova and upon waking up, realized it was 'No One Like You' by the 80's hard rock band The Scorpions. When he brought the idea to the other guys, there was a certain absurdity to the idea. Could a tune that was originally performed with distorted guitars, electric bass and a drum set the size of a spaceship translate to archtop guitar, upright bass and a drum kit small enough to carry on the New York Subway System? With a chuckle, they thought they'd give it a try and quickly realized they'd hit upon a magic formula. This tune felt as natural as any jazz standard, except that the melody was engrained in their souls from years of listening.

Within a few weeks, the trio had versions of Kiss, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, the Who and more, as well as original compositions and were covering a wide range of musical styles: swing, funk, latin and occasional moments of sheer metal/avant garde intensity. Their debut recording "Goodbye To Romance: Standards For A New Generation (Skol Productions) was released in March 2002. Less than a month later, an entire column was devoted to the album in Billboard (Jazz Notes; April, 2002). Within a year, Goodbye To Romance had been awarded 4 ½ stars by Downbeat (March, 2003) , was featured in magazines such as Jazziz (March and April, 2003), The Village Voice (February 26th, 2003) and more, had reached #26 on the JazzWeek radio charts (August, 2002) and was listed as a 'Top Seller' on the on-line retail site CDBaby. ...show less