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From:  "Caio Rossi" <caiorossi@t...>
Date:  Wed Jan 23, 2002  11:11 pm
Subject:  Re: pseudo opera,

Denis Lanza:

> Rob Halford formerly of Judas Priest, Midnight formerly of Crimson Glory,
Tony Harnell of TNT/Westworld, Sebastian Bach formerly of Skid Row, Ray
Alder of Fates Warning, James LaBrie of Dream Theater/Mulmuzzler, Andre
Matos formerly of Angra/Vertigo,

In fact, Matos is ex- Viper and ex-Angra, and now belongs to Shaman ( their
CD has just been or is about to be released ) and his duo project, Virgo
not Vertigo ). Tako Oda analyzed Matos's voice singing "Wuthering Heights"
and was impressed by his overtones in the higher notes.

>Mike Matajevic of Steelheart, Geddy Lee of
Rush (early), many vocalists from yester year (Steve Perry, Air Supply, Brad
Delp of Boston) and me of course. :=)

I'd add Timo Kotipelto, from Stratovarius, the many singers then and now on
Helloween, Dimu Borg (sp?), from Merciful Fate, Fábio Leone, ex- Rhapsody
God knows where now ) and many, many, many others.

In fact, this is a tendency in the prog metal/melodic heavy metal/classic
metal ( although Matos's voice is unusually high ), maybe as an influence
from Yes.

What basically all those bands have in common is that not only their
vocalists are well-trained ( to mention the ones I know about, Matos,
Kotipelto and LaBrie have or have had classical singing training ) but the
kind of rock they do is more elaborated, with jazz and classical music
influences ( Matos is a conductor, and so are many musicians on those bands
I've just mentioned ).

They have other aspects in common: most of them are European (except for
Matos, who's Brazilian, and LaBrie, Canadian ), are much more successful
outside Anglo-Saxon countries, and are EXTREMELY POPULAR in Japan ( where I
think is the mecca of all kinds of good music ) and Germany. Although most
opera singers here seem to recognize only two kinds of music ( classical and
pop )- I believe that may be an all-American categorization- there are music
styles "in between" where musicians ( including singers ) are expected to
display very good technique and playing two or three chords only or
speech-like singing are not welcomed. Well... jazz is a VERY good example of
that, but not the only one.

Oh, and yes, when my voice does what it's supposed to do, I can sing in the
soprano range too with my head voice. I may not be a good example, as my
vocal cords are different from the average, but maybe so are those guys'.

Best wishes,

Caio













  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
16817 Re: pseudo opera,Denis J. Lanza   Thu  1/24/2002  

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