Alex Skolnick Trio

The Alex Skolnick Trio is a New York-based jazz ensemble founded in 2001 by guitarist Alex Skolnick, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of Bay Area thrash metal band Testament. After leaving Testament in 1992 following five albums, Skolnick spent the following decade on a remarkable artistic journey - moving to New York City in 1998, enrolling at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, studying under saxophonist George Garzone and bassist Cecil McBee, and earning a BFA in jazz performance. He had been a student of Joe Satriani as a teenager alongside Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai, but here he reinvented himself entirely as a jazz musician. The trio formed as a student ensemble when Skolnick met drummer Matt Zebroski, a Pittsburgh native who had grown up a Testament fan, and the concept clicked immediately when Skolnick had a dream in which he heard a Scorpions song reimagined as bossa nova. The idea of playing jazz renditions of heavy metal and classic rock became the trio's signature - bebop arrangements of songs by Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Rush, and Dio, played on archtop guitar, upright bass, and acoustic drums. Bassist Nathan Peck, who had played with Maynard Ferguson and Maria Maldaur, joined in 2003 to complete the lasting lineup. The trio has been praised with 4.5 stars by Down Beat and reviewed by Jazziz and The Village Voice. Their album Veritas on Palmetto Records reached number seven on the iTunes jazz chart, positioned between Dave Brubeck and Esperanza Spalding. They have performed at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Iridium Jazz Club in New York, and toured internationally as support for Rodrigo y Gabriela.