Legendary guitarist and composer Jason Becker, who has been living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease) for 35 years, has released a new album, “The Strawberry Jams”, via Bandcamp.
Says Becker: “‘The Strawberry Jams’ is the third volume in a series of unreleased guitar music I recorded on my 4-track and 8-track Tascam cassette recorders back in the day when I could still play guitar (1985-1992). ‘The Raspberry Jams’ and ‘The Blackberry Jams’ were the first two volumes, and I also released an album of demos from my early youth called ‘Boy Meets Guitar’.
“I never intended to release this music; they were just demos to have so I wouldn’t forget my ideas. I didn’t take time to polish or work them out. I also left mistakes on some of them. These were just for myself and my family, friends and musicians who I wanted to work with on them.
“As my hands were getting weaker from ALS, I sometimes recorded myself noodling around with solos so I would have them in case the worst scenario happened. I recorded so much music during these times.
“I have used some of these old demos on past new songs like ‘Blue’, ‘River Of Longing’, ‘We Are One’, ‘Once Upon A Melody’, ‘Taking Me Back’, ‘Tell Me No Lies’, ‘Rain’ and the ideas for ‘Fantasy Weaver’, ‘Higher’, ‘End Of The Beginning’, ‘Empire’ and more.
“After finishing ‘Triumphant Hearts’ in 2018, I got really sick. For five years all of my attention was on staying alive. I felt sad because I had no inspiration for new music. My friends Dave Lopez and Reto Peter asked for my old demos to work on. I gave them all of my old demo recordings. Some of them were just MP3s I had in iTunes, but a lot of them were all of the separated tracks that my producer friend, Dan Alvarez, had put into Logic for me.
“The album cover photo was taken by Mark Leialoha in 1991 at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California, and the cover was designed by Navin Dorai.”
“The Strawberry Jams” track listing:
01. Crip Tone Night 04:09
02. Sliding Away 03:59
03. Some Assembly Required – Jason Becker & Friends 07:23
04. Some Assembly Required Demo (feat. Matt and Gregg Bissonette) 04:00
05. Billy the Carrot 04:38
06. Weak Hand Blues 10:54
07. Very Nice Clean Classical Idea 01:06
08. River of Longing (feat. John Scofield) 05:53
09. Lagrima (Tarrega) 01:14
10. Hot For Teacher 04:02
11. Dark Water 01:34
12. King Kong vs Godzilla 01:07
13. Mini Guitar Song 03:00
14. Rock Rhythm #5b 01:08
15. Cool Arpeggio 00:18
16. Meet me Demo 03:38
17. Ripping Song 01:07
18. Ten Oak Trees 01:55
19. Corn In The Morn 03:01
20. Drop In The Bucket Demo 05:19
21. End of the Beginning Demos 04:18
22. First Empire Demo 01:28
23. Serrana Clean Demo 01:36
24. Serrana Intro Backward Stuff 02:13
25. Serrana Clean Guitar Fast Arrangement 02:00
26. Higher Guitar Demo 02:28
27. First Rain Demo 02:03
28. Little Boy Blues 04:17
29. Some Soloing 03:43
30. Some More Soloing 01:03
Regarding the previously released song “Crip Tone Night” (working title: “Hen Tricks”),Jason said: “I had five versions of it. The last one was the best. Arion Salazar (THIRD EYE BLIND) took it and added bass. When I originally recorded it, I didn’t have a bass, so I put down the clean guitar part instead. Arion arranged the song so that the clean guitar was soloed in the beginning and middle of the song. We loved it, and I was excited about music again. After that, Grammy Award-winning GREEN DAY producer Chris Dugan played drums and mixed it.”
The “Crip Tone Night” A.I. video was created by Navin Dorai of OD Studios and can be seen below.
When “Crip Tone Night” was first announced earlier this month, Becker‘s team explained via social media: “We’re sharing it this way as a heartfelt thank-you, out of deep gratitude for the incredible love, kindness, and generosity you’ve shown Jason and all of us at Team Becker over the years. Every one of you has made a difference, and we are truly grateful.
“If you feel moved to support Jason, you can donate directly to his medical trust fund [here via PayPal]. Everything goes directly to Jason to help with his ongoing care and to give him the resources he needs to continue living his best life, creating music, and inspiring others.
“Thank you for being part of this journey with us and for standing by Jason all these years.”
Becker‘s story is one of brilliance, talent, determination, adversity, and, ultimately, triumph. A child prodigy on guitar, Jason rose to prominence as a teenager when he was one half of the technical guitar duo CACOPHONY, with his great friend Marty Friedman. In 1989, at only 19 years old and after wowing audiences all over the world, the young virtuoso became the guitarist for David Lee Roth, following in the huge footsteps of Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai. He wrote and recorded on Roth‘s third solo album, “A Little Ain’t Enough”, and was poised for superstardom when a nagging pain in his leg was diagnosed as Motor Neurone Disease (MND),also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS),or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the same condition Stephen Hawking lived with for over five decades. It is a fatal condition with a life expectancy of maybe five years. Maybe. That was three and a half decades ago. He lost the ability to play guitar, walk, talk, and breathe on his own. But never lost his will to live or his desire to create music. Communicating through a series of eye movements with a system developed by his father, Jason spells out words as well as musical notes and chords. He imparts his musical vision to his team who then can input the notes into a computer, edit the parts to his exacting standards, and then generate charts for session musicians. His inspiring music and life story have been the subject of countless news articles and magazine cover stories.
Becker‘s latest album, “Triumphant Hearts”, was released in December 2018 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. The disc features guest appearances by a who’s who of six-string gods, including Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Neal Schon, Steve Morse, Paul Gilbert and Joe Bonamassa.
A documentary film, “Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet”, was released more than a decade ago. The film follows Jason through his life and creative career with ALS. It is a truly inspirational tale of overcoming the odds and creating music no matter what curveballs life throws your way.