The Guitar Player's Resource
Hailing from Crompond, New York is guitarist Greg Rapaport, who submitted his CD-R entitled Wyrd. All instrumental (except for sampled spoken word sound bytes) the compositions mix and meld prog-metal, jazz, rock and funk. Rapaport has no problems taking jazzy chord progressions and soloing over them with ferocious, no-holds-barred metal/shred licks. Truly a one-man band (Rapaport handles all the instrumentation, production and engineering - did we mention artwork and design), the material could benefit from a live drummer, as you might expect with aggressive material (the rhythm work sounds pretty good though, for the most part). Overall, the material leaves no doubt you are listening to a more-than-proficient guitarist with some great ideas - you'd just like to hear him with Bobby Rock or Mike Terrana, that's all. Highlights include "11th Portal" and "Trust", with a creativity award going to "Mahdah" for its stylistic blend.
A seasoned player of 25 years, Greg has grown into a competent songwriter and soloist. His influences include Scott Henderson, Allan Holdsworth, Greg Howe and Jimmy Page. Also influential in Greg's development is his work in area bands. Teaching part time has also helped widen his scope musically while providing many new and different musical perspectives. Since investing in a in-house project studio, he has completed three solo albums, "Waiting For Darker Skies" (a combination vocal and instrumental project), while his latest two are both instrumentals.
In the future, Rapaport plans to continue to .develop as a songwriter and musician through instruction and constant practice. He would like to record and release many interesting and musically diverse projects in the future.
Greg Rapaport
United States
Web site: www.gregrapaport.com