MARTY FRIEDMAN

Marty Friedman (born Martin Adam Friedman December 8, 1962 in Washington, D.C., United States) is an American guitarist. He is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist for the thrash metal band Megadeth for close to ten years. He now resides in Japan. His ex-wife (Chihiro) is Japanese. He hosted his own television programs, Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English on Japanese television.

Career

Friedman is a largely self-taught guitarist, known for his improvisation and for fusing an Eastern musical feel with Western musical styles, such as neo-classical, thrash metal and later on into progressive rock. Going beyond traditional scales, Friedman often arpeggiates the chords over which he plays, using an unconventional picking technique favoring up-strokes. He is also known for frequent use of melodic and wide vibrato.

Prior to joining Megadeth, he formed and played lead guitar in several other bands, including Deuce, Hawaii, Vixen (not the all-female band of the same name), and notably Cacophony. Cacophony featured neoclassical metal elements and synchronized twin guitar harmonies and counterpoints shared with guitarist Jason Becker on their two albums, Go Off! and Speed Metal Symphony.

Megadeth

After Cacophony broke up in 1989, Marty Friedman auditioned for the thrash metal band Megadeth after a tip from fellow guitarist Jeff Loomis, and joined them in February 1990. Friedman's audition can be seen as an easter egg on the Megadeth DVD Arsenal of Megadeth. The first album he recorded with them was Rust in Peace, now considered a classic thrash metal album, and sold platinum in the US. He further developed his style of playing exotic scale solos from the Cacophony era, and integrated it into the music of Megadeth. In July 1992, Megadeth released Countdown to Extinction, which was a more commercial album, aimed at a wider audience, and sold double platinum. Friedman played on Megadeth's further releases Youthanasia (1994), Cryptic Writings (1997), Risk (1999). After a total of five studio albums with Megadeth, Friedman left the band in December 1999. Later, he stated that he got tired of playing metal music and felt that he couldn't develop as a musician. In an interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com in March 2007, he claimed that Megadeth was not aggressive enough. This is especially notable since Friedman originally stated that he left Megadeth because they were too heavy. During Friedman's time in the band, they sold over ten million albums worldwide, and the Megadeth lineup including Friedman is widely recognized as the classic one by its fans.

Japanese life

Currently living in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, he travels the world giving clinics, performances and master classes in dozens of countries in Asia, Europe, North and South America. He has become a major force in the Japanese music scene, playing lead guitar in the bands of some of the country's most famous performers. He also appears on Japanese television and as a columnist for a major Japanese music magazine and a national daily newspaper.

Friedman speaks fluent Japanese. He became a regular member of the cast of TXN's musical TV program hebimeta-san (ヘビメタさん) (anglicized as "Mr. Heavy-Metal") with Japanese idol Yoko Kumada before the show came to an end in 2005. He had his own heavy metal TV program called Rock Fujiyama alongside Shelly, Kenny Guy, Rock Ninja Yorimasa and ex-Scanch member, Rolly Teranishi from April 2006 until March 2007. In November~December 2005 he went touring with Japanese singer Ami Suzuki inside her "Suzuki Ami Around the World" Live House Tour, which took place in cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Marty has played the guitar in support for Japanese musicians such as Nanase Aikawa, miyavi and ex-Pierrot Kirito.

More recently, Marty has been featured in Jukebox, a television program in which Marty and two Japanese people translate the lyrics of various English songs into understandable Japanese.

info : wikipedia