Uli Jon Roth

Uli Jon Roth at Wacken Open Air 2015

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Scorpions Revisited   DE 83 02/20/2015 (1 week)

Uli Jon Roth (actually Ulrich Roth ) (born December 18, 1954 in Düsseldorf ) is a German musician .

Roth is considered to be a particularly influential German rock and fusion guitarist internationally . Among other things, he is used by established heavy metal guitarists such as B. Yngwie Malmsteen or Kirk Hammett , cited.

Career

From 1973 to 1978 Roth was guitarist and songwriter for the German hard rock band Scorpions . On the albums In Trance and Virgin Killer , he wrote about half of the band's material. He then founded the band Electric Sun , which existed from 1978 to 1985 and with which he produced three albums ( Earthquake , 1978, Fire Wind , 1980, and Beyond the Astral Skies , 1984). Since then he has been active as a solo artist, but he also wrote philosophical treatises and paints oil paintings. According to Roth himself, his 20-year relationship with the former fiancée Jimi Hendrix, Monika Dannemann , was important for his artistic development . Roth plays the majority of the instruments on his albums himself. On more recent albums he used the "Sky Orchestra" he founded, which consists primarily of English classical musicians. Stylistically located “somewhere between Hendrix and Beethoven”, Roth's unmistakable playing on the electric guitar embodies the connection between rock and classical music like hardly any other musician.

In the early 1980s Roth developed the so-called Sky Guitar , which has a considerably larger range than a conventional electric guitar. It was the first electric guitar that made it possible to play, for example, in a natural, analogue way. B. to play violin pieces in the original register (without transposing into lower octaves). This allowed Roth became the first guitarist who complete four seasons of Vivaldi perform with an orchestra ( Metamorphosis of Vivaldi's Four Seasons ). The possibilities of the instrument are fully exploited on Roth pieces such as Sky Overture , Transcendental Sky Guitar and Legends of Rock at Castle Donington . In the 1990s Roth wrote several symphonies, the first of which ( Europa Ex Favilla ) was premiered with the Brussels Symphony Orchestra in Liège in 1993 (broadcast by WDR Rocklife).

Since autumn 2005, Roth has also played a number of reunion concerts with the Scorpions in various countries. In the summer of 2006 he played with the Scorpions in Wacken. In 2006, Roth directed his first "Sky Academy" in Los Angeles. It is a kind of music seminar, which serves to convey Roth's own approach and musical philosophy. Further academies were held in Los Angeles in 2007/08, as well as in Arizona and New Zealand. Uli Jon Roth was the first internationally recognized guitarist to install the “Powertune” guitar tuning system on his guitar and to present it at the 2007 NAMM Show in Los Angeles for the German company Tronical .

Roger Glover, Uli Jon Roth and Steve Morse at Wacken Open Air 2013

Roth is regarded by many as a consummate improviser on stage, which is why many international bands invited him to take part as a guest. Among other things, he improvised several times with Deep Purple (England / Germany 2004-2006, Wacken 2013), Jack Bruce ( Cream ), UFO and Michael Schenker. In June 2007 Uli Jon Roth had several guest appearances at concerts of the Smashing Pumpkins (Rock-am-Ring, Rock-im-Park, Berlin, Columbiahalle , and Hamburg, Color Line Arena ). Together with them he played the songs Glass And The Ghost Children and Gossamer and improvised with the two band guitarists, sometimes for more than 30 minutes. An episode of the ZDF / Arte production Durch die Nacht mit ... (May 1, 2008) was dedicated to Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and Uli Jon Roth, who explored the art and music scene in Hamburg for one night. Since 2007 he has occasionally played as a guest with the German folk rock band Shawue . In 2008 Roth performed as a guest musician for Avantasia in Wacken. Since August 2010, when Roth appeared as a guest musician at the Rock Requiem in Kassel, he has been available as a guest star in accordance with a promise he made. At Wacken 2013 he appeared with Doro Pesch on their 30th stage anniversary.

His brother Zeno Roth is also well known as a guitarist, among others in the band Zeno .

Discography

With the Scorpions

• Fly to the Rainbow (1974) - guitar, vocals
• In Trance (1975) - guitar, vocals
• Virgin Killer (1976) - guitar, vocals
• Taken by Force (1977) - guitar, vocals
• Tokyo Tapes (live, 1978) - guitar, vocals

With Electric Sun

• Earthquake (1979) - guitar, vocals
• Fire Wind (1981) - guitar, vocals
• Beyond the Astral Skies (1985) - vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass

Solo and Classical Works (Progressive Rock) (published)

• Aquila Suite - 12 Arpeggio Concert Etudes for Solo Piano (1991)
• Sky of Avalon - Prologue to the Symphonic Legends (1996) (with the Sky Orchestra)
• Transcendental Sky Guitar Vol. I & II (2000)
• Metamorphosis of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (2003) (with the Sky Orchestra)
• Under A Dark Sky (Sky of Avalon) (2008)
• Scorpions Revisited (2015)
• Tokyo Tapes Revisited - Live In Japan (2016)

Videos

• The Electric Sun Years Vol. I & II (2000) (part of the Historical Performances series )
• Legends of Rock at Castle Donington | Legends Of Rock: Live At Castle Donington (2002)
• Live at Wacken Open Air 2006 (2006) (guest appearance)

Trivia

In 2011, Uli Jon Roth was a member of the jury of the “ Robert Johnson Guitar Awards” along with Marcus Deml , Thomas Barth and Mickey Meinert , of which Otto Waalkes was the patron .

swell

1. ↑ Uli Jon Roth in the German charts (GfK)
2. ↑ W: O: A - Wacken Open Air: Uli Jon Roth

Web links

Commons : Uli Jon Roth  - Collection of Images

• Works by and about Uli Jon Roth in the catalog of the German National Library
• Uli Jon Roth in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website
• Uli Jon Roth at Discogs (English)
• Uli Jon Roth at laut.de
• Uli Jon Roth on MusicBrainz (English)