Guitar Workshop in L.A. with Buzzy Feiten et al., 1988

 

Information for this totally unknown release can be found here on discogs.  When I heard the music of Buzzy Feiten in connection with the Full Moon posts (and here) I snooped around to see what else he did and this looked interesting on the basis of some youtube samples.  It's typical instrumental US electric guitar-based fusion from the late 80s with some very slick production arrangements but also some really nifty riffs and cool ideas.  The virtuoso quality shines through beautifully.  Other than Buzzy you can see the guitarists in question are session guitarist Jeff Baxter, session musician James Harrah, and Teddy Castelucci (also a film composer).  All except Harrah contribute music in conjunction with keyboardist D. Garfield.  The latter is also credited as arranger.

The Roppongi track features Baxter and was composed by him plus Garfield and Y. Kojima and, thankfully, has little to no pentatonic scale in it:

I love the bio on discogs for Buzzy:

American singer / songwriter, lead and rhythm guitarist, session musician, producer and arranger. Feiten is also a luthier, having originated the patented Buzz Feiten Tuning System and later designing and producing solid-body electric guitars under the 'Feiten', 'Buzz Feiten', 'Supernova', and 'Supernova Future Vintage' logos. At this writing (late 2019), he is the Principal at Supernova Guitar Research, a.k.a. Buzz Feiten Guitar Research. Feiten has also recorded on the Electric Bass and the French Horn.

And for those like me who love electric guitars with a passion and grew up with Jimmy Page playing Gibson, the news of their bankruptcy was a real shock this year. Because, inevitably, the headlines attributed this to 'rock is dead.'

Lovers of electric guitar will enjoy this completely unknown release.