Uli Jon Roth
Firewind

Which rock music lover from the 70s hasn't found themselves at least once in their life listening to songs like "Fly to the Rainbow", "In Trance", or "Will Burn the Sky", authentic masterpieces inheriting from a great historical band called Scorpions?

Setting aside the metamorphosis of this band, which, at the start of the 80s, would take on a much more commercial and questionable musical line, branding a clear and irreversible break from the past, it is important to remember that a fundamental role in the composition of those tracks (and many others) just mentioned was played by the active presence of Mr. Uli Jon Roth, a giant talent of the 6 strings and, according to many critics, perhaps the best disciple and interpreter of the spiritual and artistic legacy of Jimi Hendrix.

It was 1979 when, after the release of the magical "Tokyo Tapes", a double live album that encapsulates and in a certain sense permanently closes that magical cycle of the Scorpions, Uli Roth embarked on a solo career, leaving fame and success to continue on a path of music that was absolutely non-commercial, where his guitar would resonate with compositions of a true master. That very year, under the name Electric Sun, he released his first solo album "Earthquake", which already showcased very high-class ideas with tracks like "Japanese Dream", but it was only in 1981 that his true masterpiece titled "Firewind" was released.

Nine tracks that resonate as a true tribute to Jimi Hendrix, but from an entirely personal perspective, ranging from properly blues atmospheres and sounds as in "Cast Away Your Chains", to the seductive melodies of "I'll Be Loving You Always" where the guitar magically seems to evoke notes from "Bold as Love" and "Little Wing", up to the classical "Fire Wind". Also extremely touching are "Children Of The Sea" and "Chaplin And I", the latter featuring a wonderful showcase of classical guitar as the sonic backdrop, and finally, a very complex solo piece titled "Hiroshima", divided into many parts (Enola Gay, Tune Of Japan, Attack, Lament), a magnum opus that manages to revive all the emotions that can arise from a bombing, making the guitar scream and vibrate at times as only Jimi Hendrix could.

Listening to many reputed guitarists, the so-called virtuosos of today, I can't help but think how they are often empty and soulless, while listening to Uli Roth (who also participated in the G3 with Satriani and Shenker in 1998 proving his immense class) I can think of only one thing: this is true ART.