Jay Zaffos got his first guitar when he was 14 years old. He taught himself how to play almost every Metallica guitar solo from their first 5 albums within a few years. Then someone introduced Jay to Yngwie Malmsteen, whose style fascinated him. Being an ambitious perfectionist, Jay struggled with mimicking Yngwie's virtuosity. This endeavor was a baffling and humbling experience, leaving Jay frustrated and in search for answers.
Luckily, at around this time a few of Jay's musical acquaintances were raving about how incredible their guitar teacher was. He curiously followed suit and discovered a world class jazz virtuoso of endless playing styles from rock and jazz to latin and asian: Ede Wright.
To Jay, Ede was everything that Yngwie was and more--he played just as fast but smoother, his knowledge of chords and inversions was mind blowing, and he could jam to any style imaginable. Ede shined a huge stage light on the guitar, illuminating a dark hallway of concepts and methods that made perfect sense. Jay moved on from Ede as a brand new guitar player and joined his first band, Fifteenth Summer.
As Lead Guitarist in Fifteenth Summer, Jay helped orchestrate the sound of the band with his memorable guitar solos, collaboration on new songs, and instrumental arrangements on some songs. After a very rewarding 4-5 years with the band, Jay made the difficult decision to leave behind his fellow bandmates to pursue his true passion: writing instrumental guitar compositions.
Jay's passion stems from his love of reading books and playing video games, especially the role playing game Final Fantasy VII. In it, the concept of characters and places having theme songs is brilliant. Jay's vision is to bring to musical vivacity the people, places, events, and memories of his own life.
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