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Rap + R&B Focus: Kendrick Lamar Wins Big

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Rapper leads the 58th GRAMMYs with five wins; R&B music saluted on Music's Biggest Night
Andreas Hale
GRAMMYs
Feb 16, 2016 - 12:27 pm

Kendrick Lamar wins Best Rap Album GRAMMY

At the 58th GRAMMY Awards, Kendrick Lamar had a huge night. After garnering a leading five awards — including Best Rap Album — the rapper took to the GRAMMY stage to deliver a memorable GRAMMY Moment that will likely be talked about for years. 

Lamar’s set was a fearless declaration of black pride and celebration of his Compton, Calif., hometown, Africa and the musical influences that helped mold his Best Rap Album-winning To Pimp A Butterfly. Lamar marched onstage in a prison jumpsuit, while shackled to a group of men also dressed as inmates. As his band played inside a makeshift prison cell, Lamar delivered a passionate performance of “The Blacker The Berry” before transitioning to "Alright."

His performance managed to provide timely social commentary on the GRAMMY stage with a relentless fervor. He closed the performance with a previously unheard lyrical barrage punctuated by an illuminated image of Africa with the word "Compton" scrawled across the continent. The performance elicited a worthy ovation for Lamar, who also won Best Music Video for "Bad Blood" with Taylor Swift and swept the Rap Field, including Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for "Alright" (with Kawan Prather, Mark Anthony Spears and Pharrell Williams) and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "These Walls" (with Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat).

Many of those who helped bring the musicality of Lamar's acclaimed To Pimp A Butterfly to life, spoke on his behalf at the GRAMMY Premiere Ceremony. Bassist Thundercat, singers Bilal and Anna Wise, and producer Sounwave — all first-time GRAMMY winners — took to the stage to thank the rapper for recording the project.

"We come from nothing and people don't realize that," To Pimp A Butterfly co-engineer/mixer Derek "MixedByAli " Ali said. "If it wasn't for God, loyalty, trust, and teamwork we wouldn't be here."

Hip-hop legend and host of the evening LL Cool J kicked off the telecast reminding viewers that music is universal. "Our shared love of music unites us," he said.

Other hip-hop legends were in attendance, including Russell Simmons, Reverend Run of Recording Academy 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Run DMC and Ice Cube, who was joined onstage by his son O'Shea Jackson Jr. to present the GRAMMY for Best Rap Album. Ice Cube noted rap had come "a long way to change our world forever."

The father-son team fittingly presented Lamar his award for Best Rap Album in front of a standing audience. After thanking his parents, fiancée Whitney Alford and Top Dawg Entertainment family, Lamar declared, “This is for hip-hop. [This is for] Ice Cube. This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic. This is for Nas. We will live forever!"

The night also included big celebrations of R&B music. Tyrese Gibson, John Legend, Luke Bryan, Demi Lovato, and Meghan Trainor paid tribute to 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year Lionel Richie with a medley of the singer/songwriter’s hits. Legend breezily rolled through “Easy” while Demi Lovato’s rendition of “Hello” had the former Commodore shaking his head in amazement. Tyrese punctuated the set with a funky performance of “Brick House” before Richie took to the stage and brought the house down with “All Night Long.”

GRAMMY winners Stevie Wonder and a capella group Pentatonix paid homage to the late Maurice White — founder of 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Earth, Wind & Fire — with a beautiful rendition of “That’s The Way Of The World.”

Later, Earth, Wind & Fire would take the stage to present Album Of The Year. The GRAMMYs also paid tribute to the legacy of Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall by enlisting GRAMMY-winning R&B singer/songwriter Miguel to deliver an intimate performance of “She’s Out Of My Life.”

A satellite performance of the hip-hop Broadway musical "Hamilton" — which took home Best Musical Theater Album honors — easily made one of the toughest tickets to grab that much harder to get. "Hamilton" creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped his acceptance speech, thanking a list of people including Lamar. Adele also shouted out the Compton rapper after her performance, yelling, "I love you, Kendrick. You're amazing."

Canadian singer/songwriter The Weeknd had a strong showing, earning his first career GRAMMYs with a pair of awards for Best R&B Performance for "Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)" and Best Urban Contemporary Album for Beauty Behind The Madness. The singer celebrated his birthday a day early with the wins and a performance of “Can’t Feel My Face” and “In The Night” while freshly dipped in a black tuxedo. R&B newcomer Andra Day would take to the stage with Ellie Goulding for a collaborative set as the two rising talents filled the Staples Center with their powerful voices

Elsewhere, singer/songwriter D'Angelo won Best R&B Song for "Really Love" with Kendra Foster. D'Angelo And The Vanguard snared the Best R&B Album award for Black Messiah, D'Angelo's first album following a decade-plus hiatus from releasing music. At the Premiere a tearful Lalah Hathaway thanked her late father Donny Hathaway as she took home the award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for her remake of 1972's "Little Ghetto Boy." Choking back tears, Hathaway offered: "Thank you to my father for leaving this song to me to give to other people."

Ultimately, hip-hop and R&B had an incredibly strong showing at the 58th GRAMMY Awards, which celebrated some of the genre's finest talent. Many will likely remember this as the night that Lamar made another powerful mark on the industry and owned Music's Biggest Night with a performance for the ages.

With over a decade of experience as a journalist and editor, Andreas Hale has been called the "Swiss Army Knife of Journalism" by his peers. His work has been featured on Billboard, MTV, Complex, Jay Z's Life+Times, XXL, and The Source, among others. He is also the co-host of combat sports podcast "The Corner" on the Loud Speakers Network.

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58th GRAMMYs Mirror Our Times

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Top winners Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Alabama Shakes reflect the current cultural dialogue
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Feb 16, 2016 - 11:22 am

In an era when much of the prevailing cultural dialogue revolves around race relations and empowerment, the big winners at the 58th GRAMMY Awards reflected that zeitgeist.

Compton, Calif., rapper Kendrick Lamar went into the 58th GRAMMY Awards as the most nominated artist (11 nods) since Michael Jackson and Babyface each scored 12 for 1983 and 1996, respectively. He took five GRAMMYs, including Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly, and Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for "Alright."

His performance of "The Blacker The Berry" and "Alright," songs that have become unofficial soundtracks for the Black Lives Matter movement, infused the GRAMMYs with the kind of social currency at which it excels, whether it's celebrating marriage rights or honoring musical icons such as Whitney Houston.

Alabama Shakes, perhaps fittingly a multiracial band with a multiracial frontwoman, won three awards, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Alternative Music Album, all based around their acclaimed album Sound & Color.

Taylor Swift won Album Of The Year for 1989 among her three awards. Pointing out that she was the first woman to win that award twice, Swift was passionate about giving due credit to the contributions of women.

"I want to say to all the young women out there," Swift said, "there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments, or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going, you will look around and you will know it was you and the people who love you that put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world."

Other multiple winners included D'Angelo, Diplo, Jason Isbell, Maria Schneider, Ed Sheeran, Skrillex, Chris Stapleton, and The Weeknd.

Rising up, to paraphrase GRAMMY nominee and performer Andra Day, was the theme of night. In addition to Lamar's wins and triumphant performance, there were other noteworthy moments.

Common and John Legend's "Glory," the pair's defiant song from the film about the '60s Montgomery voting rights marches, Selma, won for Best Song Written For Visual Media. West African singer Angélique Kidjo admonished the audience to "say no to hate and violence through music" in accepting her Best World Music Album GRAMMY for Sings during the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony. Lalah Hathaway won in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category for "Little Ghetto Boy," a song about the dire consequences of growing up in inner city poverty that was originally recorded by her father, Donny Hathaway.   

Mexican drummer/composer Antonio Sanchez, who won Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media for Birdman, thanked GRAMMY voters specifically because he had been "eliminated by another awards show that starts with an 'O' and ends with 'scars.'" And songwriter Kendra Foster literally raised a fist and proclaimed "we're trying to rise up" when accepting the Best R&B Song award for her and D'Angelo's "Really Love."

It was also a night of official goodbyes to musical giants, some of whom died within weeks of the GRAMMY telecast.

Lady Gaga's tribute to David Bowie, aided by Intel technology, was an electrifying appreciation of one of the most influential artists of our time. Bowie, who died Jan. 10, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy in 2006, and an appropriate celebration on tonight's show with a Gaga medley wrapped up by a triumphant version of "Heroes."

The band that perfected '70s California rock came together to salute its fallen founding member, Glenn Frey, who died Jan. 18. The Eagles strummed through their first hit record, the classic "Take It Easy," teaming with the song's co-writer Jackson Browne (who penned the tune with Frey in the early '70s when they lived in the same L.A. apartment building). The ode to letting troubles run off your shoulders and grabbing life while you can was a fitting tribute to a singer, guitarist and man who did just that.

Things got revved up a few decibels when the Hollywood Vampires (Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry) lit the funeral pyre for hard rock's No. 1 anarchist Lemmy Kilmister with a short blast of Motörhead's "Ace Of Spades."

At the other end of the genre and attitude spectrum, Earth, Wind & Fire's deeply optimistic pan-spiritual leader Maurice White, who died Feb. 4, was feted by Stevie Wonder, joined by vocal group Pentatonix, who performed an a cappella version of the band's classic "That's The Way Of The World."

Finally, Chris Stapleton, Gary Clark Jr. and Bonnie Raitt paid tribute to the late B.B. King, who died May 14, 2015. The three artists reflected different generations and genres, but demonstrated that roots music is a single language often spoken with six strings, and that all three owe a debt to one of the most noteworthy bluesmen of all time.

Between honoring our musical legacy and recognizing music's power to reflect and impact our cultural legacy, fans truly had a chance to witness greatness on this year's GRAMMYs.

 

GRAMMYs
Feature

'To Pimp A Butterfly': Kendrick Lamar shares history

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58th GRAMMY nominees Lamar, Terrace Martin, Thundercat, Rapsody, and other key players reveal the inside story of the Album Of The Year-nominated To Pimp A Butterfly
Andreas Hale
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly album cover
'To Pimp A Butterfly': Kendrick Lamar shares history

In between Good Kid, M.A.A.D City and To Pimp A Butterfly, a 2014 trip to South Africa changed Kendrick Lamar. As he toured the country — visiting historic sites such as Nelson Mandela's jail cell on Robben Island — his worldview broadened, and so did his music.

The trip led Lamar to scrap "two or three albums worth of material," according to engineer/mixer Derek "MixedByAli" Ali. Lamar wanted to make music that reflected the sounds of his upbringing in Compton, Calif. He began to listen to the likes of Sly Stone, Donald Byrd and Miles Davis. Eventually To Pimp A Butterfly took form, incorporating elements of jazz, funk, soul, spoken word, and hip-hop.

"I wanted to do a record like this on my debut album but I wasn't confident enough," says Lamar.

Lamar garnered 11 GRAMMY nominations, including Best Rap Album and Album Of The Year. Following, Lamar and key collaborators tell the story of To Pimp A Butterfly.

Kendrick Lamar (artist): The title grasped the entire concept of the record. [I wanted to] break down the idea of being pimped in the industry, in the community and out of all the knowledge that you thought you had known, then discovering new life and wanting to share it.

Sounwave (co-producer): I remember he took a trip to Africa and something in his mind just clicked. For me, that's when this album really started.

Lamar: I felt like I belonged in Africa. I saw all the things that I wasn't taught. Probably one of the hardest things to do is put [together] a concept on how beautiful a place can be, and tell a person this while they're still in the ghettos of Compton. I wanted to put that experience in the music.

Derek "MixedByAli" Ali (co-engineer/mixer): [Lamar is] a sponge. He incorporated everything that was going on [in Africa] and in his life to complete a million-piece puzzle.

Lamar: I was on tour with Kanye [West] and I had Flying Lotus with me because I wanted to work on the bus studio. He would make beats and it was one particular beat that he forgot to play. He skipped it but I heard about three seconds of it and I asked him, "What is that?" He said, "You don't know nothing about that. That's real funk. … You're not going to rap on that." It was like a dare.

Thundercat (co-producer): ["Wesley's Theory"] started with Flying Lotus and I sitting on the couch in front of the computer analyzing George Clinton. He became the fuel for creating. I was really blown away that Kendrick was so into that song.

Sounwave: That song is the album cover.

Lamar: I had to find George Clinton in the woods, man. He was somewhere in the South and I had to fly out to him. We got in the studio and just clicked. Rocking with him took my craft to another level and that pushed me to make more records like that for the album.

Sounwave: When we first did "King Kunta," the beat was the jazziest thing ever with pretty flutes. Kendrick said he liked it but to "make it nasty." He referenced a DJ Quik record with Mausberg ["Get Nekkid"] and he told me what to do with it. I added different drums to it, simplified it, got Thundercat on the bass, and it was a wrap.

Thundercat: That strong-a** rhythm with banging drums and bass was created by me and Sounwave watching "Fist Of The North Star" while eating Yoshinoya. It's funny because a lot of this album was created eating Yoshinoya and watching cartoons. It was so funky and so black.

Terrace Martin (co-producer): If you dig deeper you hear the lineage of James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Mahalia Jackson, the sounds of Africa, and our people when they started over here. I hear something different every time. I heard Cuban elements in it the other day.

GRAMMYs

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Kendrick Lamar - King Kunta

Martin: [For "Complexion"] we were listening to a lot of J Dilla, Jimi Hendrix and Lalah Hathaway, who's on that song too. Robert Glasper played piano over it. Me and Sounwave heard the piano but wanted another beat so we called Lalah Hathaway and got into the spirit of J Dilla. Then Rapsody got to it and murdered it.

Rapsody (featured artist): I was in New York the first time I got the call. [It was] the day after [Lamar's] "Control" verse dropped. Everybody was talking about the verse and Kendrick was in Africa. I went about a year before him so I knew what that trip does to you, especially as a black person.

Lamar: The idea was to make a record that reflected all complexions of black women. There's a separation between the light and the dark skin because it's just in our nature to do so, but we're all black. This concept came from South Africa and I saw all these different colors speaking a beautiful language.

MixedByAli: [Lamar] has an index in his head of everyone's voice and when he hears something that fits, he knows. He sees music as colors. Every song is like putting together a rainbow.

Lamar: Immediately when I heard the beat I heard [Rapsody's] voice and vocal tone. But what made her special was that I knew that she was going to bring the content from a woman's perspective about complexion, being insecure and at the same time having gratitude for your complexion.

Rapsody: He said he wanted to talk about the beauty of black people. I told him to say no more. What tripped me out is Kendrick originally said that he didn't want to do a verse on there. He wanted me to do two verses and Prince to do the hook.

Lamar: That's true. Prince heard the record, loved the record and the concept of the record got us to talking. We got to a point where we were just talking in the studio and the more time that passed we realized we weren't recording anything. We just ran out of time, it's as simple as that.

Thundercat: The album's theme was forming over time and a lot of the social issues he presents on the album were inevitable for him being a black man in America.

Sounwave: I didn't expect ["Alright"] to be the protest song but I did know it was going to do something because the time we're living in made it the perfect song.

Martin: One of the biggest moments was seeing kids marching to "Alright." We cried like babies because we were doing something. This is [our] vessel to get the message out. We had to use art for the message to help heal and help love.

GRAMMYs

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Kendrick Lamar - Compton | Witness Greatness | GRAMMYs

MixedByAli: [The] session [for "U"] was very uncomfortable. [Lamar] wrote it in the booth. The mic was on and I could hear him walking back and forth and having these super angry vocals. Then he'd start recording with the lights off and it was super emotional. I never asked what got into him that day.

Lamar: It was real uncomfortable because I was dealing with my own issues. I was making a transition from the lifestyle that I lived before to the one I have now. When you're onstage rapping and all these people are cheering for you, you actually feel like you're saving lives. But you aren't saving lives back home. It made me question if I am in the right place spreading my voice. "Should I be back home sending this message or be on the road?" It put me in this space where I was in a little bit of a dilemma.

I sat on the beat [for "The Blacker The Berry"] and then the Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown situations happened and I knew that this needed to be addressed.

Sounwave: That last line, "gangbanging make me kill a n***** blacker than me," was a slap in the face. He wants you to be uncomfortable.

Lamar: If you speak on this kind of subject matter you're labeled a conscious rapper. I don't even know [if] that word conscious can only exist in one field of music. Everybody is conscious. That's a gift from God to put it in my heart to continue to talk about this because that's how I'm feeling at the moment. The message is bigger than the artist.

When Tupac was here and I saw him as a 9-year-old, I think that was the birth of what I'm doing today. From the moment that he passed I knew the things he was saying would eventually be carried on through someone else. But I was too young to know that I would be the one doing it.

With over a decade of experience as a journalist and editor, Andreas Hale has been called the "Swiss Army Knife of Journalism" by his peers. His work has been featured on Billboard, MTV, Complex, Jay Z's Life+Times, XXL, and The Source, among others. He is also the co-host of combat sports podcast "The Corner" on the Loud Speakers Network.

Tune in to the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS. 

Performers for the 58th GRAMMY Awards

Photo: Getty Images/WireImage.com

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Who's performing? Official 58th GRAMMYs lineup

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A handy guide to the performances scheduled for the 58th GRAMMY awards, airing Monday, Feb. 15 on CBS
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

Music's Biggest Night is only days ahead and set to include show-stopping and unforgettable GRAMMY Moments. The star-studded performance lineup for the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards promise something for all music fans — including a number of first-time GRAMMY performances, a satellite performance by the Broadway cast of "Hamilton," an experiential performance by Lady Gaga in honor of the late icon David Bowie, Adele's return to the GRAMMY stage, and the best in country, pop, rock, and hip-hop. Two-time GRAMMY winner LL Cool J returns as host for the fifth consecutive year and will be joined by a stellar lineup of presenters.

Are you ready to "Witness Greatness"? The performers on the 58th GRAMMY Awards are: 

The 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place on Monday, Feb. 15 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

For updates and breaking news, visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Mentoring Adds Up To A Perfect Pair

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Kendrick Lamar, Andra Day, Steve Vai, and more on the value of mentoring
Laurel Fishman
GRAMMYs
Sep 15, 2016 - 10:40 am

Andra Day. Nicki Minaj. Blake Shelton. The Weeknd. What do these seemingly disparate artists have in common? They all had mentors to guide them on their musical journey.

Merriam-Webster defines mentor as "someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person." But the meaning behind the word has roots all the way back to the ancient Greek poet Homer. In his epic poem "Odyssey," the protagonist Odysseus leaves behind his family to fight in the Trojan War and entrusts his household to Mentor, who serves as the teacher and caretaker of Odysseus' son, Telemachus.

History offers plenty of examples of nurturing mentor/mentee relationships across a variety of disciplines. Socrates and Plato, Hayden and Beethoven, Frank Marshall Davis and President Barack Obama, and George Martin and the Beatles. In music, mentoring takes many forms, from a one-shot golden opportunity to continuous learning. It refines music- and business-related abilities, builds life skills, and defines character.

The career of GRAMMY-nominated R&B vocalist Day took off when she became a protégé of Stevie Wonder. Day says Wonder consistently set the example of putting pure joy into music-making, reminding her to maintain her enthusiasm and never forget that "you love what you do."

Mentoring isn't something that came naturally to Shelton, a current coach on "The Voice." He's stated that his own mentor, Trace Adkins, gave him a head start on how it's done. Paying it forward, Shelton has helped "The Voice" contestants with whom he's made a strong connection. He recorded "My Eyes" with season two contestant Gwen Sebastian and took the runner-up of season one, Dia Frampton, on tour as his opening act.

GRAMMY winner The Weeknd got a huge career boost after he co-wrote and co-produced songs on Drake's Take Care album, and later after being showcased by Drake in concert. Drake has rapped about Lil Wayne being his mentor early in his career, and Nicki Minaj has acknowledged Lil Wayne as her own mentor after he discovered and signed her to his label in 2009.

GRAMMY winner Skrillex helped fellow EDM artist and GRAMMY winner Zedd find his voice. After Skrillex happened across a track Zedd had sent him online, he invited the younger artist to tour with him. Hesitant to engage the crowd, Zedd found confidence and built his stage presence thanks to Skillex's mentorship.

Eminem famously thanked Dr. Dre on "I Need A Doctor": "All I know is you came to me when I was at my lowest. You picked me up, breathed new life in me. I owe my life to you."

And Eminem wasn't Dr. Dre's only protégé. Dre took fellow Compton, Calif., rapper Kendrick Lamar under his wing. Now Lamar tries to pay this forward for the next generation of musicians who look up to him.

"[Dr. Dre] has always been that mentor, letting me know the mistakes that he's made," said Lamar in a GRAMMY.com interview. "[I] try not to make the same mistakes, so I always have to take that into consideration for the next kid that's looking at Kendrick Lamar as their Dr. Dre."

With the rise of social media, mentoring can take shape through electronic encouragement, as with Taylor Swift's tweets praising country singer/songwriter Kelsea Ballerini. The two developed a friendship alongside their professional relationship, and Ballerini has admitted Swift sends career advice to her via text.

Some mentoring relationships can last for decades. Renowned guitarist Steve Vai's drummer, Jeremy Colson, is one link in a nearly 45-year-long chain of mentoring, beginning in the 1970s with Vai's mentors, GRAMMY nominee Joe Satriani and GRAMMY winner Frank Zappa.

Colson confides that GRAMMY winner Vai has been far more than a mentor: "[He has] seen me close to death from drugs and alcohol and helped me reclaim my life."

Musically, Vai has guided him to play up to his full potential, Colson says, having taken him from a "young, green kid to a seasoned touring drummer and directing my choices both musically and personally. The greatest gift Steve's ever given me is introducing me to the present moment. It helps me navigate my life in every way."

Colson is the beneficiary of knowledge Vai began attaining at age 12 from his first mentor, a then-16-year-old Satriani. "My guitar lessons with Joe were the most important thing in the world," Vai remembers. "I was like a sponge, and he was the ocean."

Vai admits he had low self-esteem and was well below average in all school subjects except music and math. He had difficulty with memorization, and after Satriani assigned him to memorize all the notes on every guitar string, Vai tried to bluff his way through. Satriani immediately sent him home.

"Joe did not tolerate slacking off," says Vai. "As I walked home, I made a solemn pledge that whatever was in my lesson every week, I would learn it cold and go above and beyond. So a little tough love went a long way, because I never stopped feeling that wonderful drive." 

The self-discipline, preparedness and positive attitude he developed with Satriani formed the basis for Vai's next mentoring relationship. Though Satriani had been a tough taskmaster, the late Zappa is notorious in music history as the most exacting of all.

Vai was 18 years old when he began the arduous work of transcribing Zappa's complex music, and Vai had to invent notation to signify Zappa's own musical inventiveness. At 20, Vai — transitioning from transcriber to touring guitarist — joined Zappa's band as his youngest-ever member. Affectionately nicknamed "my little Italian virtuoso," Vai received album credit for playing "impossible guitar parts."

"I got to work for a man whose creative instincts were constantly firing, and he was always envisioning and creating," Vai says. "Musically, I learned that if you have what you feel is a good idea, just do it.

"There isn't a day that goes by where I don't see how what I've learned from him flows into my everyday decision making," Vai continues. "When I think about all these things, it's as if he's here for me and continuing to mentor me."

When Vai was a guitarist in Zappa's band during the 1980s, the mentor asked him to teach his son Dweezil, then a 12-year-old beginner on guitar. Vai instructed the younger Zappa on technique and showed him how to avoid bad habits on the instrument.

Over time, Dweezil Zappa has distinguished himself as a world-class guitarist who now mentors others through his own Dweezilla Music Boot Camp. In one component of his camp, he assembles the participants into a full guitar orchestra. By mixing discussion sessions with hands-on guitar demonstrations, Dweezilla instructors mentor each other along with attendees.

In music and in life, Zappa integrates a key perspective he learned from his father: "You have to look at everything as an opportunity to improve, and there's more than one way to accomplish a goal."

That's an outlook also incorporated by Vai in his prearranged gatherings with fans before many of his concerts. In these meetings, Vai customizes his counsel for each participant. "I'm inevitably asked for advice, and I always do my best to put myself in their position when responding," he says.

These times are among his favorite elements of touring. Vai says he always enjoys speaking to young people because "there's a glorious sense of innocence, freedom and positive expectation. They're discovering their independence and are ready to live the dream."

In the manner of Wonder, Vai emphasizes that the best wisdom any mentor can pass on is to "follow your bliss, find the thing that excites you the most, and throw yourself into it.

"Mentoring or being mentored is really a two-way street," he says. "You learn what you teach."

(Laurel Fishman is a communications and marketing professional, specializing in writing and editing for entertainment media and a wide range of areas. She is an advocate for the benefits of music making, music listening, music education, music therapy, music-and-the-brain research, and music and interdisciplinary studies.)