Early life Skolnick was born and raised in
Berkeley, California, in a non-traditional Jewish family. His parents,
Jerome Skolnick and Arlene, both
PhD graduates from
Yale University, taught sociology at
New York University and
University of California, Berkeley.
Career in music Testament Skolnick joined the
San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band
Testament, then called Legacy, in 1984 as the replacement of original guitarist Derrick Ramirez. Skolnick was eighteen years old when he recorded his debut album with Testament,
The Legacy (1987), which received critical acclaim from both music critics and fans alike. The band's next four albums,
The New Order (1988),
Practice What You Preach (1989),
Souls of Black (1990) and
The Ritual (1992), cemented Testament's reputation as one of the premier bands of the thrash metal genre and nearly gave them the same level of popularity as the "Big Four" (
Metallica,
Megadeth,
Slayer and
Anthrax). In late 1992, several months after the release of
The Ritual, Skolnick left the band, citing his weariness of playing thrash metal music and his desire to explore musically outside of Testament as the reasons behind his departure. Skolnick returned briefly to Testament by re-recording old material for their ninth album,
First Strike Still Deadly, as well as the
Thrash of the Titans performance in 2001. He officially rejoined the band in 2005 for a short European tour with some American dates appended. A CD/DVD release was put together from
the London show of May 8, 2005. On April 29, 2008, Testament released
The Formation of Damnation, its first studio album with original material in nine years and with Skolnick in sixteen years. Their next album,
Dark Roots of Earth (2012), debuted at No. 12 on the
Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, at No.1 on the
Billboard Hard Rock and Rock albums chart, and No. 9 on the World Chart. In 2004, he made a guest appearance on
Lamb of God's
Ashes of the Wake album, recording a solo for the album's instrumental title track. During the mid to late 1990s, Skolnick led several projects in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Skol-Patrol, a funk band featuring
Michael Manring that played theme songs from police television shows. He recorded two albums with Attention Deficit, a trio with Manring and
Tim Alexander of
Primus. In the late 90s, he collaborated with electric violinist Joe Deninzon (who he met in New York City at the New School) in the band
Stratospheerius, recording
The Adventures of Stratospheerius album. He also appears on their
Live Wires album. In 1998, Skolnick moved to New York City and began devoting all of his energy to
jazz. Skolnick traces his interest in jazz to overhearing a recording engineer re-mastering
Live at Birdland, a 1964 album by
John Coltrane, at the same studio where Testament recorded their third album
Practice What You Preach. Skolnick knew Coltrane only by reputation and was fascinated by the album, later recalling: “This whole new world opened up for me.”
World music coalition On June 21, 2012, Summer Solstice Day, Skolnick announced his
world music album
Planetary Coalition at the annual Make Music New York festival sponsored by
Guitar World magazine. He said that he intended to have, "musicians from all over the world, driven by acoustic guitar and bringing together inspirational melodies, in-depth improvisation and the passion of the musical styles of Gypsy, Middle Eastern, Indian, Latin, East Asian, Mediterranean, Balkan/Eastern European, African and other indigenous lands – Planetary Coalition has been guided by a single hope: that by weaving the threads that connect musical expressions with regional identities, we can bridge the gap between diverse cultures and people, and increase awareness of the ecological and social issues facing the planet, our island in the sky."
Planetary Coalition was released by
ArtistShare on November 11, 2014 to commemorate the centennial of the end of the First World War. The album gathered over twenty musicians from five continents, including Indo-Canadian
ghazal singer
Kiran Ahluwalia, Argentine bassist Pablo Aslan, Chinese
pipa player
Yihan Chen, American violinist Rachel Golub, Cuban drummer
Horacio Hernández, Albanian accordionist Raif Hyseni, Palestinian
oud player
Adnan Joubran, Turkish
kanun player Tamer Pinarbasi, Mexican guitar duo
Rodrigo y Gabriela, Israeli percussionist Gadi Seri, and
Yacouba Sissoko, a
kora player from Mali. The project endeavored to combine artistic, ecological, political, and social issues, as well as showcase the landscape and architecture of other countries. Maddy Samaddar Johnson, an architect and urban planner, was hired as a consultant. Skolnick used a variety of guitars, including steel string, nylon string, acoustic, and electric. All compositions were by Skolnick, except two which were composed by Skolnick-Joubran and Skolnick-Hernandez. The tune from Mali and from China were first-time guitar-kora and guitar-pipa duos of traditional songs from those regions. The album was praised by many publications, newspapers, and blogs.
Guitar World magazine chose
Planetary Coalition as one among the top 50 albums of 2014 and among the top 10 acoustic guitar albums of the year.
Career in art and literature Skolnick's memoir,
Geek to Guitar Hero, was published in January 2013 and received positive reviews from
Anthony Bozza,
Bradford Morrow,
Ned Vizzini, and
Brad Tolinski, editor in chief of
Guitar World. ==Equipment==