Album Notes

Hectic Watermelon is a fiery new "Post-Zappa Commando-Fusion” band from San Diego-Los Angeles led by John Czajkowski on guitars, with Darren DeBree on drums and Harley Magsino on bass. The legendary fusion pioneer, Jerry Goodman, joins the young lineup on electric violin on 9 of the 11 tracks on the highly critically acclaimed debut album, The Great American Road Trip. The album has already topped the UK Jazzwise alternative jazz charts at number one. Receiving international radio airplay, the album has been listed in the top 50 progressive rock albums on the East Coast Gagliarchives radio shows and received kudos in the All Music Guide and many other print and online media outlets.

"Czajkowski tours the American landscape by orchestrating a tour of the music that grows there. He’s a monster guitarist with a metal carapace and a creamy jazz center, sprouting hydra heads of classical picking..."
- Scott Johnson

“A very enjoyable album – Highly recommended!!!”
- Alex Machacek

“Every so often, an album like Hectic Watermelon’s The Great American Road Trip comes along to give me hope that jazz-rock fusion hasn’t collapsed like a poorly-made soufflé under the weight of its own clichés. The relentless energy, shape-shifting changes and bounding asymmetrical rhythms of tunes extend and elaborate upon the groundbreaking work of artists like John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, and Jeff Beck.”
- Dave Wayne Jazz Review

A tour de force, The Great American Road Trip showcases John Czajkowski’s dazzling fretwork, contrapuntal ingenuity and impeccable ensemble playing with bassist Harley Magsino and drummer Darren Debree and former Mahavishnu violinist Goodman...a virtuoso fusion band…a fleet-fingered guitarist and composer…intricate compositions (that) blend elements of fusion jazz, prog-rock, funk and contemporary classical."
- George Varga San Diego Union-Tribune

“John McLaughlin’s influence is felt throughout the album, but Frank Zappa is also quite present—not in Czajkowski’s guitar playing, but in his witty writing and sense of humor. Both entertaining and technically impressive, The Great American Road Trip has enough jazz to titillate fusion fans, enough complexity to please the progressively inclined, but most of all, it has its own endearing personality. Highly recommended!”
- François Couture All Music Guide

“Throughout each of the songs on this masterful set, the playing is tight, complex and eclectic. Anybody who is missing the days when Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow or The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire ruled the world will have found a friend in this high-energy recording.”
- George Harris All About Jazz

“The ghost of Zappa wanders around, while other ideas can be traced back to the pure sounds of Eric Johnson, the intriguing syncopation of Scott Henderson, the Eastern senses of John McLauglin, Allan Holdsworth’s unpredictability and especially the breathtaking versatility of Steve Morse and the Dixie Dregs. Goodman’s sweeping playing beautifully manifests itself constantly, This excellently produced, modern progressive jazz-rock trip stimulates the musical joy of traveling.”
- René Yedema iO Pages Magazine, Netherlands

"With so much competition in the marketplace, musicians can find it difficult to make an original musical statement that separates them from the pack. Not everyone will be a true innovator. But there are musician’s who take their influences, add healthy doses of their own unique talent, and manage to push the musical envelope with their creativity. The music on The Great American Road Trip by Hectic Watermelon is a very good example of that process."
- Rod Sibley Abstract Logix Featured Review