The Ultra Zone
The Ultra Zone is the sixth studio album by guitarist Steve Vai, released on September 7, 1999 through Epic Records. "The Ultra Zone" is structurally similar to Vai's previous album, "Fire Garden", in that the first half of the album consists mainly of instrumentals, and the second half mainly of vocal songs; however, unlike "Fire Garden", "The Ultra Zone" is not formally divided into two "phases". Background. "The Ultra Zone" is notable for its tributes to two legendary guitarists: Frank Zappa (on the track "Frank"), and Stevie Ray Vaughan (on the track "Jibboom"). Also notable is  the fact that this was Vai's last studio album of original material until 2005's ""; in the years in between, he released several compilations of his material, as well as a live album. This album includes the participations of Koshi Inaba and Tak Matsumoto from the Japanese band B'z on "Asian Sky". Track listing. All songs written by Steve Vai.