In Indian music, the jor (Hindi: जोर; also spelled jod and jhor) is a formal section of composition in the long elaboration (alap) of a raga that forms the beginning of a performance. Jor is the instrumental equivalent of nomtom in the dhrupad vocal style of Indian music. Both have a simple pulse but no well-defined rhythmic cycle.

Vincent "Vinnie" Moore (born April 14, 1964) is a guitarist and a member of the English hard rock band UFO. Along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and others, Moore is known as one of the most influential shred guitarists.

Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. He began his professional career at age of 12 and played clubs and bars until Shrapnel executive Mike Varney discovered him through a magazine article. His connection to Varney led to an opportunity to appear in a Pepsi commercial in 1985, (only Vinnie's hands appeared in the commercial as his guitar playing is heard. Following this, Moore recorded his first solo album, Mind's Eye, released on Shrapnel Records and featured Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. The album received several awards from guitar magazines and sold over 100,000 copies.^{[citation needed]}

Vinnie Moore played lead guitar with the heavy metal band Vicious Rumors on their debut album, Soldiers of the Night. The album features Moore's solo-song, "Invader", which was in the style of Van Halen's "Eruption". The shred guitar craze of the late eighties led to more releases for Shrapnel.^{[citation needed]} Moore also began performing with other hard rock and heavy metal bands.^{[citation needed]} He joined Alice Cooper's band for a tour and then appeared on the Hey Stoopid album. Following this Moore released two instructional videos on guitar playing. He has been the lead guitarist for UFO since 2004.

Gabriel Contino, Gabriel o Pensador (Portuguese for Gabriel the Thinker), (born in Rio de Janeiro on March 4, 1974) is a Brazilian rapper.

Coming from a unique background among Brazilian rappers, Gabriel, the son of a well known journalist in Brazil, hit fame in 1992 with the song "Tô Feliz (Matei o Presidente)" ("I'm happy, I've killed the president") the debut single from his first and eponymous album. This song was written in protest of President Fernando Collor de Mello and his corrupt administration. Interestingly, Gabriel's mother was Collor's press secretary. The same album also yielded other hits, including "Lôrabúrra" ("Dumb Blonde", shortened) and "Retrato de um Playboy" ("Portrait of a Playboy"), bringing hip hop mainstream attention in Brazil by catering to the middle class. Although rapping about everyday life, Gabriel also found time to talk about social injustices with his fourth single, "O Resto do Mundo" ("The Leftovers of the World"), a more downbeat track about homeless life, with a purposefully depressive melody and flow. Gabriel was "notorious for his biting attacks on some of the major ills of Brazilian society: poverty, racism, violence."

Jorge Ben Jor (born March 22, 1945 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian popular musician. His characteristic style fuses samba, funk, and rock into samba rock, with lyrics that blend humor and satire with often esoteric subject matter.

Born Jorge Duilio Lima Menezes, he first took the stage name Jorge Ben after his mother's name (of Ethiopian origin) but in the 1980s changed it to Jorge Ben Jor (commonly written Benjor), allegedly in response to an incident where some of his royalties accidentally went to American guitarist George Benson.

Jorge Ben obtained his first pandeiro (Brazil's most popular type of tambourine) when he was thirteen, and two years later, was singing in a church choir. He also took part as a pandeiro player in the blocos of Carnival, and from eighteen years of age, he began performing at parties and nightclubs with the guitar his mother gave him.

It was at one of those clubs in which he performed that his musical career took off. In 1963, Jorge came on stage and sang "Mas Que Nada" (or "no way") to a small crowd that happened to include an executive from the recording company, Philips. One week later, Jorge Ben's first single was released.

Dan Armstrong was a guitarist, luthier, and session musician.

Dan Kent Armstrong was born on October 7, 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started playing the guitar at age 11, and moved to New York in the early 1960s in order to work as a studio musician and guitar repairman. In 1965 he opened his own guitar repair shop, 'Dan Armstrong's Guitar Service', on West 48th Street. The building was razed in 1968 to make room for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and Armstrong relocated his shop, renamed 'Dan Armstrong Guitars,' to Laguardia Place in Greenwich Village.

In 1968 the Ampeg Company of Linden, New Jersey hired Armstrong as a consultant to improve their Grammer line of guitars. He designed a new line of guitars and basses that were constructed of clear plexiglass. These guitars had interchangeable pickups designed by Bill Lawrence who shared the Greenwich Village shop with Armstrong, and eventually took it over when he moved back to London. The guitars had long sustain caused by the solid plexiglass body, though that material made for a heavy guitar--around 10 lbs. A second reissue of the Dan Armstrong guitar was launched in 2006.^{[citation needed]}