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Anyone a fan? I kind of like this guy's playing. I know he is known for distorted fusion but I stumbled across a video of him playing clean recently never having before seen him play and though it's completely outside my realm of usual interest I gotta say I enjoyed watching him work. His playing breathes real nice and he makes technical stuff appear smooth and effortless and he seems to put a lot of joy into his lines. He might have been a little harried in spots but still, a good vibe happening in spite of some technical demands. If I had an expensive boat this and "breezin" would be on my playlist, lol
The video in question:
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06-29-2023 11:20 PM
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I saw him twice at a small club in LA. (I can not remember the name of the club… something French maybe). It was back in his neon yellow guitar Chick Corea days.
He was doing the whole sweeping picking thing at the speed of light. Some of the arps that he was connecting were pretty juicy.
It was not my favorite thing, but it was impressive. It definitely made me practice more.
Around the same time I also saw John Patitucci (a bunch of times) both with Beasely and in a more straight ahead type of thing. I was more into Patitucci then Gambale.
It was the whole LA fusion thing. However what impressed me the most was Dave Weckl with Patitucci. ( … and also seeing Stanley Clark at the Baked Potato).
… now I am thinking about my youth and wondering how much I have forgotten.
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Reminds me of George Benson back in the day. Similar sound, better chops. Not my thing, but pretty good nevertheless.
Originally Posted by DawgBone
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Frank was one of my teachers at GIT in 1983. He'd been a student there just a year or two earlier, the thunder from down under, but was such a phenom on arrival that they hired him to teach the next year. This was quite a long time ago, back in what historians will one day call Frank's first bald period (sorry, Frank!).
He's a monster player. He had the sweep picking down even back then, and a beautifully soft touch in the left hand. He was a great, insightful, knowledgeable and pretty much a no-BS kind of teacher, which is probably best in that sort of environment with 400 young guitar players running around. He looks like a guy maybe you wouldn't want to meet in bad mood in a dark alley, but he's actually a really nice, gentle hearted guy. It was a privilege to study with him even briefly.
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Studied under Frank? Must be one of your life's highlights! Originally Posted by Flat
I know he is the sweep picking guy but his left hand amazes me more. Makes it look like he isn't even trying. If A.I made a guitar-bot hand it would probably be modeled after Frank's. So smooth.
Bald Frank with a goatee does look like some guy that would throw me out the club downtown, lol. Or maybe put on a cop uniform and give me a wooden shampoo for not following directives, lol.
I thought he had the best tone of any of his stuff I've heard so far happening with the Trini Lopez guitar. Here is him on a Benson model. It sounds good but that Trini clean tone is such a great sound. Rich and detailed.
Edit: won't let me share the video here. It's Frank playing "Free Spirit" on the GB on youtube. Some nice work there.
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I really enjoy Gambale’s straight ahead/clean playing.
He’s super humble about it…
Tasty clip you posted… A little more .. dare I say it? Intelligent smooth jazz :-o
one of the few guys that can get away with what he does left hand wise. Sweep picking is so often a recipe for rushing. IIRC he said it took him an afternoon to learn to sweep pick and years to get it in time…
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Yes and apparently he has his own specialty tuning of some sort to add to the complexity of his game. Said he came up with it after years of playing. Just shows you how much a monster he is, to adjust to a new tuning after years playing standard. I wouldn't even bother at this point, lol Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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That was amazing, to my ears. I really like fast fills interspersed with jazzy lines. He was throwing them in there like crazy. Man, in my mind, this is "apex" playing. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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From the little bits I've heard over the years (I first heard his name in a Jerry Garcia interview in the 80s; Jerry was a fan), Gambale usually doesn't sound like he's running scales- which so many jazz musicians do. He sound like he's playing music.
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I went to these same concerts. I assume you saw Lee Ritenour at the Baked Potato. I liked them but I did favor the more old-school jazz that LA \ West Hollywood was offering mostly at Donte's. Originally Posted by st.bede
Last edited by jameslovestal; 07-02-2023 at 03:25 PM.
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He's played a lot of great music since then, but I still marvel at his down under albums and videos. All this amazing sweep picking technique and the economy on his fretting hand, where he's killing it playing with this compressed drive sound while his fingers seem to hardly be moving! Still gets me..
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I had to buy the mP3 for that Stella performance. I wish Frank played more songs like that, but hey, we don't all have the same taste and I get it. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
I have to add that this is one of the great features on this forum, exposure to songs that you were not aware existed. I even record some of the uploads by members and I enjoy listening to them.
But yeah, that Frank and his sweep picked lines can be so, so exciting to my ears. He is a precious, unique talent IMHO.
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Agreed, this is as good as you'll hear single line Jazz guitar improv. I mean it's as impressive technically, and it's as "flashy" as Benson, but possibly with the flash passages being a little over wrought...? Hmm...Why is it that we guitar players tend to overdo the double timed passages? Sure, other instruments do it at times, but there's something about a guitarist doing it that betrays a desire to impress, or something. His solo was pretty much perfect, right up to and including the first couple of double timed lines, but when he continued in that vein, it just sounded like he was stuck in top gear and couldn't get back out. It's almost as if he couldn't wait to get to these bits to show what he's been practicing so hard for many years... Originally Posted by AlsoRan
I might be wrong, but it seems to me that when horn or piano players slip in a double timed phrase or 2, it often doesn't sound contrived the way it does when guitarists do it. For them it's also about what gets played after the quicksilver moments - the way it slips back to a lower gear whilst maintaining momentum and direction. Bird does it, Coltrane, Cannonball, Rollins, Morgan, Hubbard, Hancock, Evans.... even Wes and Benson... the art of effortlessly slipping in and out of top gear at any time to serve the tension / emotion of the solo to leave the listener devastated, but time to recover and absorb what's being said.
Ah, sorry about the mini rant, just been a pet peeve of mine about guitarists (myself included), regardless of technical ability. Q. How does a guitarist define a 16th note rest? A. A missed opportunity
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Uh oh.
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Ha! Well I certainly hope that's not directed at my post, I mean, it's not like what I said is controversial ... Originally Posted by Jazzjourney4Eva
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Didn’t say it was.
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Ack. The harsh Icepick of Truth just stabbed my Sunday morning in the eye. ;-) Originally Posted by princeplanet
Last edited by Flat; 07-02-2023 at 02:33 PM.
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Definitely somethin to think about. For me, I don't mind it when a musician "shows off" a little. That is one of the reasons I am listening - give me something that very few on the planet can give me. Also, I hear the "barrage" of super-fast lines almost as a wall of sound just assauting me with nowhere to hide. This probably comes from me growing up with Hard Rock and Heavy Metal guitar. There is a line that can be crossed where you go from "serving the song" to "putting on a show to impress." I don't mind it as long as it does not go on too long. I once heare Blues Guitarist walk around the concert venue, playing a long 10-minute solo. The crowd loved it, but I am sure they were others that wanted the song to be concluded. Originally Posted by princeplanet
Agreed, this is as good as you'll hear single line Jazz guitar improv. I mean it's as impressive technically, and it's as "flashy" as Benson, but possibly with the flash passages being a little over wrought...? Hmm...Why is it that we guitar players tend to overdo the double timed passages? Sure, other instruments do it at times, but there's something about a guitarist doing it that betrays a desire to impress, or something. His solo was pretty much perfect, right up to and including the first couple of double timed lines, but when he continued in that vein, it just sounded like he was stuck in top gear and couldn't get back out. It's almost as if he couldn't wait to get to these bits to show what he's been practicing so hard for many years...
I might be wrong, but it seems to me that when horn or piano players slip in a double timed phrase or 2, it often doesn't sound contrived the way it does when guitarists do it. For them it's also about what gets played after the quicksilver moments - the way it slips back to a lower gear whilst maintaining momentum and direction. Bird does it, Coltrane, Cannonball, Rollins, Morgan, Hubbard, Hancock, Evans.... even Wes and Benson... the art of effortlessly slipping in and out of top gear at any time to serve the tension / emotion of the solo to leave the listener devastated, but time to recover and absorb what's being said.
Ah, sorry about the mini rant, just been a pet peeve of mine about guitarists (myself included), regardless of technical ability. Q. How does a guitarist define a 16th note rest? A. A missed opportunity...
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I dunno, I feel Gambale’s way past the need to be the hot shot and that’s just the way he plays.
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Yeah, but can't unselfconscious playing still come across as contrived? I recall that was an issue for poor old Johnny Griffin for most of his career, many thought he just played too many notes, but he always maintained that's how he heard it...
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We should do this in another thread, as we touched upon it recently - virtuosity that is. No need to disparage a living virtuoso.
It’s something like…. “Virtuosity - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
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It is not controversial, it is heretical and will immediately call to action the holy inquisition if you dare to criticize the dogma, no matter how well-founded your criticism is. I appreciate comments like yours because they draw my attention to certain details. Originally Posted by princeplanet
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Do we care what these people ‘thought’ (or more accurately thought they were thinking?). Can we not form our own bullshit opinions? Originally Posted by princeplanet
I believe Griffin - as a notey player myself I can sympathise.
Jazz fans are a funny lot. (Critics are basically ascended fans.) They are also the sort of people who revel in making top ten lists, comparing players to each other in imaginary contests and coming up with elaborate justifications for their personal tastes. Well actually that’s pretty par for the course for most nerdy subcultures I guess. Tbf players are often like this too.
There’s another thread that reveals that on this very forum. I think we all do it a bit (but my reasons are of course extra Clever and Logical needless to say.)
Ultimately either like or you don’t, and I happen like the way Frank plays.
Some people play a lot of notes, and other don’t. I think there are other aspects to music worth considering.
EDIT: if I must come up with a BS opinion (go on twist my arm) on Frank - Frank is highly linear; the type of playing that to gravitate towards myself. He doesn’t play tension building ‘repeater licks’ or stereotypical patterns (although I do have a very soft spot for Paul Gilbert but that’s another conversation) and his lines consist of musical choices that aren’t simply made for the sake of speed and display. I feel his speed is doing something, at the service of a musical language and that the playing is musical rather than theatrical if you like. (Not that there’s ANYTHING wrong with a bit of theatre.)Last edited by Christian Miller; 07-03-2023 at 05:17 AM.
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Would you feel that way about another instrument playing lots of notes? Originally Posted by AlsoRan
Or would you say this is more to do with your associations connected to guitar playing in particular? or perhaps the way guitarists inflict themselves on an audience haha?
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I was intrigued by his recent tuning ideas, I wasn't aware of this tuning.
His tuning is basically similar to a standard tuned guitar with a capo across the 5th fret.
More info:
6th string = A
5th string = D
4th string = G
3rd string = C
2nd string = E
1st string = A
Edit: Corrected, the first two strings are an octave lower.Last edited by GuyBoden; 07-03-2023 at 06:50 AM.
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