"Really,
the most important things in life to me are quality and integrity. That's
what I'm going for."
(editor's note: That sure didn't come true with the FG signature model
promised to the editor of this magazine by David Cervantes, (the luthier
that built this guitar and Mr. G himself, for including a review of
their new instrument, along with comments by the maker
of the fretwave system, lan "Gunther" Gorman, and David
Cervantes, the luthier of the guitar in the book, Electronic
Music Pioneers, (under protest from the publisher, since it was
already setup for press) Instead,
the editor of this magazine paid 1200.00 U.S. for a "handmade guitar"
which turned out to be a stock, off-the-shelf Yamaha Pacifica from Cervantes, to serve as an interim instrument until Cervantes delivered
the FG signature Model in person. The handmade guitar turned out to
be a $400.00 Yamaha Pacifica, which also turned out to be a good looking
lemon. After
many inquiries with Gambale and Cervantes over the past five years,
(mostly Gambale, since David Cervantes is always moving and changing
email addresses), neither party accepts responsibility. In conclusion,
at least David Cervantes had agreed upon delivering the guitar in writing.
You, the readers be the judge of their credibility.)
Heartfelt words from one of the more formidable guitarists of our
time, Frank Gambale. He's best known for his long, Grammy-laden stint
with Chick Corea's Elektric Band (which also featured drummer Dave
Weckl, bassist John Patitucci, and saxophonist Eric Marienthal),
and his current main gig, Vital Information (with keyboardist Tom
Coster, bassist Baron Browne, and drummer Steve Smith). With the
former he recorded five albums; the latter, seven and counting.
Besides Vital, Gambale and Smith have also collaborated on two fusion
albums with Joe Satriani's bassist, Stu Hamm: Show Me What You Can
Do and The Light Beyond and a third one in the can due later in 2003
called GHS 3.
But there's a lot you might not know about the native of Canberra,
Australia. Seven isn't just a lucky number, it's the age that Gambale
picked up guitar. And while he admits fusion is in his blood (his first
major gig was with the genre-bending violinist Jean-Luc Ponty), he
actually soaked up the likes of Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall, and Eric
Clapton in his formative years. His teenage life was spent playing
every type of music imaginable with his brothers, Saverio and Nunzio,
in Australian clubs.
The years of hard work and penny-pinching afforded him the opportunity
to come to America in 1982, where he dove head-first into L.A.'s legendary
Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT), and promptly graduated with Student
of the Year honors. Now he might as well be Teacher of the Year. He's
the head of the Guitar Department at the L.A. Music Academy, and has
authored various videos and books, including Monster Licks And Speed
Picking, Modes: No More Mystery, and Chopbuilder: The Ultimate Guitar
Workout.
And with all the fabulous band exposure, he's actually put out eleven
solo albums including Coming To Your Senses (the first release from
Steve Vai's Favored Nations label) and "Resident Alien - Live Bootlegs"
on his own Wombat Records. (For more information check out www.frankgambale.com.)
We caught up with Frank while he was getting ready for an Australian
tour with bassist Ric Fierabracci and drummer Virgil Donati. Besides
his ongoing gigs with Vital, in August Gambale will honor Chick Corea's
60th birthday by playing a gig with his Elektric bandmates at the Hollywood
Bowl. The Elektric band has a U.S. tour booked from Oct - Nov 5 and
is planning for 2003...so they're definitely back!
DZ: Where did you grow up?
FG: I grew up in the capital of Australia, which is called Canberra.
It's a fairly small town, about 300,000 people. Just a beautiful place
to grow up-very clean, no industry, lots of trees, kangaroos. Not many
distractions in terms of things to take my mind off guitar. There weren't
a whole lot of good players in town, but there were a lot of musicians.
And there was a lot of work too, so as soon as I was able, from about
13 on, I was playing gigs. There's no substitute for that kind of experience,
I think. The more gigs you do, the better you get at playing, and the
more comfortable you get on stage.
DZ: What kind of gigs were you playing at 13?
FG: One of my first real serious gigs was a pop festival near my hometown,
sort of like a mini-Woodstock. It was the late '60s, 1970 or something
like that. So I really got a taste at an early age for a decent-sized
crowd, and being on stage and playing, getting the instant gratification.
Ever since then I was completely hooked on the idea.
DZ: At that point were you just emulating what you heard, Bluesbreakers
and Hendrix?
FG:
Oh yeah, there was nothing original at that point, if that's what
you mean. I thought I was playing pretty good for my age, only because
I had started young. And so, a lot of people came up to me and would
be really encouraging. Other older musicians were always encouraging.
I was always the youngest member in the band, you know. My brothers
were really into getting work and playing as a group, and earning money
as a group. So they'd always put groups together and I would be the
lead guitar player. That was my role. They used to have to smuggle
me into clubs and stuff. "Well, we promise he won't drink, you know."
And so I did a lot of club work around my hometown, for at least four
years solid until I was about 17. Then we started to tour a little bit,
we'd go up and down the east coast of Australia, playing in Sydney and
the bigger towns.
DZ: What was the name of the group?
FG: The original band was called Quasar, and then later on it became
a group called Night Flight. And Night Flight was formed during the
disco era, when no bands wanted to play disco music. Most of the groups
in Australia were serious rock bands at the time, and the whole disco
thing was just like a bad smell to most musicians. The proliferation
of discos was self-evident to us, and we thought, "That's where the work is," you know?
At that time, when disco first came out, the clubs just didn't have live
music, all they had was DJs and people dancing on the dance floor and
that was it. And the musicians were up in arms in Australia.
Australia
is a very unionized country, and the musician's union forced disco
club owners to have live music, at least the same amount of live
music as disco music. So the rock bands would go in and play these
discos and the dance floors would be empty, because people went there
to listen to disco music. Of course, when the disco came back on,
everybody flooded the dance floor. So it made sense to, why not form
a group that actually played all the disco music? And that's what
we did. And we were one of the first bands to do it. We tried to
find a lot of the hipper stuff, we played a lot of Earth, Wind and
Fire, some early Narada Michael Walden tunes. Funk-oriented stuff,
things that were popular, but things that we thought were higher
quality. And we ended up working our asses off. Club owners loved
it because people were dancing and having a good time the whole time,
whether it was disco or the live band. So that lasted quite a few
years, up until when I was about 20.
I came back to my hometown and had the idea of going to America,
because I'd always wanted to go there to check out the scene. My
favorite music at that time was Chick Corea and Michael Brecker and
all that stuff. A lot of Chick's music was being recorded in L.A.,
so L.A. was kind of becoming a magnet to me. "I have to go there, I don't want to play disco."
And when I looked around my hometown, I saw the best way to make money
as a musician was to...well, Canberra was very much a country and western
kind of town. So I put together a country and western trio with my
older brother. Just guitar, bass and drums, but we all sang. And we
did all the country classics, and ended up working seven nights a week,
making great money. I was teaching too, had about 25 students a week,
so I was raking it in.
DZ: Early on you didn't have lessons? You were basically self-taught,
yet you're such an accomplished instructor. When did you start getting
more serious about the theory end of it, and who made it important
to you?
FG:
Well, whether you have formal training or not doesn't mean you're
not learning. I was learning the hard way, but I was learning more
thoroughly, I thought. I was learning a lot of stuff off of records,
educating myself, basically.
There was one seminar that I do remember going to with a guy called
George Golla. He was like the Australian Joe Pass, and he came to my
hometown and did a seminar for a music store there. Only three guys
showed up, and two of them were complete beginners. I had been playing
about eight years at the time, and I really had a lot of questions.
And in one afternoon I learned so much. It was like, "What scale do you play on this thing,"
and "show me some voicings," and I was taking copious notes.
He was a major springboard for me. He showed me about modes. It was a
great couple of hours, enough to set me off on a really strong course.
So I put all those things together, I was just understanding more.
As I was transcribing, I would unlock the logic to why these notes
were being played over this chord-it all just started to make sense
to me. Enough so that people started asking me for lessons, so that
started my teaching, which I keep doing until this day. I've done some
books and videos, and now I head the L.A. Music Academy, the guitar
department, and I wrote most of the guitar curriculum for that school.
And I'm in direct competition with the school I originally went to
[Guitar Institute of Technology]. [laughs]
DZ: So going back, you're raking in money trying to get over to America.
Was this the late '70s?
FG: '76 was the last year of school, so I was touring with Night Flight
in and around Australia in '78 and '79. About 1980 I got back to Canberra
and formed the country group, and really raked it in for a couple of
years. And my brother Nunzio, who was the bass player in all these
groups I was in, he wanted to open up a music shop in my hometown,
so he went over to L.A. to do a little market research. And he hand-carried
my audition tape to GIT, and had a look around and told me, "Oh man, you've got
to come here. There are people sitting around everywhere playing, this
will be a great environment for you." And it was. I came over, and
after I graduated I ended up teaching for four years more and meeting
a lot of musicians.
Then I started playing out and writing a lot. Ended up on a small
label called Legato Records, Mark Varney's label. And I did my first
three albums with him, through about 1986, and got some attention.
And then that was when Jean-Luc Ponty was looking for a guitar player,
and I remember he came to a club called the Baked Potato that I was
playing at. He invited me for an audition, and I ended up working
with him for a while in the summer of '86, playing with Baron Browne
(all these years later we're playing again in Vital) and Rayford
Griffin on drums. I got my friend Kei Akagi into that band, so it
was the four of us with Jean-Luc.
DZ: So this was your first real high-profile gig.
FG:
Absolutely. At that time, Jean-Luc was huge. When I worked with him
and then went on to Chick, the places I played with Jean-Luc were
like twice as big as Chick's venues. I didn't think that that was particularly
right, but that's what it was. I loved Jean-Luc's music. The first
album I heard of his was Aurora, and I just loved the music. Still
do.
It's interesting that [his group has] sort of an alumni. Steve Smith's
first recording was Enigmatic Ocean, and that album was the first time
I'd heard Allan Holdsworth, which was pretty extraordinary. But it
was interesting that Baron was with Ponty for many years, I did my
stint with him, and so did Steve. We all went through the Ponty camp.
DZ: And of course, you were a big part of the 1980s fusion dream team-Chick's
first Elektric Band. What's the story?
FG: Well, I was in the studio doing a record called Pump It with Jeff
Berlin. It just so happened, and it was fortuitous, that he booked
Mad Hatter Studios to record the album, which was Chick's studio. It
was a two-story building, upstairs was the studio, a lot of famous
records were done there. And downstairs was Chick's office and staff,
manager, and all that stuff.
I was packing my gear one day, and someone came out of there, so I
happened to introduce myself. And it was Ron Moss's secretary, -- Ron
was Chick's manager then. It was Evelyn Brechtlein, she's the wife
of the great drummer Tom Brechtlein. And I said, "If there's any remote possibility to
play with Chick, you must call me. If he ever needs a guitar player,"
you know, he was my absolute hero. I knew it was a long shot, but what
the heck. I gave her my card. And it was about six months later, I got
a call for an audition.
I'll never forget the audition. After hundreds of tapes that were submitted,
it came down to about four people to audition live. I was the second
guy to play, and I played like it was my last performance. Tom Brechtlein
did the audition because Dave Weckl was living in New York at the time.
Patitucci I'd already worked with. The only guy I didn't know was Chick.
So when he walked in the room, obviously I was a little nervous. But
he was very personable.
DZ: And the audition consisted of?
FG: I guess there was this instant connection, because I had transcribed
so much Chick Corea on the guitar, it was ridiculous. The instructions
were kind of vague. He said, "Just learn a couple of my standards
and pick a tune off the first Elektric Band album. Don't worry about the
melodies, just look at the chord changes and come in and jam." It
was really vague. But I had gone ahead and learned a couple of the heads
as best I could, the melodies. So when I said, "Count it off from
the top," they were a little bit surprised. Sort of went beyond what
was required. And I know Chick was blown away. He jumped up off his keyboard
after the first song and shook my hand. I thought, "Well, okay. That
went well."
Then he started talking about which direction my amp would point
on the stage, and he kind of had to catch himself, "Well, we've still got
two more guys to audition, haven't we? In all fairness we'd better listen
to the other guys too, but..."
DZ: Wink, wink
.
FG: Wink, wink.
DZ: So it started with Light Years.
FG:
Light Years was the first one I played on. We did a live record called
GRP Live, which has some tremendous stuff on it. Then there was Eye
Of The Beholder, Inside Out, and Beneath The Mask. We toured like
demons, man - Like 300 concerts a year at one point. It was a whirlwind.
I'd never been around the world. I remember the first tour was all
around the States, then all through South America, then straight
on to Japan. It was just hitting me so hard. But I never looked back,
the world is such an amazing place, and I've gotten to see more of
it than most people would ever see in their dreams. It's wonderful.
DZ: Is there any particular recorded performance with Chick that
you're especially proud of?
FG: I'll give you Chick's opinion. Every time I see Chick he just raves
about this solo I took on a song called "Make A Wish," which
is on the Inside Out record. He said that's his favorite guitar solo,
so I'm quite flattered by that.
DZ: And now you're with Steve Smith, Tom Coster, and Baron Browne
in Vital Information. What's the vibe like with these guys?
FG: Oh man, it's better than a marriage. [laughs] It's incredible.
Tom, Steve, Baron and I have been together 15 years. That's longer
than most marriages. Baron I've known for a long time. There's such
a magic going on in this band. We all complement each other so well,
that's why we stay together. It's like riding a bicycle.
DZ: And with Steve, you've done other things, like the albums with
Stu Hamm. Show Me What You Can Do, The Light Beyond.
FG:
Yeah, there's a third one on the way. I love that trio. I think those
are some of my best recordings, really. It's good to get our fusion
rocks off. Vital Information is a little jazzier and bluesier, more
so than what I do normally.
DZ: With all of your crazy scheduling with different groups, now
you've got the Hollywood Bowl gig coming up for Chick's birthday.
Which is doubly amazing since the other guys in the band (Patitucci,
Weckl and Marienthal) headline their own gigs.
FG: Yeah but the thing is, when Chick calls, we all jump. We love Chick,
man. He's one of the greatest composers and player who ever lived and
we all want to play with him.
By Don
Zulaica
FG:
Oh yeah, there was nothing original at that point, if that's what
you mean. I thought I was playing pretty good for my age, only because
I had started young. And so, a lot of people came up to me and would
be really encouraging. Other older musicians were always encouraging.
Australia
is a very unionized country, and the musician's union forced disco
club owners to have live music, at least the same amount of live
music as disco music. So the rock bands would go in and play these
discos and the dance floors would be empty, because people went there
to listen to disco music. Of course, when the disco came back on,
everybody flooded the dance floor. So it made sense to, why not form
a group that actually played all the disco music? And that's what
we did. And we were one of the first bands to do it. We tried to
find a lot of the hipper stuff, we played a lot of Earth, Wind and
Fire, some early Narada Michael Walden tunes. Funk-oriented stuff,
things that were popular, but things that we thought were higher
quality. And we ended up working our asses off. Club owners loved
it because people were dancing and having a good time the whole time,
whether it was disco or the live band. So that lasted quite a few
years, up until when I was about 20.
FG:
Well, whether you have formal training or not doesn't mean you're
not learning. I was learning the hard way, but I was learning more
thoroughly, I thought. I was learning a lot of stuff off of records,
educating myself, basically.
FG:
Absolutely. At that time, Jean-Luc was huge. When I worked with him
and then went on to Chick, the places I played with Jean-Luc were
like twice as big as Chick's venues. I didn't think that that was particularly
right, but that's what it was. I loved Jean-Luc's music. The first
album I heard of his was Aurora, and I just loved the music. Still
do.
FG:
Light Years was the first one I played on. We did a live record called
GRP Live, which has some tremendous stuff on it. Then there was Eye
Of The Beholder, Inside Out, and Beneath The Mask. We toured like
demons, man - Like 300 concerts a year at one point. It was a whirlwind.
I'd never been around the world. I remember the first tour was all
around the States, then all through South America, then straight
on to Japan. It was just hitting me so hard. But I never looked back,
the world is such an amazing place, and I've gotten to see more of
it than most people would ever see in their dreams. It's wonderful.
FG:
Yeah, there's a third one on the way. I love that trio. I think those
are some of my best recordings, really. It's good to get our fusion
rocks off. Vital Information is a little jazzier and bluesier, more
so than what I do normally.