One has to give high marks to guitarist and composer Frank Gambale. While an unabashed jazz-rock fusioneer, Gambale has always made music that was as interested in lyricism and inventive harmonic interplay as complex riffs and arpeggios.
Gambale
is a composer of the first order and, as he has gotten older, his
writing style has become increasingly engaging melodically; his sense of
harmonic architecture is full of shapes and colors and is weighted by
use of the imagination that indulges flights of whimsy. He also
understands on a cellular level the importance of ensemble
communication. Accompanied by Billy Cobham on drums and either Ric Fierabracci or Steve Billman on bass, Gambale
offers listeners 12 new cuts that range from a near singing quality
("Foreign Country," "Bittersweet," "Table for One") to a harder-edged
jazz full of knotty yet emotionally charged and conscious improvisation
("May the Fourths Be With You," "Smug," "Complex Emotions").
Certainly
this is a guitar player's record, but it is one that has its roots in
aesthetic beauty rather than in mechanics.
Personnel: Steve Billman (bass) Billy Cobham (drums, percussion) Ric Fierabracci (bass) Frank Gambale (guitar)
Tracklist: 01. Foreign Country (Gambale) 6.56 02. Cachination (Gambale) 5.52 03. Bittersweet (Gambale) 8.17 04. Table For One (Gambale) 6.42 05. Nouveau Vignettes: Debut Solo (Gambale) 1.25 06. Nouveau Vignettes: Melodique (Gambale) 1.10 07. Nouveau Vignettes: Two Minutes B.C. (Gambale) 1.57 08. Ka´anapali (Gambale) 6.37 09. May The Fourths Be With You (Gambale) 7.03 10. Monkey Wrench (Gambale) 5.51 11. Smug (Gambale) 6.25 12. Complex Emotions (Gambale) 10.20
