Frank Gambale: Coming To Your Senses

This is solid, good-n-sassy jazz guitar with a melodic-bent, fusion-driven flow. Gambale is know for his various approaches on his solo albums from smooth melodic jazz, to jazz fusion, to real scorching, shredded rockers and all points in-between. His playing is virtuoso, fully lyrical, phrasings to die for, technical wizardy, sweep picking mastery, speed, grace, and soul.

Being the critic I am, I will admit some Gambale releases just didn’t do it for me as his range of styles are wide but on this release he has excelled, grabbing honors and creating a deeply enjoyable listen. There are the mellow moments of ethereal chordal dream-fugues and also the fired-up cranked-wide rippings of guitar herein. Guitar lovers take note — whether you rock, fuse, or jazz — Gambale will delight most all this go round.

This release echoes the compositional bounce and joyful soul of Gambale’s 1980's era A Present For The Future , released by the defunct Legato label. Be sure to not miss the amazing bass work by Ric Fierabracci on each of the ten tracks. The general guitar soloing textures, sonic fill colorings, and well-utilized riff-edge of Gambale’s recent Show Me What You Can Do is another good reference point for you axe-heads. By the way, “Frank the Sweeper” throws in some sweet acoustic and Sitar guitar for a total spectrum of cool.

Enjoy this “10" out of a possible 10 as I have now for many, many listens. I have set this aside after several long intervals, only to pick it up again and find the joy all over again. Highest of recommendations. Grab this one. And hey, Steve Vai, thanks for letting Gambale do this one on your label! It is top-notch, class guitar.

Comments