Home »
Jazz Articles » Album Review » The Bob Gallo Quintet: Wake Up Call
The Bob Gallo Quintet: Wake Up Call
Here's another quicksilver jazz guitarist with whom I've been unfamiliar. For years, Bob Gallo has provided music for TV's
The Cosby Show and
It's A Different World, as well as supporting Aretha Franklin. He has also appeared in the groups of Randy Brecker, Grover Washington Jr., Gerald Albright, Clark Terry, Dave Valentin and Jon Faddis. Gallo only has an obscure 1999 album on Cat's Paw (
Windsong) to show for his troubles. You can currently hear the Gallo quintet on the Cosby animated series on Nickelodeon and on a CBS TV show,
Little Bill.
Gallo starts out strongly on the fast-bopping title tune, "Wake Up Call," as well as "Calculated Risk," in which he trades lines with Alex Sipiagin's trumpet and Misha Tsaiganov's piano, showing no mercy and reminding me of guitarist Mark Elf's same facile capability.
While this is all very impressive playing and great stuff to see live in a a club, I was more impressed with Gallo's clean articulation and rounded tones on mid-tempo tunes like "You Bet" or ballads like "Dedication." (The pieces are all originals.) Both Tsiganov and Sipiagin acquit themselves nicely on their respective work on trumpet and piano, and Gallo displays a keen ability to simmer at a slower tempo.
Track Listing
Wake-Up Call; You Bet; Dedication; Commotion, Fat Tuesday; Reflections; Calculated Risk; Nightscape.
Personnel
Bob Gallo: guitar; Boris Kozlov: bass; Alex Sipiagin: trumpet; Misha Tsiganov: piano; Gene Jackson: drums.
Album information
Title: Wake Up Call
| Year Released: 2006
| Record Label: Self Produced
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.
Go Ad Free!
To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to
future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by
making a donation today.