Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale was still a vital part of Chick Corea's Elektric Band when he recorded The Great Explorers, a hard-hitting, aggressive effort that generally has more in common with the instrumental rock of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani than the more complex jazz-fusion he embraced with Corea and Steve Smith's Vital Information.

Thunder from Down Under is the third studio album by guitarist Frank Gambale, released in 1990 through Victor Entertainment and reissued on 24 April 2001 through Samson Records.

Frank Gambale is best known as the guitarist in Chick Corea's Elektric Band. On this collection of instrumental and vocal selections, Gambale put more emphasis on the production and the people working along side him, and carefully chose his guitar solo indulgences.

During an era when the word "fusion" was applied to any mixture of jazz with pop or funk, Chick Corea's Elektric Band reinforced the word's original meaning: a combination of jazz improvisations with the power, rhythms and sound of rock. Eye of the Beholder, which found guitarist Frank Gambale, saxophonist Eric Marienthal and bassist John Patitucci displaying increasingly original solo voices, is one of this group's finest recordings and ranks with the best fusion of the latter half of the 1980s.

Led by the legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - The Elektric Band stormed onto the jazz scene in the mid-1980s, making an immediate and lasting impact on the genre. With their electrifying performances and innovative blend of jazz fusion, the group produced a series of albums that set the bar for excellence in contemporary jazz. Featuring a core lineup of virtuosic musicians - John Patitucci on bass, Dave Weckl on drums, Eric Marienthal on saxophone and Frank Gambale on guitar - the group created a dynamic and electrifying sound that came to define the jazz fusion style.

China Ranch is a solid debut that is consistent and filled with memorable tunes and impressive performances that would appeal to a variety of listeners. Briggs' writing admirably balances both melody and progressiveness throughout the recording, including the final track "Saints," where Mitchel Forman's piano and keyboards, Gambale's guitar fireworks and the author's own tremendous drumming all converge in harmony.

It may be an all-acoustic affair (with the exception of electric bass), but School of the Arts bristles with fusion energy. That will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with even a few of the names on this project spearheaded by pianist T Lavitz, who first came to attention in 1979 when he joined The Dixie Dregs, guitarist Steve Morse's country-tinged progressive fusion group that released a string of outstanding albums between 1975 and 1982, and still reconvenes on rare occasion to this day.

Truth in Shredding is the first studio album by the Mark Varney Project (MVP), released in 1990 through Legato Records and reissued on November 4, 2003 through Tone Center Records. MVP was a short-lived collaborative project put together by Mark Varney, brother of Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney. Mark founded Legato in the 1980s, which served as a jazz-oriented counterpart to the rock stylings of Shrapnel. This incarnation of the group features guitarists Frank Gambale and Allan Holdsworth. Besides one track written by Gambale, the rest are covers of existing jazz fusion compositions.