Dave Weckl - Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale began playing guitar at age 7 in Canberra, Australia where he was born and raised. He was influenced by the blues playing of Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia .

In his mid-teens he discovered Steely Dan, The Brecker Brothers and Chick Corea, which pointed him in a jazzy direction. In 1982, he decided to leave his home to study at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in Hollywood. He graduated with the highest honor, "Student of the Year," and was offered a teaching position which he kept for four years.

During that time, Frank was playing the local jazz club circuit with his own band and already had his first book "Speed Picking" published. In 1986, he signed a three album contract with a small label called Legato and began his recording career.

The same year, he was recruited by Jean-Luc Ponty to tour. Shortly after that tour, he auditioned for Chick Corea and began a six0year stint which culminated in five albums, a Grammy award, and two Grammy nominations. Chick helped expose Frank to the world, for which he is very grateful, saying "playing with Chick was like a dream come true."

That same year, Ibanez guitars approached Frank to endorse their guitar, which culminated in a long relationship and spawned the "Frank Gambale model" guitar in 1987. Ibanez made four versions of the guitar.

In 1987, Frank signed a three-video deal with DCI / Warner Brothers for instructional videos. In 1988, he signed a major label deal with JVC. In 1990, he released "Thunder From Down Under," which reached #1 on the Japanese jazz charts. He also three Legato releases in the top 10 at the same time.

In 1992, Frank decided it was time to go out on his own. He has been touring with his group ever since. His band has toured Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and the U.S. He has also done countless seminars and master classes worldwide to countries as far away as South Africa and Uruguay.

In 1996, Frank was offered a position of Head of the Guitar Department of a new musical school in the Los Angeles area called the L.A. Music Academy (LAMA). He wrote the core curriculum/study program for this one year vocational school including harmony and theory, improvisation, technique and composition courses. The school has been a great success and is an inspirational place for guitarists the world over.

Recently, Frank began his own record label called Wombat Records on which he re-released his early Legato catalog and has just released a new a double live CD called "Resident Alien - Live Bootlegs," and a duet CD with Maurizio Colonna, the famous Italian Classical guitarist, called "Imagery Suite."

There are also two new releases, the first is a live album recorded in Poland in 1996, where Frank plays lives versions of music from the "Passages" and "Thinking Out Loud" period. The other new release is Tony Muschamp "More Bass Please." Muschamp is a longtime friend of Frank.

Frank was a mainstay with Vital Information for 13 years, featuring drummer Steve Smith, keyboardist Tom Coster and bassist Baron Browne. With this group, Frank performed on and contributed songs to seven albums.

Another side project has been three trio recordings with bassist Stu Hamm and drummer Steve Smith on Mike Varney's Tone Center records. The first release in 1999 was called "Show Me What You Can Do" and was well-received. The second, called "The Light Beyond," came out in July 2000 and was a strong follow up. The third was released in 2005 and was called "GHS 3."

Late in 2002, the celebration of Chick Corea's 60th birthday brought back together the Elektric Band, which kicked off a wave of reunion tours and a sold-out performance to 18,000 at the Hollywood Bowl. The band consists of Chick Corea, Frank Gambale, Dave Weckl, John Patitucci and Eric Marienthal. The group recorded a new album called To The Stars and also released live DVD.

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