First off, you have to understand one thing: Frank Gambale is god. OK. Second thing: Frank Gambale is god. How many of his covers do you see on YouTube? Not Many. You usually see people stumble through his lines.
Frank has mastered the art of picking. His "Speed Picking" book is extremely frustrating. I worked through a fair bit of the book at one point & it's impossible to blaze like him when playing these angular lines. His picking style is all economy, but about 150 times more unconventional than Yngwie. The guy is extremely insane, & at one time I ranked him as the most technically challenging fusion player out there, next to only possibly Shawn Lane; however Lane was just able to alternate pick angular lines at 19 notes a second. Frank, IMO, reinvented the way the guitar was played. He was economy picking long before Yngwie, Yngwie just popularized scalar economy/sweeping shredding in the neo-classical metal context. Frank is a gem of a guitarist, & so fucking underrated it makes me sick... Well, he might not be underrated, but he is not very well known past guitar player circles.
The guy has refined technique. He's a great songwriter & has some great melodies. Not everything he plays is this difficult, however when he puts some gutso in it the guys makes my jaw drop. The guy has heart in what he does & it reflects in his work. He's definitely in my top 10 guitarists, possibly top 5.
That being said, YouTube really doesn't do him justice IMO. He has some decent videos up, but nothing is like hearing him on the albums. My favorite album of his is
"Passages". It's more of an instrumental rock oriented album with bits of fusion & blues thrown in.
"Thunder From Down Under" is more fusion based & has some vocal tracks. His
"Live!" album is nearly as good as
"Passages", & I normally am not a big fan of live albums. I have a
-Frank Gambale, Stu Hamm, & Steve Smith- album that is much more jammy & has some improv feel to it. The album was put together in something like 2 weeks. It's decent, but not mind blowing like his solo stuff. Stylistically it's not the kind of stuff he's known for. I also know he went into a bit an acoustic phase, but I've not heard much of it yet. I'm pretty much t3h 3pic n000bbZ when it comes to his work with Chick Corea though
Here's a couple of videos I like by him. TBH I've not seen too many of his videos, so if anyone comes up with more cool stuff make sure to post! The one Panzer posted was from a Carvin DVD & that was actually how I found out him when I ordered the DVD 4-5 years ago.
