Frank Gambale

Solo albums

Gambale graduated from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood with Student of the Year honors and taught there from 1984 to 1986.

After graduation, he played the jazz club circuit with his own band. In 1985, his first album, Brave New Guitar, appeared on Legato Records, which was owned by Mark Varney, brother of Mike Varney, the founder of Shrapnel Records. Gambale signed with Victor Entertainment in 1989 as part of a five-album agreement and released Thunder from Down Under, the following year.

In 1998 he started his own record label, Wombat Records, after purchasing his Legato discography with the intention of reissuing it himself. A live double album, Resident Alien – Live Bootlegs, was released in 2001, along with Imagery Suite; a duet featuring classical guitarist Maurizio Colonna. He released Coming to Your Senses on Favored Nations, a record label owned by guitarist Steve Vai. In 2004, he released Raison D'etre, through Wombat Records, his first album to be self-released.

Groups

With the Mark Varney Project, consisting of Allan Holdsworth, Brett Garsed, and Shawn Lane, he recorded two albums, Truth in Shredding (1990) and Centrifugal Funk (1991).

Beginning in 1987, he spent six years as a member of the Chick Corea Elektric Band, playing with Eric Marienthal, John Patitucci, and Dave Weckl. With Corea's band he recorded five albums and shared two Grammy Award nominations. He spent twelve years as a member of Vital Information, led by Steve Smith. He reunited with the Elektric Band in 2002 and with Corea in 2011 when he joined Return to Forever IV with Stanley Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Lenny White.

Teaching

Gambale has been head of the guitar department at the Los Angeles Music Academy. He joined the Isina mentorship program as head of the guitar department in 2014. During the next year, he started an online guitar school. In 1988 he published Monster Licks & Speed Picking, the first of many instructional videos and the first book to be written on sweep picking, a popular guitar technique.

Technique

Gambale has become identified with sweep picking and economy picking. His interest grew out of a desire to transcend the physical limits of the guitar and borrow from other instruments, such as the piano and saxophone. One advantage of the technique that it allows him to play faster. He can also approximate the way chords are played on piano by using his invented tuning, the Gambale Tuning, in which "the whole guitar is tuned up a fourth, but the top two strings are down an octave" (A, D, G, C, E, A, low to high).

Custom models

Ibanez produced the Frank Gambale Model (FGM) signature series guitars, modeled after the Ibanez S. Through 1999, four models were produced: FGM100, FGM200, FGM300, and FGM400. Yamaha also manufactured a signature guitar, the AES-FG.

Influence

Gambale has been featured on the covers of many guitar and jazz-orientated magazines worldwide, while having been cited as an influence by many notable guitarists including Synyster Gates, Dweezil Zappa, Greg Howe, and Pat Metheny. In a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, guitarist Jerry Garcia stated that Gambale was one of his favorite players at the time, stating, "My personal favorite lately is this guy Frank Gambale, who's been playing with Chick Corea for the past couple of years."

As leader

As co-leader/band member

With Maurizio Colonna

With Chick Corea Elektric Band

With GHS

With GRP

With The Mark Varney Project

With Vital Information

Instructional videos

Instructional books