May - June - July - August 2005

New FG Album - Natural High - in stores now.

Concert With Class, Monster Licks, Modes No More Mystery, Chopbuilder ""DVDs"" available!!

Hi Folks,

Back in the desert again. This is my favourite time of the year here...perfect weather. I'm going to set up a new work station this week with the help of my engineer friend Bob Biles. I upgraded my keyboard to a new Korg Triton Extreme...what a wonderful machine. I'll be learning Pro Tools...I sort of lost the plot for a few years when Mac went to OS-X the new version of Cubase SX was so complicated I really didn't like it anymore. I was using that program since Atari computer days...so..it's time to go to the industry standard.

Planning on getting some writing done. Vital Info's summer tour has been cancelled so I have a bit more time than I thought...which is OK because I can get some rest and lose some weight...the Vital tour we just did in the USA was arduous...19 cities in 20 days...madness really.

Well, let's see, what else...the tour with the acoustic trio in Europe was a complete blast...Otmaro and Alain are as good as it gets and the sound guy Saan ( an Aussie living in England ) were the perfect touring ensemble. We played everywhere from Istanbul to Paris. Patrizio Chiozza, the Italian agent caught the last concert in Torino and was blown away. He is already working on a two month tour for the spring of 2007 so watch for that folks. We also recorded every show on the tour in Europe and I plan to make the best stuff available for downloading on mp3 soon.

The new album Natural High, which came out Feb 7th has been great response with great reviews in most major publications. My distributor called after receiving it and said that the album cover was better the 95% of major label releases and commended me for the high quality product...and that was before he even listened to it!!! True, I didn't spare any expense on the cover or the music...the only downside is my cost is exactly what I sell to the distributor which means zero profit...but folks, that's OK...remember, that's not what motivates me...making music motivates me and so long as recoupes I'll be right back in the studio....so a lot depends on people like you to keep this music alive and coming...your purchase and spreading the word out there will make all the difference!!!.

I have uploaded all the music from Natural High as downloadable pdfs and there are various versions of music minus one as mp3s...feast yourselves on the goods...I don't know any other artist who provides this stuff.

I have some of the music minus one up for Natural High...the rest will follow soon...had some trouble getting those right and I've been waiting for them to be competed. I should have them this week -early May. The music is all up however as pdfs.

I recorded a new studio album with Maurizio Colonna. It turned out beautifully. It should come out in the summer of 06 in Europe. I will try to get it for Wombat Records. We added a little percussion to some of the tracks and it really gave it a lift. I look forward to playing the new material this summer.......with guest singer Antonella Ruggiero.

The Chick Corea Elektric Band is booked for the Blue Note in NYC in November plus the week after that Chick is putting together a special event with Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, Kenny Garrett ( the real Kenny G ), yours trul Mr. G and Chick. Can you imagine that line up???.

Hoping to meet early May with Yamaha to start working on a new guitar model...there is also the possibility of a signature model acoustic guitar with another company...I'll announce that when that happens...very exciting indeed.

Dont't forget that Natural High and Raison D'etre minus guitar, minus drums and minus bass so tell your bass player and drummer friends if they're looking for fun stuff to play along to. I put a lot of time into the transcriptions and they are completely accurate. My new Gambale Tuning is revealed in the transcriptions for the songs where it was used on Raison D'etre so that will be fun for guitar players everywhere to explore the unlimited possibilities of this Gambale Tuning.

Vital Information albums are in my online shop here now as well. The new album Come On In, and also Show 'Em Where You Live so check them out if you haven't got your copy yet. Also added is the re-released Centrifugal Funk album.

I'm featured on one song on the new Varney album which is a Steely Dan tribute. I played on the song FM. There's also a Mahavisnhu Orchestra Tribute album I played on too.

Thanks to everyone who has bought the Tone Navigator TN-1000 by Carvin. It has proved popular and that's just great. Tone Navigator preamp sounds wonderful both through an amp and direct. I have given it a good thrashing on recent tours and it has worked flawlessly. Everyone who heard it couldn't believe that there were no tubes in my rack! Check it out at www.carvin.com.

Don't forget there's 4 albums worth of music minus one on the downloads page http://www.frankgambale.com/album.php?minusone=1. Noteworker, Great Explorers, Passages and Thinking Out Loud (including the bonus track Blanc Talk which was on the Japanese release only).

Don't forget folks that the bonus tracks from both Passages and Thinking Out Loud which, until now, were unavailable are also available for downloading...just look closely on the pages for those two albums and you'll see...

Check out the 4 live concerts on the downloading page...http://www.frankgambale.com/album.php. These are only available online!! It's like having 4 new live albums. This downloading thing has me very inspired to make available things that would not previously be made available. The 4 concerts are from my recent trio tour in from March and April 2004.. http://www.frankgambale.com/album.php

The first one is live at Fasching Jazz Club in Stockholm, Sweden. The song "A Little Something" has a special guest who sat in on sax...check it out soon. The quality is very good because it was to be broadcast on radio. The recording are live from the board and I thought they sounded good enough to release to the internet....I have lots of stuff coming soon folks...isn't the internet amazing!!!...

My previous album Raison D'etre released in April 2004 with legendary drummer BILLY COBHAM plus bassists Ric Fierabracci ( Ric is now playing bass in the Elektric Band and Dave Weckl ) and Steve Billman. Billy is phenomenal on this album. It's 68 minutes of strong songs...no fluff on this one. It also features my

Gambale Guitar Nouveau tuning.

For those who don't already know I'm having a blast with a new tuning I've discovered......I can't believe it only took 37 years to figure it out.....it's VERY cool in the sense of being able to play close intervals like the piano without little or no difficulty. You can even play 4 chromatic notes simultaneously if you want!!! You can also play it like a normal guitar if you want chord shape-wise. New territory...............again check out the transcriptions on the website which clearly defines the Gambale tuning used.

Ken Dapron and John Gaudesi at Yamaha Guitar Development built a double neck guitar for me which I used on Raison D'etre plus I've been playing it on tour with my trio.

Check out The Warner Bros. DVD "Concert with Class" featuring Steve Smith, Ric Fierabracci and Steve Tavaglione. The DVD is 90 minutes of concert and 90 minutes of instructional material. There's 20 extra minutes of instructional material on the DVD compared to the video...so it's a lot of material. I'm very happy with it...it's something I've always wanted to do....a concert video. It's very guitar biased but I didn't think the guitar players out there won't mind.

My other three instructional videos are now all on DVD. Thanks to all you folks out there for replacing your worn out videos for new DVDs. These DVDs have bonus footage from the Concert With Class Videos plus other goodies.

If you're serious about getting your musicality to a much higher level, come and sign up for a year at L.A. Music Academy.The school is definitely growing, as is our reputation for a great curriculum, great teachers and student satisfaction. It's one of the friendliest music school environments in the country. www.lamusicacademy.com 

Check out the Absolutely Live in Poland album that features live versions of tunes from the Passages and Thinking Out Loud era plus a version of the standard Stella By Starlight. It's a good recording and an interesting album for the serious fan. I'll be doing a limited run on this so snap it up. 

That's it for now,

Later,

 FG