Armed with 25 years of experience in the fickle professional music industry, Grammy Award-winning jazz fusion guitarist Frank Gambale is no stranger to making it glory and pain. Poh Yi Min catches up with the Australian for some tips for musicians who want to turn pro.

A jazz fusion enthusiast would be familiar with the works by Frank Gambale, a world-renowned guitarist who invented the sweep picking guitar technique, released live and studio albums, who has conducted workshops and seminars over the world and collaborated with big names such as Chick Corea, Stuart Hamm and Steve Vai. UrbanWire caught up with Gambale when he was in Singapore for a concert and workshop in May.

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UW: You’d probably get this a lot, but what made you come up with the technique of sweep picking?

FG: I started playing guitar when I was very young, about 7 years old. My playing was the traditional technique with the right hand. Then when I was about 13, there was a couple of things that made me question that approach, because it didn’t work for everything. I was listening a lot to saxophone players, piano players, and to play some of the lines and the linear phrases they were playing on the guitar were impossible with the standard technique.

Listening to those instruments kind of inspired me to find and use other techniques to be able to emulate those other instruments.

That was the beginning, and I would develop on this idea where there’s a more free flowing motion on the right hand, instead of the traditional ‘up-down’ method like a machine, and I found myself able to play things that were not possible before, and that evolved over a great many years.

A lot people thought was an impossible technique, that’s why nobody developed it before… [However] the desire was not to have a technique per se, it was most important to me to follow the musical ideas, and the technique made those ideas possible.

I was 13, I was too young to think that it’s impossible – people who were older just [went] “Nah, that technique is impossible. You can’t do it.”

UW: Achieving the highest credentials in music is no mean feat, what kept you going?

FG: To me, school doesn’t really mean that much to me. I’m pretty much self-educated – I knew a lot about music before I got to the music school [Guitar Institute of Technology]. It wasn’t until my early 20s when I went to study. But really, that school I went to in Hollywood was just an excuse to stay in the country for a year, because as a tourist you can only stay for 6 months maximum. So I thought – I want to stay there – my favourite music was coming from LA, Hollywood. So I wanted to find a way where I could stay for a long period of time, and meet musicians, so going to a music school seemed a logical choice.

UW: So it was a greater chance of exposure to your favourite musicians?

FG: Yea, I could actually draw a line to Chick Corea – he was my favourite musician – by going to that music school. I could see that progression because Jeff Burlin, a bass player that I met at that school recorded an album and asked me to play with him, and he chose Chick Corea’s recording studio in LA. At that time I was so close to my hero, you know.

And one day, I was putting my equipment in the car after one of the sessions and I saw a woman coming out of Chick Corea’s office. I gave her my card and I said, “Please, if Chick Corea ever needs a guitar player you must call me.”

She looked at my card and she went “Frank Gambale… I’ve heard of you”, and apparently I’ve played with her husband who was a drummer. She was Chick Corea’s personal manager’s secretary. 6 months later, I got a call for an audition, so I can see a direct line from going to that music school to ending up in a very famous band. That opened up career doors for me – working with Chick Corea.

UW: You’ve collaborated with many other musicians. Why not settle down with a permanent band?

FG: I think variety is the spice of life, I’ve never stayed in one place for too long, I like to keep experimenting and exploring. To me, working with different musicians keeps me fresh. If I play with the same guys all the time there [will be] a level of predictability. It’s like meeting new people, you can’t get through life knowing just 5 people, for example. You tend to meet different people at different times of your life – some people stay your friends for life and some people come and go, and that’s the way I feel about musicians.

UW: This brings me to the next question – by working with so many people, you must be very familiar with signing and negotiating contract deals. What advice would you offer young musicians who are offered contracts, or seek such opportunities?

FG: Well, those opportunities are rare actually, and a lot rarer than people think. I’ve never discouraged anybody from signing a contract, but you have to realise most of the time these record contracts are definitely in the favour of the company, so you really have to look at the fine print pretty hard – there’s a lot of ugly stuff in those contracts, and I have been burnt by those contracts in the past. There’re some contracts I’ve regretted signing even till this day.

I started my own record company in 1998 because I got fed up with record companies for a number of reasons.

One reason was I didn’t like people telling me what I could and could not do musically. I don’t like to have any limits to what I can play on my records.

Another reason was the first 2 record companies I signed with went broke, so I had 8 albums no longer available. That was like a knife in the stomach to me. It was just terrible – my music was no longer available, and because I do not own the rights to those records there was nothing I could do about it. 3 of them I was able to buy back, and the other 5, I’m still trying to negotiate with JVC (the record company), and they just won’t release it to me. It was frustrating. So right now, I say, ‘Screw these record companies – I would rather own my own music – I’ll pay for the albums, I’ll produce them and in that way they’ll always be available.’ There will never be a time where I will not make my music available for sale. I don’t know why these record companies would not release the record. or they just have no interest sometimes, you know, so you got to be very careful with contracts, sometimes you’re better off owning your own music, especially today with Youtube, people are publishing their own music and I like that.

The only thing record companies can do for you that’s probably good, that is (if they have to money) to promote you. The only value of a record company is if they put a lot of money in advertising, tour support and promotion – they get you on TV, in places you couldn’t afford to, so you gotta be very careful with contracts.

UW: I read on your blog that you’ve been busy with your daughter. How do you manage your career and a family?

FG: Well I’ve never had a family before, I mean my own family. I’ve been married before, but this is my first child at 50. I found a perfect solution – my wife is an incredible singer and artiste herself, and we have a new project coming, a new album which would be out by the summer that has her singing so we’re gonna tour together. That’s the ultimate solution to it.

UW: You’ve released a few instructional CDs, DVDs and books. What drives you to teach others?

FG: I just try to elevate the level just by a little bit. In general, the level of education, especially in America, keeps getting lower. Some schools are so afraid to challenge their students. I would say that this is true of the Arts programmes and music programmes. You can’t do this on any other field. If you want to be a doctor or surgeon, you can’t say that the curriculum is too hard. You can either do it and pass to be a good doctor, or you don’t do well and fail. They don’t dilute the programmes to suit the students.

Well, the problem with art and music is that the academic level has gotten so low. Art is judged by the eye of the beholder and very subjective. That’s good and bad at the same time. I wrote a curriculum for L.A.M.A [LA Music Academy] where I used to be the head of the guitar department. It had good intentions when it first started. 6 months into it, the administrator of the school were saying that the kids were complaining that the programme is too hard. They should pull themselves up by studying harder instead of me bringing the programme down. So I considered the first time and decided to make it easier and spread the programme over a longer month period. 6 months later, another group of students were complaining about it again. Do you want me to make it as easy as learning ABCs? There’s a point where I just won’t go below. I’d rather lift people up rather than go down to a mediocre level. That’s just my point of view.

When I put a book or DVD out, I like to make it something that the guitar community needs. I’ve conducted a lot of seminars around the world and I sort of hear the same questions a lot. If these people are asking about this questions, then they don’t really know about this particular piece of information. So I come out with a book or a video to address those questions.

UW: Most Singaporeans, especially the younger ones, are unfamiliar with funk, jazz and blues. What would you recommend they listen to, to get a sense of these genres?

FG: Those genres are pretty scary for most people. It’s not easy listening per se. I make this analogy. When you are 7 years old, you don’t like the taste of wine, beer, or coffee. A 7-year-old would rather drink Coca-Cola, something that’s sweet. That to me is listening to the pop music market. It’s like having Coca-Cola, as a 7-year-old. As you get older, your taste develops as you eat sardines, smoke cigars and drink beer or wine. It’s a mature taste. It’s not everybody’s taste and a lot of people will never acquire the taste. In terms of art, a lot of those music that you listed are considered high art. The music you’re going to hear tonight is very complex. I try to make the music as palatable as possible but it’s not always easy. Sometimes, after playing 45 years of guitar, I don’t like to compromise my guitar playing to satisfy the audience. I like to open up the audience heads to hear something that they may never hear. It’s not pop music. However, there are a lot of great stuff that you can listen to bridge the gap.

One of my favourite and sophisticated pop group is called Steely Dan. They tour in the US a lot and they’ve been around since the 70s. In 2003, they won album of the year against big names such as Britney Spears and Eminem. I’m sure that Britney Spears was looking at these 2 guys and was saying “Who are these 2 old guys?” winning album of the year. I never thought that such a band could ever win. They are somewhere between jazz and pop. They’ve got good gooves and the harmony is incredibly sophisticated.

UW: May I know what goes through your mind when you’re playing music?

FG: I think that it’s a scientific fact the brain has 2 halves: the right side and the left side. The left side is very mechanical i.e lists, numbers and writing. The right side is for imagination. Where do ideas come from? Isn’t that magic? And I used to always tell my students that if you use the left side of the brain, then you are not performing very well because you are thinking. If you start thinking on the stage, then you’re not performing. To me, it has to be a right brain experience on stage. It’s really responding and reacting to the moment and not thinking. You have to do all that preparation before you go on stage. When you practice, you are using your left brain where you learn the scales and get the finger positioning right. When you get on the stage, you forget all that. If you’re not ready by the time we get on stage, then you’re not ready. You should practice more. That’s what I would say as I don’t think much when I’m on the stage. You know that feeling when you are just seeing but not seeing, that’s the state where I’m in when I’m on stage. It’s like having your eyes closed and letting the music happen.

UW: After so many years, what keeps you going?

FG: The freedom drives me on. And I love not to compromise. I’ve been playing for 45 years and I don’t like to compromise what I do.

After Singapore, the Frank Gambale Trio will be playing next at Mumbai, India.