The Guitar Player's Resource
Featuring thirteen wild, rock-inspired instrumentals, Spain's Frank Crespo offers his CD Next To Andromeda. On listening to the first several cuts, one can easily discern that Crespo favors an improvisational approach over well-crafted composition (in fact, the liner notes state that all tracks were written, recorded and mixed in 15 days). Typically, Crespo sets up a groove using a drum program, then lets a variety of guitar tones 'speak' the lyrical elements of the songs. Some songs, such as "Roots", even begin from the first second with blazing, raw soloing. Crespo deviates from the rock crunch at times - check out the jazz bed underlining "All And Blues", for example. If you think today's songs don't feature enough soloing, you can depend on a guitarist such as Crespo to deliver tunes with wall-to-wall lead work.
Influenced by Angus Young, Eddie Van Halen and Richie Sambora, Frank began teaching himself guitar but later studied with instructors such as Jorge Lario, Rafael Zaragoza, Jaume Pla and Jose Daniel Flors. He later attended GIT in Hollywood, learning many styles including jazz, rock, blues, country and funk. Frank has continued to attend technical clinics and work with many musicians to improve his playing, including Joey Tafolla. He has recently began teaching other students, playing sessions and working on music for television and radio.
Crespo has also worked with the group Los Piston (he is the guitarist's teacher and has helped them with some songs), which have a large following in Taiwan. He has released the first edition of his book "Left Hand", an instructional volume which has surpassed it's sales goals after just a few months of availability.
Frank Crespo
Spain