arly reports on the new CD by guitarist Frank Gambale, bassist Stu Hamm and drummer Steve Smith made it sound more like a producer's dream than a musician's. Painstakingly crafted parts, recorded in small increments and then spliced together, are what studio-heads do - not real, interacting, listening jazz/fusion musicians. But reports of this trio going techno were thankfully exaggerated, for "The Light Beyond" is a spirited improvement on the group's fine '98 debut, "Show Me What You Can Do".
The opening "Katahdin" is a 5/4-metered romp a la the late drummer Tony Williams' Lifetime group. Hamm provides an anchor as Gambale solos like Lifetime-era Allan Holdsworth over Smith's push on his open hi-hat cymbals. On Gambale's "Yang," Hamm comes to the fore, with a challenging solo and rhythmic lines that push the same out of Gambale and Smith. The bassist's "First Look" starts out as a melodic chordal bass solo, but ballad soon turns to boil as Hamm uses a tendonitis-inducing 16th-note figure for most of the remaining eight minutes.
Gambale's Return To Forever-ish suite, "The Throne of Savitar," was obviously influenced by the guitarist's years with that group's leader, keyboardist Chick Corea. Hamm goes slap-happy in the funky first third before Gambale solos over his own counterpoint lines. Smith grabs the reins in the final three minutes, with solos over the vamp heavy on kick drums and cymbals. Hamm's gorgeous solo piece, "Nostalgia," fades into Gambale's "Yin," the melodic answer to its fiery predecessor.
Smith's "The Spirit of DunDun" is named after the African talking drum; a structured drum solo inspired by the living jazz legend, Max Roach, while his "Lumpy's Lament" is a serpenting rhythmic workout with some blazing Gambale lines. The guitarist switches to acoustic for his tranquil solo piece, "Isle of Few," before Hamm's introspective closer, "Fugitive Aspirations." "The Light Beyond" shows all three players in different lights - Hamm unearths a jazz/fusion jones absent in his playing with guitarist Joe Satriani; Gambale abandons the hollow-bodied guitars he uses with Smith's Vital Information group, and the drummer sounds more vibrant but no less vital.
arly reports on the new CD by guitarist Frank Gambale, bassist Stu Hamm and drummer Steve Smith made it sound more like a producer's dream than a musician's. Painstakingly crafted parts, recorded in small increments and then spliced together, are what studio-heads do - not real, interacting, listening jazz/fusion musicians. But reports of this trio going techno were thankfully exaggerated, for "The Light Beyond" is a spirited improvement on the group's fine '98 debut, "Show Me What You Can Do".
