The Mark Varney Project featuring Allan Holdsworth & Frank Gambale - "Truth In Shredding" (Shrapnel Records/Tone Center 2003, TC 40302, originally released 1991 on Legato Records)
The Mark Varney Project featuring Allan Holdsworth & Frank Gambale - "Truth In Shredding" (Shrapnel Records/Tone Center 2003, TC 40302, originally released 1991 on Legato Records)
Uploaded to Aural Innovations: January 2004
This was originally released back in 1991 on the Legato record label. This was basically a project in which Mark Varney, the head of Sharpnel records, wanted to bring together the two great guitar players Frank Gambale and Alan Holdsworth. The CD features 54 minutes and 7 tracks of basically Jazz rock. It was recorded live in the studio with Frank's band and Alan was left space for his solos and he recorded his in his studio and mixed the whole thing. The band choose to cover a few unexpected songs like "Humpty Dumpty" written by Chick Corea and "The Fall" by Wayne Shorter. Allan's work is pretty fantastic and these two really can compliment each other well. While they say it was tracked 99% live, this is only so true as Allan was not there at all and his is all done after. We can assume that he did his solos in one take while playing along to the other stuff. It does not really matter if it was live or not, the end product is quite good and if you would like to hear an hour of ripping guitars, then this will not disappoint!
Reviewed by Scott Heller