First of all, let s get some business out of the way. Peter Frampton. In the late 60s/early 70s he made a name for himself in his native United Kingdom with bands like Herd and Humble Pie.
While Humble Pie had several songs that would garner some attention ( 30 Days In The Hole and a cover of Ashford and Simpson s I Don t Need No Doctor ), they weren t part of the British Invasion that brought The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other such groups world-wide attention.
But Frampton made a huge splash in 1976 with a double live album Frampton Comes Alive! which gave us classic rock songs like Baby, I Love Your Way, Do You Feel Like We Do, and Show Me The Way.
Those and other tunes have made their way into many movie soundtracks in the years since their release. He has done a bit of acting along the way as well, most notably as Reg, the road manager for Humble Pie, in Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous. Okay.
Now, forget about all that. Because this is a different Peter Frampton than you knew in the past.
Fingerprints is the title of his newest release and all the tracks on it are instrumentals.
Think about that for a minute and it makes sense. What comes to my mind is not that it s odd for someone known as a guitar virtuoso in the pop music field to make this type of album, but why now, at this late date in a career that s lasted decades. I ve never done a complete collection of instrumentals, Frampton said in a recent press release.
This is something I ve been needing to do for myself for a long time. This is the album I ve been waiting my entire life to make.
The genesis for this record goes back to the early 1960s when Brit instrumental group The Shadows were big on the UK scene.
Frampton started playing guitar at the age of four and even took classical lessons. But it wasn t until The Shadows hit that I became addicted to the guitar, the press release further quoted him. I wanted to play like them, so I got together with a couple of friends and formed a band that played every Shadows number.
I can still play most of them.
Over 40 years later, Peter would hook up with Shadows guitar player Hank Marvin and along with their original drummer Brian Bennett and Gordan Kennedy, wrote and recorded My Cup Of Tea, a hauntingly beautiful bluesy track that highlights his classical roots. For Frampton, Hank is the reason why I play the guitar.
It doesn t get any better than this. Finally, his dream project was on it s way to becoming a reality.
His premise for this album was simple enough, I wanted to play with people from all over the world, and I wanted to make the selections as diverse as possible.
I didn t want to make a smooth jazz album where the rhythm section plays the same on every tune. To do that, he then connected with Pearl Jam s guitarist Mike McCready and drummer Matt Cameron for a rocking version of Soundgarden s Black Hole Sun which Frampton sums up this way, It was unnerving but exciting. There s a lot of stuff going on in this tune.
Mike said, Let s battle it out, so we went to places I had never gone before.
This in turn led to a new tune Blowin Smoke , as he and McCready improvised together. This meeting of the minds gave Frampton a framework for the rest of the project as he realized that, in order to make the music he wanted, he would need to record all the guitar tracks live, instead of dubbing sections and putting them together as you would a puzzle.
Long time friend (and Rolling Stones bassist) Bill Wyman also became involved with the record. At Peter s request, he brought along original Stones drummer Charlie Watts and Cornerstones was born. It s a blues-based rocker of a song that has a groove that has kept me playing it over and over again.
Frankly, this whole CD has a vibe to it that commands repeated listening. The first track, Boot It Up , grabbed my attention immediately with it s funk base and killer sax riffs by Courtney Pine brought in by another old pal of Frampton s. I was talking with my friend David Bowie on the phone one day and he asked me if I had gotten around to putting a sax on the record yet, explains Frampton.
I told him, no, it s all guitars. He said, I ve got a sax player for you-Courtney Pine. So I sent an mp3 of the track, he loved it and then added in a sax part.
That put the icing on the cake.
Upbeat Ida Y Vuelta (translation: Out and Back) is the second track and it brought Peter back together with Stanley Sheldon, the original bassist on Frampton Comes Alive!.
Sheldon has spent a lot of time in Latin America, and it is those musical influences that color this collaboration. If any song could turn me into a salsa dancer, it would be this one.
As mentioned earlier, Peter Frampton wanted this album to be diverse and as you can tell, it certainly is.
Other tracks include Smoky , a nod to noted jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell; a country rock-ish Double Nickels, and a heartfelt ode to his father Oh When...
which he played as a tribute at his father s funeral then turned around and recorded for inclusion here. In fact, Fingerprints is dedicated to his father and the impact that his encouragement made in his son s life as a guitar player.
Like I said at the beginning, put aside the Peter Frampton you thought you knew.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Fingerprints and let it take you on it s journey from his past to his present...
and look forward to what he will bring our way in the future.
Frampton has been touring the states for the last few months in support of this release and dates are scheduled through the first week of November. Here are the remaining shows scheduled to date:
10/11 N.
Shore Music Theater--Beverly, MA
10/13 Naval Amphibious Base--Norfolk, VA
10/15 Bergen Performing Arts Center--Englewood, NJ
10/18 Florida Theatre--Jacksonville, FL
10/19 House of Blues--Orlando, FL
10/21 BankAtlantic Center/Sinatra Theatre--Fort Lauderdale, FL
10/24 Ruth Eckerd Hall--Clearwater, FL
10/27 Verizon Wireless Theater--Houston, TX
11/04 Center for Performing Arts--Cerritos, CA
11/05 Fox Theatre--Visalia, CA
am now a freelance journalist specializing in the entertainment industry. Find out about how I got from there to here (and more!!
) when you visit
News RSS