[music] Warren Cuccurullo, Thanks to Frank (1996)

Imago Records
Total Running Time - 62:47

Personnel
Warren Cuccurullo - Guitar; Vinnie Colaiuta, Jerry Cuccurullo - Drums; Pino Palladino - Bass; Nick Beggs - Bass, Chapman Stick; Talvin Singh - Tabla

1. The Canarsie Daiquiri
2. Orgasmatron
3. Ass Man
4. Jam Man Jam
5. Hey Zawinul
6. The Galactic Ballerina
7. Low Speed Chase
8. Indian Time Zones
9. Tardinha
10. The Spider
11. Thanks to Frank


I've gone through an odd cycle of emotions regarding this album. When I first heard about it, my expectations were high. With the pop sensibilities that Cuccurullo should have through his tenures in Missing Persons and Duran Duran, and the musical sophistication of having played with Frank Zappa, in a tribute to Frank Zappa, this could be a very interesting album. Especially with Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, which rates very highly in my book.

My first listen was disappointing. From the outset, this sounds like the kind of guitar-wankery that Steve Vai can't seem to let go of. There are lots of wah-wah solos and Eddie Van Halen guitar tones amidst some fairly vacuous songs, at least at first blush. When I actually listened a little harder to the disk, though, the redeeming qualities of Cuccurullo's debut effort start to shine through, most noticeably when Warren abandons his distortion for a clean guitar sound or an acoustic. While tunes like the opening "The Canarsie Daquiri" and "Low Speed Chase" eschew the guitar-hero aesthetic that went out of style around 1991, more subtle efforts have much more substance. "Hey Zawinul" combines Indian tabla with acoustic guitar and a frenzied abandon that builds throughout, and "Tardinha" has a very sweet, clean, Zappa-esque melody. The centerpiece, in my opinion, is "Indian Time Zones". The tune opens up with Colaiuta playing a melodic tom-tom figure in 5/4, moving into a really pretty guitar riff. The main part of the song is very open, with a lot of space in the main guitar part. It's also really the only place on the album where the bass, played by Pino Palladino on this track, really has any role in the music. And Vinnie always shines on odd time tunes, as evidenced by his saving presence on recent material from Sting. Colaiuta's playing on the whole disk is superb, and should appease the parts of the drumming community that inexplicably didn't like his first solo album.

Overall, I think it's the lack of prominent bass playing that brings this album down. The tracks that I like are either exceptions, where the bass actually does something, or tracks where the rest of the parts obscure the lack of a convincing bass part. If you look to instrumental guitar trios that have worked, especially Vai, Satriani, or Eric Johnson, there's always a bassist that can make things interesting, and on this album, Cuccurullo and Colaiuta may be trying to carry too much of the load themselves.