LES FRADKIN: Guitar Revolution

Les Fradkin

Guitar Revolution

© 2007 RRO Entertainment (634479630248)

George from the original cast of Beatlemania returns with 11 great Beatles guitar instrumentals. Imagine Jeff Beck meets The Beatles. With styles ranging from classic rock to surf treatments, the excitement never lets up. An RRO Download only release.

notes

Les Fradkin has the singular distinction of having been the first musician to portray "George Harrison" in the Original Cast Of the Broadway production of "Beatlemania." Chosen from over 2000 guitarists back in 1976, Les starred in the smash Broadway musical which ran for over 2 years and has toured all over the world.

Now, Les brings you 11 Guitar Instrumentals in a new musical tribute to The Beatles. The CD offers compositions by Lennon-McCartney, George Harrison,
Paul McCartney & Wings and instrumental covers of 2 songs from Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" as well as a unique guitar instrumental interpretation of The Beatles' "Free As A Bird."

Les is offering something new and original here while keeping one foot in traditrional Beatles sound and production values. "I'll Be Back" and "Within You Without You" receive Ventures surf style treatments and his guitar pyrotechnics on "Live And Let Die" have to be heard to be believed.

What's different here? New sounds for the guitar, courtesy of Les' Roland VG-8 V-Guitar Technology, Roland GR-33 and GR-1 Guitar Synthesizers and his custom built Wilson Bros Ventures Model VM-10 MIDI Guitar and customized Fender George Harrison "Rocky" Stratocaster MIDI Guitar. The Beatles, George Martin and Giles Martin started a mash up of Beatles tracks for The Cirque du Soleil and Love albums. Les takes things one step further with a virtual mash-up of guitar technology resulting in guitar sounds never heard before and sonic possibilities only dreamed of till now.

This CD also marks Les' debut of his Starr Labs Ztar Z7S MIDI Guitar Controller which fires off infinite orchestrations behind his Wilson Bros. Ventures Model Lead Guitars. This CD is the first time the Z7S has been heard on disc. Using tapping and picking techniques, Les paints vast sonic canvases of orchestra and the solo in "Ever Present Past" and the orchestrations in "Live And Let Die" are played at speeds never before possible with MIDI Guitar technology.

"Guitar Revolution" is now featured on
"Breakfast With The Beatles" (99.5-The Mountain, Denver, CO.).

A bit of BIO:

Les Fradkin is one of the guitar legends of the 1970's. As well as being a veteran member of The Original Cast of Beatlemania, he has found success as a recording artist, composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk', Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous Mireille Mathieu. He has played 12 and 6-string Guitar, Bass, Mellotron, and Piano on dozens of Top 40 hit records throughout the early 1970's , scoring many US and UK chart placings throughout his career.

His 12-string guitar, vocals and production with legendary underground psychedelic folk- rock group,The Godz, resulted in several albums for ESP Disk among which "Pass On This Side" (featuring Les' song "God Bless California"), continues to influence and mentor generations of new musicians to this day.

In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.

He has enjoyed chart success on the net as well with his songs reaching mp3.com's 1 position 16 times! New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" CD. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.

Today, Les has released 15 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 300,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.

reviews

Please log in to review this album.

  • Fradkin Comes Alive!
    author: Eric Sorensen

    "Guitar Revolution" is the latest jewel in prolific Boomer musician Les Fradkin's rock royalty crown. Every instrumental tune is so polished that you won't miss the vocals at all - in fact, listeners will find themselves singing along to provide their own vocals to these top-notch cover tunes. Fradkin's musicianship and production skills are remarkable - you will hear snippets of Jeff Beck, Jeff Lynne, the Ventures, the Fab Four and a host of other "classic rock" influences in Fradkin's interpretations of these Beatles and McCartney songs. "Live And Let Die" is the standout track among the eleven songs that combine Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" with Fradkin's own "Sonic Sound." Les proves once again that you don't need vocals to give classic rock music the justice it deserves!

email

Please log in to email this artist.