STEVE GREGORY, Frolic

It’s the dilemma many busy musicians face – the more in demand they are for session and touring work by high profile, high paying artists, the less time they have to express their deeper creativity and write and record their own projects. Fortunately, the veteran, very versatile guitarist Steve Gregory was at last able to carve out enough time to create Frolic, something of an ultimate electric guitar album that’s got a bit of pop in the picture perfect melodies, a lot of classic blues/soul in the seductive keyboard textures and atmospheres, touches of smooth urban jazz and great, healthy doses of richly improvisational jazz.

Not to mention rock and funk edges along the way. If stylistically Gregory is hard to pin down – not that eclecticism is necessarily a bad thing - it’s most likely for the same reason he’s taken years to finally grace us and impact our guitar loving sensibilities with this instrumental boundary pushing album. The man’s been busy touring with late greats like Ray Charles and Alphonse Mouzon and living legends Anjani (of Leonard Cohen fame), Frankie Valli and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. He’s also gigged along the way with Macy Gray, Michael Buble and Patti Austin – and oh yeah, like so many others musicians in L.A., contributing his intricate yet fluid style to the soundtracks of TV shows.

Though the focus is always front and center on Gregory’s string mastery, he’s naturally vibing with an equally storied ensemble featuring Jimmy Kimmel Live keyboardist Jeff Babko (James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Steve Martin), bassist Eric Sittner (Patti Austin, Josh Nelson), and drummer / Grammy-nominee Ray Brinker (Tierney Sutton, Joe Cocker, Pat Benatar, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band).

The riches here run deep, from the lighthearted, easy swinging “Hey, Marvin,” thoughtful laid back ballad “New Inspiration” and peppy blues/rocker “Tell Me What You Feel” to the quick-paced, improv filled jazz romp “After School” (which includes a spritely piano solo by Babko) and the gently reflective solo closer “Winter in California.” Along the way, listeners may ponder the significance of two other excellent ballads songs titled with the dates “August 2” and “December 18.” Whatever personal meaning they have to Gregory, for us they’re simply more evidence that Gregory needs to continue to make up for lost time and focus as much as possible on his solo career.