Frank Marino

For the female impersonator, see Frank Marino (female impersonator).
Frank Marino
Background information
Birth name Francesco Antonio Marino
Born November 20, 1954 (1954-11-20) (age 57)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres Hard rock, Blues-rock, Heavy metal
Occupations Musician, Songwriter
Instruments Guitar
Years active 1970–present
Associated acts Mahogany Rush
Website www.mahoganyrush.com
Notable instruments
Gibson SG[1]

Frank Marino (Francesco Antonio Marino), born November 20, 1954, in Montreal, is the guitarist and leader of Canadian hard rock band Mahogany Rush. Often compared to Jimi Hendrix, he is acknowledged as one of the best and most underrated[2] guitarists of the 1970s.

Contents

Biography and career

After playing drums since he was five,[3] around age 13-14 Marino started playing guitar.[4] An often-repeated myth is he was visited by an apparition of Jimi Hendrix after a bad LSD trip,[5][6] a myth Marino has always disavowed, and still does so now on his personal website.[7] His playing, however, is explicitly inspired by Hendrix (on the Gibson he is described as "carrying Jimi's psychedelic torch"[8]), and Marino is notable for strong cover versions of Hendrix classics such as "Purple Haze".[1][8] He has been criticized by some as a Hendrix clone.[9][10] Marino himself claims that he didn't consciously set out to imitate Hendrix's style at all: "The whole style just came naturally. I didn't choose it; it chose me."[11]

Mahogany Rush was moderately popular in the 1970s. Their records charted in Billboard, and they toured extensively, playing such venues as California Jam II (1978). Toward the end of the 1970s, the band began to be billed as "Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush."[12] Not much later, Mahogany Rush split up and in the early 1980s Marino released two solo albums on CBS. The band reformed and continued to perform throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, Marino retired from the music industry.

Marino returned in 2001, inspired in part by a fansite, www.mahoganyrush.com: "I always knew we had fans, I just didn't know I'd find half a million of them on the Web," he said in an interview with Guitar Player in 2005.[3] He released Eye of the Storm, and went on tour again, playing more improvisational shows.[3] Frank is still active, recording and touring under his own name. He has also been involved in blues recordings with other artists as well, playing on tribute albums to Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Technique and equipment

Besides Jimi Hendrix, Marino acknowledged the influence of John Cipollina, Duane Allman, Johnny Winter, and Carlos Santana. He plays blues, heavy metal, and improvisational styles; one of his notable tricks is playing (live) a lick as if it were played backwards, with the help of only a volume pedal and a delay.[3] His style has influenced many guitar players, including Zakk Wylde[13] and Eric Gales and Paul Gilbert.[14] His tone is recognized by for instance Guitar Player, which called him a "full-spectrum guitar god," alongside Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, and The Edge.[15]

He is noted for complicated set-ups; according to Guitar Player, he has "an entire pedalboard ... assigned to hold the expression pedals that control the parameters of the effects on another pedalboard."[3] In the past, he has built his own amplifiers to achieve the right sound; he also uses Fender Twins.[3] He currently uses a pre-amplifier he built himself, reminiscent of a Fender, and any available power amp, through a 2x15" Fane cabinet.[16] Marino is a devoted Gibson SG player and uses them with the original PAF pickups and two with DiMarzio humbuckers.[3] He also has an SG with single-coil DiMarzio pickups.[16]

Discography

Solo

With Mahogany Rush

For Mahogany Rush albums, see Mahogany Rush.

Other recordings and collections

Tribute

References

  1. ^ a b Brown, Pete; Harvey P. Newquist, Jon F. Eiche (1997). Legends of rock guitar: the essential reference of rock's greatest guitarists. Hal Leonard. p. 114. ISBN 9780793540426. http://books.google.com/books?id=60Jde3l7WNwC&pg=PA114. 
  2. ^ Brown, Pete; Lisa Sharken (2003). Gear Secrets of the Guitar Legends: How to Sound Like Your Favorite Players. Hal Leonard. p. 97. ISBN 9780879307516. 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Leslie, Jimmy (April 2005). "Not-So-Slight Return: A Massive Web-Fanbase Resurrects Frank Marino". Guitar Player 39 (4): 94–97. 
  4. ^ "Nothing Wooden about Mahogany Rush". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1993-10-01. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ST&s_site=dfw&p_multi=ST&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF8F22CFAC28E9&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (1992). The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music, Volume 2. Guinness. ISBN 9781882267002. http://books.google.com/books?id=At03AAAAMAAJ&q=%22frank+marino%22&dq=%22frank+marino%22&lr=&client=firefox-a. 
  6. ^ Larkin, Colin (2002). The Virgin encyclopedia of 70s music. Virgin. ISBN 9781852279479. http://books.google.com/books?id=uWoZAQAAIAAJ&q=%22frank+marino%22&dq=%22frank+marino%22&lr=&client=firefox-a. 
  7. ^ "Band History". Mahogany Rush. http://www.mahoganyrush.com/history.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  8. ^ a b Drozdowski, Ted (2009-09-22). "10 Guitar-Blasting 'Sons' of Jimi Hendrix". Gibson Guitar Corporation. http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/10-guitar-blasting-sons-922/. Retrieved 2009-10-17. 
  9. ^ Cromelin, Richard (1975-09-20). "Mahogany Rush in Jimi's Shadow". Los Angeles Times: p. A.9. 
  10. ^ Strauss, Duncan (1983-02-01). "Frank Marino at Santa Monica Civic". Los Angeles Times: p. G.3. 
  11. ^ "Reincarnated Rock and Roll?!: Frank Marino". Guitar Player 28 (2): 83. February 1994. 
  12. ^ George-Warren, Holly; Patricia Romanowski, Jon Pareles (2001). The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Fireside. ISBN 9780743201209. http://books.google.com/books?id=9lYYAAAAIAAJ&q=%22frank+marino%22&dq=%22frank+marino%22&lr=&client=firefox-a. 
  13. ^ Chappell, John (March 2002). "Repeat Offender: Zakk Wylde Reboards Ozzy's Crazy Train". Guitar Player 36 (3): 64–67. 
  14. ^ Hammond, Shawn (August 2001). "Pickups: Eric Gales". Guitar Player 35 (8): 55. 
  15. ^ Gold, Jude (July 2002). "Gear Bench Test: Vintage Modern 2266 Head and 425A Cabinet". Guitar Player 41 (7): 136–39. 
  16. ^ a b Byrd, James (March 2011). "Frank Marino: The Father of Fast". Vintage Guitar: p. 22. 
  17. ^ Billboard, Allmusic

External links