Inspired Improvisation : Guitarist Frank Gambale has a fluid approach, gleaned from imitating his jazz idols.

A little over a week ago, bassist John Clayton stood on the stage of the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, answering an audience member’s ques tion about how to become a jazz musi cian.

Copying solos by your favorite artist and playing along with them is what really develops your style, he said. “And don’t worry about sounding like your idol,” he said. “It’s better to sound like somebody than nobody.”

Frank Gambale would concur 100% with Clayton’s philosophy. The Australian-born guitarist who plays Wednesday at La Ve Lee says that transcribing improvisations is the way he learned to play. “People still don’t realize how important it is to transcribe their favorite players,” he says.

Gambale started the process when he was just out of high school, living with his parents at their home in Canberra, Australia’s capital city. “I’d get a Steely Dan record or a record by (saxophonist) Michael Brecker, and you wouldn’t see me for days,” says Gambale, who is of Italian ancestry and whose name is pronounced Gahm- bah -lee. “I’d be in my room, taking the solos off, playing mostly by ear, then trying to play the solo along with the recordings, which is a big challenge.”

The 36-year-old guitarist--a Guitar Player magazine poll-winner who has earned acclaim in jazz/fusion circles playing with Chick Corea (from 1986 to 1992), ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith’s band Vital Information and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty--said this process led him from emulation to individuation. “I’d take one lick I liked by, say, Michael Brecker, and learn that,” he says. “Then I’d make up 10 of my own, based on the inspiration the first one provided.”

When you listen to Gambale’s albums, from his 1990 debut, “Thunder From Down Under,” to his recent “Passages,” (all on JVC Records) you hear a man who has a thick, wiry tone and fluid improvisational approach and who sounds like a distillation of his influences--Brecker, Corea, Steely Dan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and more.

*

And why wouldn’t he? he asks. “The human being is a chronological entity,” he says in a phone call from his home in Northridge. (He has lived in Southern California since 1986.) “My music goes from jazz to rock and people say ‘Will the real Frank Gambale please stand up?’ But I just like all the styles I have played since I started playing guitar at 15. I’ve played blues, country rock, jazz, so why should I leave any of that behind?”

At La Ve Lee, where Gambale also plays Feb. 1 and 8, he’ll bring in the same first-rate band that’s on “Passages”: Ottmaro Ruiz, the sterling Venezuelan keyboardist; Alphonso Johnson, the former Weather Report bassist, and Walfredo Reyes, one of Los Angeles’ top drummers.

Asked what listeners can expect at La Ve Lee--or at the Baked Potato, Pasadena, where he fronts the same aggregation on Tuesday and Feb. 9 and 23--the neither overly humble nor self-aggrandizing musician says simply, “A guitar thrill.

“I love doing what I do,” he continues. “All my life, I have been concerned with growing as a guitarist. I’ve spent ridiculous numbers of hours practicing, sometimes as much as 15 hours a day.”

One thing that fans will encounter when they hear Gambale is speed. He is one of the fastest guitarists around, a musician who has developed a distinctive picking style that has been documented on instructional videos. But there’s much more to Gambale than just flash. He works with a warm sense of melody in his chosen realm, and he can play lines that pack plenty of rhythmic whammy.

Critic Bill Milkowski, who writes for down beat and Jazz Times magazines, is a fan of Gambale’s. “The speed, fluidity and sheer command that he demonstrates on his solos are a constant source of amazement to guitar enthusiasts all over the world,” Milkowski has written in down beat.

Gambale is ecstatic to be working with Ruiz, Johnson and Reyes. “It’s the best band I’ve ever had,” he says. “Everybody is both a beautiful person and a brilliant musician, and they’re all extremely sensitive to my music. I like players that can really excite yet who have the ability and control to deliver the excitement at the right time. That’s what I try to do, start slowly, save the best for the very end.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where and When

Who: Frank Gambale.

Location: La Ve Lee, 12514 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Hours: 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, and Feb. 1 and 8.

Price: $5 cover and two-drink minimum.

Call: (818) 980-8158.