Jimmy Crespo
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James "Jimmy" Crespo Jr. (born July 5, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York) is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist for the rock and roll band Aerosmith during the period 1979-1984. Crespo has also either played live or appeared on recordings with such artists as Rod Stewart, Billy Squier, Flame, Adam Bomb, Bandaloo Doctors, Meat Loaf, The Cutt, Stress, Stevie Nicks, Robert Fleischman, Ian Lloyd and Phoenix.
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[edit] Early Life & Career
Crespo was born and raised by Puerto Rican-American parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised within a musical family, Crespo first took up the guitar at the age of 14, forming his first band, The Knoms (pronounced with a silent 'k'), shortly afterwards. During his teenage years Crespo became an accomplished guitarist, drawing on the stylings of such artists as The Yardbirds, Cream, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. Forming the New York club band Anaconda, Crespo was to draw attention on the local scene from industry figures, leading to session work with a number of high profile artists such as Meat Loaf and Stevie Nicks before he was recruited as lead guitarist for the RCA-signed band, Flame.
Flame was to release two albums, both their eponymous debut in 1976 and 1977's Queen of the Neighbourhood.
[edit] Aerosmith Years
Returning to session work following the breakup of Flame, Crespo attracted the attention of Aerosmith's management following the departure of Joe Perry from the band in 1979. Invited to audition for the vacant lead guitarist position, Crespo was asked to join Aerosmith in October 1979. Contributing a guitar solo to the song "3 Mile Smile" for the already recorded Night in the Ruts album, Crespo commenced touring with the band soon after joining. Despite Crespo's proficiency and many lauded performances, the tour was hampered by the increasingly erratic state of the band's singer, Steven Tyler, at this stage heavily beset by drug addiction and suffering several on-stage collapses.
Despite the singer's troubles, including an incapacitating motorbike accident in January 1981, Crespo and Tyler forged a credible songwriting and touring partnership before the departure of Brad Whitford struck the band in 1981. Crespo was to co-write the majority of songs on Aerosmith's 1982 album Rock in a Hard Place, performing almost all the guitar duties on the album. Crespo served as the stolid musical capstan of the band during this period. The level of his work remained high even as the work ethic of his bandmates continued to deteriorate.
Charting as high as number 37 on the US Billboard chart, Rock in a Hard Place reputedly cost over $1 million in production costs, featuring a plethora of production and engineering staff amongst its credits. One of Aerosmith's hardest sounding albums (Xavier Russell said of it in Sounds: "As soon as the needle hit the wax it melted and the speaker covers blew across the living room floor - Five Stars"[citation needed]), and popular amongst die-hards, the album suffered both from the rejection of those loyal to former guitarist Perry, and from the lack of penetration into the newly emerging MTV video-clip market. The songs themselves were of a surprisingly strong character, many fans (as well as members of the band) to this day regarding them amongst Aerosmith's best[citation needed].
Subsequent tours from 1982 through to early 1984 saw Crespo team up with Rick Dufay filling in for the absent Brad Whitford. Commercial difficulties during pre-production of the band's next album coupled with singer Tyler's desire to reconvene with guitarist Perry saw Crespo exit the band mid 1984.
Crespo can be heard on Aerosmith's 1986 live album Classics Live! as well as the hits albums Gems and Greatest Hits 1973-1988 and the box set Pandora's Box.
[edit] Post Aerosmith
Immediately following his tenure in Aerosmith, Crespo played on releases by Stress and Adam Bomb, the guitarist spending several years with the latter-named Geffen Records signed band. Crespo contributed guitar to the Adam Bomb album "Fatal Attraction" (Geffen 1985) before settling in LA with new wife Cynthia to raise two children. His work with Stress is documented in the bonus tracks added to the CD reissue of Killing Me Night & Day on Deep Shag Records.
He joined bassist Danny Sheridan and Bonnie Bramlett in their new band Bandaloo Doctors from 1987 to 1992 and returned to session work as well as touring and recording with Billy Squier for several years.
From 1994-1996 Crespo was part of Rod Stewart's live band as lead guitarist.
Continuing to play as a highly respected and successful studio musician, in more recent times Crespo has graced the stages of some of Las Vegas' biggest Casinos, whilst also engineering a rock amplifier simulator ("Rock Amp Legends by Jimmy Crespo") for Nomad Factory. Today Jimmy plays with the band Phoenix on the Las Vegas entertainment circuit.
[edit] Discography
[edit] with Aerosmith
- Night in the Ruts (1979)
- Rock in a Hard Place (1982)
- Classics Live I (1986)
- Gems (1988)
- Pandora's Box (1991)
- Greatest Hits 1973-1988 (1997)
