NEW RELEASE BY CHATO INCLUDES A ZAPPA TRIBUTE

If you're unfamiliar with the music of Chato Segerer, I urge you to check out his 2015 "Prog Fusion With Balls" and his 2017 "So Und Nicht Anders" albums.

More recently, Chato has added two 'new' tracks to his Bandcamp page, released as "Live In The Studio Session 2018".

Both tracks sound great and I'm really impressed with his 'In Memoriam, Frank Zappa'.

YUVAL RON - SOMEWHERE IN THIS UNIVERSE, SOMEBODY HITS A DRUM

Guitarist and composer Yuval Ron recently released his second album.

Next to Yuval, "Somewhere In This Universe, Somebody Hits A Drum" features Matt Paull on keyboards, Roberto Badoglio on bass, and Marco Minnemann on drums.

As the title shows, this album will take you on a trip. A progressive rock / fusion trip to be more exact.

I like it a lot. Beautiful compositions, superb flight crew !!

Check it out :



The album, which was over three years in the making, features six beautiful and profound compositions placing a strong emphasis on big, orchestral, film music-like arrangements and production. On top of those, the players give some virtuosic and passionate performances, soloing over the tunes while keeping their original intent. It leaves the listener fascinated throughout the extensive pieces, traveling through space with tunes like “Gravitational Lensing”, “The Discovery of Phoebe” and “I Believe in Astronauts”.

THE ZAPPA EARLY RENAISSANCE ORCHESTRA'S NEW ALBUM !!

• the zappa early renaissance orchestra: blather
      (announced, --, uk, cordelia cd095)

Earlier today, I got a sneak peek of the new Z.E.R.O. album. It'll be released by the Cordelia Records label and should be out in about six weeks.

Sixteen tracks. 14 FZ pieces and two by Kevin Crosby.
Quite a lot of people contributed to this album. It's not just the familiar Z.E.R.O. crew (Kevin Crosby / Juliana Brandon / Ted Clifford / Rupert Kettle / Prairie Prince).
MagNiFZnt is present on a couple of tunes, as is Inventionis Mater, and Craig 'Twister' Steward, and the extended version of Tante Tofu, and Sandro Oliva (!!), and Fred Händl, and Joe Trump.
The result is an excellent Zappa tribute. Quite diverse, funny and beautiful.

The 1971 live arrangement of Who Are The Brain Police? gave me goosebumps. Again. Juliana Brandon. Wow !

Inner album artwork will use pictures of Bruce Bickford's clay art. Amazing.

Here's a completely different version of 'Who Are The Brain Police?", from the "Zero - Tolerance" album, from 2016.

HALL OF FAME RECORDS UPDATE

Luis G. has been putting new versions of older albums on various digital platforms.

He has also put together two free digital compilations :

including FZ-pieces  performed by A.L. Guillèn and by Marieta Y Lot Jetas.

and

Check them out at: https://halloffame.es/

MATS ÖBERG'S ZAPPA TRIBUTE AVAILABLE ON CDBABY

Mats Öberg's superb Frank Zappa tribute album, "Frankful", has been made available at CDBaby.

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/press1?

THE MEN'S ROOM

Official Selection for the 2020 Victoria Film Festival

Director: Petter Sommer, Jo Vemund Svendsen
Norway 2018 74 min
Audience Award Krakow Film Festival
Documentary

-- info: Rudy Schwartz

WHO THE F*@% IS FRANK ZAPPA?

WHO THE F*@% IS FRANK ZAPPA? by Alex Winter

The movie is COMPLETE and headed to its world premiere at our favorite film festival in March, baby! Here we discuss the deets, the ever-bountiful vault and info on future events for backers!

GET OUT YOUR JAZZ DISCHARGE PARTY HATS!

The movie was accepted to the great SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. I’ll announce the screening dates as soon as I have them! I couldn’t be more thrilled; this is both a movie and music festival and draws a huge crowd of music lovers. Please come join us if you can. And thanks to Rolling Stone for this cool piece on the premiere!

Of course now we will also be scheduling the other backer screenings in the different cities around the country. We are working in collaboration with the mighty Alamo Draft House who know how to put on a great show, and I can’t wait to meet all of you at those screenings! Look for announcements of those dates to follow the SXSW premiere, as well as additional film festivals worldwide!

The coffee table book is being made as we speak; stuffed with never before seen images and the text being written for us by the legendary David Fricke, with design by the great Mike Mesker. It’s going to be amazing! The soundtrack is also in the works, with original album cover art being created by the genius Cal Schenkel. We’re not f*cking around! And all information on the dates for those and the other remaining backer rewards will go out as soon as we have them!

WE GOTTA COME UP WITH SOME NEW SHIT!

Here's the link to the Rolling Stone article:
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/frank-zappa-south-by-southwest-doc-937847/

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF FRANK ZAPPA'S MUSIC

In 2017, Stefan Ullmann wrote an essay on the music of Frank Zappa as part of his bachelor study.
He released it as a 36-page booklet in February 2019.
It includes scores and lots of theoretical explanations (and it's in German)

He re-released it last September as a book-on-demand.
Different cover, altered title, same impressive booklet. Also in German.

In the meantime, Stefan also released an English version.

KEVIN AYERS & THE WIZARDS OF TWIDDLY - TURN THE LIGHTS DOWN!

• kevin ayers & the wizards of twiddly: turn the lights down
      (2000, cd, uk, market square music msmcd105)

I'm happy to have obtained a copy of "Turn The Lights Down" by Kevin Ayers & The Wizards Of Twiddly. Kevin Ayers should need no introduction as he was part of The Soft Machine.
The Wizards Of Twiddly are a superb band in their own right. At a certain time, Carl Bowry, Andy Frizell and Martin Smith also were part of The Muffin Men, performing the music of Frank Zappa.

Anyway, "Turn The Lights Down" is a pretty fine album. Laid-back.

Here's The Muffins Of Twiddly, or The Wizard Men if you prefer, in concert in 2002 :

ANOTHER ZAPPA COLORING BOOK

• frank zappa coloring book
  by denise day
      (2019, book, --, private release) 

The Zappa Coloring Book that got published by Fantoons last November, was a 'real' coloring book.
The above pictured 40-page booklet by Denise Day does not qualify as one as it offers terrible black and white scans of pictures of FZ.

I'll be putting my crayons back in the drawer...