Data of Zappa's "Congress Shall Make No Law..." has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
I do like this album. There's only snippets of music, and that's a pity, but I do enjoy listening to FZ's Congress speech a lot.
A 2CD set would have been nice though... With the the bonus disc being all Synclavier material. Now THAT would have been something.
Here's a sample of what The Danglers can do with Zappa's music.
In 1991, Ed Mann and Chad Wackerman contributed to Andy Summers' "Charming Snakes" album. A couple of track can be found on the above mentioned 1998 compilation.
For a taste, try
http://overdoseoffingalcocoa.blogspot.com/2010/11/andy-summers.html
-- info: Jan van Kemenade
Not much has been heard from Andre Lewis after his period with Zappa in the late seventies. He did make four solo albums (as Mandre) between 1977 and 1980, but that's about it.
This changed when Rush Hour re-released his "4" album earlier this year. Even more recently, Rush Hour released 'Solar Flight' on 12" with a remix of the Mandre composition.
The AMT is not the easiest band to follow. They tour a lot in lots of different permutations but they also release records on various labels all over the world.
The above mentions "The Night Before The Sky Fell In America" is a download-only album on the Argentinian Mandarinas Records label. The official AMT discography states that it was made available as a CDR, but I didn't find any info to confirm this.
Anyway, this release is just one track: a 39-plus-minute version of 'Pink Lady Lemonade (Explosion of Love)'.
It's all yours at:
A couple of days ago, I received a copy of The Global Broad Band's "Waddya Want" EP. Unfamiliar with the band or with the Stone Premonitions project, I didn't really know what to expect.
Written and performed by The Reverend Rabbit & Paddi (= Tim Jones & Paddi Addison), "Waddya Want" offers three fine tracks. These are up-tempo, rock songs with great guitar work and fine drumming. Comes with some heavy social commentary.
Here's a YouTube movie of "Free Palestine", one of their other projects. It should give you a good enough idea of what the band sounds like.
I like it.
Another Zappa CD-bootleg set has been spotted: "Muffin Man Goes To College".
1975 04 26 - providence college, providence, ri, usa
frank zappa, denny walley, captain beefheart, tom fowler, terry bozzio, napoleon murphy brock, george duke, bruce fowler
The Dutch Kindred Spirits label will be releasing a series of four 10"-EPs with unreleased Sun Ra material. Straight from the Art Yard vault.
Volume one will be out next December (and that's in a couple of weeks, already)
-- info: the Saturn newsgroup
The italian Sagittarius label released a 1986 Sun Ra concert on vinyl.
In a limited edition of 200 copies! And the first 26 numbered copies have different artwork and a different color insert, plus stamps on back cover.
A very nice cover, by the way.
-- info: the Saturn newsgroup
Adding data to the United Mutations Archives, here's the cover of the recent Them Or Us (The Book) rerelease.
www.rtpappon.com
www.myspace.com/rtpappon
www.scrutinizer.com.br
February 27, 1984, the Sun Ra Arkestra performed at the 'Orpheus Theatre' in Athens, Greece. One year later, the first part of the concert, "Live At Praxis '84 Vol.I", was published on Kostas Yiannoulopoulos' Praxis label. Volumes II and III came out the subsequent years on the same Greek label.
In 2000, however, the complete recording found its way to a 2CD set on the Leo Records label.
Besides the fabulous Sun Ra themes, there's quite a lot of beautiful standards on this set as well: 'Mack The Knife', 'Cocktails For Two', '(Somewhere) Over The Rainbow', 'Days Of Wine And Roses', ...
Data & pictures have been added to the United Mutations Archives.
Pretty impressive tribute.
Adding another album to the United Mutations Archives, here's the 1996 release "Stardust From Tomorrow" on the Leo Records label.
This 2 CD set takes us back to a 1989 Austria concert where Sun Ra and his Arkestra treated the listener to an impressive mix of chaos, improvisations and some classic Ra humm alongs.
Exceptional moment: 'Discipline 27' includes a violin solo by June Tyson!
Beautiful.
Adrian Belew is performing in Erfurt, Germany, today, ending a short European tour.
American guitarist and composer Dennis Rea has lived in China and in Taiwan from 1989 and 1993. He has also done numerous concerts and tours in Eastern Asia, introducing modern jazz and experimental music to curious audiences.
We know Dennis Rea from his work with rock band Moraine and with the Iron Kim Style free jazz ensemble. On "Views From Chicheng Precipice" however, we learn to know another side of Dennis Rea. Meet his tribute to the music of the far east.
"Views From Chicheng Precipice" presents 5 beautiful pieces. The first one is composed by Dennis. The other four are adaptations of traditional Taiwanese and Chinese melodies.
This is very nice. It's obviously done with a lot of respect and love for the music of the far east.
Each composition / arrangement is instantly identifiable as an eastern piece of music. It's only upon closer listening that one detects that it's actually played on a combination of eastern and western instruments.
This album takes you on a trip. Here are some of my favourite moments:
An adventure !
Recommended listening.
Out on MoonJune!
http://www.moonjune.com/
Below YouTube video is an audience recording of 'Kan Hai De Re Zi' as performed by Dennis Rea.
Mike Keneally has made "Elements Of A Manatee" available as a download-only album from Exowax recordings.
"Elements Of A Manatee" is an audio version of the DVD that was included in the recent "Evidence Of Humanity" set. It's an audio version of the Mike Keneally & Marco Minnemann improvisation that was included on this DVD.
http://www.exowax.com/
In the meantime, MK is still touring with Joe Satriani.
and Mike will be doing another live Ustream video chat on November 21.
This Sunday, November 21 at 7 p.m. European time
(6 p.m. UK time, 1 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. Pacific time)
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mike-keneally
And there's more as Dutch Radio 6 will be airing parts of the Steve Vai festival that was held in Groningen, NL, recently.
December 6 and 13, 2010 - 11 pm
"P.V.PRESENTS" stands for "Pierre Vervloesem Presents", and it's a little part of the Off Records Label.
Pierre Vervloesem is a Belgian guitar player, composer and producer who makes all kinds of beautiful and interesting music.
The latest release on P.V.Presents is a 4CD Box, including:
Seeing the Soft Machine Legacy live at Zappanale in 2006 was a revelation for me. I was familiar with the band's first releases (up to the "Seven" album), but I didn't really know what they had been doing lately.
The Zappanale (August 2006) line-up consisted of John Etheridge (guitar), John Marshall (drums), Theo Travis (sax) and Hugh Hopper (bass), and they made an everlasting impression.
"Live Adventures" captures the band in the same spirit. This new MoonJune album presents live recordings from October 2009. The late Hugh Hopper has been replaced by Roy Babbington, and the band still mixes older, familiar material with new compositions (at least to my ears!).
The band has been around since the late sixties, and some of these compositions might be over thirty years old, but "Live Adventures" sounds as fresh and contemporary as it can get.
Timeless might be a better word for it.
This prog rock / fusion at the highest level.
If any other band would display such a high quality in musicianship and composition, they'd be the discovery of the year.
Superb. And, yes, again great guitar playing by John Etheridge!
Hghly recommended.
Here's the Carl Jenkins penned 'The Nodder', recorded in Rome. Taken from the same tour:
The Asphalt Orchestra is a U.S. 12-piece marching band. The spectacular thing is that these boys and girls don't just march around while they're playing music, they're doing it with a lot of show, AND they play some great contemporary material at the same time.
The band's eponymous debut album got released on the Bang On A Can label a couple of months ago, and it includes tunes by amongst others Björk, Charles Mingus, and Frank Zappa ('Zomby Woof')
Superb!
And their name fits the package perfectly.
Check out the video and watch it to the end. There's a couple of nice surprises.
Following are the setlists:
2010/10/30 concert "Zappaween", State Theatre', St.Petersburg, FL, usa
Jerry Outlaw & Friends....
ESSENTIAL
produced by gail zappa & joe travers
mixed by frank filipetti
all compositions by frank zappa
disc one
disc two
disc three
In "Zappa The Hard Way", Andrew Greenawy takes an in-depth look at Zappa's 1988 tour.
The tour kicked off in February 1988 in New York City and continued on the U.S. East Coast until the end of March. From April on, the twelve-piece band performed in Europe. The band started in France and played some forty-plus dates all over the old continent.
Somewhere during these concerts a couple of the bandmembers were having troubles with clonemeister Scott Thunes. (clonemeister = the one who is in charge of the rehearsals)
Eventually, this got so bad that Zappa decided to stop the tour after the last date in Europe. He cancelled three months of concerts on the U.S. West Coast, hence naming one of the albums that he released with 1988 material, "The Best Band You Never Heard".
For "Zappa The Hard Way", Andrew Greenaway interviewed almost everyone who was in Zappa's 1988 band. Everyone tells the story like he remembers it. This makes "Zappa The Hard Way" an extraordinary book. Not only does it give a behind-the-scenes look of what happened during the tour, it also gives you an idea of how Zappa and the various bandmembers must have felt. Plus, it lets you follow the musical development that happened during the concerts: the new pieces that got introduced, the arrangements that changed, the secret words, ...
Zappa knew that touring makes you crazy. He had been caught in his own "200 Motels" and there was nothing he could do about it. FZ was touring with what he considered the best band he ever had, and he had to quit.
In "Zappa The Hard Way", Andrew does not look for answers. He does not point the finger at anyone. He just tells the story of a fabulous tour, spiced with interview fragments.
Thanks to Hakon Busterud, I was able to add pictures of the rarest vinyl 45 in the history of Capt. Beefheart, the testpressing of "Moonchild/Here I am, I always am".
There's only one copy known to exist. It was discovered in the vaults of A&M by Jeffrey Gold in 1984 when the preparation of the release of the The Legendary A&M sessions took place.
Hakon adds:
"What is very interesting is that when you study the matrix numbers you will discover that this 45 was intended as the second CB 45 from A&M. Why they didn't want to release the 45 with 'Here I am, I always am' as the B-side and changed it with 'Frying Pan' is a mystery because I think both songs are good enough.
If they had chosen 'Here I Am' as B-side on the release it would have been 'Frying Pan' that would have ended in the vaults. Both 45's use 1228/1229 as matrix numbers. The difference is that the Moonchild/Frying pan 45 has 1228-RE/1229-RE in the matrix. You can also see that there is a space in time between the intended release and the final one because the additional matrixnumber on Here I am is 63411 and the one for Frying pan is 63923 which 512 numbers later in the production."
