Another semi-official release, meaning that it's a legit release but released without the Zappa Family Trust's approval.
The BBC sessions from October 1968.
With a 20-minute version of 'King Kong'.
Released on a one-sided vinyl album, on splatter vinyl.
Swedish guitar duo MagNiFZnt will be doing a concert, performing the music of Frank Zappa, at the 'Art Rock Café' in Göteborg (Sweden) on January 30, 2016.
At 18h00.
'Art Rock Café' = Gårdascenen, Fabriksgatan 32, Göteborg
Ham Sessions 2016 will present three days of concerts in Ghent (BE) during the month of May.
May 16 has both Sinister Sister and Flat Earth Society scheduled.
(= FES cd release concert "Terms of Embarrassment")
Both ensembles will be performing the music of Frank Zappa.
Absolutely Frank is a brand-new music project by Tal Wilkins (who used to play guitar with Zappatika).
As the name suggests, Absolutely Frank will be performing the music of Frank Zappa.
The Japanese Ward Records label has released a 4 CD set by Terry Bozzio, entitled "The Composer Series".
There's a very limited 4 CD + 2 Blu-ray + DVD version that comes with an art book,
but there's also a more classic 4 CD + DVD and a 4 CD + Blu-ray version.
Ed says:
A little backstory on my 10th gift. One of the songs I recorded recently is a ballad called "Dustin's Lullaby". It's not technically a Christmas song or carol, but I include it here because of the love that the piece exudes for the dedicatee I wrote it for.
Dustin Gill is my sister Kathy's 2nd child. Conrad is the first (a song for him has been recorded and will be given away sooner or later. Same with a song I wrote for my sister Kathy).
Dustin had the tragic misfortune of being hit by a car days before his 6th birthday. He survived it but was paralyzed from the neck down and needed a ventilator for the remaining 2 decades of his very short life.
Dustin was amazing. Even with that enormous tragedy, he managed to learn how to work a computer the same way Steven Hawkings does. But quadriplegics suffer from a host of physical problems, so Dustin passed in his early 20s.
This has remained the Palermo family's most tragic event but the memory of Dustin lives on.
So with that thought:
On the 10th Day of Christmas Ed Palermo gave to me . . .
DUSTIN’S LULLABY.
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Ed says:
Okay, we're winding down.
One of my favorite TV shows of all time was TWIN PEAKS. The music was incredible!
Last year, I had the idea of arranging a mash up of SILENT NIGHT with the theme from TWIN PEAKS. We debuted it at our 2014 Christmas show at the Falcon. What you are listening to here is that performance.
On the 11th Day of Christmas Ed Palermo gave to me . . .
a mash-up of SILENT NIGHT/TWIN PEAKS THEME written by Gruber, Mohr & Badalamenti
arranged by me and recorded live at The Falcon by Ray Morelli
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Ed Palermo Big Band - It's an Ed Palermo Christmas! (Reprise) Xmas EP 2015
A reprise of the title song written and arranged by Ed Palermo. From the 2015 EP, "It's an Ed Palermo Christmas! God Bless Us, Everyone!" Engineering by Steve Jankowski
Ed Palermo Big Band - Dominick the Donkey
featuring Mike James on vocals. written by Lou Monte, arranged by Ed Palermo. From the 2015 EP, "It's an Ed Palermo Christmas! God Bless Us, Everyone!"
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Ed Palermo Big Band - Little Drummer Boy 2015
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Ed Palermo Big Band - What Child Is This? 2015
A little background before I give you my next "gift":
Today's tune and yesterday's tune were recorded a few years ago for a VERY unofficial album of Christmas music that I only gave out to family members. Most of the songs were carols that I arranged and featured the voices of nieces and nephews, etc.
"Little Drummer Boy" from yesterday and "What Child Is This?" today are from that album.
"Little Drummer Boy" featured my nephew Kevin Palermo who is the son of my brother John. It also featured John's other son, Ryan on snare drum.
"What Child Is This?" features the beautiful vocal of John's wife, Judy. And that is John playing those soulful guitar parts.
So, without any further ado,
DAY ONE
Day One, we begin with a beautiful little composition by Darius Milhaud that I arranged for my big band that I renamed 'Tiny Toy Soldiers'. Enjoy!"
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DAY TWO
The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music, but beware the Toads of the Short Forest!
Rogers, Hammerstein and . . . ZAPPA!? OH MY!!
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DAY THREE - The Nutrocker
by Tchaikovsky, Fowley. arranged by Ed Palermo. featuring Ted Kooshian on tack piano.
From the 2015 EP, "It's an Ed Palermo Christmas! God Bless Us, Everyone!"
Fellow Saturnians. Art Yard has just released the ultimate book about Sun Ra. "Omniverse Sun Ra" is a hardbound 300-page voyage throught Sun Ra's musical world. By Hartmut Geerken and Chris Trent.
Articles, pictures, album data and record covers... Incredible.
Three years ago, concert hall and music centre De Bijloke started an impressive project. The artistic director of De Bijloke asked contemporary composer Frank Nuyts to write another four piano sonates. At the time, Frank Nuyts had already written fourteen piano sonates. All of them, including the four new pieces would be performed at De Bijloke during six concerts, spread over 3 years. The sonates would be performed by different pianists and would be recorded and released on CD.
Frank Nuyts agreed and the project took a start at De Bijloke in December 2012.
At every new concert, the audience received the CD of the previous concert, resulting in an impressive set of recordings. The project ended with a performance of the 11th, 12th and 18th sonate in February 2015.
Last month, De Bijloke released a box set of all six albums.
Piano sonates aren't the easiest pieces of music to listen to, but these are fascinating. They'll keep me busy for long time.
The last two years, Pierre Vervloesem has made his entire catalogue available as digital downloads. Every album got remastered and got released with a number of bonus material: demos and/or other unreleased material.
An admirable piece of work.
This series also included a couple of previously unreleased albums: a second album that Pierre did with John Litton Baroï, and an album from the Harakiriad project from 2005.
As if that wasn't enough, the series ended with three albums worth of material that Pierre had recorded but that never found its way to a record: live recordings, demos and other fun stuff.
"Pot-Pourri" Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
You definitely need to check this out.
This is superb.
As a hidden gem, one of the albums includes a bizarre version of FZ's 'How Could I Be Such A Fool'!!
You need this and you know it.
The Muffin Men will be performing the music of Frank Zappa at The Cavern in Liverpool (UK) on December 20, 2015. Celebrating their 25th anniversary. This is an event that you don't want to miss.
About eight months ago, the Off Records label released "What Went Wrong?" and album by My Skinny Wonderland, an alias for Belgian singer, composer, pianist and perfomer Philippe Tasquin.
As Skinny / Philippe explains in the introduction, the album offers two coverversions (Les Baxter's 'Quiet Village" and Dimitri Tiomkin's 'Town Without Pity') with a number of original tunes in-between. Skinny does hope that these original tunes will once become classic covers as well.
Off Records adds: Originally produced in 2002 as a limited edition cd, Off is now pleased to re released this grand guignol production!
Philippe Tasquin at his best, writing, playing, singing like one of the best Hollywood or Broadway writer!
It's swinging, it's burlesque, it's symphonic pop, it's cabaret, it's crazy, it's fun, it's Tasquin! Produced and mixed by the other Belgian master Pierre Vervloesem who also co composed a few tracks and played on all of them.
Frank Zappa's "200 Motels - The Suites", as performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chorale and a selection of guests at the 'Walt Disney Music Hall' in L.A. on October 20, 2013. Conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
I saw it's twin concert in London one week later. Performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the London Voices, conducted by Jurjen Hempel. That was breathtaking.
This performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic sounds superb as well.
Essential listening.
Finnish band Can Can Heads released their second album, "Butter Life", in 2014.
Can Can Heads is a nest of contradictions, twists and surprises. It’s violent music with a gentle heart. The band’s front man doesn’t sing. Or play an instrument. He occupies the space on stage where a lead singer usually resides. And gyrates. Generally, the bass is as close as the band gets to a lead instrument. The music is convulsive and jerky, but manages to reach a hypnotic state. It’s like tribal music made by a quintet consisting of misfits and contrarians. Hailing from a barn in the flood-prone flatlands of Bothnia in western Finland, Can Can Heads has been kicking against the pricks for over two decades. They’ve managed to avoid all contact with the roaming searchlights of media attention by skulking from one margin to another: punk, no wave, free jazz, noise. All this goes into a blender and out comes something the band itself tends to call “Ramones meets Albert Ayler”. Others might call it skronk. Butter Life is not smooth and it’s not creamy. It sizzles and scrapes, raking its lo-fi nails from your scapula down to the small of your back. (Arttu Tolonen)
The show came to a close when Dweezil welcomed Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo for "Muffin Man." Zappa Plays Zappa ends the tour tonight in San Juan Capistrano, California.
Tal Wilkenfeld & Vinnie Colaiuta with Zappa Plays Zappa Live
Zappa Plays Zappa is joined on stage by two very special guests. Bassist Tal Wilkenfeld and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta with guitarist Dweezil Zappa and saxophonist Scheila Gonzalez perform A Pound For A Brown On A Bus live at the Saban Theater, Beverly Hills, CA December 11, 2015. Vinnie Colaiuta was Frank Zappa's drummer starting with Joe's Garage in 1979. He also played drums on Tinseltown Rebellion (1981), Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981), The Man From Utopia (1983), Guitar (1988), You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1, 4, 6 among others.
Music centre De Bijloke Ghent is releasing 18 piano sonates by contemporary composer Frank Nuyts.
These sonates have been recorded in concert at De Bijloke the last couple of years.
Warren Cuccurullo recorded "N'Liten Up" in 2005.
The album got released earlier today, which is about ten years later.
It features Joe Travers, Dale Bozzio and Shenkar and a host of others.
@ Soul Inn, Plattesteen 18, Brussels (around the corner of the Ancienne Belgique)
17 December 2015 - 9 p.m.
free entrance
Captain Cheese-Beard happily emerged years ago as a Frank Zappa tribute project and has since developed and grown into a unique fusion ensemble. After years of respectfully interpreting Zappa's music, bandleader Johan De Coninck decided that the time had come to go beyond and to start writing original compositions as a group. Since the stylistic direction was given by their previous project, it seems that Captain Cheese-Beard has taken it upon themselves to contribute to the global music family and to write original music that could nonetheless have very well been on the next Zappa record. That being noted, this talented group is developing their own momentum and it will be exciting to see and hear where this fantastic journey goes.
DJ [Z] is the Zappa dj alter ego of Zappa connoisseur Zjakki Willems. Yes, boys and gals, Music Is The Best!
Fido Plays Zappa has released a superb 7".
In times of digital releases, our Swiss friends are brave enough to put some of their musical adventures on vinyl.
"Dirty Brown" has Frank Zappa's 'Bobby Brown' on side A, completely disguised in a fabulous mash-up, and a mix of FZ's 'Dirty Love' and 'Magic Fingers' on side B.
This is superb.
Feb 03 Tel Aviv – ISR Barby
Feb 05 Copenhagen – DK Amager Bio
Feb 06 Gothenburg – SE Stenhammarsalen
Feb 07 Helsinki – ITA Tavastia
Feb 09 Milan – ITA Blue Note
Feb 11 Roma – ITA Auditorium Parco della Musica
Feb 13 Firenze – ITA Viper
Feb 15 Vienna – AU Porgy and Bess
Feb 16 Brezno – SK Bombura Club
Feb 17 Brno – CZ Sono Centrum
Feb 18 Prague – CZ Lucerna Bar
Feb 20 Wroclaw – PL Polish Radio Concert Hall
Feb 21 Warsaw – PL Progresja Music Zone
Feb 23 Bonn – DE Harmonie
Feb 24 Tilburg – NL Paradox
Feb 25 Zoetermeer – NL Boerderij
Feb 27 Twist – DE Heimat Haus
Feb 28 Ludwigshafen – DE dasHaus
Feb 29 Kufstein – AU Kulturfabrik
Mar 02 Barcelona – ES Sala Bikini
Sat. Dec. 12th
10pm
Parkside Lounge, NYC
Gary performs his new solo acoustic composition "Willow 'o the Wisp"
as part of The Acoustic Guitar Project NYC,
curated by Dusty Wright--more performers tba
Listen to "Will o' the Wisp": http://bit.ly/1MN5aKR
Monday Dec. 21st
8:30pm
Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3, NYC
Gary sits in with his friend and collaborator vocalist Jann Klose new Gary Lucas and Jann Klose album "Stereopticon"
Released Jan. 8th on Cosmic Trigger Records http://www.lucasklose.com
Fri. Jan. 15th
12:30am
Subculture, NYC
Gary Lucas sits in with Jeff Lederer's Brooklyn Blowhards at the Winter JazzFest
Sat. Feb. 20th
2pm
Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria NY
Gary Lucas & Sarah Stiles FLEISCHEREI duo
perform songs from Max Fleischer's Betty Boop and Popeye Cartoons
along with a screening of pre-code Fleischer cartoon classics New FLEISCHEREI album released Feb. 5th on Cuneiform Records http://bit.ly/1AvShzq
Sat. March 5th 2016
time tba
AFI Silver Theatre, Silver Spring MD
Gary Lucas' FLEISCHEREI: Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons
featuring Sarah Stiles as Betty Boop
and Joe Fiedler, Jeff Lederer, Rob Garcia and Michael Bates
with select Fleischer cartoon classics
part of the Washington DC Jewish Film Festival
In the late 1960's I visited my sister Miss Christine, of the GTO's, at the
Log Cabin in Laurel Canyon. She was living there as the governess of Moon Unit.
I visited her many times and there was a story for every visit. I took a
stack of 45's with me one of the times, and Frank was interested in looking at
them. Of course he had an amazing record collection and I doubted my stack would
provide him anything new. He did find a nugget in my 45s, it was "No No
Cherry by the Turbins. He put it on his record playing system and commented that
this record demonstrated something for the first time ever. To this day I don't
know what that something was, I gave him the 45 and he was most appreciative.
You Tube does have the recording.
Peace
Here's another one of those not-easy-to-find vinyl albums. Released in 1983 in Venezuela, "Asimetria" by the Orquesta Venezolana De Musica Actual includes the Orquestra's version of Zappa's 'America Drinks And Goes Home'. It's an instrumental big band version, flavoured with South American rhythms. An excellent addition to the Others Of Invention.
Good news from Bananafishin' Records !!
Two new vinyl albums have been released.
After various k7 (cassette) releases and four CDR's, "The End Of The Intellect" is the first vinyl album for the Lama Home Band.
And the first volume (sessions 01 and 02) / vinyl album for Blutch (the improvised music project, founded by David
Treesome and Kim Kang, organised at least once a year when a group of
friends/musicians come together during a weekend to record music). Both albums have been released in a limited pressing of 240 copies.
More info soon.
The late Jimmy Carl Black, original drummer for The Mothers Of Invention, got a beautiful expo at Zappanale 20 in 2009.
This DVDR takes you through that expo and through the festival.
Music by Jimmy Carl Black, The Grandmothers, The Muffin Men and Project/Object. A fine tribute.
On a related note, here's Jimmy Carl Black in "Panama Red", the 1976 low-budget movie.
Sal Cataldi has been making music for quite a number of years but he only recently recorded and released his first solo album.
"Sketches Of Spam" is a very diverse album. It presents acoustic singer / songwriter pieces next to electric rock, experimental and jazz influenced pieces.
I wanted to hear the entire album because it includes 'Nap Dust', an excellent variation of Frank Zappa's 'Sleep Dirt', and I'm glad I did. 'Sketches Of Spam' is a fine album.
For their first album "Yes We Didn't", Thelonious Moog (Joe 'Guido' Welsh and Steve Million) recorded a set of Thelonious Monk tunes.
"American Standards" is the duo's second album. They kept the name but changed the concept. As the title suggests, the listener is treated to moog-ed versions of a number of familiar sounding tunes.
The album opens with 'Powerhouse', the Raymond Scott classic, and ends with Earle Hagen's 'Harlem Nocturne'. In-between are superb and hilarious versions of great tunes, including Frank Zappa's 'Duodenum' (and Focus' 'Hocus Pocus'). The album got released in 2007 (how come I only heard about it now ?!?). Nice artwork / package by Wayno and David Greenberger.
July 18, 2015, Ike Willis and Zappatika took the stage at the Zappanale festival in Bad Doberan, Germnay. The band had promised to bring Zappa's "Joe's Garage" back to life and had brought along Denny Walley, Ed Mann, Craig 'Twister' Steward and Jeff Hollie for the occasion.
Ike started the gig by telling the audience that they kick off with a couple of his original songs. An excellent idea as I really like Ike's solo albums.
Unfortunately, Ike's voice wasn't up for the job. Traveling, fatigue, who knows, but it was very unfortunate indeed... Great playing, but I lacked the power in Ike's voice.
The concert was made available on DVDR at the festival.
"125 Electronic Bebop" presents the results of a recording session that Jimmy Carl Black, Bruno Marini and DJT "The Thief" did in July 2008.
Jimmy on drums, Bruno on tenor sax and flute and DJT on electonics.
In 2007, Jon Larsen released an excellent album entitled "Strange News From Mars" on which a number of former Zappa sidemen were featured. Jon also released a number of biography sessions on which Jimmy Carl Black, Don Preston and Bunk Gardner talk about their musical careers. The first one got released in 2007 and featured The Indian Of The Group. Music composed by Jon Larsen. Performed by Jon Larsen and friends, with special guest Tommy Mars. The album got released as a download-only thing in 2007, but 100 numbered copies were released as promo (with a slightly different title).
steve vai: blues for dust (2011, download, -, light without heat / vaitunes #8)
I only recently found out that Steve Vai's 'Blues For Dust' Vai Tunes #8 release had also been made available as a CDR-on-demand release.
Nice.
Still, a bit weird that not all of the Vai Tunes songs have been released on CDR.
July18, 2015, Fried Dähn did another concert at the Zappanale festival. This time, he had brought along a band that he called Das Onomatopoeia Perturbation Consort. I had expected a lot from this concert but it didn't really meet my expectations. The band used Zappa's lyrics, translated into German, put on compositions by Fried Dähn (?). Apparently very funny for the German part of the audience, but musically rather weak. They did perform two Zappa compositions: 'Twenty Small Cigars' and 'King Kong'.
The concert got recorded and was released on DVDR in a very limited edition at the festival.
"Singing Through You" is the second of two new Magic Band releases (the other one being "Magnetic Draw"). Recorded in Londen on March 16, 2016. The band had already released an (audio) album from this concert, entitled "The Magic Band Plays The Music Of Captain Beefheart". An excellent show. I'm glad that a video recording of this concert is being made available.
