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.
As suggested by my pal Danny, I'm checking out Keenroh XL (at this very moment).
2014, Keenroh got the Jong Jazztalent Gent award.
At that time, Keenroh was a duo : Jan Daelman (flute) and Thijs Troch (piano).
One year later, they're back as Keenroh XL, featuring 9 musicians (including Bart Maris and Teun Verbruggen).
Lot's of soundscapes and improvisations. Very nice.
I'm a couple of days too late with this, but I guess that if you live near Sao Paulo or Rio De Janeiro, that you can still catch Flat Earth Society in concert.
25 november - Festival Música Estranha, São Paulo
27 november - Festival Música Estranha, São Paulo
28 november - Club GIG, São Carlos
29 november - Festival Música Estranha, São Paulo
2 december - Festival Música Estranha, Rio de Janeiro
The band's new album "Terms Of Embarrassment", a tribute to the music of Frank Zappa, will be released March 2016 !!
Fans of the music of Captain Beefheart should know that there are two new releases out by the Magic Band.
"Magnetic Draw" is a 2DVD set. The recoding on the first disc sees the band in action in Lincoln, UK on May 23, 2014. The second disc features interviews with the band memebers.
John 'Drumbo' French, Mark 'Rockette Morton' Boston and Denny 'Feelers Reebo' Walley, plus Eric Klerks and Andrew Niven.
Flashback to July 2015 with the Band From Utopia performing at Zappanale. Next to core memebers Robert Martin, Ray White, Tom Fowler and Albert Wing, the band featured Morgan Agren on drums and Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano on the guitar.
To me, the best line-up as of yet.
Nice setlist and a superb performance. One of the best concerts of the recent Zappanale (and of older Zappanales too). Special guests Mats Öberg and Denny Walley were the icing on the cake.
The concert was released on DVDR in a very limited run.
Last year, Clark Colborn released "Frank Made Me Do It", the Frank in question being none other than Frank Zappa.
Clark Colborn is inspired by Frank Zappa. On this mini album, the listener is treated to four original compositions that indeed show Zappa's influence (Gimpy The Weasel, Elephant Hoosegow, The Stalker Song, and Happy Happy Man Parts), plus Clark's version of the Frank Zappa classic 'My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama'.
Musical madness and superb guitar playing.
Bunky Moon is Ron Brendle on electric bass, Troy Conn on guitars and Chris Garges on drums and percussion. The trio recorded an excellent version of Frank Zappa's 'King Kong' and released it on their "Schtuff We Like" album from 2011. 11 tracks. 4 original tunes, 7 fine classic (prog) rock songs (one of which is FZ's 'King Kong').
Flying Horseman is a project of guitarist and songwriter Bert Dockx (Dans Dans).
Dark sounding folk / blues.
"Night Is Long" is album number four for Flying Horseman.
The Muffin Men are celebrating their 25th anniversary. Celebrate it with them and join them on one of these dates: Nov 20 at The Continental in Preston; Nov 27 at The Box in Crewe Nov 28 at Greystones in Sheffield and Dec 20 at The Cavern in Liverpool Presumably very occupied baking the birthday cake, Chief Muffin Roddie could be convinced to answer some questions.
UniMuta : Roddie, please let me congratulate you with 25 years of Muffin Madness. I'm happy to hear that you will be doing a couple of gigs to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Muffin Men. Tell us a bit about these upcoming gigs.
Roddie : Thank you Peter. We never thought that things would go so far! There have been many ups and downs over the years, but somehow we have managed to keep things moving. The best thing is, we are playing a gig exactly 25 years to the day of that very first gig. There will be at least 13 Muffins at The Cavern Gig, including all of the original line-up except for Roy Stringer who sadly passed away almost 15 years ago. Everyone involved is living in or around the Liverpool area, sadly we can’t have any of our friends from the US with us, due to the expense of flights etc., so this will be very much a home grown event.
We couldn’t be sure that everyone would be available, or want to do it, but we are pleased that everyone has agreed to turn up. For the last 4 years the core band has been a quartet, consisting of 3 original members, Rhino, Jumpy and me, along with Phil Hearn on keyboards. It will be great to extend the band, especially with horns, and different guitars, drummers and bass.
When we asked Mike Kidson if he was available to play, we were happy to learn that he has a few months off from his real job with The Australian Pink Floyd. He has agreed to join us in the 3 November gigs, so they will be as a quintet. It is 20 years since he played with us, so anyone who has never seen him will be in for a suprise, he is a one off and one of the true spirits of the original band.
As for the Cavern gig, we will be joined by Bammo, our original singer/guitarist, Naraish on bass and Waco on keyboards, then we will have Steve Belger who played drums on the 1993 tour, Friz on bass, then Carl, Tilo and Martin will also be joining in. Mike Smith is also coming. So we are trying to plan some sort of evolving line-up. No doubt there will be some sort of massed big band chaos towards the end. The gig will take place in the afternoon between 3-6pm.
UniMuta : Sounds great. I also heard / read somewhere that you're considering a tour in Germany early next year.
Roddie : We had Ulli look at the possibility of doing a short German tour next May, but so far nothing arrange.
UniMuta : Too bad. But if it does happen, just be sure to add some dates in Belgium and in The Netherlands. During your latest German tour, you had a female guest vocalist. How did that come about?
Roddie : The last short German tour was very interesting, especially having Silke Gonska singing with us, the first female Muffin! Silke is from Thuringia, she is a voice tutor at Erfurt University. She had previously sang Zappa with Ensemble Creativ. Ulli has known her for many years, so he suggested it might be an interesting collaboration. We found out the she had seen us several times back in the old days, when she was studying in Weimar in 1992. She used to see us playing in the old East German student clubs.
...
UniMuta : You've done numerous concerts with The Muffin Men, recorded an impressive lot of albums and toured and recorded with Jimmy Carl Black, and Denny Walley, just to name two.
Roddie : Well, do you know, Jimmy actually played with the Muffin Men for longer than he played in The Mothers, he is a big part of our history, and a dear friend, we missed him so much. We have been fortunate to play with many of the Zappa guys, some of them many times. Jimmy was always in contact with Denny and often told him about the Muffin Men. So when Denny started coming back to England with The Magic Band we got together.
UniMuta : You even drove the Magic Band around in the UK, right? Pretty incredible. Is there something that you still have on you bucket list, music-wise?
Roddie : Yep, I drove The Magic Band around for 6 weeks in 2005, it was great spending time with those guys, we became good friends and I got to see and hear the music up close. It was a joy to watch Rockette and Drumbo each night. Who knows what’s around the next corner, let’s just wait and see.
UniMuta : One of my fondest MMM (Muffin Men memories) is the concert that you guys did with Ike Willis at 'De Wollewei' in my home town Turnhout somewhere in the ninetees. Hard to believe, but I recently got a copy of the poster from that gig from one of my friends. Out of the blue. After 20 years...
Roddie : Ike Willis played a 9 week tour with us in 1994, that was the first time he had been on the road since the 1988 Zappa tour. It was a long hard tour, the weather was bad and we travelled many miles. Ike got sick and missed a few gigs, but we did have a great tour, with that real voice at the front. That was probably the line-up that sounded most like a Zappa band, we had 2 keyboard players, 3 guitars and horns.
UniMuta : The good old days... 20 years ago, The Muffin Men were the only band to perform the music of Frank Zappa. Nowadays, you've got Zappa Plays Zappa, the Banned From Utopia, The Grandmothers, and lots of other bands.
Roddie : Well, there were several bands who played Zappa music before we did, if fact 2 of them were Dutch, Gruppo Sportivo did a bunch of Zappa/Mothers songs, then there was Bleeding Romeo from Eindhoven led by Marco, they were fun guys. I suppose we were the first band to cross borders in Europe, certainly before most of the ex-Zappa guys started performing the music again.
The Band from Utopia actually came together through Reinhard Preuss, who arranged the Jazz Open gig in Stuttgart in 1994, that came about after we had done the tour with Ike. Originally the plan was for the Muffins to be the house band, with various ex-Zappa guests playing with us, but it soon grew into something bigger and before we knew it, there was a full band of alumni.
UniMuta : Do you have the impression that there's more interest in Zappa's music now than 20 years ago? Did time finally catch up with Zappa's music?
Roddie : Obviously when we first started out, the majority of the audience were 1st and 2nd generation Zappa followers, but over the years there have been younger people turning up as well as the original audience. Younger musicians who search for interesting sounds and harmony come to see and hear it live. Although the audience is not massive, there is a small appreciative audience for it. The fact that there are so many bands playing the music live now is living proof that Good Music will always stand the test of time.
We are currently finalising the details of a 2 week UK tour with Denny for April 2016. It is great to have Denny in the band, his unique slide guitar sound is a joy to have in the band, and he is a fine person to spend time with.
UniMuta : Something to look forward to !! Thank you for your time, Roddie. We have to do this again real soon. Music is the best !!
BARRY ADAMSON – Le matin des noire
KIERAN HEBDEN & STEVE REID – The sun never sets (Holden remix)
THE CHAP – Jammer
LUCIANO MARGORANI – Ridens / Orbiston Parva
FRANCOISE HARDY – Le temps des souvenirs
SUN CITY GIRLS – Esta Susan en casa? / It’s underneath the house
DARK DAY – Nudes in the forest
DAVID MOSS – Stride
AMBROSE KELLY REYNOLDS – Automatic pop shot guns
MX-80 SOUND – White night
TAV EXOTIC – French girls
BOYD RICE – There was never a moment that evil was real
ARCHIE SHEPP & JOHN COLTRANE – Le matin des noire
Zappa Talks is duo (Wan Kemper on keyboards and samples and Marco Onstenk on percussion) that experiments with audio fragments of Zappa quotes and electronic music.
The duo performed at the Zappaloween party in Apeldoorn on October 31, 2015.
Mike Urso, of Rare Earth, filled in on bass for Zappa when Tom Fowler broke his arm in November 1974.
The only gig that we know for certain that he played was 11-23-74, at Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan. There is a tape of this show, and if Mike Urso played any other dates with Zappa, We don't know about them.
James Youman would shortly replace Urso, and Tom Fowler eventually took over again when his arm healed.
Mike played with Rare Earth from 1971 to 1974, sat in with
The Mothers for at
least that one date, then a group called HUB from 1975-76, and then Rare Earth
again from 1977 to 1983.
A recent message from Steve Trapani, Mike Urso's brother-in-law, gives some extra info:
My understanding of Mike's time with Zappa begins when he moved to LA from
Detroit with a band called Head Over Heels in the late 60's, I believe. The band
didn't stay together long, and somehow Mike ended up actually living in the back
of Zappa's studio sometime maybe in '71 or '72? Anyhow, it was before he joined
Rare Earth in 1972. I also seem to remember Mike said they weren't the Mothers
yet, or weren't officially calling it the Mothers of Invention during the time
he was with Zappa. Mike said that he did play and tour with Zappa around that time, and I want to
say that he was on the road with Zappa when he got the call to join Rare Earth
in 1972. At the time Rare Earth was at a high point of popularity and he had the
unbelievable choice of remaining with Zappa or joining a very busy rock band in
full swing. The band broke up, like the United Mutations site says, in July of '74 and Mike,
Pete Hoorelbeke, and Tom Baird formed HUB, which ended when Baird was killed in
a boating accident in '75. In any case, that is when United Mutations says Mike joined Zappa, but he had
actually known, played, and toured with Frank before that.
Track from the cowboy angel cd by Last Train South; Robby King ,vocals,guitar.Garth Hudson; keyboards.Mike Urso,bass.b. vocals.Paul Clayton,Guitar.Johnny Bredau,drums,b. vocals.Maud Hudson,b.vocals and b. vocal arrangements..buy cd @ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lasttrainsouth
Adding data to the United Mutations Archives, here's Snakefinger's Vestal Virgins' "Live At The Vic". Released on CDR by the San Francisco-based Esoteric Music Group in 1998. The album presents a concert that Snakefinger and his cohorts (including former Magic Band member) Eric Drew Feldman. Sounds great. And it includes a couple of tunes that Snakefinger wrote with The Residents.
Frank Wonneberg, author of the "Grand Zappa" book (about all the different pressings of every Zappa record) did a lecture on counterfeits at the Expo Space in 2014. It got recorded and released by the expo crew.
Suddenly Available: as part of the 25th anniversary activities a limited edition of 50 copies of this strange artifact from the archives has been produced. this 68min CD was issued in very limited form in 2000, to celebrate the first 10 years of muffage. It comprises of improvisations, solos and madness from various line-ups. WARNING! this album features NO SONGS and VERY FEW WORDS.
yours for a fiver, plus 1 pound p&p for UK, or 2 pound elsewhere.
Zappanale 2014 was packed with concerts. A warming-up party, the actual festival, and, for four days in a row, an impressive number of morning concerts at the expo space. Don Preston and Bunk Gardner, Jeff Silvertrust, the String Trash Project, and The Grandsheiks.
I was sitting on the second row. Enjoying every second while Jörg Doc Heuser, Max Hilbrand and Daniel Guggenheim performed a beautiful set of Zappa tunes.
