ZAPPOSTROPHE 144

As far as I know, there are only two Frank Zappa (paper) fanzines being published.
There's The Arf Dossier (Germany) and Zappostrophe (Czech Republic).

The biggest part of issue number 144 of Zappostrophe is dedicated to an interview that John Tabacco and the late Nigey Lennon did with Lorraine Belcher in 2010, entitled "The Studio Z Story".

Here's the original English version :

John Tabacco · The Lorraine Belcher Interview with Nigey Lennon and John Tabacco

JOHN TABACCO AND NIGEY LENNON

John Tabacco recently released "The Second Arrangement", a set of 6 Steely Dan tunes, performed by John Tabacco, Nigey Lennon, and others.

JOHN TABACCO & NIGEY LENNON - THE MISEDUCATION OF WILLIE THE HILL

• john tabacco & nigey lennon: the miseducation of willie the hill
      (2014, download, --, bandcamp)

"This miniature rock musical was inspired by Frank Zappa’s original work,"Billy The Mountain". It follows Billy's (Willie) exploits after 1972.
The premise of this musical was concocted by Eric Weaver and Nigey Lennon.

The actual music was written to be performed by the Ed Palermo Big Band. That never happened, although Ed told us personally he thought the whole enchilada was great."

An excellent tribute to Frank Zappa's 'Billy The Mountain' by John Tabacco and the late Nigey Lennon.
Featuring Candy Zappa, Ed Palermo (and a part of his Big Band) and Ike Willis.
Check it out.

JAY ROZEN - NAKED SINGULARITY - KILLER TUBA SONGS V.2

• jay rozen: naked singularity - killer tuba songs v.2
      (2015, cd, usa, naxos / composers concordance records)

Tubist, composer and improvisor Jay Rozen has toured and recorded with Anthony Braxton and with Wadada Leo Smith, to name just two.
He also was at the Zappanale festival in Bad Doberan, Germany in 2002 where he performed with Candy (Frank's little sister) Zappa, Nigey Lennon, John Tabacco and Mike Keneally.

In the liner notes, Jay adds : "This particular festival was notable due to the dedication of a statue of Zappa in the town square. I smart-talked my way into having my arrangement of 'Sofa #2' (reworked for tenor sax, bari sax and tuba) played during this dedication. Try to imagine my excitement at playing my arrangement of my favorite Zappa tune played in front of hundreds of rabid Zappa fans while many ex-Mothers of Invention and other Zappa ex-band members stood behind us. These included Don Preston, Bunk Gardner, Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ike Willis, Mike Keneally, among others. Definitely a high point of my career."

On "Naked Singularity - Killer Tuba Songs v.2", Jay Rozen shows a glimpse of his musical output: commissioned pieces, works for tuba, and more.
He even included recordings of three Zappa pieces : 'Sofa #2', 'Idiot Bastard Son' and 'Peaches En Regalia', featuring John Tabacco on various instruments and noises.
Great stuff !!

An excellent album.
Issued by Naxos / Composers Concordance Records, a label that you have to watch (and hear).

Here's Jay Rozen with the Low Frequency Tuba Band, playing some familiar sounding song.

R.I.P. NIGEY LENNON

Nigey Lennon is the author of the book "My Time With Frank Zappa"

Nigey passed away Monday, November 14 due to complications from radiation therapy she received in 1998. She survived the cancer, but not the treatment. She thought she was fighting a virus, but instead she was fighting a battle she couldn't win.

Our thoughts go to her friends and family.

NIGEY LENNON UPDATE

Nigey has updated her blog, over at Muffin Records Productions.

http://muffinrecordsproductions.com/muffin-records-productions-blog/nigey-lennon-news-blog/

NIGEY LENNON - REINVENTING THE WHEEL REINVENTED

• nigey lennon: reinventing the wheel reinvented
      (2013, cd, usa, muffin record productions)

If you visit this blog every now and then, you should be familiar with the Zappa Universe. In that case, Nigey Lennon should need no introduction.

If not, let me tell you that Nigey had a personal and professional relationship with Frank Zappa. She contributed to a couple of concerts in 1971 and she also wrote a book on Frank Zappa, entitled "Being  Frank".

In 2000, Nigey Lennon released "Reinventing The Wheel", a fine album that presented original material next to remarkable versions of Frank Zappa's 'Anyway The Wind Blows' and Steely Dan's 'Brain Tap Shuffle'. The disc also featured John Tabacco, Mike Keneally and Candy Zappa, and had contributions by Urban Gwerder and David Walley.

July 2002, Nigey Lennon and John Tabacco took part in the 13th edition of the Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany. History will remember it as the MEGA Zappanale as it was the year that the Zappa statue got inaugurated.

In the meantime, Nigey did contribute to a couple of albums that Andrew Greenaway assembled and that got released on Cordelia Records, but other then that, things have been rather quiet.

A couple of months ago, however, Muffin Record Productions announced that they would be releasing a completely reworked edition of "Reinventing The Wheel".

The album is aptly called "Reinventing The Wheel Reinvented" and it presents remastered versions of the original recordings, a handful of demos, and a couple of bonus tracks.

One of these bonus tracks is 'Stolen Cadillac'. Sung by Candy Zappa and by the late Jimmy Carl Black, it actually is the last recording that Jimmy did before he passed away.

The other one is 'Opus 1', a piece that Nigey wrote and recorded for Frank Zappa in 1971. It's a short piece (way too short), performed on a grand piano. Nice.

By the way, did you notice the new cover? Nigey Lennon by Don Van Vliet. It's great !!

"Reinventing The Wheel Reinvented" is an excellent album. It definitely needs your attention.

Highly recommended and a good reason for  a short chat with Nigey Lennon.

UniMuta : Hi Nigey, congratulations on the new album. It sounds great and the added tracks are a treat.
It's good to see that the album will become available again. This time it will be released on Muffin Record Productions. How did that come about?

Nigey Lennon: Muffin Records originally gave me a contract to do the album in 1998. I was just starting to work on it when I was diagnosed with cancer and had to take quite a few months off for treatment. In the meantime, Muffin went out of business. The CD was released on an indie label, Dinghy Records, in 2000, but distribution was limited. When Muffin reorganized and started up again this year, Reinhard Preuss was happy to get the project back. We added the bonus material, and the rest is history. :)

UniMuta : I love 'Stolen Cadillac'. It's a fine song and Jimmy Carl Black sounds great on it. I noticed that you dedicated the album to Jimmy Carl. Could you share one of your favorite moments with him?

Nigey Lennon : At the Zappanale in Germany in 2002, he and Candy Zappa performed the song together, the first time they had done so. Jimmy came onstage wearing the suede fringed vest he had worn as Lonesome Cowboy Burt in 200 Motels. That vest had some serious history embedded in it -- I took one whiff of it and nearly passed out. :) This moment was captured on video by several German TV crews. The performance was hilarious, by the way, as you can see by my reaction to it in this photo.

UniMuta : The new tracks are a fine addition but it strikes me that, except for 'Stolen Cadillac', you did not add any recent material to the album. What have you been up to, musically? Can we expect another album? Your Facebook page mentioned a possible new release called "Ship In A Bottle"?

Nigey Lennon : I figured the original release stood on its own. Adding new material would have reduced its impact. Except for "Stolen Cadillac", which fits in with the album's overall concept because of Jimmy's vocal, each of the bonus tracks has a direct relation to the other tracks on the album.

"Ship in a Bottle", which I'm working on now, is going to be a 180-degree turn stylistically from "Reinventing the Wheel Reinvented". It will be semi-acoustic, with orchestral instruments such as violin, clarinet, tuba, oboe, English horn -- sort of a cross between chamber music and the sort of raw, often modal music I love so much: sea shanties, fiddle tunes; a nod to my Irish roots. I'm playing guitar, keyboards, mandolin, harp guitar and doing most of the vocals, with John Tabacco and Scott Pettis, the bass player. The general idea of the album will be the sea, as a metaphor. I'll be including my original songs along with recent tunes by other writers, and some 19th-century stuff to balance it out. I'm enjoying the contrast between some of the music and the arrangements. It's like Captain Beefheart, or the Fugs, meeting Erik Satie.

UniMuta : That sounds like something to look forward to. More recently, you were the special guest in Episode 13 of the ZappaCast podcast. Was it fun?

Nigey Lennon : It was a blast! How could I not enjoy sitting down with a vodka-and-black cherry cocktail and three certifiable lunatics like John Tabacco, Scott Parker, and Andrew Greenaway, and free associating for an hour and a half while they laughed at all my jokes? :) 

UniMuta : Excellent ! Thank you for your time.

If you want to know more about "Reinventing The Wheel Reinvented", check out Episode 13 of the ZappaCast podcast where Nigey and John Tabacco discuss the album in detail.
http://zappacast.podomatic.com/

A CELEBRATION OF GEORGE DUKE BY LIONEL ROLFE

Lionel Rolf recalls the 70's, attending Zappa's rehearsals and hanging out with George Duke.

He also talks about Nigey Lennon (his former girlfriend and wife) and her recording the "Re-Inventing The Wheel" album.

Check it out:
http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/a-celebration-of-george-duke-a-great-musician-and-good-guy/

ZAPPANALE 2013 - - - PART ONE : THE TRIP TO HAMBURG

Last minute changes had me going to Zappanale on my own. This did mean that the pre-Zappanale Hamburg show came back up as a possibility.

Checking Ticketservice did not make me happy. Ordering the ticket on-line would double the ticket price. Handling and sending the tickets would cost me about 25 or 30 €. Insane.

Fortunately, my friend and fellow Zappateer Steffen was able to help me out. He still had a couple of spare tickets. Lucky me.

Listening to VLEK (the latest Palinckx project), Nigey Lennon (the first edition of Re-Inventing The Weehl) and Secret Chiefs 3 (Path Of Most Resistance) made the trip to HH OK.

I don't like driving around in a town that I do not know. GPS makes me feel powerless. Subjected. Makes me feel nervous. That said, the "Katharinenkirchhof 1" is rather easy to reach. And it's situated next to the new hip area of Hamburg which makes it perfect to stroll around a bit when you've got a couple of hours to kill.

The St Katharinenkirche looked familiar. I have seen some very fine concerts there: the Ensemble Ambrosius, Sheik Yerbouti and the Bogus Pomp ensemble. If you want to check them out, all three of these concerts got released on CD. All in support for the church and the restoration of the church organ (that Bach once played).

Personally, I don't care about the church, the organ, or even Bach, but I did like the previous concerts. And the CD's.

• bogus pomp feat. napoleon murphy brock: zappa spielt für bach
      (2009, cd, ger, s.j.s.-edition nr.3)

• sheik yerbouti feat. napoleon murphy brock: zappa spielt für bach
      (2010, cd, ger, sjs-edition nr.4)

• ensemble ambrosius feat. napoleon murphy brock: zappa spielt für bach
      (2011, cd, ger, s-j-s-edition nr.5)

This year's St Katharinen concert would feature Dietmar Bonnen, Alexei Aigui and Lothar Burhaus, performing the music of Dylan, Hendrix and Zappa.

Dietmar Bonnen teaches music at the university of Cologne. He has an impressive discography, including various Frank Zappa  compositions.
I remember seeing him in concert in Brussels once, doing a Zappa tribute concert with a clasically trained vocalist. That was great. Still got vivid memories of that one.

The same evening also featured Frank Nuyts' Hardscore ensemble. What a night that was...

NIGEY LENNON'S REINVENTING THE WHEEL

NIGEY LENNON & JIMMY CARL BLACK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

http://www.muffinrecordsproductionsusa.net/

MUFFIN RECORDS SIGNS NIGEY LENNON TO EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT

First Release Will Be Jimmy Carl Black's Final Recording

AUSTIN -- Muffin Records Productions USA has inked an exclusive distribution contract with composer/producer/musician Nigey Lennon, label head Reinhard Preuss has announced. Muffin will handle distribution of digital downloads and physical CD's for the artist.

Lennon's first release on Muffin will be an exclusive digital download of her song "Stolen Cadillac", which features a duet vocal between the late Jimmy Carl Black and Candy Zappa. The song was originally performed at the Zappanale festival in Germany, and Jimmy Carl Black liked it so much he asked Nigey Lennon, who lives in New York, to send him instrumental tracks so he could add his vocal from his home base in Europe. Sadly, the song wound up being the last thing he recorded before his death in 2008. "I'm very proud that Jimmy liked the song as much as he did," says Lennon. The project was recorded in New York, Italy, and Los Angeles. Lennon arranged and produced the recording as well as creating and programming the basic tracks. Also appearing on the release are Jay Rozen (tuba), Laura Kass (fiddle), and Paul Lacques (guitar).

Following the release of "Stolen Cadillac", Muffin will offer Lennon's legendary solo CD, "Reinventing the Wheel", which has been unavailable for several years. The CD features performances by Frank Zappa band member Mike Keneally, Candy Zappa, John Tabacco, and many others.

Nigey Lennon has several recording projects lined up for the near future, which will be announced on the Muffin website as soon as they are confirmed;