ORCHESTRA EXOTICA - ORCHESTRA EXOTICA PLAYS MARTIN DENNY

• orchestra exotica: plays martin denny
      (2017, 2cd, bel, off records opv012) 

The "Orchestra Exotica Plays Martin Denny" album has kept me company for quite a lot of car kilometers the last couple of weeks. I can keep on listening to it and always find something that I hadn't noticed before.
Excellent stuff.

The Orchestra Exotica project started with Bruno Vansina creating a shadowplay to Martin Denny's music for his son's school. On request of Teun Verbruggen, the project evolved into a performance with live music, entitled "The Serpent". After a couple of performances and with the aid of Dimitri Duquennoy, "The Serpent" got revised and adapted to "Maité, the Girl and the Bird".

From the liner notes :
An absurd Darwinian Creation narrative without words and with live music. The life of M, a story in which Godzilla, Snowwhite's poisonous apple, the first man on the moon and a broiled chicken play a role.

To take the entire venture even one step further, Pierre Vervloesem arranged the music for a septet, hence the Orchestra Exotica.

"Orchestra Exotica Plays Martin Denny" presents 15 pieces of exotica. A voyage into an imaginary world.
As a superb bonus, the extra disc has a recording of the music from "Maité, the Girl and the Bird", where the music got performed by a trio.

Wikipedia adds : Martin Denny described the musical style (of Exotica) as "a combination of the South Pacific and the Orient...what a lot of people imagined the islands to be like...it's pure fantasy though."
Popularity got a boost when Hawaii became the 50th state of the U.SA in the late fifties. CD-reissues gave it another peak in the ninetees.
And now, with The Orchestra Exotica, it's back to stay.

Essential listening !!
Available at the Off Records website:
http://off-recordlabel.blogspot.be/2017/08/opv012-orchestra-exotica-plays-martin.html

ZAPPALOWEEN IN APELDOORN

Saturday, October 28, The Foolz will be celebrating "Zappaloween" in Apeldoorn, NL.

Concert in artcafé Sam Sam,
Apeldoorn, NL
kicks off at 21h00

JOHN COMPTON - TO LUNA

• john compton: to luna
      (1973, lp, usa, ageless music a 9847)

Although a lot of sources tell you that this album is from 1971, the pictures of the labels over at the discogs website mention 1973 as the date of this private release (on Ageless Music).
Nice album.
Features Billy Mundi on the drum set !!
(who recorded and toured with Frank Zappa and The Mothers) in 1966 and 1967.

-- info: Jan van Kemenade

DON PRESTON AND BUNK GARDNER IN CONCERT OCT 22 IN CHICAGO

Don Preston and Bunk Gardner
October 22, 2017
'Reggie's', 2109 South State Street, Chicago
11 a.m. - US $ 75

DON PRESTON FORCED TO MOVE HOUSE

As a result of skyrocketing rents and the gentrification of Highland Park, world renown musician and artist Don Preston (Original member of The Mothers of Invention, keyboard player for Frank Zappa, celebrated electronic and Jazz composer) and his wife acclaimed theatrical performer and custom clothing designer Tina Preston, are being forced to move out of their rented house where they have lived for the past 20 years.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-preston-housing-20170930-story.html

KRIS DE BRUYNE - IN LEVENDE LIJVE

• kris de bruyne: in levende lijve
      (2015, 2cd, bel, cnr records belgium 22 25220-5)

Belgian Radio 1 organised a Kris De Bruyne concert in 2014. For the occasion, Kris De Bruyne got to invite a number of friends : Neeka, Mauro Pawlowski, Kommil Foo, Clara Cleymans,...

The result got released on CD in 2015. A fine selection of songs and a beautiful ode to the music of Kris De Bruyne.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - JAZZTUBLIEFT! A WIDE RANGE OF JAZZ MUSIC FROM FLANDERS

• various artists: jazztublief!!
      (2007, cd-promo, bel, muziekcentrum vlaanderen fmc 2007/03)

More loot from the trip to the record fair.
This promotional album from 2007 took a look at the jazz music scene in Flanders.
An excellent choice was made as the album includes music by Vansina-Verbruggen-Gudmundsson Trio, Flat Earth Society, Franco Saint De Bakker, Moker (with Bart Maris), Othin Spake (Verbruggen-Dumoulin-Pawlowski, and mixed by Pierre Vervloesem), and more.

All of the music had been previously released, except for maybe the track by Othin Spake (previously released in 2005 on a CDR demo album), but I thought it was too good a selection to let it pass.

NEW Z.E.R.O. ALBUM IS AVAILABLE

The new Z.E.R.O. (Zappa Early Renaissance Orchestra) album, "Santaville", is available from Cordelia Records .

I got to hear it a couple of weeks ago and it sounds great !!

The Zappa Early Renaissance Orchestra - Santaville
The music of Frank Zappa adapted for ZERO's Christmas album. With the voice of Ike Willis.

http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk/Pages/Buy%20Records.html

CHATO SEGERER IN CONCERT IN OSNABRÜCK NOVEMBER 29

Chato Segerer will performing his exam concert at the 'Bastart Club' in Osnabrück (DE) on the 29th of November.
He will performing with The Crosswalkers, performing the music of The Beatles, and original (Zappa-inspired) music with his Chato! band.

An seinem Examenskonzert zeigt sich Chato Segerer von 2 verschiedenen Seiten: 1x kultiviert, sophisticated, gediegen und dann 1x wild, extrovertiert, außer Rand und Band. Zum 1. Mal in der Geschichte treten diese beiden Bands zusammen auf. Vielleicht sogar das letzte Mal.
Außerdem gibts an diesem Abend einige Überraschungen, die über die beiden Bands hinausgehen...
Eintritt frei. Einlass 19 Uhr

THE CROSSWALKERS

Die Klassiker der Beatles hat jeder im Ohr. Der Reiz dieser Band ist es aber, der eigenen Vorstellungskraft neue Impulse zu geben. Denn die Beatles klingen hier nicht NUR nach Pop, sondern kommen mit einer besonderen Mischung aus Funk, Soul und Jazz daher!
Geschmeidige Grooves regen zur Bewegung an, während die Gitarre die bekannten Melodien zelebriert. Die Arrangements versprechen einen eigenständigen Sound und Überraschungsmomente zu hauf. Dabei verzichten die Crosswalkers völlig auf Gesang; sie lassen ihre Instrumente sprechen.

CHATO!

Bandgründer Chato Segerer komponiert nach dem Yin und Yang Prinzip: Er verbindet Schnelles und Langsames, Hartes und Weiches und einfache Songs mit komplexen Zwischenparts (oder umgekehrt). Obendrein steckt er alle Elemente, die ihm Spaß machen, in den musikalischen Kochtopf: die Energie des Punk, den Intellekt des Jazz und die Krässe des Metal gemischt mit Rock, Funk & Pop. Abgerundet wird das alles mit einer Prise Humor, denn Chato und seine Mitmusiker nehmen sich und die Welt nicht so ernst - außer die Musik. Der Zappa-Spirit eben. Im Vergleich zum Debutalbum Prog-Fusion with Balls wurde das Lineup um Saxophon/Klarinette erweitert und es wurde ein wenig mehr Gesang eingebaut.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - UNMATCHED - LE GRAND OISEAU

• various artists: unmatched - le grand oiseau
      (2017, cd, spain, hall of fame) 

Luis did it again !
Hall Of Fame records released another fine volume of his "Unmatched" series, featuring various artists performing the music of Frank Zappa.

Superb !!

Le Grand Oiseau is the third volume of the Unmatched Zappa Bands series, celebrating the XX anniversary of the Unmatched series. It follows the tracklist of The Grand Wazoo album (1972) and includes two never-before-released versions of For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers) and Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus, exclusively performed for this release by Spanner Jazz Punks and The Muffin Men.