Sweden, 1973. Featuring a kick-ass trombone solo by Bruce Fowler, whose work you are almost certainly familiar with if you have seen a movie in the past twenty years.
Category: Music
Rollo Interior
A lovely piece by Ruth Underwood discussing her work with Frank and his experimentation. It's fitting that she compares him to a mad scientist -- in The Real Frank Zappa Book, he says that was his first impression of Edgard Varèse, on seeing his photo on an album cover as a child.
Then she gives us a lovely peek behind the curtain with a look at some of Zappa's sheet music -- fine, detailed, intricate, as you'd expect -- and discusses the "Zappa sound".
Ruth plays her part from St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast and does a hell of a job even for someone who hadn't been retired for three decades, then Dweezil, Napoleon, and the band play us out.
I've seen a few versions of this video floating around YouTube but I'm not sure what the source is. Obviously it's recent (relatively -- this version was uploaded about 5 years ago). Could be on the ZPZ DVD, but according to Wikipedia that was released a few months after the upload date. Anybody knows, drop me a line.
St Etienne
Audio from a 1982 performance in France; set to video on Video from Hell in '85.
Boy Wonder I Love You
At last a chance to use the "Frank Zappa" and "Batman" tags on a single post.
Frank and Shuggie
Frank Zappa with Shuggie Otis on The Johnny Otis Show, 1970. Via tomtiddler1, who really has quite a lot of great Zappa videos.
Black Napkins
Palladium, '81. Looks to be the same show as my Montana post, but clearly not the same recording. The banter at the beginning leads me to think this was broadcast, and the lines at the bottom of the picture suggest VHS recording.
Pygmy Twylyte
Given the sort of mood this day's put me in, I was considering perennial downer The Torture Never Stops (I saw ZPZ do a great version a few years ago -- really a mournful, plaintive flute part).
But fuck that, let's go with something a little more fun. I think we could all use it.
According to the uploader, this is Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania, 1974.
For Calvin
Berlin, '72. Another great post by YourArf on YouTube; he says it's an audience recording, which is surprising given the audio quality.
(Also: this is the only song on Grand Wazoo that has lyrics -- and here it doesn't have lyrics. Kinda neat.)
Some Stupid with a Flare Gun
I just heard that Jon Lord, keyboard player for Deep Purple, died two days ago of a pulmonary embolism.
So for tonight's Zappa post, I present, of course, Deep Purple's most famous song -- about a Zappa concert.
It's an appropriate video -- not only does Lord introduce it, but, while the song's best known for the guitar part, this version has a solid keyboard solo.
(Also appropriate: the fire started during a keyboard solo, too.)
Echidna's Arf
By the Grande Mothers: Don Preston, Tom Fowler, Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano, Christopher Garcia, and Napoleon Murphy Brock. Aachen, Germany, just over six weeks ago.
Frank's not dead. He just smells funny.