Category: Alumni

I Am All Day And Night: The Music Of Frank Zappa

Remember Barry’s post “Odds & Ends” back at the end of January? One of the “Ends” he mentioned was the CBC Radio 2 – Inside The Music program, “I Am All Day And Night: The Music Of Frank Zappa” written and produced by Philip Coulter.

That interview…

explores Zappa as a composer, and is told through the memories of some of those who knew him best — family, his friends, and some of the musicians who worked with him. You’ll hear from Zappa’s wife, Gail Zappa, Ruth Underwood, the percussionist who first heard him at a famous concert at New York’s Garrick Theatre in 1967; Elliot Ingber, a guitarist in the early Mothers of Invention, and Joe Travers, drummer and vaultmeister of the Zappa archives.

Part Three of which has been copied and uploaded to YouTube (Thanks to ‘tomtiddler’) in the clip above (and in Parts 2/3/4/5).

Enjoy! Especially if you didn’t hear it the first time around!

Listen to Parts One and Two at the Inside The Music Audio Archives (while still available for re-listening).

Zappanale (Then & Now) — Sheik Yerbouti



Sheik Yerbouti is a band from Kirchberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. They have been performing and recording their unique interpretations of Frank Zappa‘s music since 1992.

Sheik Yerbouti includes Dr. Jörg Heuser (guitar, vocals), Thomas Rath (drums, vocals), Harry Sebel (lead vocals, keyboards), Andy Mertens (bass guitar, vocals), Thomas Jung (keyboards, vocals), and George Rademacher (guitar, vocals), as well as guest appearances by such ex-Zappa alumni as Mike Keneally (guitar), Ed Mann (vibes, percussian) and Napoleon Murphy Brock (vocals, sax, flute).

Their recordings include: Insanity Sauce CD (1996), Confetti Music CD (2001), Ouch Patrol (CD + DVD) feat. Napoleon Murphy Brock (2004), Unverschämtheit (Insolence) Vol. 1 (2004). Click on the individual CDs for sample mp3 excerpts.

In 2009, Unverschämtheit (Insolence) Vol. 2, is due for release. A particular focus of the album are songs with the woodwind phrase “Horny Hornz”. Estimated track of the album include: Heavy Duty Judy, Brown Shoes Do Not Make It, The Grand Wazoo, Tinseltown Rebellion, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, and Strictly Genteel. Recorded over the last 3 years at various concerts, including the band’s 15-year anniversary at Café Hahn, Koblenz.

On Tuesday, the 11th of August, 2009, in the St.Katharinen Kirche in Hamburg, Sheik Yerbouti will team up with Napoleon Murphy Brock for a “live and unplugged“ session that will kick off Zappanale #20. They will play the festival, itself, on Saturday, the 16th of August.

In the three clips above, Sheik Yerbouti with Napoleon Murphy Brock at the German club Objekt5, in Halle (Saale) on October 14th, 2008, perform “Village Of The Sun”, “Black Page #2”, and “St. Etienne”.

Sheik Yerbouti performed at Zappanale 4,5,8,10, and 14.

Three FZ Alumni Interviews



During the same week in April, 1996, while in Los Angeles, California, Juha Rompannen recorded several private interviews with Frank Zappa alumni.

On April 20th, Rompannen conducted his interview with Tommy Mars (first clip). Mars talks about his musical schooling, his time with Frank, synthesizer and keyboard technology and current projects. Mars is a keyboard player who played piano, organ and synthesizers in Frank Zappa’s touring and recording band between 1977 and 1982.

Remaining parts of interview: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

On April 17th, Rompannen conducted his interview with Robert “Bobby” Martin (second clip). Martin talks about his musical development, early music career, his time with Frank and composer jobs. Martin is a vocalist and multi instrumentalist who sang and played keyboards, saxophone and french horn in Frank Zappa’s band during the tours of 1981, 1982, 1984 and 1988.

Remaining parts of interview: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

On April 14th, Rompannen conducted his interview with Bruce Fowler (third clip). Fowler talks about his time with Frank, the movie business, the music scene, and his musical schooling among other things. Fowler is a trombone player that played in Frank Zappa’s touring and recording band during 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and also during Franks last tour in 1988.

Remaining parts of interview: 2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13

All three alumni are members of The Band From Utopia. Partly known under that name, The Mar Vista Philharmonic: No Forest Fire, released this year (2009) also features Tommy Mars and Bruce Fowler (Walt Fowler, Larry Klimas, Kurt McGettrick, Arthur Barrow and Vinnie Colaiuta).

I have No Forest Fire on order, as well as Strange News From Mars (Jon Larsen/Tommy Mars/Bruce Fowler) and The Jimmy Carl Black Story (Jon Larsen/Jimmy Carl Black) from Zonic Entertainment which I’ll review in future posts as they arrive in my mailbox.

Thanks to ‘YourArf’ for posting these interviews.

Warren Cuccurullo: Playing In Tongues

We here at Barfko-Swill are pleased to begin our digital release schedule (that includes FZ, DZ & other artists) with Warren Cuccurullo’s Playing In Tongues. And speaking of Playing In Tongues this is the launch of releases available through Barfko-Swill in 256 Kbps & FLAC formats. How you like it.

With Terry Bozzio on drums. You can order it here, listen samples from it here, read about it (history and all) here. Warren adds:

and here’s the BIG news… this disc contains a never before recorded piece of music by frank zappa…”recollection”, a 14 chord progression that was part of my 1978 zappa audition is now a ZFT approved new work by fz…