As I chose today’s Sunday Big Note Listening Session, I was struck at how, over time, the details of many of these concerts and broadcasts are either lost or omitted by successive trader, poster, torrenter. Venue. Date. Location. Line-up. Important details. Indeed, most of the live music I have collected throughout the years has lacked some, if not all, of these details. Almost as important a hunt than that of the music, itself, are the details behind each concert. So was the hunt for the details behind today’s Sunday Big Note.
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Category: Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty at Zappanale, 2010
You might want to listen to the original King Kong (’69) album – collected temporarily here.
Best of Zappa In Australia – 1973 Tour
In the above clip (short as it is), Frank Zappa expounds on what an Australian concert goer might expect from one of the various shows on his 1973 Australian tour. For some FZ fans, this particular ensemble is their favorite incarnation of the Mothers (right next to the Roxy band).
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Spotlight, Swedish TV, 1971
While in Stockholm, Sweden on December 4th, 1971 during a short European tour, Frank Zappa and The Mothers appeared on the Swedish TV show entitled “Spotlight“. The 34 minute broadcast had interviews with Zappa mingled with music clips from 200 Motels [“This Won’t Take Long”, “The Final Solution”, “Centerville”] and included performances of “The Air”, “Dog Breath”, “Mother People”, “You Didn’t Try To Call Me”, “King Kong”, and “Who Are The Brain Police?” from Palais Gaumont, Paris, France on December 15th, 1970.
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Tweezer Glint: Finale – The Roxy Years 73/74 (Part III)
Welcome fellow KUR-meisters to the final installment of the Tweezer Glint series, “Tweezer Glint: Finale – The Roxy Years 73/74 (Part III)”. 120 tracks of raw, unbridled buffoonery amid some of the finest musicianship you’ll hear from this period of Frank Zappa’s career. For those among you who missed earlier installments of the Tweezer Glint series, do not fret, the entire series will be streamed again, in order, later in 2010. For now, enjoy this unique ensemble which played for that all too brief a period known as the Roxy Years – 1973 through 1974.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
Frank Zappa & the Mothers in Stockholm, 1973
One of my favorite performances by any Zappa ensemble is this particular performance by the early Roxy band (prior to the arrival of Napoleon Murphy Brock and Chester Thompson, and featuring Ian Underwood on woodwinds) at Soliden, Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden, August 21, 1973, which was originally divided into two Swedish television broadcasts (parts of which became the source for the bootleg, Piquantique). There are a lot of extended solos by each of the members of Mothers, making these clips very worthwhile viewing and listening.
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Frank Zappa–Pioneer Of Future Music
Directed by Frank Scheffer, “Frank Zappa–Pioneer Of Future Music” (2007) is a two part documentary which combined and re-edited footage and interviews from “Frank Zappa: The Present Day Composer Refuses to Die” (2000) and “Frank Zappa: Phaze II, The Big Note” (2002).
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Jean-Luc Ponty in 1972
Rare footage of Jean-Luc Ponty from 1972. Performing his only original composition from his album King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa. While the album version goes 7:12 in length, this version (it is surmised that this recording is from a German TV Archive – can anyone confirm this?) goes 10:13. Though recorded under the Ponty name, King Kong is largely considered a Zappa record by fans.
1973-06-26 Sydney, Rehearsal
Frank Zappa and the Mothers rehearsing for a show in Sydney, Australia in 1973. Wow!… (Via FZ In Hungary.)
Frank Zappa, Fake Rocker Or True Jazz Man?
Attention French shoppers! Jazz Magazine‘s June issue has an 18 page special on FZ.
As you can see there’s an interview with Jean-Luc Ponty on how he first met FZ, while the main article attempts to provide an answer to the question:
Zappa, Fake Rocker or True Jazz Man?
Your insights are welcomed in the comments…