ENSEMBLE MODERN_GREGGERY PERCCARY AND OTHER PURSUATIONS

[Dogbreath]

Women and MEn:

Can you dig it??

This is the most excellent new release

musical perfection, an honor to the dead guy himself....

(except for some cloudy parts on G.P.)

I love it

.....and you

Peace

[Bálint]

Well, I wanted to spend time for that, but didn't manage...
So now I'll be short but cruel. :-)

I've read a few criticizm about it, most of them praised the CD. The I ordered - well...

In a few words: I dont like it. Precision? Well, maybe. But the FEEL is missing, but I think TOTALLY. Wen I listen to FZ, I hear MUSIC, I hear exitement, rich texture... Here I see before my eyes musicians who fight against the difficult passages. OK, they manage to do it, note-by-note, but this is only a fight - with almost no music...


A big mistake was to choose songs that were previously released, and furthermore: almost in exactly the same orchestration... If you listen to Revised Music here and after it from Studio Tan - unbeliavable difference!!! The way the notes are played, the texture...

And: the drummers! Soul-less! If you remember, FZ always brought his owndrummers to orchestral sessions - if you listen to Orchestral Favorites, Studio Tan, you'll find it rich, exciting, alive... Here I can hear well-dressed "serious orchestral-drummers" who play from a score... Bam-bam-bam - nothing more.

OK, maybe its not THAT bad, but if its (almost) the SAME orcestration as the originals, one can hardly resist to make a comparison. And my heart breaks when I hear that they play WITHOUT the feeling of Studio Tan - which tends to be one of my favorites nowadays!

And about "Greggary": its a funny, stupid little story told by Zappa. He dont have to ACT funny, because the story itself is good and makes you laugh.
Here on this disc all I hear is 2 highly skilled-(over)educated person who try to be funny... Terrible (to me). And the music: its not as colourful and alive as on the original, again.

Yellow shark is much-much better, maybe because there are quite a few premieres, where the musicians HAD to find out (important: in the presence of the composer!!) how to make the piece alive, so they made it. My favorites from that album are the more intimate pieces, the string quartets, wind quintets... the new ones!!! I like less the arrangements there too, like BeBop Tango, Dog Breath... They only "look like", they're somehow a copy only - the rest are live, good, exciting music.

One more thing: Peaches was a completely wrong idea (by Gail): doesnt fit into the program, the orchestration is "pop"-like - like: "a very serious orchestra playing some funny stuff to show that it is serious FOR REAL"... Again: the original is much richer, more colorful, lively...

And also: I dont like tha track order: What will Rumi do was always an opening number on concerts - a good one for that, indeed! Here it is nr 2... ?!?!?.... Why??? And: why start with Moggio? (which was better in its original form, again ... That "noise" in the beginning and the end is much rather a "What WE think of a funny Frank Zappa-like joke" kind of stuff...) Peaches, which could be an encore-like piece, something to end with is in the middle...

Something good: I REALLY like Pig With Wings. I can hear LIVE, pure MUSIC here, with the intimacy of instruments. I really like the way they give each other - not tunes, but almost notes only, sometimes, and the way these pieces make a whole - really nice! They "talk", they listen to each other,they continue each other's sentences... I love it!

I enjoy the pieces that were on synclavier before - they become alive - but (sorry...) could have been better, too...

They'd need some good (jazzy) drummer, some better conductor?... Fewer "classical music"-type thoughts in their heads...

It could have been much better!

Sorry, I might have been rude (weel, I wasn't short, sorry...), but thats what I think - thank you for reading this.
And curious about your (detailed?...) opinion!

B

[Chris]

Yeah, I wasn't crazy about that one. I actually brought it back and traded it in for a Coltrane disc. What's interesting is that Yellow Shark is one of the greatest orchestral collections ever released. It just goes to show you how much is missing when Frank's not a part of the process. Damn, we miss you, fella.

[Dogbreath]

Well, all I can say is that my own education or ear-refinement may to too near to nil. I don't have Yellow Shark (I was looking for it when I discovered this album) so I lack a comparison for the FZ supervised works.
Overall I did not hear the lack of soul Balint specs out. But again, I may be one of those people who 'doesn't know any better'.

I agree though about Peaches, it does seem out of place and rhetorical almost. And the title track is somewhat pretentious, and I think inferiour to it's Lather recording.
But on the other hand, it seems that they are trying to pay homage to the audience who enjoys FZ's humor.

Irregardless, I enjoyed the album immensely, And I believe a live(partially) performance of Put A Motor In Yourself makes the whole thing worth it.

[vrnzr]

Irregardless, I enjoyed the album immensely, And I believe a live(partially) performance of Put A Motor In Yourself makes the whole thing worth it.  

I'm with DogBreath on this one, I enjoyed listening to it too. But Bálint's got a point about the choice of tracks and their order. How about starting to listen to the album with Rumi and putting Moggio last ?..

By the way, this album has already been discussed in an earlier topic. See here: http://www.killuglyradio.com/discuss/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=426;start=0#msg3511 . Technical question for the webmaster: Is there still a way to merge these two topics ??  

[Bálint]

How about starting to listen to the album with Rumi and putting Moggio last ?..

That's what I usually do... :-)

(Hi, vrnzr!!!) :-)

OK, I have to agree, Put a Motor is fine - anyway: they should find a better drummer!

And: its nice to have some (different) opinions here!

I gave the CD to a friend of mine, when she gives back, I will listen to it again and - who knows?
But I'd be happy to read some more comments.

B

[Dogbreath]

By the way, this album has already been discussed in an earlier topic. See here: http://www.killuglyradio.com/discuss/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=426;start=0#msg3511

Gee, sorry to be wastin' the bandwidth. I didn't search because I didn't realize how long I have been away from here!

At least this mild indiscretion is not rooted in the source of my previous major ones!!!
 ~^PUKE^~

pEace

[Bálint]

...so, the friend gave me the CD back, and in spite of my opinion he said he really liked it. He had some problems with Night School (which I like, hehe), but he like the album in general. He said that after 4-5 listenning the strange voices of Moss and Ibrahim became confortable to him, so it's OK.

well, well...