But this vault belongs to Wolfgang, where you can watch 2 videos and an interview. Pretty good performances, but there’s a second meaning to me behind all this: Dweezil’s presence seems to “legalise” FZ’s materials on this homepage.
Sometimes I am quite delighted to discover a fan-made Frank Zappa video like the one posted above. It reinforces my belief that the future of FZ’s public image is in the right hands: creative, open-minded, technology embracing hands. This is how I always envisioned Zappa’s legacy being spread.
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Since 2006, the goal of Montreux Prog Nights has been to to promote progressive music in Switzerland, especially in Montreux, by organizing three or four events each year in various venues. In 2009, the band FiDOplaysZAPPA performed a Zappa Night on January 23rd, while French band Lazuli also performed selected Zappa compositions on November 7th. Both performed at Ned’s Music Club.
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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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While I have yet to find a mint copy of Frank Zappa’s Best Band’s May 17th, 1988 concert in Barcelona, Spain, that truly does justice to their overall performance, there are still clips on YouTube which are worth watching – especially those which highlight the particular talents of the horn section: Paul Carman (saxophone), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Walt Fowler (trumpet, flugel horn), Albert Wing (saxophone), and the late Kurt McGettrick (saxophone, clarinet). In the following three clips – “Black Napkins”, “Strictly Genteel” and “Bolero” – the horn section certainly shines:
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Take one Zappa tribute band, Sheik Yerbouti, add three alumni from Zappa’s touring and recording bands – Napoleon Murphy Brock, Denny Walley, and Robert Martin – put them all together on the Zappanale 20 Main Stage, and the result is absolutely, positively, exceptionally gestalt.
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I’ve recently come across a couple of highlight videos from Zappanale 20. The first (above) is of Project Object featuring the son of the late Jimmy Carl Black, Geronimo Black performing “Cosmic Debris”. The second video (below) is The Grandmothers performing “A Pound For A Brown”. Awesome live material.
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Recorded at the Theatre de L’Empire, in Montmartre, Paris, on November 7th, 1980, for the French TV program ‘Chorus’ – promoting their eleventh studio album, Doc at the Radar Station – Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band performed a 30 minute set.
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Frank Zappa debates and discusses rock censorship, the PMRC, the PTA code, the “non-binding nothingness” which the record companies and the then Washington Senator’s wives perpetrated on the American public with the assistance of the media) with Christian rock DJ, Jim Hodson (Producer/Host of Real Videos), Norma Downs (California State PTA Communications Commission), and School Beat host, Roberta Weintraub.
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After stumbling across this 1993 promo video of Frank Zappa’s “Willie the Pimp” featuring Jimmy Carl Black and The Muffin Men (live with studio footage), I found the following Podcast on The Muffin Men homepage. The band reminisces about Jimmy’s last tour (gigs he had to cancel due to increasing ill health), his friends attempts to help (including old friend Arthur Brown), and the benefit gigs. The podcast also includes an extended live version of Jimmy Carl Black‘s “Great White Buffalo”.
Click here to listen to horn and guitar solos from “Great White Buffalo” recorded in Aschaffenburg entitled, “Aschbuff”.
