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. (more…)
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: (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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”.
Zappa’s Universe (the album and video of the same title) documents the big tribute concert thrown for Frank Zappa over four nights (November 7-10, 1991, although the footage on the album and video are from the first two nights), organized by conductor Joel Thome, who assembled the Orchestra of Our Time at the Ritz in NYC. Mike Keneally and Scott Thunes were joined by other ex-Zappa sidemen Steve Vai, Denny Walley among many others including Frank’s son, Dweezil Zappa.
Founded in 1996, the North Mississippi Allstars is a southern rock/jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, electric washboard) and Chris Chew (electric bass guitar). Their song, “I’d Love to Be a Hippy” is from their sixth studio album, Hernando. In the above clip, the song is performed live “in studio” of WBBB (better known as 96rock, a radio station out of Raleigh, North Carolina).
Incredible how little time it took for a band to mythologize hippies. Perhaps this was what Frank was ultimately getting at when he composed “We’re Turning Again”?
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