Like a lot of other North American listeners, my first exposure to the progressive rock group, Yes, was via their edited for radio version of “Roundabout” from their fourth album, Fragile. Albeit a small hook, given the edited version, yet like everyone else I, too, was blown away by the sheer prowess of the full length version, as well as the rest of the album. For the rest of the 1970s, the album Fragile was in nearly every record collection I ever looked through. Now, if that isn’t a gage of a truly classic album, I don’t know what is.
Continue reading “Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #14”
Tag: 1991
Zappa, Prague, & Prazsky Vyber – Then & Now
While researching tracks for the next KUR mixtape, I happened upon some historical footage of Frank Zappa’s visit to Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1990 – and a chance to reacquaint myself with the metal group, Prazsky Vyber, with which Zappa performed one of his last guitar improvisations, “Improvizance v A dur s Franken Zappou” with guitarist Michal Pavticek in 1991:
Continue reading “Zappa, Prague, & Prazsky Vyber – Then & Now”
Zappa’s Universe — Revisited
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.
Ivo Niehe Meets Frank Zappa (’91)
Ivo Niehe met with FZ back in ’91 for his TV-show which, in veritable Dutch-like “why-be-humble” tradition, was entitled “The TV Show”. Credit to Balint’s zappa.hu for fishing this one out of the YouTube pond! Enjoy the next fifteen minutes of your life:
Part two: