Frank Zappa & Elsewhere
Alas, I’ve saved the best for last. “Musicians Play FZ – Part II“, a compilation of FZ songs performed by various musicians, from Sting to The Persuasions and many in between (plucked from my own collection). Enjoy this mix for the next two weeks, at which time the “Son of Tweezer Glint” series will resume.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
This just in via email from Andre’ Cholmondeley:
PROJECT/OBJECT – the music of Frank Zappa
featuring IKE WILLIS & DON PRESTON
and special guest RAY WHITE (on July 4 only)
Sat 4th July – Western, Pa
The Church Of Universal Love and Music
Doors: 10 AM – 2 sets – All ages Tickets/Advance: $30 DOS:$ $40
Andre’ Cholmondeley plays guitar in this band, a tribute to the music of Frank Zappa. P/O also has Eric Svalgard (keyboards), Eric Slick (drums), Robbie “Seahag” Mangano (bass). Ray White will join P/O on their July 4 date only.
The Avalon All-Stars is a loose-knit house band of the Avalon Ballroom located in San Francisco, CA, and featuring – depending on the night and availability – former members of the Jerry Garcia Band, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and others. In the first of the two clips from their December 28th, 2003, performance the set opens with some improvisational scratching around that bloomed into a Johnny “Guitar” Watson number, “You Can Stay But the Noise Must Go.” The second clip is a cover of The Jerry Garcia Band’s “Get Out My Life Woman”.
Thomas Brünnich, Thomas Käckenmeister and Michael Käckenmeister had already made music together while attending the conservatoire in Rostock in the mid-1980s, before ever conceiving of forming a band together. In the autumn of 1990, the three musicians again became active, playing in Blues and Rock bands surrounding Doberan. Around approximately 1996, was when the lasting foundation was forged to what would eventually constitute the main character of Jazzprojekt Hundehagen.
Michael Käckenmeister emerged as the group’s musical head. The group’s inspirations were rooted in interaction with his brother Thomas Käckenmeister and the musician companion Thomas Brünnich. Thomas Käckenmeister brought the experienced Guitarist Harald Werner into the group, along with the Quintet’s only woman, Pianist Katrin Werner.
The band took their name from the village they rehearsed in – an interim solution for several gigs at first – but the name stuck and it seemed like nonsense to change it.
Jazzprojekt Hundehagen play successfully in the northern part of Germany. They do standards as well as own compositions and themes of Frank Zappa.
Click here to listen (or download) various mp3’s at Jazzprojekt Hundehagen website, including “Black Napkin” “Zoot Allures”.
Jazzprojekt Hundehagen have performed at the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th edition of the Zappanale festival. They are scheduled to appear at Zappanale 20.
Note: Many of the webpages are in German. Use Babelfish to translate.
From the DBRK MySpace page:
DBRK is a Parisian collective of obedience “Fun First” composed of amateurs and professionals musicians. Real Cover Band, DBRK revisits the work of artists from the sixties to the eighties according to a basic principle: to explore each title must seduce each of the 9 members of the collective. It’s repertoire ranges from David Bowie to Frank Zappa, through Patti Smith, Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Joy Division, Jimi Hendrix, The Fall, The Wolfgang Press, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Wire, Robert Wyatt, Martin Circus, Cream, John Lennon, Genesis, Nick Cave, etc… The commercial potential is not the main objective of DBRK, so do not you cross animating a wedding or a bar mitzvah, though… In a wink to Zappa, DBRK means: Delicious Band Research Kitchen.
In the first clip, DBRK performs a fantastic jazz-infused version of “Uncle Remus” live in Paris at the “Les Fils de l’Invention” FZ festival on July 5, 2008 (now my favorite version of this Zappa/Duke composition). In the second clip, they perform “Wino Man”.
Click here to catch up on the other goings on in Paris, in general, and in France, in particular (a pretty lively bunch of Zappa freaks, I must say). It’s entirely in French, so you’ll need to translate the page (use babelfish)
DBRK performed at ZAPPANALE 19.
After a few years of pause, the Unmatched series rides again – and comes up with no less than three CDs!
Yes, the Hispanic Zappa Tributes – see UniMuta’s fine comments on vol. 8, vol. 9 and vol 10!
The following tracks are the two Zappa covers done by The Tubes in a 1972 concert. The exact date and location are unknown, but the concert probably took place in a club in the San Francisco area. I wish to thank hasnamus over at Zappateers who first torrented these Zappacovers (while the audio quality is rather poor, these tracks are great pieces of archival audio history):
Trouble Every Day
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/01-more-trouble-every-day.mp3]
King Kong
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/02-King-Kong.mp3]
Another CD which I recently picked up was Ann Wilson’s first-ever solo effort ‘Hope & Glory,’ from Zoë/ Rounder Records. Produced by Ben Mink, Hope & Glory features appearances from such artists as Elton John, Gretchen Wilson, Alison Krauss, Rufus Wainwright, Ann’s sister Nancy Wilson and others on unique renditions of songs made famous by Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Neil Young and more. In these two videos, Ann Wilson performs unique covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant song” (Track 5) and Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky” (Track 1).
With apologies for the terrible pun above, when the Ukulele Orchestra of GB covers “Wuthering Heights”, here’s what happens:
Also: Life On Mars, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and more.
A few different covers of “Baltimore” – and instead of being “only” covers, being different from the “real” thing, these performances show me the sheer beauty of the melody line itself. And some pretty good musicians. I love these.