Back on Friday, March 28th, 2008 I published the post, Live Albums — Dead or Alive? in which I listed many of my favourite live albums: Zappa In New York (1978); Super Session (1968) with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Stephen Stills; and Warren Zevon’s Stand In The Fire (1980/2007) just to name a few. Among them, though, was also an absolute favourite live album of mine which has long stood the test of time. That artist and album being John Mayall’s 1969 live release The Turning Point.
Continue reading “Sunday Big Note — Listening Session #21”
Tag: live music
Zappa at Montreux Prog Nights, 2009
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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Selected Idiot Bastard Sons
As a big fan of all Zappa and Zappa-related recordings, I’ve accumulated an immense number of live concerts, shows, and radio broadcasts via Zappateers and purchased elsewhere (far, far too many to name in this post). Among them, certain shows and recordings stand out as being exceptionally good.
Continue reading “Selected Idiot Bastard Sons”
Zappanale 20 – Highlight: Sheik Yerbouti
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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Capt. CHEESE-BEARD & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention – Live In Brussels
Capt. CHEESE-BEARD & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention will be performing two hours of “Live” Zappa music on Friday, September 18th, 2009, starting at 8:30 PM, at Indigo Studios, a new venue in Brussels, Belgium, close to the old Wielemans Cuppens brewery.
Continue reading “Capt. CHEESE-BEARD & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention – Live In Brussels”
A Well Kept Secret: Richard Thompson
Well hello there! We’re back from a most refreshing vacation in the greater London area. While there, our host Magic Fingers introduced me to a fantastic musician: Richard Thompson.
Prior, I had heard some minor radio hits of his — genre “I Feel So Good”, “Misunderstood”, “Crawl Back” and, notably, Thompson’s Britney Spears cover Oops, I Did It Again.
Tip of the iceberg.
The way this guy plays masters the guitar is just unbelievable.
No effects — nothing but Naked Fender:
Thompson started out as part of the legendary English band Fairport Convention, but went his own way soon thereafter. He is I guess, to that formation, what Neil Young is to CSN&Y.
One fantastic musician. Do check out his tunes if you hadn’t already.
Wait — I’m preaching to the choir, right?
Who Do You Think You Arf?!? – The European Grandmothers
I have always been intrigued by the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) ethic among bands who cover and interpret Zappa’s music. True, few of these acts have any hope of actually being signed by today’s youth driven music business. In many cases, Demo CDs are given away free of charge through websites, or produced in limited runs by independent labels. In either case, it’s often up to the fan to track down these CDs and order them (if possible).
Continue reading “Who Do You Think You Arf?!? – The European Grandmothers”
Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint – Part Four
Here it is my fellow KUR-Meisters — “Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint (Studio-ized Concert Versions) Part IV” — the last in the series. I have endeavoured to leave some of the best tracks for last. Fifty of them in their full unedited glory.
Go ahead. Dig in. Enjoy.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
Warning/Guarantee: the first five tracks just might lift you into spheres of utter Zappa ecstasy.
Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint – Part Two
Welcome to this second KUR mix of four, presented on four consecutive Fridays in May, entitled “Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint (Studio-ized Concert Versions) Part II“.
Parts Three and Four will be posted on consecutive Fridays this May 22nd and 29th, respectively.
Click here to listen to the mixtape. Enjoy.
Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint – Part One
Approximately a month ago, Barry, our intrepid webmaster, passed on several suggestions for future KUR Mixtapes for me to consider. One such suggestion, from LRonHoover, was to compile concert versions of studio-ized solos. Quite the challenge, I thought, given Frank Zappa’s penchant for using live concert material in the majority of his albums (for instance, Joe’s Garage alone is made up almost entirely of tracks culled from live shows).
So, I spent most of April, and the first week of May, cross-referencing Zappa’s studio albums with my own collection of field recordings and bootlegs. The result is a four part compilation, starting today, entitled “Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint (Studio-ized Concert Versions) Part I“.
Parts Two, Three, and Four will each be posted on consecutive Fridays this May 15th, 22nd, and 29th, respectively.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.