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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Tag: zappanale 20
Zappanale 20 – Highlights
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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Musicians Play FZ – Part I
Originally conceived as an interruption in the “Son of Tweezer Glint” series for we schmucks who couldn’t make it to Zappanale 20 in Bad Doberan — “Musicians Play FZ – Part I” is the first of a two part series which will run concurrently for the next 4 weeks (my own virtual Zappanale, of sorts, you might say, plucked from my own collection), at which time the “Son of Tweezer Glint” series will resume.
Click here to listen to the mixtape.
This mixtape is for Sharleena (get well, soon) and Barry (while not the real Zappanale, there is always next year amigos).
Note: if we are infringing on anyone’s copyright, contact KUR and we’ll remove the offending material.
Project/Object & Zappanale Fever
Andre Cholmondeley of Project/Object dropped a note announcing the band’s mini August tour in Europe. The gigs are:
- SAT 08: Prague, Czech Republic – Lucerna music bar
- SUN 09: Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
- TUE 11: Laredo, Spain – Polideportivo Municipal Emilio Amavisca
- THU 13: Berlin, Germany – Dot club
- FRI 14: Bad Doberan, Germany – Zappanale 20
Go see them if you can!
In other authentically unofficial news, Thomas of Zappanale just announced a surprise addition to this year’s line-up: Discus, an Indonesian band (would you believe!). He writes:
For all of yours who get out of bed early on sunday on August 16th, go and listen to DISCUS from Indonesia. We, or better say them, tried it for years to come over, now it’s gonna be true. Get out of bed and listen to kind of a metal, progrock, Indonesian ethno, zappaesk sound or whatever you want to call it.
And so it’ll be an early rise & shine for Sharl, Lucas and me on that day — because this year we are officially attending Zappanale! 🙂
Zappanale (Then & Now) – Frank Zappa Memorial Pancake Breakfast
The Frank Zappa Memorial Pancake Breakfast, also known as Finnish Zappa Tribute band (featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock and Denny Walley) perform “Montana” at Zappanale 19 in Bad Doberan, Germany, on August 17th, 2008 before an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
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Zappanale (Then & Now) – Lazuli
Lazuli is a French progressive rock band formed in 1998 in the Alès region in France and consisting of 6 members. Their music is a clever mixture of styles with some unique and unusual instrumentation: Chapman Stick, marimba, vibraphone, percussions, guitars, vocals, etc. as well as a unique instrument created by Claude Leonetti: the “LĂ©ode”.
Zappanale’s Very Special Guest
The Amazing Mr. Bickford is officially confirmed as special guest at Zappanale 20. Bruce will be bringing lots of his work over to Bad Doberan — a unique chance to gaze in awe at his creatures, finally on display at a proper exposition. He’ll also be bringing along his newest film projects.
Zappanale (Then & Now) – The Steve Hillage Band
Steve Hillage is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Cambridge psychedelic scene and has worked in experimental and avant garde music since the late 1960s. Besides his solo recordings he has been a member of Gong, Khan and System 7.
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Zappanale (Then & Now) — Sheik Yerbouti
Sheik Yerbouti is a band from Kirchberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. They have been performing and recording their unique interpretations of Frank Zappa‘s music since 1992.
Sheik Yerbouti includes Dr. Jörg Heuser (guitar, vocals), Thomas Rath (drums, vocals), Harry Sebel (lead vocals, keyboards), Andy Mertens (bass guitar, vocals), Thomas Jung (keyboards, vocals), and George Rademacher (guitar, vocals), as well as guest appearances by such ex-Zappa alumni as Mike Keneally (guitar), Ed Mann (vibes, percussian) and Napoleon Murphy Brock (vocals, sax, flute).
Their recordings include: Insanity Sauce CD (1996), Confetti Music CD (2001), Ouch Patrol (CD + DVD) feat. Napoleon Murphy Brock (2004), Unverschämtheit (Insolence) Vol. 1 (2004). Click on the individual CDs for sample mp3 excerpts.
In 2009, Unverschämtheit (Insolence) Vol. 2, is due for release. A particular focus of the album are songs with the woodwind phrase “Horny Hornz”. Estimated track of the album include: Heavy Duty Judy, Brown Shoes Do Not Make It, The Grand Wazoo, Tinseltown Rebellion, The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, and Strictly Genteel. Recorded over the last 3 years at various concerts, including the band’s 15-year anniversary at CafĂ© Hahn, Koblenz.
On Tuesday, the 11th of August, 2009, in the St.Katharinen Kirche in Hamburg, Sheik Yerbouti will team up with Napoleon Murphy Brock for a “live and unplugged“ session that will kick off Zappanale #20. They will play the festival, itself, on Saturday, the 16th of August.
In the three clips above, Sheik Yerbouti with Napoleon Murphy Brock at the German club Objekt5, in Halle (Saale) on October 14th, 2008, perform “Village Of The Sun”, “Black Page #2”, and “St. Etienne”.
Sheik Yerbouti performed at Zappanale 4,5,8,10, and 14.
Zappanale (Then & Now) — Gong
Perhaps it’s the French attitude towards music and musical groups, yet I find the sheer number of incarnations that the band Gong has gone through to be truly amazing. Just imagine if each member of the original Mothers of Invention decided to start their own version of the Mothers after Frank called to tell them he was breaking up the band (then you’ll get an idea).
Gong is a progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen in 1967, after Allen—then a member of Soft Machine—was denied entry to the United Kingdom because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of the band.
While the “Classic Gong” line-up retired from regular touring in 2001, there have been one-off reunions since, most notably at the “Gong Family Unconvention” (Uncon), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here and Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The most recent Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3-5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: classic Gong, System 7, Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Acid Mothers Gong, Slack Baba, Kangaroo Moon and many others.
In June 2008, Gong played a concert in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, opening for Massive Attack’s Meltdown festival, with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Mike Howlett, Chris Taylor and Theo Travis among the lineup (see clip above).
Click on Parts 2/3/4/5/6 for additional excerpts from the June 14th, 2008 show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Gong will be performing at Zappanale 20.