Jazz Articles about Ed Palermo

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Eddy Loves Frank

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 30, 2009

Giunto al terzo disco dedicato alla riproposizione per big band delle composizioni di Frank Zappa (il secondo su etichetta Cuneiform dopo Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance), Ed Palermo si fa più audace e ambizioso, realizzando probabilmente il suo capolavoro. I temi zappiani presi in esame sono sicuramente i più complessi tra quelli finora affrontati dalla sua big band, ma anche i più gratificanti musicalmente. “Echidna's Arf (of You)," “Don't You Ever Wash That Thing" e “Dupree's Paradise" provengono ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

by Ian Patterson
May 4, 2007

Frank Zappa once quipped that jazz wasn't dead, it just smelt funny. To many people his own highly personal brand of music also gave off a rather strange whiff at times although, since his death in 1993, his orchestral/avant-garde works have received increasingly serious consideration. At the same time Zappa's rock music has inspired a plethora of tribute bands, such as guitarist John Etheridge's Zappatistas and saxophonist Ed Palermo's big band.

Take Your Clothes Off when You Dance ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

by Gina Vodegel
December 10, 2006

If two is company, would three be a crowd? In addition to an already published pair of positive reviews of this homage to Frank Zappa, this third review will hopefully sail off as a good luck charm for Ed Palermo's future enterprises. Not that he really needs it, given the fact that NPR featured Palermo and this album in one of their Weekend Edition Sundays last October--a very pleasant and welcome opportunity for this most entertaining and contemplative album to ...

Ed Palermo: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

by AAJ Italy Staff
September 19, 2006

Dopo otto anni da un primo album molto apprezzato, The Ed Palermo Big Band Plays the Music of Frank Zappa, il saxofonista-arrangiatore Ed Palermo ritorna sul luogo del delitto con la sua formidabile big band per riproporre otto arrangiamenti di altrettanti brani scritti dal celebre musicista rock che è diventato allo stesso tempo la sua ossessione e la sua fonte di ispirazione. Ancora una volta si conferma l’approccio essenzialmente jazzistico di questa formazione allargata che conta nelle sue fila musicisti ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

by Edward Blanco
September 17, 2006

Saxophonist and bandleader Ed Palermo has been arranging and performing the music of rock icon Frank Zappa for the last twelve years. 25 years ago he assembled a sixteen-piece big band of New York-based musicians which have played regularly at various Manhattan jazz clubs. This album is Palermo's second recording specifically dedicated to Zappa's original music.

Frank Zappa was many things to many people: he was brilliant, zany, creative and a bit crazy, but never truly jazzy. Though recognized as ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

by Jerry D'Souza
August 29, 2006

Ed Palermo first saw Frank Zappa performing in 1969, and that was to become a life-altering vision which would enlarge his perspective of what music could and should be. The fact that he migrated to jazz and picked up the saxophone while in university a few years later did not change the effect that Zappa wrought. He put the vision to good use, shaping Zappa's tunes for his big band. Palermo's first recording of the music was predictably called Plays ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band: Plays the Music of Frank Zappa

by Jack Bowers
November 1, 1999

Frank Zappa’s now batting .500. I’d heard one other big–band tribute to Zappa’s music (by an ensemble that will remain nameless) and was thoroughly unimpressed. But the second time’s a charm — and a charmer as well.

What’s the difference? It has to be the fabulous charts by bandleader / alto saxophonist Ed Palermo who’s long been an admirer of Zappa and manages to bring out the best in his labyrinthine and often quirky compositions. What’s more, he makes sure ...