Results for "Frank Zappa"

Maarten Regtien

Born: March 6, 1963

Maarten Regtien (1963) is a Dutch (jazz-)pianist and (contemporary classic) composer. He started playing piano at the age of seven.

In 1975 he was introduced to the the Canadian jazz saxophonist and composer Alan Laurillard who introduced M. Regtien to improvisation.

During adolescence his musical taste started to grow towards 'anything new and unheard-of before.' This period included creating prepared piano's and tape experiments many years before he heard the music of John Cage or Brian Eno for the first time. Favorite music in the schoolgooing years was the early psychedelic music of Pink Floyd, The Beatles' White Album, free jazz, cool jazz, bebop, early Philip Glass minimal music and above all master pianists Keith Jarret and Jasper Van't Hoff.

The Wrong Object

Blending psychedelic jazz with modern rock sensibilities, the music of the Wrong Object is influenced by a vast array of artists ranging from Canterbury Scene prog rock à la Soft Machine and Gong to Béla Bartok, Aka Moon, Charlie Mingus and Frank Zappa. While their repertoire contains mainly original compositions, they also play a special set of Zappa covers on demand. Since its creation in early 2002, The Wrong Object has played some forty gigs in various venues ranging from small pubs to big festivals. Some of them were augmented by guest performances by the likes of Ed Mann, Elton Dean, Harry Beckett, Marc Mangen, Domguè, Marco Maurizi, Nicolas Ankoudinoff, Clementine Gasser, Frogg Café, Jaap Blonk, and pataphysician-poet-vocalist Andrew Norris, whose work with the band culminated in a show held at the Galerie 2016 in Brussels on the occasion of Serge Vandercam's 79th birthday. After a successful mini-tour of the UK, they performed at the 2004 “Zappanale” festival where they played a special gig featuring Zappa's legendary percussionist Ed Mann, with whom they also hope to play a few more dates soon

Unburied Treasure

by John Kelman
December 1, 2019

Of all the so-called progressive rock bands that emerged in the late '60s/early '70s, Gentle Giant has, perhaps, been the most misunderstood, and the one which failed to reach the same deserved commercial heights of its creatively innovative brethren, like King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd. Of the bigger names from that time, only Van ...

Intervista a Franco Ambrosetti

by Angelo Leonardi
November 11, 2019

Il 2019 è stato un anno significativo per il trombettista svizzero Franco Ambrosetti. In aprile è stato pubblicato il suo libro autobiografico “La scelta di non scegliere" mentre da poche settimane è uscito Long Waves, il suo ventottesimo disco da leader con un cast stellare comprendente John Scofield, Uri Caine, Scott Colley e Jack DeJohnette.

London Afrobeat Collective: Humans

by Bruce Lindsay
November 8, 2019

Hard-driving, politically-charged, rhythmic, irresistibly-danceable music; what else could be expected from a band that mixes influences from Fela Kuti, Parliament/Funkadelic, Frank Zappa, and Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards into one exciting and uplifting musical pot? Such expectations are high, but the London Afrobeat Collective meets them with ease. There have been a few personnel ...

Gordon Grdina: Cooper's Park

by Mike Jurkovic
October 16, 2019

Cooper's Park's eighteen minute centerpiece crashes into energetic existence sounding like someone just remembered to push record while the ensemble was in high flight mid jam. Flailing majestically away, guitarist Gordon Grdina, alto saxophonist/bass clarinetist Oscar Noriega and pianist Russ Lossing are heard early working overtime on every level from solo to tag-team tandem, giving, taking, ...

Ernie Watts: Home Light

by Angelo Leonardi
October 16, 2019

Giunto a 73 anni, con alle spalle una ricca e variegata carriera di collaborazioni entro e fuori il mondo del jazz, Ernie Watts predilige da oltre un decennio il suo quartetto con i tedeschi Christof Saenger al pianoforte, Rudi Engel al contrabasso ed Heinrich Koebberling alla batteria. Home Light giunge esattamente 50 anni dopo ...

Take Five with Ed Palermo

by AAJ Staff
October 9, 2019

Meet Ed Palermo Ed Palermo is an arranger, composer and alto saxophonist mostly known for his big band and their interpretations of the music of Ed's hero, Frank Zappa. Coming out of college in Chicago, his initial plan was to become a great jazz tenor saxophonist in the vein of Michael Brecker, Steve Grossman and Dave ...

Zappity-Doo-Dah

by Patrick Burnette
October 4, 2019

To be perfectly Frank, the boys don't know all that much about rock and roll's prickliest, most demanding composer/conceptualist/guitarist/ideologue, so they look at a couple of recordings by the maestro himself and a couple by other musicians paying homage to the man with a mustache. Burt Bacharach meets Hal Wilner's tribute to Thelonious Monk in a ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band

Active since: 1980

Under the leadership of arranger/ composer/ bandleader/ saxophonist Ed Palermo, the Ed Palermo Big Band has been together since 1980, performing live around New York (NYC’s Iridium, Marlboro’s The Falcon) and at US and international jazz (and Zappa!) festivals, and recording albums to the delight of fans and critics worldwide. Composed of top-notch jazz musicians, the tightly-honed big band performs Palermo’s extraordinary arrangements, which combine music from the worlds of rock, pop and blues (Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, Paul Butterfield, The Beatles) alongside jazz (Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Mile Davis) and Palermo originals