(from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/frank_zappa.html)
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. "
-Frank Zappa
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“Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty.
Beauty is not love.
Love is not music.
Music is THE BEST.”
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
There are few things that I dislike as much as . . .
News stories about pop culture ‘celebrities’ that have something either brilliant, hilarious, insightful or emotion-laden to say accompanied by headlines using words like “shares” and “heartwarming”.
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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My early education in Zappa took a great leap the first time I heard this song (and the LP Just Another Band from LA). Yes, it resembles in some ways what could be a high schooler's vulgar musical project and as Frank says himself in this version, many of the jokes are strictly from LA local culture of the period. But now (and maybe for different reasons than in 1972 and those sentimental as well as musical) it still has much musical, lyrical and humorous merit.
Well anyway. . . if you have 40 minutes to spare, our good friends at YouTube bring you this performance of Billy the Mountain . . .
[And yes, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (aka Flo and Eddie) and aka The Turtles perform the lion's share of this piece.]
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
. . . Not a day of my life goes by without music. Music, an integral part of my world, is (paraphrasing Zappa) food.
My piano must be played daily, though there are unfortunately some exceptions, for my digital therapy as well as to keep my musical imagination healthy. Music is always audible during the evening meal at our house, exceptions to this being even MORE rare than above, be it jazz, classical, modern rock, (sorry, the available wealth of genre names are beyond me) country, R&B/soul, vocal, instrumental, experimental and traditional. Some personal musical assignment, be it practicing my part in a song for Oho, revisiting an old composition of my own or working on a new idea, is always high on my agenda. And I am always, after many years of conditioning, aware of music around me whether it be a song someone was humming in the office, a new song on the radio, incidental music between news stories on NPR or reference to a song during a conversation- it's there.
It is ever-present and just as much a part of me as. . . my right hand.
. . . Zappa, did you know, was named after his mother's toe?
. . . there are worse things after which to name a baby. . .
. . . But nevertheless, it can't be easy to be the son of one, choose the same profession and follow in the footsteps of one of the most controversial, loved-or-hated, cult-hero, talented, dedicated musician/composer/producer/creative artists of the 20th century. . .
(from http://www.allmusic.com/album/return-of-the-son-of-mw0001997668)
". . . Having apparently given up on the idea of having a solo career outside his father's shadow, Dweezil Zappa has taken to touring with a project he calls Zappa Plays Zappa, which is exactly what it sounds like: an evening of Frank Zappa music, played by his son and a band of talented if relatively faceless pros. From a purely musical standpoint, this stuff is excellent; Zappa junior is a ferocious guitarist, and he and the band know the material inside and out. . ."
(http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7451)
". . .In the years that followed, ZAPPA's playing and writing gradually grew to take on more of his father's style, humor and complexity. During the mid-90s, Dweezil formed the band Z with his brother Ahmet. This group also included Mike KENEALLY and members of his band, and KENEALLY's sound dominates this project. In 2006 he released his finest, and most progressive album to date, Go With What You Know, where he mixes his hard rock chops with music that comes very close to his father's rock work. . ."
(from http://www.deepdiscount.com/cd/Go-with-What-You-Know?)utm_source=PriceGrabber&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=PriceGrabber
". . .The new Dweezil Zappa record (CD) is aptly titled "Automatic". It's his first release under his own name in nearly a decade and marks a return to his roots as a guitarist. It's also the first predominately instrumental guitar album of his career. Operating under the musical credo "anything at anytime for any reason at all" gave Dweezil the freedom to explore new territory. The album features thick layers of multi-tracked guitar textures, all perfectly executed and combined with wild rhythms and intriguing improvisations, adding nicely to the Zappa Family legacy which has provided alternative entertainment for those who have embraced it for over thirty years. . ."
. . but he's holding his own. . . he's super talented and creative. . .
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The captain (Beefheart, that is), was indeed a talented individual. He was creative, eccentric and daring. But genius is a very strong word. . .
ge·nius
noun \ˈjēn-yəs, ˈjē-nē-əs\
1 [count] a : a very smart or talented person : a person who has a level of talent or intelligence that is very rare or remarkable
▪ Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were great scientific geniuses. ▪ a musical/artistic/creative genius ▪ You don't have to be a genius to see that this plan will never work.
b : a person who is very good at doing something
▪ He was a genius at handling the press.
(by By Rob Chalfen from http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2010/12/captain_beefheart_facts.php)[excerpted and inverted by me]
". . . 1. his 1970 & 1982 music videos, both rejected by tv as too far out, are both in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art.
2. In 1976 I interviewed Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, who very enthusiastically claimed Don as a key influence. "A case of the punks!"
3. Zappa helped jumpstart his career, incorporating him into his touring ensemble, though complained Beefheart couldn't cut the arrangements. Several of Zappa's sidemen later defected to the Magic Band.
4. in the mid 70s he wandered in an aesthetic wilderness - his label dropped him, he fell in with some sharp operators connected with the band Bread (!) and tried to record 'safe' pop. His Magic band left him, and he toured with a pick up group. One older cat Ellis Horn had played clarinet with Lu Waters Jazz Band in the 40s and had a feature playing 'Sweet Georgia Brown" on an old albert-style clarinet, upturned at the bell. "He sucked up a cosmic particle into his horn," opined Don.
5. opening acts, in Boston at any rate, included Mississippi Fred McDowell, the NY Dolls, Larry Coryell, Bonnie Raitt/Dave Maxwell, Dr. John & a trained monkey vaudeville act. "Did you like the Dolls? Oh, balls!"
6. Zappa produced the Magic Band's masterpiece, Trout Mask Replica, in 1969, initially as a sort of Folkways-type anthropological field recording at the band's commune. Later Don insisted that it all be re-recorded in the studio, convinced that Zappa had been trying to do it on the cheap. (some of the home tapes made it onto the record anyway) . In the studio, he refused to wear phones, syncing his vocals with the band only via the faint leakage through the thick plate glass.
7. he composed implausibly complex solo guitar pieces like modern acid madrigals.
8. ran his band as a sort of hothouse commune/cult of domineering personality, one veteran later describing the experience as "my Vietnam". He communicated musical ideas via cassettes of his piano playing, singing and late night whistlings over the phone. The musicians were then expected to transcribe these fragments verbatim, and assemble them perfectly into intricate 4-dimensional musical constructions.
9. claimed shamanistic & supernatural abilities; on one occasion the drummer in my band, following around Don & Dr John, witnessed the glass panes of a hotel lobby mysteriously turn opaque as they passed. He was a life-long defender of the rights of animals & wildlife.
10. in the late 60s fused delta blues, beat poetics, Dada/Surrealist techniques, avant jazz, R&B & the kitchen sink into a metaphysics of the imagination that tore a giant hole in the ozone of pop-artistic possibility. Like an American Van Gogh he seemed to open up new landscapes of consciousness as much as of music. . . "
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(from Wikipedia.com)
Don ". . . Preston was born into a family of musicians in Detroit and began studying music at an early age. His father was the composer-in-residence for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Preston later did a stint in the army, serving in Trieste, Italy. Upon his return to Detroit during the early '50s, Preston associated with pianist Tommy Flanagan. He also sat in with Elvin Jones and others at the city's West End Cafe where Yusef Lateef conducted twice-a-week jam sessions with Milt Jackson's brother, bassist Alvin Jackson.
Preston moved to Los Angeles in 1957 where he hooked up with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Charlie Haden, and others who were hearing jazz in new ways.
Many will recognize Preston from his long collaboration with Frank Zappa as the keyboardist and one of the members of the original Mothers of Invention. Preston performed and recorded with Zappa until 1974. During that time he was music director for Meredith Monk(with whom he had previously shared a house) and started recording and performing electronic music.
He is a co-founder of the Grandmothers and still active with the band, completing an extensive tour in Summer-Fall 2000 and later tours through 2011.
Preston also appeared on-stage as a guest keyboardist with the Zappa tribute band Project/Object (featuring Zappa Band alumni Ike Willis and Napoleon Murphy Brock) for several shows in 2001 and 2002.
From his Cryptogramophone Records biography: "Often compared to Cecil Taylor for his style of attacking the keys with intense passion, Preston’s solos also reflect intellect, technical skills and a storyteller's way with a line. His playing, like his compositions, ranges across panoramas of mood and emotion, all colored with the freedom that comes from possessing remarkable facility.
Preston has played and recorded with the likes of John Lennon, Peter Erskine and John Carter. He also has scored more than 20 feature film scores and 14 plays. He's the winner of numerous awards, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Known to jazz and keyboard aficionados for his pioneering contributions in the use of synthesizers and piano, legendary clarinetist and composer John Carter dubbed Don Preston the "father of modern synthesis.". . . "
And yes indeed, he DOES play the iPod. . .
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. . . well maybe. . . but even if NOT. . . certainly one of the most creative, uncompromising, free-thinking artists. . .
. . . of this (and last) century . . .
(from wikipedia.com)
". . . Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 РDecember 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, recording engineer, music producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concr̬te works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Var̬se, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern along with 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar.
Zappa was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often difficult to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz or classical. His lyrics—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship.
He was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. . . "
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