{"id":857,"date":"2012-08-10T05:32:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T10:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2012-08-10T05:32:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T10:32:15","slug":"zappa-music-in-the-grandmothers-tradition-a-talk-with-napoleon-murphy-brock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/10\/zappa-music-in-the-grandmothers-tradition-a-talk-with-napoleon-murphy-brock\/","title":{"rendered":"Zappa Music in the Grand(mothers) Tradition: A Talk with Napoleon Murphy Brock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I featured my conversation with Don Preston<\/strong><\/a>, keyboardist with The Grandmothers<\/strong>, a group that includes several members of Frank Zappa’s Mothers<\/strong>. Interspersed into that conversation were a couple of exchanges with Napoleon Murphy Brock<\/strong> (vocals\/sax\/flute). Here are a few more highlights from that brief exchange. \u2013 bk<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> The early 70s was a time when artists were pushing boundaries, not worrying about genre labels. I think of the Nat Adderley<\/strong> album Soul Zodiac<\/em>, with George Duke<\/strong>, Mike Deasy<\/strong> and the spoken word stuff. That was jazz, soul, psychedelic, whatever. I think the same could be said for a lot of the stuff Frank did in those days. When you played that music, what did you think of it as being? What kind of music?<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Napoleon Murphy Brock:<\/strong> It’s theatre. That’s what we called it: total music theatre. And if musicians who are playing it \u2013 even if they’re playing all the right notes \u2013 they’re playing it incorrectly. It’s not just notes; there’s choreography involved; there are a lot of things involved that make up this music, to make it what it is. It’s closer to being a musical comedy on Broadway than anything else you could think of. <\/font><\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> Do you use those spontaneous \u201ccues\u201d in the arrangements like Frank often did, to change things up in real time?<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

NMB:<\/strong> The other component about Frank’s music is that there’s rigidity and discipline, but there’s also improvisation. There’s looseness, but it’s a disciplined looseness. There are spaces where you can do something you didn’t do the night before, but it all has to be confined within the boundaries of musical theatre. <\/font><\/p>\n

BK: <\/strong>The people who come to the shows: are they 100% Zappa fans, or so some curious people wander in not knowing what they’re going to get?<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

NMB:<\/strong> Some of them are loyal Zappa fans. And some come because they have heard that these are the actual people who played on the records thirty-some years ago. They come to see what happens now, and to see if we can still play it as well.<\/font><\/p>\n

No lip-syncing is allowed in Zappa music. Everything is played live, at the moment. Our intention is to make the music that we recorded with Frank sound better than the record.<\/font><\/p>\n

Had you ever seen a Zappa show, with Frank?<\/font><\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> Yes, twice. Fall 1981 and, I think ’84. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

NMB:<\/strong> So you never got to see the Mothers of Invention.<\/font><\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong><\/font> I’m only 48. I was <\/font>eleven<\/em><\/font> when they broke up<\/font>.<\/font><\/p>\n

NMB:<\/strong> Well, if you\u2019ve got the CD of Roxy & Elsewhere<\/em>…<\/font><\/p>\n

BK:<\/strong> I have it on vinyl.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

NMB:<\/strong> Listen to it before you come to the show. Sit down, and don’t talk or do anything else. Listen to the entire Roxy & Elsewhere<\/em> album, and then come to the show. I guarantee you a vicarious experience. That’s how close to the original \u2013 but even better \u2013 we get. Because it’s live. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Grandmothers will be at Asheville NC’s Grey Eagle on Saturday August 11. \u2013 bk<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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