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One Size Fits All (Frank Zappa Album)
''One Size Fits All'' is the tenth studio album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in June 1975. It is the band's last studio album. A special four-channel quadraphonic version of the album was advertised but not released. Band The album features the summer/fall 1974 lineup of the Mothers of Invention, with keyboardist/vocalist George Duke, drummer Chester Thompson, percussionist Ruth Underwood, bass guitarist Tom Fowler and saxophonist/vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock. “Can’t Afford No Shoes” features James Youman instead of Fowler. When Fowler had broken his hand while on tour, Youman temporarily replaced him. Album content The album features one of Zappa's most complex tracks, "Inca Roads". One of Zappa's heroes, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, guests on two tracks ("flambé" vocals on the out-choruses of "San Ber'dino" and "Andy"). Captain Beefheart also appears under a pseudonym. Zappa stated in the liner notes that the album was recorded simultaneously w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and '' musique concrète'' works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Albums Of The Seventies
''Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' is a music reference book by American music journalist and essayist Robert Christgau. It was first published in October 1981 by Ticknor & Fields. The book compiles approximately 3,000 of Christgau's capsule album reviews, most of which were originally written for his "Consumer Guide" column in ''The Village Voice'' throughout the 1970s. The entries feature annotated details about each record's release and cover a variety of genres related to rock music. Christgau's reviews are informed by an interest in the aesthetic and political dimensions of popular music, a belief that it could be consumed intelligently, and a desire to communicate his ideas to readers in an entertaining, provocative, and compact way. Many of the older reviews were rewritten for the guide to reflect his changed perspective and matured stylistic approach. He undertook an intense preparation process for the book during 1979 and 1980, which temporarily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Bros
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, the Warner Animation Group, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Studios. Among its other assets, stands the television production company Warner Bros. Television Studios. Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character created by Tex Avery, Ben Hardaway, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens and Robe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Studio Tan
''Studio Tan'' is the 24th album by American musician Frank Zappa, first released in September 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart in the United States. Recording sessions The basic tracks for ''Let Me Take You to the Beach'' date from a 1969 session for the album ''Hot Rats''. The rest of the material was recorded between 1974 and 1976. Primary recording locations included the Record Plant in Los Angeles and Caribou Ranch in Colorado. History In April 1975 Zappa had a one sided demo acetate disc cut at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California. This unreleased disc contains "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra", a nearly 8 minute version of "200 Years Old" and "Regyptian Strut". In the notes to the June 1975 album ''One Size Fits All'' Zappa mentioned a planned studio album which never appeared. Many fans believe that this was to have included ''The Adventures of Greggery Peccary'', filling one side, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary
"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a piece by Frank Zappa. It originally released as ''Greggery Peccary'' on the album ''Studio Tan'' in 1978. A slightly different version was also included on the 1977 ''Läther'' album but this remained officially unreleased until 1996. An instrumental version appears on the '' Wazoo'' CD featuring the original Wazoo ensemble and debuted at the Hollywood Bowl on September 10, 1972. On that CD it is in 4 movements totalling 33.05 minutes. The song is an epic that extended 20 minutes and 33 seconds in length when first released and later 21 minutes (in a slightly different mix and edit) on ''Läther'', mocking the rock opera style and reprising the extended story format used in " Billy the Mountain" and, to some extent, the lengthy adventures outlined in the " Don't Eat the Yellow Snow Suite". The piece required a large number of personnel to record, and received its basic tracking during '' The Grand Wazoo'' and '' Waka/Jawaka'' sessions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as The Magic Band, he recorded 13 studio albums between 1967 and 1982. His music blended elements of blues, free jazz, rock music, rock, and avant-garde music, avant-garde composition with idiosyncratic rhythms, absurdism, absurdist wordplay, a loud, gravelly voice, and his claimed wide vocal range, though reports of it have varied from three octaves to seven and a half. Known for his enigmatic persona, Beefheart frequently constructed myths about his life and was known to exercise an almost dictatorial control over his supporting musicians. Although he achieved little commercial success, he sustained a cult following as an incalculable influence on an array of avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental rock artists. A child prodigy, prodi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny "Guitar" Watson
John Watson Jr. (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996), known professionally as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker, his recording career spanned forty years, and encompassed rhythm and blues, funk and soul music. Watson recorded throughout the 1950s and 1960s with some success. His creative reinvention in the 1970s with funk overtones, saw Watson have hits with "Ain't That a Bitch" and "Superman Lover". His highest charting single was 1977's "A Real Mother for Ya". Early life Watson was born in Houston, Texas. His father John Sr. was a pianist, and taught his son the instrument. But young Watson was immediately attracted to the sound of the guitar, in particular the electric guitar as played by T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. His grandfather, a preacher, was also musical. "My grandfather used to sing while he'd play guitar in church, man," Watson reflec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Napoleon Murphy Brock
Napoleon Murphy Brock (born June 7, 1945) is an American singer, saxophonist and flute player who is best known for his work with Frank Zappa in the 1970s, including the albums '' Apostrophe (')'', '' Roxy & Elsewhere'', ''One Size Fits All'', and '' Bongo Fury''. He contributed notable vocal performances to the Zappa songs "Village of the Sun," "Cheepnis," and "Florentine Pogen." Career Brock's musical career began in the San Francisco South Bay Area in the late 1960s with a seven and eight piece band he had organized named "Communication Plus". He was the lead singer, songwriter, and arranger of the band's strongly R&B-influenced rock performances. He also played the saxophone and flute. He played in a variety of local clubs including The Brass Rail, The Mecca, and Gary R. Schmidt's, The Odyssey Room. He was discovered playing for a dance band in Hawaii in the early 1970s by Zappa's road manager. The participation of George Duke and Jean-Luc Ponty convinced Brock to join t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Fowler (musician)
Thomas W. Fowler (born June 10, 1951) is an American bass guitarist and musician. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he has played with It's a Beautiful Day, Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ray Charles, Steve Hackett, and many others. His brother Bruce Fowler played trombone in The Mothers (as in the album '' Roxy & Elsewhere'') and his other brother Walt was also a horn player for Zappa. He also recorded albums with Air Pocket, a band including his siblings among others. Discography With It’s A Beautiful Day * ''Choice Quality Stuff/Anytime'' - 1971 * ''At Carnegie Hall'' - 1972 With Frank Zappa/The Mothers Of Invention * ''Over-Nite Sensation'' - 1973 * '' Apostrophe(‘)'' - 1974 * '' Roxy & Elsewhere'' - 1974 * '' One Size Fits All'' - 1975 * ''Bongo Fury'' - 1975 * ''Studio Tan'' - 1978 * '' The Old Masters Box III'' - 1987 * '' You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2'' - 1988 * ''The Lost Episodes'' - 1996 * ''Läther'' - 1996 * '' Frank Zappa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth Underwood
Ruth Underwood (born Ruth Komanoff; May 23, 1946) is an American musician best known for playing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, and other percussion instruments in Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. She collaborated with the Mothers of Invention from 1968 to 1977. Life and career Underwood began her music training in the classical tradition, studying both at Ithaca College under Warren Benson and at Juilliard under Saul Goodman (timpani) and Morris Goldenberg (percussion). Throughout 1967, she kept a regular attendance at the Garrick Theater in New York City when Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were the resident band. This resulted in her association with Zappa, beginning in December 1967. In May 1969 she married keyboardist/saxophonist Ian Underwood, a fellow Zappa musician. They divorced in 1986. Professionally she used both her birth name, Ruth Komanoff, and her married name. Underwood performed in more than 30 recordings with Zappa or Mothers. Examples o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chester Thompson
Chester Cortez Thompson (born December 11, 1948) is an American drummer best known for his tenures with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Weather Report, Santana, the progressive rock band Genesis and Phil Collins as a solo artist. Thompson has performed with his jazz group, the Chester Thompson Trio, since 2011. Early life Thompson was born on December 11, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland. He has an older brother, who played in the drum corps. At elementary school, he learned to play the flute and read music. At eleven, Thompson took up the drums, receiving lessons from James Harrison, a professional jazz drummer from whom he learned his rudiments. Thompson practiced by playing along with albums by jazz musicians Miles Davis, Max Roach and Art Blakey. From there, he moved on to studying records by drummer Elvin Jones, whom Thompson cites as a major musical influence along with Tony Williams. While attending high school, he studied privately with drummer and percussionist T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Duke
George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album '' The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio''. He was known primarily for 32 solo albums, of which '' A Brazilian Love Affair'' from 1979 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa. Biography George M. Duke was born in San Rafael, California, United States, to Thadd Duke and Beatrice Burrell and raised in Marin City. At four years old, he became interested in the piano. His mother took him to see Duke Ellington in concert and told him about this experience. "I don't remember it too well, but my mother told me I went crazy. I ran around saying 'Get me a piano, get me a piano!'" He began his formal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
