"The Black Page #1" is a piece by American composer
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
known for being extraordinarily difficult to play. Originally written for the
drum kit
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player ( drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsti ...
and melodic
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
(as "The Black Page Drum Solo"), the piece was later rearranged in several versions, including the "easy teenage New York version" (commonly referred to as "The Black Page #2") and a so-called "
new-age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
version", among others.
Drummer
Terry Bozzio
Terry John Bozzio (born December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Person ...
said of the piece:
On the double live album ''
Zappa in New York
''Zappa in New York'' is a double live album by Frank Zappa released on his own DiscReet Records label. It was recorded in December 1976 at a series of concerts at the Palladium in New York City.
The album was scheduled for release in mid 1977 b ...
'' (recorded 12/1976, released 3/1978), Zappa noted the "statistical density" of the piece. It is written in
common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...
with extensive use of
tuplet
In music, a tuplet (also irrational rhythm or groupings, artificial division or groupings, abnormal divisions, irregular rhythm, gruppetto, extra-metric groupings, or, rarely, contrametric rhythm) is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat i ...
s, including tuplets inside tuplets. At several points there is a
quarter note
A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a note (music), musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless ste ...
triplet ( sixth notes) in which each beat is counted with its own tuplet of 5, 5 and 6; at another is a
half note
''Half Note'' is a live album by saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1974 and first released on the SteepleChase label in 1985.third notes) in which the second beat is a quintuplet (actually a tuplet of 7), and the third beat is divided into tuplets of 4 and 5. The song ends with a quarter note triplet composed of tuplets of 5, 5, and 6, followed by two tuplets of 11 in the space of one.
Zappa would re-arrange the song into "The Black Page #2" shortly after his band's mastery of the piece. This second version has a disco beat, but nevertheless retains nearly every metric complexity from #1. One notable difference in this version is that the final set of tuplets feature a rhythmic change and are repeated three times to conclude the song. The 1991 live album ''
Make a Jazz Noise Here
''Make a Jazz Noise Here'' is a live double album by Frank Zappa. It was first released in June 1991, and was the third Zappa album to be compiled from recordings from his 1988 world tour, following ''Broadway the Hard Way'' (1988) and '' The Bes ...
'' includes a so-called "new age version", which incorporates
lounge
Lounge may refer to:
Architecture
* Lounge, the living room of a dwelling
* Lounge, a public waiting area in a hotel's lobby
* Lounge, a style of commercial alcohol- bar
* Airport lounge, or train lounge (e.g., AMTRAK's Acela Lounge), a premium ...
and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
music. The 1994 album ''
You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4
''You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4'' is a two-CD set of live recordings by Frank Zappa, recorded between 1969 and 1988, and released in 1991.
Track listing
All tracks written by Frank Zappa, except where noted.
Personnel
Musici ...
'' featured a version from 1984 that had a
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
motif. Both of these versions included guitar solos from Zappa.
Performances
In 2001, Terry Bozzio and
Chad Wackerman
Chad Wackerman (born March 25, 1960) is an American jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer, who has played with Frank Zappa and Allan Holdsworth. He has worked as a band member, session musician, sideman, and leader of his own ensembles. He is th ...
released the video "Solos and Duets" which features "The Black Page" played as a duet between the two ex-Zappa drummers with a transcription of the piece scrolling along the bottom of the screen as it is being played. In 2006, "The Black Page" was featured on '' Zappa Plays Zappa - Tour de Frank'', an ambitious effort by
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa (born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa; September 5, 1969) is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor. He is the son of musical composer and performer Frank Zappa. Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Dweezil dev ...
to bring Zappa music to the stage again, played by himself and a new band. The 2006 tour also included, as special guests, Zappa alumni; singer & woodwind player
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'', a ...
, drummer Bozzio, and guitarist
Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for ...
. In the 2006 shows, "The Black Page" was played first as a drum solo by Bozzio and then a second time as a guitar duet with
Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for ...
. In 2014 "The Black Page" was immortalized by Terry Bozzio in the form of art he calls Rhythm & Sketch. On canvas Terry's sketch of Zappa with "The Black Page" is layered with a rhythmic pattern of light traces from Terry's drumsticks. This was a limited run of 25 canvases and sold out quickly. Drummer
Morgan Ågren
Morgan Ågren (born 1967) is a Swedish drummer who plays with the progressive rock band Kaipa.
Biography
A native of Umeå, Västerbotten, Ågren was spotted as an outstanding talent at a young age as he began performing publicly at age seve ...
and guitarist
Mike Keneally
Michael Joseph Keneally (born December 20, 1961) is an American session guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and composer.
Early years and musical influences
Keneally started playing music at the age of 7 when he received an electric organ for h ...
played the piece as an encore during
Devin Townsend
Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...