Posted on 05/02/2016 9:10:54 AM PDT by Wolfie
I have the ZPZ concert on DVD, it is pretty good. Napoleon Murphy Brock was a nice familiarity on the 2006 tour. I can’t tell if he will still be with them (admittedly I haven’t paid a lot of attention to ZPZ lately).
No Napoleon left after the first tour. They replaced him with Ray White (lead vocals on Illinois Enema Bandit and others of that era). Then they went with no alumns for a while. Then their bass player quit on short notice and they brought in Scott Thunes (Valley Girl era) for a tour. For the most part they’ve gone without alumns, which I like, alumns kind of turn it into a museum piece. I’ve seen every time they’ve come to Tucson and up in Phoenix when they didn’t come down here. Really they just keep getting better, 10 years of practice has tightened them up, as long as he keep Scheila Gonzalez (keyboards, horns and vocals in the DVD) they’ll be alright.
Ahmet— named after famous founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Etrtagun
Diva Zappa—because she was a loud baby
Dweezil—Ian Donald
Moon Unit—because when she was born, the family became a “family unit.’
What I know about it is this.
Brock was a guest on most of the 2006 shows.
White was a Guest on 2007, 2008 and some 2009 shows.
aside from that, Scott Thunes was my favorite bass player in the Zappa fold.
Yeah Scott’s amazing. Apparently kind of a dick though, generally credited to be one of the big reasons (along with FZ being distracted by political stuff he’d gotten involved in) the ‘87 tour band imploded making Frank swear off touring. It’s cool seeing the alumns, especially since I didn’t get into FZ until late ‘86 and never had a chance to see him, but it does feel more living when it’s all Dweezil’s folks in the band. If they get to your area give them a shot, there’s no better way to hear FZ’s music than by a band that improvises so it’s never been like this before and never will be again.
I will try like mad to get to see Dweezil, I never got to see Frank live either.
I heard Thunes is a prick as well, you can see where the reputation comes from in some of the interviews that can be found on youtube.
I really want to see Robby Krieger too, but I think I just missed an opportunity about a month ago.
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