Grandmotherly

Last night MJ and I saw The Grandmothers at the RamsHead Onstage. Most people know that I'm a little nuts about Frank Zappa so when the chance to see 3 former Zappa alum at he same time I was so there.  MJ is not wholly familiar with Frank but I had dragged him to a couple Project/Object shows so he was game for the Grandmothers show as well.

The featured players last night were Don Preston on keyboards, Tom Fowler on bass and Napoleon Murphy Brock on Sax, Flute and lead vocals.  The combo was filled out by a very talented Drummer, Christopher Garcia(drums and vocals) and Guitarist, Robbie "Seahag" Mangano.


Maybe I'm jaded after having seen The Ed Palermo Big Band play Franks music, but I was a little underwhelmed last night. Don't get me wrong, the show was okay. They played a lot of tunes from Frank's Roxy and Elsewhere disk which originally featured Tom and Napoleon, and that is one of my favorite versions of The Mothers, but I guess maybe it was Don Preston's performance that was less than stellar. To give the man his due, he is now in his mid 70s and was once on the cutting edge of keyboard technology, but that was 40 years ago. I appreciate the effort and his attempt to keep the music of Frank Zappa alive, but if Frank heard him play last night he would have been out of the band.


The rest of the band carried their own weight but there were times that it seemed they were playing avant guard for it's own sake. Frank was no stranger to weirdness. His motto was "anything, any time, for no reason at all" served him well over the years, but he ultimately had control over the chaos which somehow made it more palatable.

Another problem was the limited use of the fine guitarist that they had on hand. I've seen Seahag preform before with Project/Object and he was a great choice for the Grandmothers, but they didn't feature his playing as much as they could have. I understand that maybe they didn't want him to steal any thunder from the senior members of the band, but if you have someone with as much talent and style as Mr. Mangano, you should take full advantage. Fortunately, my little Casio camera was able to capture a few nice solos.

Looking back through the video clips I took, I can see that maybe the show was better than I remembered. The band was tight and they seemed to be having a good time up there playing which always leaves a good impression. They played an hour and a half including encores so the show was kind of brief, but Napoleon said they'd be doing a meet and greet at the merch table after the show. We didn't stay for that, but of course I did pick up a Live Cd from Napoleon, which is supposed to be the show where Frank first saw him. The recording, from the early 1970s, is pretty primitive but it certainly is apparent what impressed Frank. I just wish last night's show was as impressive.