Frank Zappa‘s Hot Licks & Funny Smells: Live at Moers Festival 2004 [Import]

Colin Towns, NDR Bigband | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 20, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Rent a Dog
• ASIN: B0007WQAH8
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,636 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Introduction & Anthem

2. Peaches En Regalia

3. Eat Tat Question

4. Let's Make The Water Turn Black

5. Watermelon In Easter Hay

6. Brown Shoe's Don't Make It

7. Willie The Pimp

8. King Kong

9. Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)

10. Waka Jawaka

11. Stevie's Spanking

12. Sinister Footwear -2nd Mvt

13. Little Umbrellas

14. Big Swifty

15. Black Napkins

16. Be-Bop Tango

17. G-Spot Tornado

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Jazz-Infused Big Band FZ Tribute, April 23, 2006

By 

Sir Charles Panther "Life is hard. It's hard... (Alexandria, Virginny, USandA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Frank Zappa‘s Hot Licks & Funny Smells: Live at Moers Festival 2004 (Audio CD)

Leave it to the Europeans, who always appreciated FZ more than we sad, plaid Americans, to put together a hot band and a shimmering recording like this one. Without a doubt, this is the best Frank Zappa tribute recording I have found. It is a brilliantly arranged, movingly performed homage both to FZ's music and to his legendary live performances. This release achieves the elusive goal of being highly original while at the same time staying very true to FZ's music.

For those who have attended your fair share of FZ shows, this CD will transport you back to the days before the music died in 1993. If you're listening intently, you might even shed a tear for FZ when you hear the highly evocative opening guitar solo to "Watermelon in Easter Hay." This one song is the best single musical tribute to FZ I've yet to hear; listening reminded me very much of the first time I heard Warren Zevon's "Keep Me In Your Heart For A While" (from The Wind), with the same emotional impact.

This is not a collection of reworked "hits." The only thing that comes close would be either "Peaches En Regalia" or "G-Spot Tornado." This is a collection for the experienced and knowledgeable FZ fan, who's got the "Stevie's Spanking" riff in his head when he sees the title, who remembers when "Black Napkins" debuted on Zoot Allures and all of the great audience participation FZ choreographed with the "Be-Bop Tango." The CD stands together as a single performance piece. As a live recording, the crowd presence is there, but not overwhelming. There are no board fades, with the band vamping and waning under Towns' direction as they move deftly from one song to another.

The band has a very impressive sound. This is a truly boss big band, with 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, a tuba, 5 saxes, and then keyboard, bass, guitar, percussion, and drums. This lineup harkens back to The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life and that 1989 ultimate, self-destructive FZ tour (which I saw in Mannheim, Germany), and then some. There is a core sound which is unmistakably Zappa, with some remarkably imitative yet original guitar work by Stephan Diez, and a number of sax solos which have both the sound and feel of the sax work captured on Zappa in New York.

Total running time is over 65 minutes, with extended jams on "Eat That Question," "Watermelon in Easter Hay," and "Little Umbrellas/Big Swifty." All tracks are instrumental, with the exception of only three words, spoken twice. A bold and clear baritone intones, "Just smells funny" early in "Intro and Anthem." This, of course, refers to FZ's classic line from the "Be-Bop Tango" from Roxy & Elsewhere, where he says, "Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny." This is Colin Towns' way of telling us in three simple words that he's very, very hip to FZ, his music and history, and that this concert will be a jazzy homage to the hungry freak who laid it all down so many years ago. A good comparison is the well-done, clearly respectful, but ultimately uninspiring 2004 Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa: Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions; the FZ sound is there, but it's too close to the original, too tone-on perfect and antiseptic, and ultimately a bit hollow.

The CD opens with a pseudo-band warm-up, which transitions into the twisted "Introduction & Anthem." Towns' choice of this tune as an opener seems to be a clear homage to Frank's country of origin. The band transitions right into a ballsy and up-tempo take on my all-time favorite, "Peaches En Regalia." This is a traditional FZ closer, and I interpret its placement early in the program as a position of honor. It's a pretty divergent arrangement, but then again, how many different times did FZ rework it himself? A few of the harmonies are arranged a little differently, and the bridge is pretty far out here. The band's horns are boss in every way, early in the show, coming hard and fast to punch up the chorus.

"Eat That Question" follows, and is an extended jam, very true to the original FZ sound. "Willie The Pimp" which got a rough and arguably ugly makeover by Captain Beefheart, gets a radical overhaul here, becoming a rocking jazzy piano breakdown, straying close to ragtime at times. Another personal favorite, "Let's Make the Water Turn Black," is arranged strongly up-tempo, becoming a big-band ska tune. It's not a bad take, but it's definitely different. The closer is "G Spot Tornado," and it's thoroughly enjoyable. It's slowed down a bit, with a rocking drum backing and some hot solos that make truly danceable; I'd call it avant garde stripper music. All of the other tracks are equally enjoyable; I've been playing this CD non-stop at home for over three weeks now.

Bottom Line: This is not an entry-level FZ recording. If you're new to FZ and thinking about an initial purchase to see what the fuss is all about, or even if you've got a few albums and are looking to expand your collection, wait on this one. Round out your original FZ release acquisitions first, until you reach the point where the titles on this CD, and all of their versions as performed by FZ/MOI are thoroughly familiar to you. Then you'll be ready to truly appreciate this recording. This is an absolutely fantastic album, and stands alone as inspired and expertly performed instrumental rock/jazz, but is best appreciated by the more mature and experienced FZ/MOI aficionado, those devoted ones who know all of the titles at first glance, who know what they want to hear, and can look forward to and appreciate seriously different yet unmistakably reverent arrangements of hard-core FZ standards.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Damned Good Presentation, May 4, 2006

By 

Jizmo (Boston) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Frank Zappa‘s Hot Licks & Funny Smells: Live at Moers Festival 2004 (Audio CD)

Colin Towns and his big horn-laden band have really honoured Frank Zappa with this live recording.
The music is more similar to a Zappa concert in that the arrangements aren't just well-played duplicates of the released product, rather more of what it felt like to be in attendance at an actual Zappa concert. It's as if Colin and the boys use Zappa's music as a vehicle to show off their own musical chops and style.

Each peice rings with certain familiarity to the Zappa-penned music, but is executed with the band's own flair and compositional skills evocative of Zappa, but truly their own.

My only gripe is that signature epic Zappa peices the likes of "King Kong" are "horribly foreshortened", to quote the great man himself. The head section of King Kong is played very well and is very familiar, but then the band totally improvises the rest for just under three minutes before segueing smoothly into the next tune. I wished they really let that tune go longer and perhaps revisited the main theme through different instrumentation a few times in-between soloists. Sorry fellas. "King Kong" cannot be reduced to a mere three minutes.

Among my favorite peices are "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" with it's intricate and complex percussion work and "Stevie's Spanking", which begins with unfamiliar guitar jamming before suddenly kicking in with the very familiar opening strums of that rockin' tune. It just sneaks up on you and you feel like Frank and Steve Vai are jamming again. Watermelon in Easter Hay is played very nicely with some of the guitar solo being replaced with horns. Reminded me of the very excellent use of horn that Zappa used to replace the guitar solo in the '88 tour version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven". A nice surprise.

On a side note: I'm curious as to how this particular track was allowed to be released. As far as I know, "Watermelon in Easter Hay" is legend to be Zappa's most personal signature composition, and is not allowed to be recorded by anybody outside of Zappa's own family. I hope that Colin and his affiliates don't have a big lawsuit to contend with as a result, but I'm happy to listen to that beautiful music.

All-in-all, the band performed this difficult Zappa music nicely - not copying it, but evoking the true spirit of what Zappa was about as a composer/arranger and performer.
I think Frank would appreciate the effort and style of this live performance.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inventive and Entertaining Live Coverage of Frank Zappa, April 15, 2006

By 

Geoff Pointer (Adelaide Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frank Zappa‘s Hot Licks & Funny Smells: Live at Moers Festival 2004 (Audio CD)

Overall I like this album a lot. My only complaint initially was that the production was not the best but I think that was just me familiarising myself with the album. I did point out when I first posted this review that it is a live album and the sound was growing on me, well, it has very much grown on me now and I really enjoy listening to this album and I'm not sure what it was that bothered me to start with. I'll leave the rest of the review as it was originally written.

Complaints I have read about the Imaginary Diseases album relate to the arrangements not making enough use of the full diversity of the brass and horns. Well, Colin Towns put this selection together doing just that, making full use of the diversity of the brass and horns. The arrangements are very adventurous but still very true to Zappa in my opinion. Peaches is not just a same sounding rerun and there are some interesting harmonic variations and small solo insertions. Eat that question is firstly ominous and then it's all over you. Followed by a whimsical Let's Make The Water Turn Black.

Controversially, there's a rendition of Watermelon In Easter Hay. What I like here is that the guitarist doesn't have a style like FZ's and he doesn't try to sound like him. I like the way it's played here within the context of a big band. Brown Shoe's Don't Make It is a cut down version and the music is perfect for big band. Then come Willie The Pimp, King Kong and Pound For A Brown and just like with Peaches they don't just mimic any version you've already heard. The composed sections of Waka Jawaka are probably the closest to the original of all the pieces on the album.

Stevie's Spanking is played like a big band having a rock jam, Sinister Footwear -2nd Mvt is not a densely melodic version but is just very much a sinister ambience, Little Umbrellas/Big Swifty is very nicely done and starts off with a very interesting arrangement of Little Umbrellas. The Big Swifty part refers not to the themes of that piece, but to a medley of well known themes from various great composers including Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture that is taken from the latter part of the arrangement of Big Swifty on Make A Jazz Noise Here. Black Napkins has a really nice throaty sax solo, that guy didn't learn to play that way at a school, Be-Bop Tango is a short version which starts with some really nice piano work, and G-Spot Tornado, well it sounds like a big band doing G-Spot Tornado.

All in all I would highly recommended this album. What I would really like of course is the opportunity to see a show like this in the flesh.