Eddy Loves Frank
Artist: The Ed Palermo Big Band
Label: Cuneiform Records
Time: 8 tracks / 53:11

It’s no secret to the legions of fans of Frank Zappa’s music, but the uninitiated might be surprised to learn that Zappa was (among many other things) a master of big band composition. Some four decades ago, when most rock bands were content churning out simple arrangements played with drums, guitar and bass, Zappa was writing multifaceted compositions featuring strings, intricate percussion, and complex horn charts. Distracted by the satirical and occasionally frivolous nature of some of his more well-known songs (“Valley Girl,” “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow,” “Stink Foot”), the general public seemed to be less aware of Zappa’s stunning instrumental work on albums like the ground-breaking “Grand Wazoo” and “Waka Jawaka.” In fact, many fans of Zappa’s dazzling instrumental music sometimes felt that the price they had to pay for listening to ‘the serious stuff’ was to sit through songs like “Dinah Mo Hum” and “I’m the Slime.”

Let’s all say a collective ‘thank you’ to Ed Palermo.

Eddy Loves Frank is Palermo’s third collection of carefully selected Zappa compositions, and once again his big band arrangements prove to be faithful to Frank’s music without resorting to slavish imitation – all of the complexity of the original songs remain intact, lovingly arranged to allow improvisation, never played without a palpable sense of fun, and always remaining true to the familiar Zappa-ism, ‘music is the best.’ 

The Ed Palermo Big Band is one of the few bands that have successfully translated Zappa’s compositions outside of the context of Zappa’s in-house ‘conceptual continuity,’ and (in particular) the theatricality of their original settings. Separated from the stage/audience interaction of the live albums and the textural surroundings of the original studio versions, the songs are presented here to stand or fall on their individual musical integrity, and not only do they stand – they soar. The band (and the music) swings hard.

The track list will delight Zappa fans. Palermo includes material from the later touring-years in Frank’s ‘post-Mothers’ period. Of the seven Zappa tracks here, the almost-ten-minute-long “Echidna’s Arf (of You),” and the challenging “Duprees’s Paradise” stand out immediately. With every frenetic run up and down the scale and each break intact, “Echidna’s Arf (of You)” will have long-time fans instinctively filling in the blanks (“ladies and gentlemen – watch Ruth!”), and ‘Dupree’s’ has never sounded more like a hard-core jazz lounge. Using less guitar than you might expect, Palermo’s talented group of soloists (including Big Ed himself on alto sax) do a fine job stating the intricate melodies and taking them into a more conventional Big Band context.

Not only is Eddy Loves Frank a fine Big Band Jazz album on its own, but it’s also a good introduction to the more jazz-oriented instrumental music of Frank Zappa, an artist whose work ranged from doo-wop to modern classical and everything in-between. Palermo’s arrangements allow the music to breathe and Bruce McDaniel’s production is clean and vibrant, allowing the soloists to make their mark clearly in the mix, while keeping the warmth of the group’s sound from going muddy – very good sounding CD, indeed. Play it loud.

Surprisingly enough, the album ends with the only non-Zappa composition, “America the Beautiful,” which is rendered in a respectful, jazzy treatment featuring the only vocal on the album, by Bruce McDaniel. The five minute-plus track is perhaps an odd counterpoint to an album of music by a singularly un-sentimental artist, yet this song, dedicated to Palermo’s father, works as a warm and somehow appropriate coda to the controlled chaos of some of the other music. Suzie Creamcheese would be proud.
 

Bert Saraco
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