"...one of the greatest musicians and arrangers in the world." - Christian McBride
"There are two musicians in this business who I can say are jewels. One is George Duke and the other is Ed Palermo." - Napoleon Murphy Brock
"He (Ed) has a breathtaking approach to re-contextualizing everything in a fantasia that swoops from Frank's (Zappa) work to Todd Rundgren to Wayne Shorter to whatever - just traveling through the history of music. I was absolutely flabbergasted." - Mike Keneally
I met Napoleon Murphy Broke in Stockholm airport by chance .in 2013 , he was surprised to be recognized, I greeted him saying , where is the grand wazooo ? He was a cool guy. And he still is .
*@Scott Thunes* You're good about replying to comments. I hope you'll answer this. Before you joined Zappa, you were a fan. Who did you really enjoy on bass guitar prior to your tenure? Of course all were great. Zappa didn't hire any slouches. But who really stood out for you? For your part, from 1981 to the end, you commanded the role.
Zappa's universe, it all started with his high school music teacher letting him come up to the chalkboard and place notes on the stave. Give that teacher an award for teacher of the Century. Without that moment, we would not have this most unique composer in the American music catalog. Zappa could take you on some bumpy rides and then give you sheer velvet. Zappa collected everything he heard, then re arraigned it for his own entertainment. What a mind. I've seen Frank Zappa for president bumper stickers on cars.
Wow, this is really beautiful. I was a very good friend of Crosby's, and before he died, he asked me to recommend jazz players who could cover his stuff. I've never heard this. This is lovely. I will forward it to his widow, Jan.
Imitation is is flattering but if you base your sound after someone else's work, worse a legend, you may not have too much to say (musically or Lyrically) yourself. Great, you like Zappa, but you are not Zappa, BE YOU, with maybe a Zappa influence.