Tommy Mars interview, ex Zappa bandmember (part 1) 

I love Tommy's "cheesy brass" sounds lol. Something many FZ fans seem to dislike. Good interview.

He is so right about discipline. Cobham, Gadd, and Shrieve all played in drum corps.

Awesome interview. He is one of my favorite Zappa keyboardists! Need a Scott Thunes interview next!

Wow. Not too many jazz or rock artists have to his degree such training in classical music . His solo on Pound for a Brown from Zappa's "Baby Snakes" (1977 NYC concert at Halloween) shows a little of what his audition for Frank (in part 5? here) must have been like.

"there is no freedom without discipline"

tommy was great,a great player,a great musician,a great person.I miss you tommy .I miss the baby snakes days.

Awesome keyboardist!

This man is crazy genius he said he and his brother would challenge each other and try singing two different things over one another and really getting strange things going at same time.. Another interview he mentions trying out for Frank and thinking he was bombing and then Frank asks him to do something like sing any tune he could remember and he said he just froze could not think of any and was really just going down in flames and then Frank said something about a thing Tommy could do and it was play one thing and sing another over it didnt matter if it had anything to do with it at all just play two hard things at once like no tomorrow and Frank got on the phone called upstairs to Gail said come downstairs and meet our new keyboardist and Tommy said Frank ive been playing small clubs so long and Frank said I know Tommy not anymore.. :) Mars meant like holiday inns ect. Hired him on the spot cause he could do something impossible improv wise which tickled Frank. I love those audition stories always the best.

Maybe it was the weird yellow thing he wore in Baby Snakes

Where is Tommy now? Is he playing?

I know exactly what he means about the wrong note being played to drive you crazy. Frank experimented with that, I wonder how Tommy dealt with it.

Not like he is topping off the HIt Parade or headlining at Bonaroo, either. But I did mean "was great with Zappa." I'm sure he still rips. and would love the see him.

thanks for this, i have been hearing tommy mars for a long time in recordings, and recently got interested in him , starting to appreciate his wild soulful playing more now.

Yes he is playing

Omf Thanks for posting this binge listening now.. gonna be a long night now so clear I saw this band. then with Robert Martin the following year or so amazing.

Maybe he should have stayed with his momma

He has a really normal speaking voice.

I didn't know Bruno was even active in the mid-1990s, and why is he interviewing a rock keyboardist? Seriously -- Mars was great. I loved watching him with Zappa live. I never knew much about him -- thanks for posting!

I love Tommy Mars! I've been listening to him on Jon Larsen's Strange News From Mars. A great album!

This is great for I reference things in my remixes and it goes over there heads!!!

..and what beautiful sounds, perfectly matching with F.Z.'s works.

what specs is he wearing now? :-)

My new favorite human haha

Planète mars! Tommy

thank you