Frank Zappa: "WE ARE NOT ALONE" | Frankfurt Radio Big Band | Mike Holober | Jazz From Hell |

A look back at 2015 - we dedicated the Jazz Festival to the music of Frank Zappa.
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WE ARE NOT ALONE a composition by Frank Zappa
An arrangement by Mike Holober
Solo: Steffen Weber, ts
Mike Holober | Arrangements, Conductor
hr-Bigband / Frankfurt Radio Big Band
saxes, woodwinds: Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn, Oliver Leicht, Tony Lakatos, Steffen Weber, Rainer Heute
trombones: Günter Bollmann, Jürgen Neudert, Christian Jaksjö, Manfred Honetschläger
trumpets: Frank Wellert, Thomas Vogel, Martin Auer, Axel Schlosser
rhythm: Thomas Heidepriem, b; Jean Paul Höchstädter, dr; Martin Scales, g, Peter Reiter, p
Performance of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band; 31 october 2015
46. German Jazz Festival, hr-Sendesaal, Frankfurt, Germany
#FrankZappa #Jazz #bigband
More about Frankfurt Radio Big Band:
www.hr-bigband...
A production of Hessischer Rundfunk © 2015

[@bakeone4406]

Obviously these guys are great players working out on a brilliant composition. The FZ version on Man From Utopia has more of a snarling baritone sax thing going on that communicates a diabolical cartoon like humor that was unique to Zappa. Wish the guy would have stuck around for a few more decades.

[@gerrabath]

This song was my first real introduction to Zappa. A year later he died and i cried.

[@mega_good_facts]

Easily one of my favorite Zappa instrumentals. What a fantastically respectful cover. Brilliant.

[@hrbigband]

Thank you, Iron!

[@gatomua]

What an amazing and respectfull cover. I really miss Frank.

[@alexanderkalinchenko4038]

We all do miss him...

[@jessenemerofsky8412]

Frank would of loved it and the musicianship is beyond excellent Bravo!!

[@hrbigband]

Thanks Jesse!

[@Draxtor]

This is INSANELY GOOD!

[@jotape_rodrigues]

Bravíssimo!!!!! Zappa lives!! 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼

[@johnunderwood3132]

I just found this vinyl, Utopia, love the tracks on this one.

[@wtecosky]

Bravo!!!

[@tacobrewthyme8168]

Great job. Not a common Zappa cover. Enjoyed it. Thanks.

[@catalinlazar4175]

Just... wow!

[@thomasreubold3573]

Tenorsaxophonsolo ist der Hit.

[@freitag314]

What a treasure! Just yesterday I found the Frankfurt Radio Big Band doing justice to some of my favorite music. Ausgezeichnet!

brilliant, thank you for sharring

[@Jalapeno_Chorizo]

Awesome job 👍🏽

[@futuragrabados9458]

Maestros !!!

[@jmo3024]

This needs way more views, like 1,000 of them are mine!

[@janbormans3913]

Really a very nice version of this upbeat song! I truly enjoy it.

[@exentr]

Thank you! I enjoyed!

[@Guitar6ty]

Awesome performance and superb technical ability.

[@frankbreuer8849]

It lights me up. Noice!

[@bjeffalicious]

Nice variation, Great choice for a cover, and well done!

[@wmtarr886]

I like this every time I listen to it

[@christianugolini8493]

fantastic job !

[@ivandelpinobastida452]

just wowwww

[@forrestgreen179]

Great ! Seen you guys before !! Thanks!

[@giovanni863]

Bravi!!

[@TheVE1957]

Super cover ! . . . Thanx men ! ( arrangements & playin' are amazing !)

[@Smilindog50]

Great cover! I'm sure FZ would approve!

[@carloswalkerg]

Beautiful performance!

[@plasticdadaii8225]

Beautiful as Freedom!!!!!

[@telefunkenu4740]

Saugeile Version, Frank wäre mindestens "zufrieden" - was bei ihm schon ein Ritterschlag war😀👍👏Bravo HR Big Band!

[@hrbigband]

Vielen lieben Dank! :-)

[@jkol323]

Love this piece!!!! Amazing cover!

[@indigo5601]

beautiful*, groovie! esp. the heartwarming modulation to f# (fis moll..), towards end of t.sax's solo. may eloquence prevail *and also celestial (the intro ☺)

[@a.m.6296]

fantasticamente fantastico

[@debo8514]

Well done!

[@giovanni863]

Bravi, gran bel suono !!

[@freitag314]

Would this have met with Frank Zappa's approval? We'll never know. He was a demanding band leader. It doesn't matter anymore, because the point is to keep this music alive. I typically don't add Zappa covers to my playlist, but everything from the Frankfurt Radio Big Band I've found on youtube makes the cut. Beautiful composition arranged and executed with skill and passion, to the extent I'm qualified to make a judgement.

[@Baribrotzer]

I loved the unison at the beginning: It sounded like guitar and baritone sax, but there was something different about the baritone - oh, that's it, it's an Eppelsheim BASS sax! If only they'd had real mallet percussion.

[@todd8155]

Yeah, I really caught the guitar, deep sax bass notes, bass drum, and bass guitar at the beginning. Really nice use of a Big Band to play Zappa's music! Of course my PC desktop sound system has ribbon speakers, is tri-amplified, and has a Velodyne 10" 1200 Watts RMS servo sub for incredibly tight and accurate bass so I can hear everything :-) I think it was John Pizzerelli that referred to Big Band as the equivalent of acoustic rock and roll. Some music critics referred to Zappa using a jazz ensemble to play rock music. At any rate it worked! Some of my favorite Zappa records are The Grand Wazoo, Waka Jawaka, and WAZOO live album featuring the Petite Wazoo big band. Incredible composition and playing on these albums, all with Big Bands, all from the same era.

[@Baribrotzer]

@@todd8155 Wow, that's an impressive system. I've got both my PCs plugged into OK stereo systems rather than dinky computer speakers - but nothing like that. ".....Some music critics referred to Zappa using a jazz ensemble to play rock music....." You could say, as well, that it was also the other way around: He used (absolutely first-rank) rock musicians to play what amounted to jazz tunes. I consider FZ a great jazz composer - the peer of Mingus or Ellington - rather than a rock songwriter or classical composer. Even though much of his music was not exactly jazz.

[@indigo5601]

reallie reallie groovie! and a bit laidback - r.i.p. fz is sedately conducting a 1,2,3,4... beautiful modulation @ ~5:20 and pls 'regards' to barisax @ end (camera elsewhere)

[@UncleBman]

Frank had many versions of his works. This is one is remarkable and no doubt he would approve.

[@Flantomas]

Suitable for a jazz festival, but too bland for Zappa

[@mariodrinovac6008]

Its well done!

[@NicolasMarinoDiTeana]

Superbe. Génial. Ou sont les autres interprétations ?

[@tixximmi1]

Well done. Thank you.

[@DoomKid]

GREAT cover! I loved it!!

[@robinjones6999]

very good!

[@neozeed220]

Amazing!!!

[@Luka_WiFi]

კაია კაია Well Done!

[@hrbigband]

Thank you ლუ!

[@vote4ulvio]

Frank Zappa!!

[@aisekauston]

Wow!

[@muro2825]

good!

[@redunzel77]

Jeff Daniels is the drummer.

[@HWynn87]

mint!

[@NaradaMarcel]

Danke! Großartig!

[@skorpikh]

Enjoyed it ! :-)

[@melechgadol]

brilliant arrangement the only thing I can say is the guitar lick is missing but I understand why you would remove it and it's cause it doesn't match the jazz vibe so much but this is actually amazing!

[@billholder1330]

More Sax! :D

[@juannavaaroza3832]

Excelente

[@carlosv9080]

todo lo q es

[@hland701]

Yes I agree more dirt on the low baritone sax

[@ing.radovanjirousek6852]

Thanks, play FZ weiter...........

[@matthewmcglade5952]

this is EXACTLY how Zappa would have played it live....

[@hrbigband]

Wow, thank you Matthew!

[@jwc3o2]

no

[@gs4847]

What instrument is at the very beginning?

[@БаурджанИсаев]

Неплохо. Но как-то приглаженно получилось

[@sealisa1398]

Far out...

[@melcowrong5889]

It was OK , but little a Frank Zappa sound. No xylophone sound ever.

[@indigo5601]

that's right.. the xylo (marimba in this case - long live ruth underwood), is for sure called for

[@goainge2]

Well done but it doesn't sound dirty enough. ;-)

[@danielstuder4078]

Isn't hard to play dirty as a big band?

[@Grimpus1972]

I know this isn’t mathematical or scientific, however I base my belief in extraterrestrial life forms on this tune.

[@suntfierbinte]

The solo killed it for me - too slow, too soft jazz. Although the arrangement is as jazzy as it could be and it lacks the rock energy, i did enjoy a lot the rest of the piece. They're pretty good musicians. ;-)

[@jaykay2003]

You're absolutely right Kara!!

[@violentinstincts]

Well guys, at least you tried.

[@goainge2]

So much effort and still completely fucked up. The groove doesn't fit at all.

[@jaykay2003]

the combination soprano and sopranino sounds terrible. Like cats suffering on kidney failure...

[@kurtkish6970]

Learn the music- then put away the sheet music, FFS. It distances the musicians from the audience.