Based on careful listening to authorized and unauthorized recordings, and drawing on hundreds of interviews with Frank Zappa and numerous musicians who worked with him, The Big Note is the complete guide to the music of Frank Zappa.
The product of seventeen years of research by Charles Ulrich, The Big Note provides detailed commentary on 1,663 tracks spanning 100 albums recorded over 35 years, backed up by 1,773 citations. Ulrich’s book provides the liner notes that every album in the protean and prolific composer’s oeuvre cries out for; it is the indispensible resource for any FZ fan or scholar.
Who’s playing what on each track? When was this recorded? How did FZ put this together? Just what is the Apostolic Blurch Injector? What the heck are we listening to, anyway, and why does it sound so familiar?
Roy Halee with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel - Columbia Studios New York, NY - Original Studio B, 52nd Street, console used for 8-Track recording. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" session, CBS .
Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects.
Halee grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy Halee, provided the singing voice for Mighty Mouse in late 1940s Terrytoons cartoons, as well as the voices of Heckle and Jeckle from 1951 through 1961. His mother, Rebekah Cauble, was a former stage actress with several Broadway credits.
Halee, who had been studying to be a classical trumpet player, began working as a cameraman for CBS Television in the late 1950s, eventually becoming an audio engineer for Goodson-Todman game shows and the top-rated The $64,000 Question.
As television shows moved to the West Coast, he lost his job in a union dispute and layoff at CBS Television. He went to work at Columbia Records Studio A, first as an editor then later a studio engineer, where his first recording session was for Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, including the first long-format radio single, "Like a Rolling Stone". In 1964 he first encountered Simon & Garfunkel during their Columbia audition, and he is mentioned in the song "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)" by Paul Simon. In 1965, Halee collaborated with Columbia staff producer Tom Wilson to overdub electric instruments and drums onto the originally-released acoustic version of "The Sound of Silence" without the duo's knowledge, with the remixed version reaching number one on the Billboard singles chart.
Halee's role with Simon and Garfunkel expanded to producer-engineer, with Halee producing several albums with the duo. Halee discovered that the uniqueness of Simon & Garfunkel's vocal harmonies could only be achieved by recording both voices on the same microphone at the same time. The song "Mrs. Robinson", from the 1968 album The Graduate, won him a Grammy Award. Three more Grammy Awards followed for his work on the album Bookends, and the song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in 1970. After Simon & Garfunkel split up, Halee co-produced Simon's first solo album and its follow-up, There Goes Rhymin' Simon.
Halee also worked with the Lovin' Spoonful, the Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds, as well as Barbra Streisand, the Byrds, Journey (on their first album Journey), Willie Nile, Laura Nyro, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mark-Almond Band, Rufus and Blue Angel. After working at Columbia studios in New York and Los Angeles, Halee established Columbia's San Francisco recording studio. In 1975 he left those studios for ABC Recording Studios, where he worked with new acts and established ABC artists as producer, engineer or both. His first project was the Mark-Almond Band.
In 1985, Halee went with Paul Simon to South Africa to record something new that, he said, "wasn't written yet, we were going with nothing, so it was a gamble. A lot of people thought we were nuts." It led to the Grammy Award-winning album Graceland. "I was having a ball recording these guys. For a guy from my background, everything was so organised generally. Here in the rawness of this, the earthiness, I was in seventh heaven." After Graceland, Roy Halee continued travelling with Simon as an engineer, to Brazil and West Africa, for the album The Rhythm of the Saints, with "all congas, bass drums, bata...everything imaginable." He has continued working with Simon.
In 2001, Halee was named to the TEC Awards Hall of Fame.
These 100% made in Switzerland 🇨🇭 masterpieces are a true musical statement, a labor of love of my friend Jürg Schopper whose good taste and unique tape library are world renowned.
He was able in decades of collecting and - literally - rescuing thousands of master tapes from being trashed by recording studios, defunct labels and radios, private collections, festivals and state-owned collections.
Now these gems are kept in a temperature and humidity controlled archive and the process of evaluating ALL these recordings is a lifetime effort… many long forgotten gems are found and the best are painstakingly made available to music lovers worldwide.
Many great recordings were already issued, in a typically uncompromising Swiss fashion: ultra-limited edition 1:1 reel to reel masterdubs or extremely limited edition vinyl-discs, all with comprehensive musical and technical liner-notes, beautiful pictures and high quality Swiss-made pressings.
A Tibor Varga’s Saint-Saëns/Albinoni is a personal fave and a gem every music lover should own 💎
The volcanic Herr Schopper and his Triston label - after the awesome Yello’s reissue on tape masterdub presented at last Munchen HiEnd 2024 and almost sold-out - did it again and published - up to-date - three of four AWESOME Radio Zurich Johanna Martzy’s recordings and they are of highest quality, a true must-have.
These the track-lists… the discs are amazing in every aspect: almost nobody (but the enthusiast and not-compromising lunatic 😏) produces records the old way, from analog master-tapes to mastering, plating and pressing… no digital gimmick!
The violin is captured at its best and Mrs. Martzy’s playing is first-rate and a truly well-kept secret among music connoisseurs, a violinist’s violinist, indeed.
I suggest everybody interested in stellar quality music and golden-ears around to believe yours truly and grab these triptych before the very limited edition goes sold-out.
Unfortunately, I had to play these amazing discs on a lesser home audio system as my Gotorama (as I extensively described) is dismantled and in storage… but I can assure these beauties will be among the first I’ll spin on my Garrardzilla, hopefully soon.
I swear: I’m right now listening to beloved “Bare Wires” and yesterday I enjoyed “USA Union” and “Blues from Laurel Canyon”… and I just read the news.
John Mayall has been a constant musical presence for me since early ‘70s when I discovered his “The Turning Point” and “Jazz Blues Fusion”, and then all his amazing recordings, a true goldmine and a smooth soundtrack of my whole life.
I’m really, really sad… he was 90 years old, but what the heck! you don’t think Mount Everest will never die!
Here is an obituary (cut&paste) from JM official site.
“ It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home yesterday, July 22, 2024, surrounded by loving family. Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors. John Mayall gave us ninety years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain.
In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, John reflected, “[blues] is about – and it’s always been about – that raw honesty with which [it expresses] our experiences in life, something which all comes together in this music, in the words as well. Something that is connected to us, common to our experiences.” That raw honesty, connection, community and playing of his will continue to affect the music and culture we experience today, and for generations to come.”
RIP, dear John 💫💎💫 you made myself and countless others happy with your burnished nice voice and music 💫🥇🔝🙏🙏🙏💫
This was my first (of hundreds to come) ECMs’… this disc and music sure changed my life!
I vaguely remember I was - of course - attracted by the cover; the shop owner in Padua never listened to it neither he knew nothing about label and artist.
A young daredevil me felt confident to spend the hideous 3000 lire price-tag and rushing at home to listen to this newly found 💎.
The disc sounded quite stodgy to my young, virgin ears… nonetheless, a piece - i.e. “Mudations” - first track of side one, captured my senses and I remember I listened to it repeatedly, while my mom sometimes opened my room door and stared at me, with worried eyes… this music was “this” strange and alien.
I kept my nerves and absorbed this completely new nectar…
Then - some months after this epiphany - I bought my second ECM’s Ralph Towner’s “Trios/Solos”… and I was hooked for the life.
Strange or not, this first ECM’s also opened my doors of perception toward (now so-called) Krautrock: Tangerine Dreams, Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Temple.
So: thanks Manfred Eicher and Wolfgang Dauner 💫💫💫
A big tree has fallen…
From Derek Gripper, his long time friend and collaborator:
“ Doc. You were the greatest of inspirations to me. I have played two composer’s music without stopping for twenty years, yours and Bach’s. They have always been two sides of the same coin for me. I’m pleased to say I got to meet you. An honour to have met and spent musical time with one of Africa’s greatest composers. Peace be upon you. A great musician has passed. Toumani Diabaté. #kaira #kora #toumanidiabate @toumanidiabatemusic. Doc. Vous avez été ma plus grande source d’inspiration. J’ai joué la musique de deux compositeurs sans arrêt pendant vingt ans, la vôtre et celle de Bach. Pour moi, ils ont toujours été les deux faces d’une même pièce. Je suis heureux de dire que j’ai eu la chance de vous rencontrer. C’est un honneur d’avoir rencontré et passé du temps musical avec l’un des plus grands compositeurs d’Afrique. Que la paix soit avec vous. Un grand musicien nous a quittés. Toumani Diabaté.”
I’ll play his majestic “The Mandè Variations”, today… a musical genius.
He was 58 years old 😥
💫💫💫
Thanks to my pal Liam Porr for sharing.
💫
A gorgeous Swiss-made product (with a bit of Italian’s artisanal artistry to restore it and bring it to brand-new shiny appearance 😉😏😉) which pushes the classic turntable even higher… it sounds soooo right and detailed 💫🥇💫
Thanks to my pal Jürg 🙏
The old door of The Troubadour Folk Club.
It was at 265 Old Bromton Rd, London.
Probably must be London's oldest continously
running Folk-club, since 1956.
Martin Winsor and Redd Sullivan were the owner
for many years, it was a simple Coffee-House.
They had an incredible archive of old photos,
a list of people who sung at the Troubadour:
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon,
Stefan Grossman, Nigel Denver, Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch...
The list is infinite...
Someone has told me that Nick Drake was there
a couple of times, playing the piano that was
at the basement. Maybe just a legend… but a nice one 💫
Our happiness gets smaller as we get older. As children, our joys are simple and abundant: a sunny day, a favorite toy, a loving hug. Our smiles are wide, our laughter contagious.
But as we grow older, our happiness becomes more elusive. We chase bigger dreams, only to find that they don't fulfill us as deeply as we thought. We accumulate more possessions, but they don't bring us the joy we once found in simple pleasures.
Marco
We become more cautious, more jaded, more critical. Our smiles fade, our laughter becomes less frequent. We start to believe that happiness is a luxury we can no longer afford.
But what if we're looking at happiness through the wrong lens? What if we're chasing the wrong things? What if happiness is not something we find, but something we create?
In a few days I visited my pal Marco’s place in Bologna twice, introducing him to four new friends: Misho and Yanislav & Altin and Franco.
What I learned from my (humble) Charon’s role is that - yes - happiness exists and it’s elusive as the scent of fresh haystacks or rain, but when you experience you’ll never forget.
Happiness is in the eyes of friends deeply enjoying each other’s company, sharing music and chatting, never tired of late night driving back home.
It’s a blinking, wet eye in the dimmed light during an heavenly Haendel or Bach’s piece…
It’s a palpable feeling I so much love, which is exponentially enhanced “knowing” friends are feeling the very same.
Priceless 💫
I apologize with my audio-obsessed friends for not entering into audio details; that’s not important affirming Goto SG-1880 sounds absolutely gorgeously or a Neumann DST62 cartridge mounted on a Thorens TD-124 is insanely good…
Remember?
We’re after happiness, we’re (music-induced) serotonin and dopamine addicted 😂😵💫😉😂 and eargasms-seekers… our audio adult-toys aren’t made to impress fellows but functional to above search… we’re hungry for happiness.
Something which becomes sublime nectar if sipped in good company with best friends.
Let's rediscover the joy of the little things. Let's embrace the beauty of simplicity. Let's find happiness in the present moment - hic et nunc - not in some distant future.
Happiness is not a destination, but a journey.
💫
P.S. - it’s not necessary to spend zillions in audio ancillaries to be happy 😏😉😏 as who finds a friend finds a treasure 💎
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