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Peaches III

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"Let's hear it for another great Italian,
Conlon Nancarrow, ladies and gentlemen.
From: jqc8339@acfcluster.nyu.edu
  Conlon Nancarrow is an American Composer who now lives in Mexico. The reason for this is that he fought for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish civil war. After he came back the US didn't want to let him back into the country because they figured that anyone who fought against Franco must therefore be a communist. He has spent his time in Mexico punching holes in player piano roles (a low tech version of Zappa's Synclavier work). He has written a few pieces for other instruments, but his most interesting work are these player piano studies. I think they are now available on CD for an astronomical sum.
From: Gregorie@LFGMS.logica.com (Martin Gregorie)
  There are several (5?) CDs out of his piano rolls. Too heavy for me as an intro, so I got the single CD album by the Ensemble Moderne. The orchestrations are by their arranger in association with Nancarrow and cover some of the reproducing piano compositions plus stuff originally scored for musicians. Can't remenber the title, (its 'Nancarrow' or 'Studies' or some such) and I'm pretty sure its on the RCA Red Label series.
  It's Studies
From: Mark Edmonds <mmje@mmje.demon.co.uk>
  Also, Johanna MacGreggor has recently recorded a Nancarrow CD for the Collins Classics label which has been very well received.
From: "Hans Hendriks" <hhf@xs4all.nl>
  found at: http://www.otherminds.org/Nancarrow.html
Conlon Nancarrow
  Through his astounding Studies for Player Piano, Conlon Nancarrow has carried the notion of polytemporality (music with simultaneously varying tempos in different voices) to the very limits of human perception.
  Born in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1912, Nancarrow was active in his early years as a trumpeter, playing jazz and other types of popular music. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music from 1929-32, and later studied composition and counterpoint in Boston with Nicolas Slonimsky, Walter Piston, and Roger Sessions (1933-36). He values most his work with Sessions: "The only formal studies I did that were important were the studies I had in strict counterpoint with Roger Sessions. That was the only formal training I ever had. And they were rigid! I'd do this strict counterpoint exercise, and then I'd take a piece of my music and say to him, 'What do you think of this?' 'Very interesting; where's your counterpoint exercise?'" Nancarrow also cites Bach and Stravinsky as seminal influences.
  In 1937 Nancarrow enlisted in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. On his return to the United States in 1939 he became involved in the New York new music scene, contributing several reviews to Modern Music and associating with other composers such as Elliot Carter and Aaron Copland.
  Nancarrow has always been a dedicated socialist, which made him politically unacceptable in the United States. This was brought plainly home when he applied for a passport and was denied. Angry at such treatment, he moved to Mexico City in the early 1940s where he has lived ever since, and now as a Mexican citizen since 1956.
  Nancarrow returned to the player piano partly because of Mexico's extreme musical isolation. Another more compelling reason was his long-standing frustration at the inability of musicians to deal with even moderately difficult rhythms. He goes so far as to say that "As long as I've been writing music I've been dreaming of getting rid of the performers." With the advent of the phonograph, the player piano has been relegated to the status of an object of nostalgia. But not so for Nancarrow, who since the late 1940s has composed almost exclusively for the instrument.
  The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Nancarrow's complete Studies for Player Piano have been released on compact disc by Wergo (Germany), produced by Charles Amirkhanian.
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Let's hear it for another great Italian,
Al DiMeola, ladies and gentlemen.
From: Trevor Graham <Trevor@theswamp.demon.co.uk>
  I don't know if there is any significance in Franks reference to either Al DiMeola or Alvin Lee but looking through Zappalog ( a 100+page book listing all the artists/records/bootlegs etc involving Zappa ) neither played with Frank
From: jjr@panini.att.com (Jeff Rocca)
  Al DiMeola played with Frank Zappa on November 17, 1981 at a concert at The Ritz Theater in New York City. Al played "Clowns On Velvet" and "Ride Like The Wind" with the band. It's available on bootleg.
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
  No mention made of the fact that after this intro, one of the guitar players (stevie with the light blue hair?) plays a very characteristic DiMeola rising chromatic.
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Vinnie, Butzis, Vinnie's
girlfriend, Butzis' girlfriend, Patty, Denny, uh,
  CC
  Al Malkin once again
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"Ed, another Vinnie, Arthur, Al DiMeola, ladies
and gentlemen. Thanks for coming to the show,
hope you enjoyed it. On behalf of
Alvin Lee,
see you next time."
  What could it mean?
From: John Henley <jhenley@mail.utexas.edu>
  Nothing - just another Frank joke, based on something he said earlier.
From: "Mr. Mike" <a02632@giant.mindlink.net>
  Alvin Lee was the lead guitarist of Ten Years After who had a very flashy guitar style.

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