For Immediate Release
Zappa Vocal Legend Napoleon
Murphy Brock To Release Vintage Live Recordings
10/12/2009 - San Jose, CA - Zappa vocal legend and 2008 Grammy Award
recipient Napoleon Murphy Brock plans to release a CD of vintage live recordings
in early 2010 entitled This Is What Frank Zappa Heard - Just in
Case You Were Wondering - Live at the Red Noodle in Waikiki, Hawaii.
Fans worldwide have heard Napoleon’s extraordinary vocals, sax and flute on
such beloved Zappa albums as Roxy &
Elsewhere, One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury and Thing-Fish, not to mention his work with keyboardist - and fellow
Zappa alumni - George Duke, as well as the recent incarnation of the Grande
Mothers Re-invented.
On 8th August 1973, Frank Zappa was alerted by his road manager, Marty
Perellis, that an incredible band with an extraordinary lead singer was
performing downtown to a standing room only audience … and that it might be
wise that he come and see this for himself. When Zappa went to the club and
watched the show, he saw a young talent sing, dance, play sax, flute and
keyboards, in a manner that clearly made it appear that he was having more fun
than even the other patrons in the club. After two hours of observing and
listening to this young man and his very disciplined band of musicians, he
introduced himself as Frank Zappa, and the young man introduced himself as
Napoleon Murphy Brock. The next words out of Zappa’s mouth were, “You are my
new lead vocalist.”
“As I understand it, he had just finished touring Australia, and they were
getting ready to go to Europe a week or two after that,” recalls Napoleon to
Andrew Greenaway. “And he was taking a little break. He stopped off in Hawaii
for a week or so. And his road manager, Marty Perellis, set Frank up in a hotel
and then went out walking around in Hawaii probably to see if he could get
lucky or something! If you want a good time, what better place to do it than in
Hawaii? Hawaii is literally paradise. And he came to a show of mine outside a nightclub
at the Coral Reef hotel and got curious as to why there was a line of people
waiting to get into a place on a Wednesday night. He didn’t recognize the name
of the band, so he thought he’d get in line and come in and see why everybody
was queuing up. The reason that people would line up in front of the ‘Red
Noodle’ every night is because the club owners always hired us, and brought us
to play and perform for the local people of Hawaii. The locals would get off of
work between 10 pm and 11 pm. They had until 12 midnight to get in the club,
after which time the tourists would be let in until the club capacity was met.
We played 7 nights a week, from 10 pm until 4 am”.
The band’s name was “Communication Plus - music that ‘communicates’ to the
listener and dancer, ‘plus’ music you can feel,” explained Napoleon. “Anyway,
Marty came into the club and saw us playing - didn’t recognise us, because no one
knew about us except the club owners that hired us and the people who came to
see us. He ran back to the hotel, woke Frank up and said, ‘Hey, get your
clothes on, I just found your new lead vocalist’. Frank got up, came by to the
hotel, stood in line like anybody else and once he got in he sat at the back of
the room there weren’t any seats. We were quite popular there, because we were
a band from the mainland. In Hawaii, a band from the mainland if you play
halfway decent music you’re like a star, you have star status over there. And
also the music in Hawaii is like a month behind”. Napoleon joined Zappa’s group
in October 1973 and remained until 1976, recording some of Zappa’s most notable
albums.
This historic performance was taped on TEAC 4 Track Reel to Reel on 8th August
1973 and has been digitally enhanced, and the final mix done in stereo surround
sound in Hamburg, Germany. It will put you at the next table to where Frank was
sitting, and you will experience what Frank Zappa experienced and what later
was described as “the audition of a lifetime”. Some of the songs covered
include Nilsson’s Coconut, Dennis
Coffey’s Scorpio, Carole King’s So Far Away, James Brown’s Make It Funky, Nolan Porter’s I Like What You Give and Herbie Hancock’s
Maiden Voyage - to name a few. This
Is What Frank Zappa Heard - Just in Case You Were Wondering - Live at the Red
Noodle in Waikiki, Hawaii is currently available for pre-order from
Napoleon’s official website. He will also autograph copies on request.
For more information on Napoleon Murphy Brock visit his official website: www.napoleonmbrock.com
Press Inquiries:
Glass Onyon PR
glassonyonpr@cs.com