Ed Palermo Big Band Obsessed With Zappa

Ed Palermo Big Band Obsessed With Zappa

By Michael Bourne
Both Ed Palermo and I have almost obsessively loved the music of Frank Zappa. Actually, there’s nothing “almost”about Palermo’s feelings for all that Frank created. He has recorded three albums of big band Zappa: The Ed Palermo Big Band Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa in 1997, Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance in 2006 and the new Eddy Loves Frank. When the albums have come out, he’s come on WBGO with me for a radio interview—although mostly we reminisce about our favorite Zappa songs and stories.

Palermo’s Zappa gigs usually happen at Manhattan’s Iridium only once in a while (like an upcoming performance on Oct. 21). Just as the new album was released this spring (on Cuneiform via palermobigband.com), the show at Iridium reminded me of a Mothers concert. Not in the sound of his band. It’s a swinging New York jazz orchestra with hip sectional interplay and spotlighted solos. More in what I’d call the Zappa consciousness of Palermo’s arrangements.

Palermo does much more musically than Zappa-nomics. He’s been fronting a big band 30 years, and now in the works is an album of his big band tribute to the blues of Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield. He’s worked as an alto saxist or arranger for a who’s who of jazz and pop. He’s teaching nowadays at the Hoff/Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, N.Y.
But none of his other work we ever talk about. All that we ever talk about is why Eddy loves Frank.
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