December 31, 2008

James C. "Jimmy" Zito

Jimmy Zito (tp,fr-h): [Frank Zappa: Lumpy Gravy track #2]

see also Frank Zappa
see also Tibor Zelig

Hm, I couldn't find a photo of Mr. Zito, but probably I just wasn't patient enough to keep searching. He's a session musician, presumably based in California, as he not only is credited to be a member of the Abnuceals Emuukha Symphony Orchestra, which recorded Lumpy Gravy with Frank Zappa, but also recorded for some (Hollywood) movie soundtracks (e.g. Young Man with a Horn and Ben Hur). The AMG credits list also lists albums of Clare Fisher and Elvis Presley with Zito's appearance.
Back to Lumpy Gravy: Certainly it's impossible to make out any individual voice from the orchestral parts of this recording, so we'll never know about the true sound of Jimmy Zito. And furthermore... the older I get, the more unbearable Lumpy Gravy (and most of Zappa's work) becomes to me, so I won't even try to figure out... But after all I think we shouldn't blame Jimmy Zito for the flaws of Zappa's "humour" and mentality.

Edit 2009-02-25: A kind reader has found a photo! And not only that. I learnt something more about this trumpeter. He was married for three months to Hollywood actress June Haver. The met in "Fio Rito Band", lost each other, met again, married, and were divorced again.
"Jimmy enjoys late night carousing with fellow band members. Drinking, a bad temperament and continued nights on the road all lead to a separation and divorce within three months." Well, this temperament seems to make him a good match for Zappa, huh?
Thanks to the anonymous reader for digging this information out!

4 comments:

bravo juju said...

blame zappa!

Spring Day said...

Hehe, good idea. And the reason(s), why to blame Zappa, and what for, can be found in an WIRE article, which I quite agree with (even though I also must admit that I listen to a few Zappa recordings from time to time):
http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/214/

Anonymous said...

You'll find a photo of Jimmy Zito (with his erstwhile wife, singer/actress June Haver) at http://www2.powercom.net/~fredmac/jn.html. The direct link for the photo is http://www2.powercom.net/~fredmac/images/zito.jpg.

Spring Day said...

Thanks a lot, dear anonymous reader, for this information, which I immediately incorporated into my post. It's nice to see that I have a few readers here.