Javier Zalba

Javier Zalba (bs,fl): [Afro-Cuban All Stars: A toda Cuba lo gusta]

"Javier Zalba Suarez (1955): Graduated from the Cuban National School of Arts (ENA) as a clarinetist in 1976 and in 1984 as a flautist from the Professional Studies School 'Ignacio Cervantes', Javier enjoys of an active performing career that reaches different styles of music, going from Classical, Jazz, and Latin Jazz to Cuban popular music. He began his professional career as a clarinet teacher at the ENA, 1978. In the same year, takes part of the “Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna” and in 1980 shares his musical activities with the group of the well-recognized pianist Felipe Dulzaides. In 1984, he becomes a member of the ensemble of the pianist and composer Jose Maria Vitier and later on is invited to take part in the “Irakere”, directed by “Chucho” Valdes. Enjoying of a successful career as a flute, clarinet and saxophone player, he joints Bobby Carcasses’s ensemble 'Afrojazz' in 1991 as well as the orchestra of the Tropicana Cabaret and the group 'Oru' directed by the guitarist Sergio Vitier. In 1997, he is a member of the group 'Cubanismo' directed by trumpet player Jesus Alemany and creates with pianist Roberto Fonseca his own Latin jazz ensemble called 'Temperamento'. Already in 2000, he joints the Buena Vista Social Club orchestra with the singer Ibrahim Ferrer, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world. He takes much inspiration from solo and chamber music as well. He has been invited several times as a member and soloist by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra and many others chamber ensembles. He has participated in diverse international tours including the most important Jazz Festivals around the world. He also enjoys teaching and giving master classes in Jazz and Cuban popular music. He is professor of saxophone at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatoire. As a result, he has been invited to carry out several Cuban Music workshops in Barranquilla, Colombia (2000); Copenhagen Rhythmic Conservatoire, Denmark (2003); Liceo de Barcelona (El Aula), Spain 2004; Guildhall School of Music and Drama, England (2004 & 2006) and Montreaux as part of the Jazz Festival, Switzerland (2005). His books, 'Technique for the Saxophone' is being published by 'Abdala', in Havana Cuba and 'Sax Soneando' The saxophone in the Cuban popular music and 'Flute Soneando' The flute in the Cuban popular music (is coming soon) as well by 'Advance Music' from Germany."

January's over now - and it seems, this month and the letter Z were a good combination for saxophonists: John Zorn, Miguel Zenón, Annelis Zamula, Wigbert Zelfel and Javier Zalba. How long would we have to wait for the next sax players? Not even I can tell, when Lester Young, York and Jason Yarde will appear here. We'll wait and see.

Norman Zamcheck

Norman Zamcheck (p): [Ge­dul­dig und Thi­mann: A Schtetl is Ame­ri­ke tracks #1-3,6,8,10]

"Norman Zamcheck was the pipe-smoking piano-banging composer/leader of the band “Stormin’ Norman & Suzy, acclaimed from the mid-seventies through the early 90’s for their unpredictable and explosive barrelhouse-rock shows. The group started in Boston, toured for years across the northeast, and moved to New York, where they soon gained national attention and major record deal. When the band split up Norm switched gears and toured for nearly a decade with Andy Statman, celebrated master of bluegrass and Klezmer (traditional Jewish) music. To support a growing family he also became a teacher and administrator in a series of tough inner-city schools.
Norm’s piano style is based on the sound of his masters: James P. Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Otis Spann, Mose Allison. His songwriting reflects his blues and boogie-woogie background (with some harmonic detours) along with rock and folk roots. He has written hundreds of songs over the course of his lifetime. Every one tells a story." (quoted from his website)

Daniel Zamir

Daniel Zamir (ss,as): Satlah: "Nevalah"

see also: Kevin Zubek

"Alto saxophonist Danny Zamir plays modern jazz that draws as much from klezmer as it does from Ornette Coleman. Born circa 1980 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Zamir was drawn to the sound of the saxophone at a young age and began studying the instrument at the age of 12. Hearing Charlie Parker for the first time had a great effect upon him, and from that point on, he focused on music studies. Zamir attended a Tel Aviv high school that specialized in the arts and offered an intensive music program. In addition to the music of Charlie Parker, some of Zamir's early influences include Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Pat Metheny. Zamir formed a trio called Not for Sale and eventually started listening to other musicians, as well. Of those he heard, Zamir was most impressed with saxophonist and experimenter John Zorn. In late 1998, he relocated to N.Y.C., where he met percussionist Kevin Zubek and bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, with whom he formed SATLAH, as well as well-known N.Y.C. musicians including Zorn. Zamir has also worked occasionally with members of the downtown scene, including Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Marc Ribot, and Calvin Weston. SATLAH's recorded debut includes a guest appearance by Zorn and was released in March 2000 on the Tzadik label. Zamir followed it with I Believe, also on the Tzadik imprint, in 2008." (AMG)

Annelise Zamula

Annelise Zamula (as,ts,bs,fl): [Da­vid Slus­ser: Delight at the End of the Tun­nel track #4] [The Bil­ly Tip­ton Me­mo­rial Sa­xo­pho­ne Quar­tet: Sun­shine Bundt­ca­ke]

Annalise Zamula is a Californian jazz and modern classical saxophonist, who's performed with the creme de la creme of the US-west coast scene, e.g. The Billy Tipton Saxophone Quartet, David Slusser, Noertker's Moxie and the Berkeley Saxophone Quartet.

Roberto Zanisi

Roberto Zanisi (bouz,voc,harm,g): [Musci Venosta: A Noise - a Sound tracks #1,3,5,7,13]

Sometimes credited as Roberto Zanesi, but spelled Zanisi according to his Myspace site, he is a guitar and bouzouki player wandering between the worlds of mediterranean folklores (not just of his native Italy, but also incorporating Turkish and Greek styles) and the world of avantgarde and experimental rock. He's recorded with the [Roberto] Musci [Giovanni] Venosta Ensemble on their 1992 ReR album "A Noise a Sound".

Massino Zanotti

Massino Zanotti (tb,tu): [The Slide Family: Live at Jazz Festival Saalfelden 2008]

Massino Zanotti is a session-trombonist and tuba-player whose name I never heard before until I recently discovered the wonderful radio recording of the Slide Family's Saalfelden concert, which Yaqwedc shared on Querbeet recently. Many thanks for that! It's an ensemble not only, maybe not even in the first place, impressing with musical finesse, but mainly with raw physical energy.

Manfred Zapatka

Manfred Zapatka (voc): [Robert Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften Remix tracks #1,12-20]

Zapatka is a German actor, who's speaking the role of Musil in the ambitious 20-hour audio play project "Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften Remix" (The Man without Qualities), which is available as a podcast from public Bavarian Radio's website (use link above), together with a lot of essayistic extra material, which exceeds the usual "The making of..." stuff by far. Highly recommended for those of you who enjoy German language and Austrian literature. (And later we will see, how this production is linked with the rest of the music/ians that I present here...)

Dweezil Zappa

Dweezil Zappa (el-g,voc): [Frank Zappa: You Can't Do that on Stage anymore Vol. 1 CD1 track #1]

see also Frank Zappa.

Frank Zappa's kids have quite different attitudes towards their father. There is depression caused by the supposed "genius" of the father, there is anger about painful childhood experiences. Dweezil seems to have none of these problems: He's overtly and cheerfully celebrating his father's music - but who knows what's going on inside him.

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa (el-g,voc):

[Frank Zap­pa: Apos­tro­phe / Over­ni­te Sen­sa­tion]
[Frank Zap­pa: The Best Band You Ne­ver Heard in Your Li­fe]
[Frank Zap­pa: Bon­go Fu­ry]
[Frank Zap­pa: Broad­way the Hard Way]
[Mo­thers of In­ven­tion: Burnt Wee­ny Sand­wich]
[Frank Zap­pa: Chun­ga’s Re­ven­ge]
[Mo­thers of Inven­tion: Fill­mo­re East – Ju­ne 1971]
[Frank Zap­pa: Joe’s Ga­ra­ge]
[Frank Zap­pa: Lum­py Gra­vy]

see also Tibor Zelig (track #2)
see also Jimmy Zito (track #2)

[Frank Zap­pa: Ma­ke a Jazz Noi­se He­re]
[Frank Zap­pa: Play­ground Psy­cho­tics]
[Frank Zap­pa: Sheik Yer­bou­ti]
[Frank Zap­pa: 200 Mo­tels]
[The Mo­thers of Inven­tion: Wea­sels Rip­ped My Flesh]
[The Mo­thers of In­ven­tion: We're On­ly in it for the Mo­ney]
[Frank Zap­pa: The Yel­low Shark]
[Frank Zap­pa: You Can’t Do That on Sta­ge Anymore Vol. 1]

see also Dweezil Zappa (CD1, track #1)
see also Allan Zavod (CD2, tracks #7-9)

[Frank Zap­pa: You Can’t Do That on Sta­ge Anymore Vol. 3]

see also Allan Zavod (CD1, CD2 tracks #8,11)

[Frank Zappa: You Can’t Do That on Sta­ge Anymore Vol. 4]

see also Allan Zavod (CD1 tracks #2-7, 10,13 CD2 tracks #3,6,11,13-16)

[Frank Zappa: You Can’t Do That on Sta­ge Any­mo­re Vol. 5]
[Frank Zap­pa: Zoot Al­lu­res]

I have already had a few chances to make some dismissive remarks on the person of Frank Zappa and his music. In a totally un-encyclopaedic fashion I am going to continue to add some personal words here - Zappa doesn't need to be introduced anyway.
In my early teenage years I was very politicized, i.e. I had naive ideas about how an ideal society should look like and felt attracted by everything that was - or seemed - protesting against the actual society that was surrounding me. Naturally, when it comes to protest, a teenage kid might easily turn towards punk rock; however, after a year or two the nihilistic nature of punk made me feel uncomfortable, because I though that's not the way to constructively build a better society. I kept looking further. I tried a bit of jazz and avantgarde music for the first time, and I tried a bit of Frank Zappa. Certainly, this cynic's utterings are as un-constructive for a better society as were the punkers' shoutings. However, I didn't understand that fast enough. I'm sometimes a very slow thinker and perceiver. And what was attractive to me was the musical crossing of boundaries, as it seemed to me: there were the rocking guitars that I still needed to satisfy my punk rock background, but there was also improvised soloing - as in jazz - and the proclaimed avantgarde composition. Well, you all know what to think of that, and if not, I can only once again recommed the Wire article to you. But, no matter what I think of Zappa's unbearable humour nowadays and no matter how relatively lame his music actually is: I guess without Zappa and his music I wouldn't be prepared for what was waiting for me. I doubt that I would appreciate or even like Henry Cow, if I hadn't listened to "Brown Shoes Don't Make it" for a hundred times before. I guess, my reactions to free jazz would have been different, if I wasn't prepared by Ian Underwood's reeds solos on the "Uncle Meat" album. Would I be able to love the music of Can, if I didn't know the lengthy, percussive pieces towards the end of the Mothers' of Invention "Freak out"?
Musical tastes are always developping and growing, so there have to be certain intermediate levels, where one can rest, look back, look forward, enjoy the presence for a while. To me Zappa's music was such an intermediate level, seemingly necessary to my very personal development of musical taste - and therefore he's got to have his place in this little blog encyclopaedia.

Stefan Zaradic

Stefan Marian Zaradic (keyb): Ingrid Jensen & Wheelz: "Allah"

Zaradic is a Croatian-Austrian, Vienna-born, now Munich-based keyboarder, sound designer, sound technician and jazz musician. He's been trained as a classical pianist, played in local jazz groups in early years, and appears as a studio session contributor on pop, rock and jazz albums. He's working on music for commercials (founding an initiative for higher quality music in commercials) and did soundtracks for feature and documentary movies. His current project in the field of jazz is called Jazzmachine, his most noted and critically acclaimed production was the album Around the World with Canadian trumpet and flugelhorn player Ingrid Jensen, an album meant as an answer to the Balkan wars of the 1990's.

Petr Zavadil

Petr Zavadil (g,el-g): [Pavel Fajt & Pluto: Pavel Fajt & Pluto]

This musician from Brno, Moravia, played in the art rock group Pluto (1995-2000) and is now with Ty Syčáci ("These Rowdies"), where he's also operating on balalaika, percussion and vocals. He also played in several theatre productions and was a member of a local Doors revival band. He's also a member of the avantgarde rock group Ještě jsme se nedohodli ("We have not come to an agreement yet").
The Pluto album mentioned above has received a Czech independent critic's price called Žlutá ponorka (Yellow Submarine). Pluto is righteously considered to be a successor of famous Czech art rockers Dunaj ("Danube").

Allan Zavod

Allan Zavod (keyb,p): [Jean-Luc Ponty: Imaginary Voyage] [Frank Zap­pa: You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 1 CD2 #7-9] [Frank Zap­pa: You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore Vol. 3 CD1 CD2 #8,11] [Frank Zappa: You Can’t Do That on Stage Any­mo­re Vol. 4 CD1 #2-7, 10,13 CD2 #3,6,11,13-16]

see also Frank Zappa

Allan Zavod (sometimes - falsely - spelled as Alan Zavod) is a keyboardist from Australia, who was invited into the USA by Duke Ellington and played with Woody Herman Orchestra, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and appears on many recordings and in many gigs of Jean-Luc Ponty, Maynard Ferguson and Frank Zappa:
"THE LIBIDINOUS YEAR 1 with Frank Zappa in the 1980s is a faint memory, but Zavod delights in re-telling events. His lanky frame is still rock-star thin and while a baseball cap now tames the once-wild afro, he remains young at heart. What stood out about his time on the road was the girls, whom Zappa referred to as 'vegetation', and, of course, the sophistication of the music. 'One of the bonuses of performing on stage was not just that you'd get well paid but [you'd get) plenty of chicks," he grins without shame. "Even though we were playing all of this brilliant music, we were scanning the audience.'" (from Allan Zavod's website)
Now he's a husband and father and composing fusions of jazz and classical music à la "Concerto for trumpet, jazz trio and orchestra" as well as writing film or theatre scores.

Ivan Zawinul

Ivan Zawinul (dr-progr): Joe Zawinul: "In an Island Way"

See also: Joe Zawinul

Ivan Zawinul, one of the three sons of Joe Zawinul, worked together with his father as a sound-engineer and co-producer in the last 15 years of the late Zawinul's life. He also did some drum-programming for some of Joe's songs, as for example in the above mentioned "In an Island Way".

Joe Zawinul

Joe Zawinul (keyb,p): [Cannonball Adderley: Best of - The Capitol Years] [Miles Davis: Big Fun CD1 #4 CD2 #2] [Miles Davis: The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions CD1 #1-4, CD2 #1-4, CD3 #1-6] [Miles Davis / Bill Laswell: Panthalassa track #1] [Weather Report: Tale Spinnin'] Weather Report: "Eurydice" (live in Ossiach, 1971) Joe Zawinul: "In an Island Way" (+voc) Joe Zawinul: "Zansa II"

See also: Ivan Zawinul

I'm not Zawinulist, not even a Weather Reporter, but an entry on the recently deceised, likeable Mr. Zawinul cannot be missed here.
Here's my translation of German Spiegel magazine's obituary:

Virtuoso in Black and White

By Hans Hielscher

For such music one has be "free inside, has to be Joe Zawinul": That's the way how Miles Davis once praised the pianist from Vienna who died today. [...]

Already as a 17-year-old he dreamt of going to the USA as a musician. In movies like "Bathing Beauty" he sah these "villas, these wonderful swimming pools", while in post-war Vienna "there was never enough to eat". And he relished "a real super breakfast" for the first time in a club of the US Army. There Josef Erich Zawinul played accordeon in a hillbilly band.

JOE ZAWINUL: Icon of Jazz

The working class boy with Sinti ancestors, who was born on the 7th of July in 1932 could have taken a different path in life. Zawinul was invited to a pianist's competition in Geneva in 1949, a competition that Friedrich Gulda had won the year before. But at a certain moment Zawinul lost interested in practicing "eight hours of Beethoven" every day. Improvised music was appealing more to him; therefore this highly talented youth was hitting the blossoming jazz scene of Vienna. He explained his rapid development in this scene with his personal motto: "You get into a band as the weakest part and you leave it as the strongest."
This young musician's American dream came true when he found an announcement of a scholarship at the Boston Berklee School of Music in Downbeat magazine. Zawinul sent one of his records there and was accepted. Originally meant to be a limited period study residence, he stayed in the US for nearly all his life. After just a few weeks in Boston he was hired by the trumpet star Maynard Ferguson. The Austrian got a Green Card.
An engagement in the trio of the singer Dinah Washington followed. The Afro-American diva described her piano-player as a musician "with the touch of George Shearing and the soul of Ray Charles".

Afro-American Viennese humor

Zawinul felt attracted by the blacks, because they were the best players of the music that he loved the most. Furthermore he was amused by the humor of the African-Americans, which reminded him of the Viennese humor. In addition to his many friendships with blacks there was a very personal attachment: He married an African American. With the Cannonball Adderley Sextet he was travelling through the USA as the only white member of the group and he experieced nights when the whole band had to spend the night in the car because the hotel was allegedly booked out. Besides piano Zawinul also played the Fender Rhodes keybpard in the Adderley Sextet and scored a worldwide hit with his composition "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy".

"To be able to write such music", Miles Davis noted, "one has to be free inside, has to be Joe Zawinul with two brown children, a black wife, two pianos; has to be out of Vienna, a cancer and without any cliché". Davis hired Zawinul für the production of his albums "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew" as composer and keyboarder.

Zawinul refused the offer to join the band of Davis. Probably these two strong personalities wouldn't get along with each other on a long-term scale, although they had a deep regard for each other. "Miles is the father", Zawinul said, "and we are his sons. But even if you're small and standing on your father's shoulders, you can see farther than he can. That's the way it is like with us, too."

Music, as unsettled as the weather

Zawinul co-determined the development of jazz when he founded the jazz-rock group Weather Report together with the saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Just like the weather, the music of this group was supposed to change all the time. To achieve this, Zawinul was relying on the new possibilities of electronics. His slogan was "play electric, sound acoustic". He compared the synthesizer with an accordeon: Both instruments "possess a number of different registers, which can be used to change the tonal color." Weather Report was fascinating more than just the jazz community but also rock fans and was celebrated worldwide. Zawinul composed further hits like "Birdland."

In his years after Weather Report the musician Zawinul, with residences in Los Angeles and Vienna travelle through the world with his "Zawinul Syndicate". Besides the possibilities of electronics he was more an more interested in percussion styles from all over the world. In the different line-ups of his band there were often excellent percussionists from Africa. His musicians could all have been his sons, if not his grandchildren.

The jazz and rock musician Joe Zawinul has also written symphonic works, among them a memorial called "Mauthausen - Vom großen Sterben hören" (Mauthausen - To hear of the great dying) in 1998, commemorating the 60th anniversary of building the nazi concentration camp Mauthausen.

Until he got ill, Joe Zawinul was a happy man. In 2002 he said in an interview with Spiegel: "Sometimes I think, I am dreaming, when I look out on Santa Monica Bay from my house in Los Angeles." Today he died at the age of 75 in Vienna.

P.S.: For a nice view on the Czech roots of Joe Zawinul and his influence in this wonderful country, see the article of Lou Kash.

Hector Zazou

Hector Zazou (keyb,el-b,electr,p,synth): [ZNR: Barricade 3] [Hector Zazou: Chansons des mers froides] [La Perversità: La Perversità] [Hector Zazou & Sandy Dillon: Las Vegas Is Cursed] [ZNR: Traité de mécanique populaire] Hector Zazou: "Beauty"

Hector Zazou died about half a year ago, in mid-2008. This man received the obituaries that he deserved, for his life's work in music was unique, creative, influential, and... hmm... "architectural". One of these obituaries was a rather personal one from Galician/celtic flute and bagpipe player Carlos Nuñez:

The man who lived in the heart of music

“At any rate, I don’t think that we can go any further in this way of electronically treating organic music.” “This CD will be my last testament,” “In India, I discovered a mystery that is linked to our musical origins and we need to pierce that mystery.”
Those are a few things that Hector said to us a few weeks ago, Xurxo and me, as he held our hands on his Parisian hospital bed, from which he could see the Eiffel Tower. And then he said “Goodbye, my friends.”
Hector Zazou was our friend from the day we met him, some twelve years ago. The Master of electronic music, in his most romantic, multi-cultural and human phase, recently passed away from a cancer that devoured him in just a few months. He had just turned 60. He had the enthusiasm, spirit and generosity of a beginner and was undoubtedly one of the most mysterious musicians of our time, both in the way he operated and in the way he created. He hid from photographers, fled from the stage, took the metro from his apartment in Paris’s city center to find refuge in his creative cave in the African neighborhood of Montreuil. He hid his real name and sometimes used other pseudonyms (he once admitted that one of them was André Compostel).
We collaborated frequently over the years. Every time he was involved in an interesting project, he would call me from some far-off corner of the world to tell me about it, or invite me to participate. As far as my own work goes some of my favorite recordings, like “Danza da Lua en Santiago” or “Danza de Entrelazado de Allariz” would never have been possible without his mysterious electronic treatment and his advice on musical shapes and macrostructures. I also have to thank him for the happy idea to record a Bach prelude played on a Galician gaita. Hector was particularly generous with Xurxo, sharing his secrets with him like a son... We will never forget the Christmas that we spent together, holed up in the house in San Adrian to prepare “Os Amores Libres”... Music was Everything for us and you proved that it was the same for you.
The last time I left him, I told him “Hector, you are not a tangible and quantifiable being like other humans; you are some strange energy that lives in the heart of music, you are like a spirit that hides and only allows its presence to be divined…. beyond the world of appearances.” I think he liked hearing that and he told Jean-Michel Reusser, his manager and friend, “Remember that Jean-Mi, for my epitaph.” I could have told Hector another thing, when we said goodbye, something I had once told my manager, Fernando Conde, the day after our last recording at his place last winter. I was saying how I thought that the recording session, with my Galician bagpipe and music from India and Uzbekistan, was the most incredible I had ever experienced. Hector was a genius, and allowed me to rediscover the instrument I had been playing for nearly 30 years. He guided me toward territories that I am pretty sure have never been explored, thanks to his desire to free this instrument from its “Celtic music” context and put it back on the path to its lost origins, in Eurasia. That last recording with Hector was like an initiatory journey for me.
He’s gone now. And as we said goodbye that day, he told us that he was leaving feeling accomplished and happy.

Carlos Nuñez (English translation Tanis Kmetyk, along with original French version found at Taktic Music)

Inge Zeininger

Inge Zeininger (voc): [Brian Eno: Ambient #1 - Music for Airports tracks #2,3]

Another such difficult case: I've been reading quite a few reviews and googling around for a while, but I couldn't figure out more than this: Inge Zeininger's voice is to be found on the tapes which Brian Eno used for 1/2 and 2/1 on his seminal classic Ambient #1. Well, however, being part of this unique album is a good enough reason to get an entry into our little encyclopedia.

Ben Zion Zeitlin & Mordechai Zeitlin

Ben Zion Zeitlin & Mordechai Zeitlin (voc): Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra: "Borukh ato" Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra: "Gerer rikkud"

Couldn't find any pictures, couldn't find any info, don't know who these two vocalists are. The only thing that is for sure: They're singing on two tracks of the album "A Haymish Groove", compiled/produced by Geduldig un Thimann in 1992.

Edit: Lucky has provided a wooooonderful photo of these two singers. Many thanks! Here it is:

Wigbert Zelfel

Wigbert Zelfel (sax): [Palais Schaumburg: Palais Schaumburg]

Wigbert Zelfel is probably most prominent for having been a member of the classical Palais Schaumburg lineup, as it appeared on their self-titled debut album. This wonderfully odd album is a true classic of the experimental edge of Neue Deutsche Welle. EmtyFree.org wrote:

"If you’ve heard of Palais Schaumburg, you’re either a music freak like me, or you’re a fan of the Orb. Palais Schaumburg are the curious parenthetical reference next to the name of Thomas Fehlmann in the liner notes to your Orb CDs.

Palais Schaumburg were a German no-wave/new-wave pop band in the early 80s. They put out one brilliant no-wave album with Holger Hiller on vocals. But, they followed it up with two awful new wave albums without Hiller. Well, ignore those later two albums. The first self-titled album is wall-to-wall brilliance.

Palais Schaumburg were impossible pop music: bizarrely quirky with odd synth sounds, panicked drumming, out-of-key-auf-deutsch singing by Hiller, with a steady bassline that kept it all together. Their large hit from the first album was “Wir Bauen Ein Neu Stadt,” which made its way to America on numerous compilations. In short, Palais Schaumburg have that ultra-strange “German-ness” that reminds you of Mike Myers in a turtleneck."

Wigbert Zelfel introduces himself:
"Ich arbeite seit vielen Jahren mit Bläsergruppen, unterrichte und veranstalte Workshops. Spiele Saxophon und Oboe in der Band FISH FOR FISH und bei zahlreichen Gruppen (u.a. Fehlfarben, Can, Palais Schaumburg, Buschband, Ougenweide und div. Jazzformationen), live und im Studio, wirkte bei Film- und Fernsehmusik mit, ebenso bei einigen Veranstaltungen des Thalia-Theaters. 2003 komponierte ich die Musik für ein Theaterstück (Peer Gynt) und für ein Hörbuch (Kieselstubsen)." [I am working in brass/wind groups for many years now, I teach and I organize workshops. Play saxophone and oboe in the band Fish for Fish and with numerous other groups (among others Fehlfarben, Can, Palais Schaumburg, Buschband, Ougenweide and several jazz line-ups), live and in the studio, contributed to film and tv music, also played in some events of the Thalia theater [in Hamburg, Germany]. In 2003 I composed the music for a play (Peer Gynt) and an audio book (Kieselstubsen).]

Tibor Zelig

Tibor Zelig (vi): [Frank Zappa: Lumpy Gravy track #2] [Beach Boys: Pet Sounds tracks #4,6]

see also Frank Zappa
see also Jimmy Zito

Tibor Zelig was a member of the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra from 1959 to 1974. With this ensemble he appears on Frank Zappa's Lumpy Gravy. He played the violin on many studio productions of rock, pop, soul and jazz music, among them the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (on Don't Talk and Let's Go away for a While), albums of Randy Newman, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Lionel Ritchie. Occasionally the credits would even attribute flute and percussion to him.

Zelu

Zélu (el-b): [Paulo Moura: Gafiera etc. & tal]

Zélu (or Zélú?) is an electric bass player, usually with the Orquestra Tabajara.

Lee Allan Zeno

Lee Allan Zeno (el-b,el-g): Buckwheat Zydeco: "Funky Filly" Buckwheat Zydeco: "Ya Ya>"

Lee Allan Zeno is an electric bass-player (doubling on electric guitar occasionally) mainly associated with Buckwheat Zydeco. He was born in 1954 in - where else? - Louisiana and also plays with Cowboy Stew, Lil Buck Sinegal, and many others:
"So often, sidemen don't get proper credit for their place in helping to create historic music. But you can tell the good ones by recognizing on how many records by how many different artists their names turn up. Lee Allen Zeno is as in-demand a bass player as any. His credits include recordings with Buckwheat Zydeco, Charlie Rich, Dalton Reed, Guitar Shorty, Solomon Burke, Carol Fran, Phillip Walker, Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, The Holmes Brothers and Carl Weathersby." (Blueheavenstudios)

Miguel Zenon

Miguel Zenón (as): [Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra: Not in our Name] William Cepeda: "Cosa nuestra"

Miguel Zenón is a New York-based saxophonist originating from Puerto Rico, who - among many other collaborations and leading of his own groups - performed with the Afrorican jazz ensemble of William Cepeda - and also worked as an arranger of Cepeda's compositions for the album Expandiendo Raices (Branching out). In 2005 he became a member of Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra for recording Not in our Name.
Watch his fine soloing when he's playing with the San Francisco Jazz Collective!
And listen to an interview with Zenón at The Checkout.

Zhang Baoli

Zhang Baoli (erhu): [Uri Caine: Dark Flame track #10]

See also: Zhou Yi

"Zhang Bao-Li: member of Melody of Dragon, Inc., and member of Chinese Music Ensemble of NY, was born in Beijing and graduated from the China Music Community College in Beijing. He studied with Prof. Zhang Shao of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at his age of nine and gave his first public performance when he was ten. In 1978, he became the principal erhu soloist of the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble in Beijing and has toured extensively throughout whole Asia and gained him highly prize. His performances on the erhu, has been recorded on CD and cassette tape in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and US. After settling down in New York City, Zhang Bao-Li has performed and lectured throughout the US. He has performed at the Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Carnegie Hall, Joyce Theater, Merkin Concert Hall with different groups including -- Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, H. T. Chen Dancers. Zhang Bao-Li is not only a master on Erhu, but also a virtuoso performer on other string instruments such as gaohu (high-pitched two strings fiddle, the leader instrument of Cantonese Music), jinghu (also called Beijing Opera fiddle). With varied varieties of repertoire, his music combined both exquisite and crude styles"
(from Melody of Dragon website)

Zhang Jinglin

Zhang Jinglin (voc [narrator]): [John Zorn: New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands track #1]

Another difficult case: Who is Zhang Jinglin? It might be a bit easier, if it would be possible to find the Chinese characters of her name - her family name is most likely 张, but what's the given name? Using the Latin alphabet transcription, it is too common a name to find anything. In Discogs and AMG the only credits found for this name is the narrator's role on John Zorn's Hu Die (The Butterfly, 蝴蝶). The lyrics are attributed to Arto Lindsay. Does Arto Lindsay speak and write Chinese? There is no translator mentioned. And: Is Zhang Jinglin the woman on the album cover? It is theoretically possible, as the Chinese word for butterfly is also printed there. But on the other hand - don't the other lyrics on this album refer to actresses? So, it's likely that the woman on the cover is a Shanghainese actress of the 1930's. But then the original question remains: Who is Zhang Jinglin?



Edit 13/01/09: My dear research assistant Lucky has found out, that there's a Chinese actress whose citizen name is Zhang Jinglin (张静林). She later adopted the artist's name An Wen (安雯). She was quite active in Chinese movies and TV series of the late 70's and 80's - so it is possible she's the woman who speaks on Zorn's Hu Die, recorded at the same time. On Chinese websites you can mainly find some trivia about her love life (if I got it right, she was with a Russian and/or a Japanese man) - but I haven't found a definite proof for the identity of her identity. I'll keep you updated if I learn more.

Zhou Long

Zhou Long (cond): [Zhou Long / Music from China: Tales from the Cave]

Zhou Long is a US composer of Chinese origin. His works - as far as I can tell - are often composed for Chinese instruments or a mixture of Chinese and western chamber ensembles, yet they do not only draw their right to exist from this cultural hybridity (even when Zhou is writing for Chinese instruments exclusively, his compositional style itself is already a hybrid between oriental and accidental musical culture), but they rest in themselves. Not covering or denying hybridity, they are more a unified whole, where political correctness doesn't count anymore - all that counts is artistic value.
On this blog I am actually normally not including composers but focussing on performers of music - though many of the improvisers mentioned here are certainly "instant composers" in Misha Mengelberg's sense of the word. However, as Zhou Long is not only a composer but also a conductor of his and other people's works, I count him as a performer, too. In his function as a performer, he's also the artistic director of New York's ensemble Music from China. Therefore: voilà!

"My mother is a soprano, and she taught German lied, French art song, and some opera repertoire. And from my childhood I heard a lot of recordings. My childhood was really Western music, but since then I worked in the countryside and later I worked with a song-and-dance troupe in Zhang Jia Kou, a small city near Beijing. I also went to the countryside to collect folk songs, and I started to love the folk songs. I was in Mongolia, and everyone from the age of five years old was riding horses and sang songs that were really moving and touching to me. I worked in a junction of three provinces. That city near Beijing is in Hubei [Province] and is also near Shangxi Province and Mongolia. So I really had access to different styles. And the local opera was in different dialects. And, also in the Conservatory, our class all signed up to go south to collect folk songs during summer vacation. Also, I paid more attention to Chinese traditional instruments which might make my music sound more Chinese. But my influences come from 20th-century Western composers, whom I had already started looking at in China. Respighi is a strong influence on my orchestration. Of course, I studied Bartók and Stravinsky. They have the same method we do, using folk songs as material into our composition. I don't know. Chinese composers all have some Chinese style. Maybe I pay more attention to the traditional influences." (Zhou Long in an interview)

Zhou Yi

Zhou Yi (pipa): [Uri Caine: Dark Flame track #10]

See also: Zhang Baoli

"Zhou Yi (Chinese: 周懿; pinyin: Zhōu Yì) is a Chinese pipa player.
Zhou is from Shanghai. As a child prodigy, Zhou began studying music at the age of five and gave her first public recital at six. She trained for four years on the pipa before enrolling in the elementary school of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, one of China's premier music schools. Two pipa students, out of thousands, were selected for the position in the school. At the age of eight, she won the first prize of the Shanghai Spring Music Festival. At twelve years old, she claimed the Outstanding Performance Award of the Art Cup international Chinese traditional instruments contest. At the age of sixteen, her music was recorded and published by New Era Sound & Video Company of Guangzhou and Nanjing Video Publishing House of China. These recordings are used for future generations of music students to study as ideal renditions of these pieces. [...]
Her playing has been praised for its meticulous technique and expressiveness. She has been singled out as a young performer of notable musical talent. The Boston Globe wrote: '...She has an impressive command of the instrument and of a broad range of its classical, folk, and modern musical literatures...' and The New York Concert Review said: '...Her subtle string work made an artistic effect...'" (From Wikipedia)


"UC: There's the Song of the Earth [Lied von der Erde], which was the big song cycle which he [Gustav Mahler] wrote at the end of his life based on Chinese poetry—which is interesting because a lot of Mahler's chinoiserie, based on that idea that he was going to capture Chinese music, ends up sounding very much like another type of folk music. So I just thought it would be interesting to take the songs that had the most, I guess, stereotypical Chinese sound, the pentatonic scale, etc., etc., and actually have Chinese musicians play that music as if it were folk music.

AAJ: Like on The Lonely One in Autumn.

UC: Right. And it was very interesting to work with musicians who didn't necessarily know who Mahler was, but who, by the end of the session when we listened back, said it sounded like Chinese folk music. Then, when I played them the original Mahler, they were shocked. That's something that happens a lot to the musicians that play in my group. I mean, some of them know Mahler very well, but some of them don't — and I think if you present it as a certain form and let the improvisations give it a life of its own, and then when they go back to the original Mahler, they see what transformations have taken place." (Uri Caine interview from All About Jazz)

Mikhail Zhukov

Mikhail Zhukov [or Michail Žukov] (dr,perc): Saink­ho Nam­tchy­lak: „Creation Song“ Sain­kho & Di­gi­tal Mu­ta­tion: “un­known tit­le (Live Moers 2004)”

Mikhail Zhukov is a drummer stemming from the Russian progressive jazz scene of the 1980's, who has later broadened his stylistic range towards ethnic and folkloristic forms of music and classical or modern composed music.
In the 1980's he performed with Russian jazzers like Sergey Kuriokhin and led his own "Non-Light Music Orchestra" as well as a percussion ensemble. On the Western European scene he appeared with the Moscow Composers Orchestra, the Russian-German "Documenta Band" and his albums on Leo Records.
He's living in Potsdam - close to Berlin - now, where he is a member of the Russian ex-pat group Ersatzmusika, together with Leonid Soybelman. In his residence town he's playing with the chamber music ensemble Arpeggiato. Since the early 90s he's often been collaborating with ethnic and/or shamanistic music singers from Siberia and Tuva, including famous throat singer Sainkho Namtchylak and singer and khömus (jaw harp) player Nikolay Oorzahk.
Zhukov has a tendency for playing hand drums. His playing is described as "mystical" or could be more neutrally referred to as relaxed and moodful. However, his development from innovative jazz drummer to folk-world-fusion music is not undisputed. In his "Essay of New Jazz" Andrey Soloviev writes:

I remember, how Letov and Zhukov played a short and frantic suite "Tyani-Tolkay" in 1982 - minimum pathos with maximum expressiveness. [...] Another figure, not less distinguished than Letov and Lukin, was the drummer Mikhail Zhukov, who had his own percussion ensemble, called Uneasy Music Orchestra. Many interesting musicians played there - the percussionist Igor Zhigunov (later Megapolis), the arranger Aleksey Nechayev, future MD&C Pavlov - Aleksey Pavlov from Zvuki MU, Dima Tsvetkov, the drummer of Nicholas Copernicus. Zhukov's orchestra was a part of the nonconformist scene, but then Sainkho appeared. Zhukov started playing the "Tuvinian card" and it all ended up as ambiguous bunch of ethnic banalities.

Would you consider the "Tuvinian card" playing of Zhukov as banal as well? Well, check for yourself: After Zhukov played with Sainkho in a group named "Digital Mutations" on Moers Jazz Festival in 2004, the festival's website had offered a short 2:30 minutes excerpt of their one-hour-concert for a while. It's not hosted on their website anymore now, but has survived on my hard disc drive in the past five years, so I can offer it for download here.

Frank Ziegert

Frank Ziegert (voc,el-g): [Ab­wärts: Amok Ko­ma] [Ab­wärts: Der Wes­ten ist ein­sam] Ab­wärts: „Hal­lo, ich heiß’ Adolf“ Ab­wärts: „In ei­nem an­de­ren Land“

Frank Ziegert (usually credited as Frank Z.) is the only constant member of German punk rockers Abwärts. Their music and lyrics were - at least in their earliest days - a bit more sophisticated - and quite a bit more depressive - than the average punk group of their day. After FM Einheit and Marc Chung left for Einstürzende Neubauten things changed however.

Eliot Zigmund

Eliot Zigmund (dr): Bill Evans Trio, Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh: “Speak Low”

"Drummer Eliot Zigmund is still likely best known for his tenure in the Bill Evans Trio of the mid-'70s and later work in Michel Petrucciani's trio" (Ken Dryden, AMG) and he's also recording as a bandleader.
"Born 1945 in the Bronx, Eliot grew up in the fertile New York jazz scene of the 50’s and 60’s and began playing professionally at the age of 15 with an older brother who was an aspiring jazz guitarist. He studied music at both the Mannes College of Music and at the City College of New York and upon receiving his degree from CCNY in 1968, he devoted himself to pursuing his dream of becoming a jazz musician. He currently resides in Teaneck, New Jersey with his wife Anna." (from Zigmund's homepage)