Robert Martin Sez Hello - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 04:08, 28 January 2025

2025-01-28T04:08:46Z

Duncan at 09:03, 3 November 2021

2021-11-03T09:03:54Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 18:54, 5 September 2021

2021-09-05T18:54:33Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 18:49, 30 July 2021

2021-07-30T18:49:35Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 23:10, 27 July 2021

2021-07-27T23:10:06Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 01:04, 20 July 2021

2021-07-20T01:04:48Z

Duncan: links

2021-01-07T11:38:18Z

links

Spider of Destiny at 19:41, 14 November 2020

2020-11-14T19:41:40Z

Spider of Destiny at 09:36, 4 October 2020

2020-10-04T09:36:14Z

Spider of Destiny at 13:28, 22 September 2020

2020-09-22T13:28:00Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:08, 28 January 2025
Line 169:		Line 169:
	Ed: Last issue, in the first part of this interview, mention was made of 'The Mystery Studio Song'. Andy G would like us to point out that this was also known as 'Furnished Singles', 'Ne Pas Deranger' and then eventually '[[Mõggio\|Moggio]]' and '[[What's New In Baltimore?]]'		Ed: Last issue, in the first part of this interview, mention was made of 'The Mystery Studio Song'. Andy G would like us to point out that this was also known as 'Furnished Singles', 'Ne Pas Deranger' and then eventually '[[Mõggio\|Moggio]]' and '[[What's New In Baltimore?]]'
	[[Category:Bandmember Interviews]]		[[Category:Bandmember Interviews]]
		+	[[Category:1996]]

@@ Line 56: / Line 56: @@
 That was all good preparation for being with Frank which would come a few years later. I did the 1978 Stones tour and then Orleans went into the Record Plant in New York and we did an album. Through into 1979, the album was released and it was doing really well. There was one cut that was the biggest hit the band ever had. Then there were some personnel weirdnesses, and the band broke up. So there I was again, in limbo. I had been sort of bi-coastal. I still kept my place in LA, but Orleans were based in Woodstock, so I was going back and forth. In the Fall of LA, I went back to LA, and I was struggling. I hooked up with Etta and did some things with her. The studio scene was starting to change, and there wasn't as much going on, so it was really tough.
-In the Summer of 1981, I had another call from a guy who had been a sound guy with Orleans, named [[David Robb]], and at this point he was working with Frank. He was watching Frank tear his hair out trying to find the last person for the band to do the 1981 tour. He had [[Tommy Mars]], and [[Chad Wackerman]] and [[Scott Thunes]] had just joined the band. [[Ray White]] was in the band, but [[Ike Willis|Ike]] wasn't. [[Ed Mann]] and [[Steve Vai]] were there, so it was a great band, but Frank was not able to find the last person to fill out the band. David told him about me, said 'I know a guy who plays a lot of things; he sings great; you ought to check him out. He's got a classical background.' So Frank said 'Yeah, give him a call; bring him down here.' Dave called me and said 'Be here tomorrow'. I had already heard some of the Zappa audition horror stories that people had endured. So I thought 'What the hell? I'm just going to wing this.' I'm not even gonna try to prepare anything. I knew a few things from back in the bar band days.
+In the Summer of 1981, I had another call from a guy who had been a sound guy with Orleans, named [[Roadies and Technicians|David Robb]], and at this point he was working with Frank. He was watching Frank tear his hair out trying to find the last person for the band to do the 1981 tour. He had [[Tommy Mars]], and [[Chad Wackerman]] and [[Scott Thunes]] had just joined the band. [[Ray White]] was in the band, but [[Ike Willis|Ike]] wasn't. [[Ed Mann]] and [[Steve Vai]] were there, so it was a great band, but Frank was not able to find the last person to fill out the band. David told him about me, said 'I know a guy who plays a lot of things; he sings great; you ought to check him out. He's got a classical background.' So Frank said 'Yeah, give him a call; bring him down here.' Dave called me and said 'Be here tomorrow'. I had already heard some of the Zappa audition horror stories that people had endured. So I thought 'What the hell? I'm just going to wing this.' I'm not even gonna try to prepare anything. I knew a few things from back in the bar band days.
 I went in, and first he had me sight-read some keyboard things. I think the first one was '[[Envelopes]]'. Not easy at all, but with my classical background, I could read so it wasn't a problem. My technique wasn't blazing. When it got too difficult to get everything, I would just read the top line, so that he could see I was following the metric changes and the harmonies.

@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 Tommy does this really well too. He doesn't have the vocal chops; he's got very good vocal chops, not as a lead singer, but he can do that scat along with what you're playing. A lot of people probably think than when they hear a jazz player just really flying and playing all kinds of unusual things, that they don't know what they're doing and it's just happening – that's bullshit! The test and the proof of knowing in your ear what's happening is being able to sing along.
-'''I liked the [[wikipedia:Frank Sinatra|Frank Sinatra]] thing in '[[Big Swifty]]' in Barcelona, '[[wikipedia:Strangers in the Night|Strangers in the Night]]'. Do you remember that?<br>
+'''I liked the [[wikipedia:Frank Sinatra|Frank Sinatra]] thing in '[[Big Swifty (1972 - Paramount Studios)|Big Swifty]]' in Barcelona, '[[wikipedia:Strangers in the Night|Strangers in the Night]]'. Do you remember that?<br>
 That was for the monitor mixer, Marqueson. It was his birthday that night and we did some unusual things. In 'Whipping Post' that night, I changed the words around, something about Marqueson supposed to be having a hooker and it never happened, and he was all frustrated. I changed the words to reflect his frustration. That was one of the most wonderful things about that tour, that on any given night, whatever had happened that day on the news or the night before in the hotel or that day on the airplane could and probably would come out in the concert in some way. Frank would change some lyrics around and we would follow. Another aspect of that tour was Ike and I would always be trying to guess where Frank was going to go with the lyrics tonight and a lot of times, we all hit it together and guessed the same thing at the same time. There were a lot of laughs on stage, in the hotels, on the planes; we laughed a lot all the time. That was the last time I worked for Frank.

@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 The point of 'Envelopes'? I don't know, I couldn't tell you. To me, it never had one (laughs). It wasn't my favourite Zappa piece. It had some interesting things going on harmonically, but it always felt a little tedious and purposely ugly to me. If that's the effect you want and you want to annoy people, then that piece did it for me. Sometimes that's what he was after. He just wanted to do something that would not be pretty, not be an attractive sound. I did find that with that piece, he could tell that I had the training and I had the comprehension, and the ability to go from 7/8 to 3/16 to whatever.
-He had me continue to read a few more things on keyboards, then he didn't have anything written for French horn, so he asked me to play some other horn parts. For a French horn player, transposition is just a way of life; you have to know how to do it, because you must do it in the classical literature constantly. I transposed some sax parts onto the French horn and also some concert pitch parts from '[[Strictly Genteel]]'. I did fine with that, then he had me transpose some keyboard parts onto tenor and that was very tough.
+He had me continue to read a few more things on keyboards, then he didn't have anything written for French horn, so he asked me to play some other horn parts. For a French horn player, transposition is just a way of life; you have to know how to do it, because you must do it in the classical literature constantly. I transposed some sax parts onto the French horn and also some concert pitch parts from '[[Strictly Genteel (The Track)|Strictly Genteel]]'. I did fine with that, then he had me transpose some keyboard parts onto tenor and that was very tough.
 He had me play what was called at the time 'Mystery Studio Song'. [Ed] I don't actually know what the final recorded title was; it had three or four different names. It used to go into '[[What's New In Baltimore?|What's New in Baltimore?]]' (sings). A lot of it was in five, so I was sight-reading that and transposing it onto sax from a keyboard part. And he said 'Well, this is good. You're doing real well. I understand you sing real high and strong; let me hear you sing. What do you know?' I didn't have any Zappa songs prepared, so I said 'I don't know; 'Auld Lang Syne'.' He said 'Great, 'Auld Lang Syne', key of A' and the band starts to play the song. I sang it an octave higher than anyone would have expected, and it goes up real high. Everybody goes 'Woah', and he says 'You got it'. So, 'Auld Lang Sync' was the real capper.

@@ Line 130: / Line 130: @@
 '''[[Prince]]?<br>
-I did a recording session with him. It was a rainy night. I got a call from a trumpet player who used to do all the [[Stevie Wonder]] things, and Steve and I had done some things together. Steve rang to say 'Hey, I've just had a call from Prince. He wants us to come down the studio.' He was doing a session with Sheila E whom I had met years ago touring with Orleans. Her and her dad were playing for Stephen Stills. Prince wanted some horn parts on this very quirky 1950s beatnik thing that he had done. It was almost Zappa-esque, so they wanted these free jazz kinda beatnik horn things in there. Prince was very removed and stand-offish, and not with the guys at all. He came out and played some voicings on the piano. He knew what he wanted to get. He's not a trained musician but he knows in his head and with his ears what he wants and he's very good at getting it out. It wasn't really a wonderful experience or remarkable in any particular way.
+I did a recording session with him. It was a rainy night. I got a call from a trumpet player who used to do all the [[Wikipedia:Stevie Wonder|Stevie Wonder]] things, and Steve and I had done some things together. Steve rang to say 'Hey, I've just had a call from Prince. He wants us to come down the studio.' He was doing a session with Sheila E whom I had met years ago touring with Orleans. Her and her dad were playing for Stephen Stills. Prince wanted some horn parts on this very quirky 1950s beatnik thing that he had done. It was almost Zappa-esque, so they wanted these free jazz kinda beatnik horn things in there. Prince was very removed and stand-offish, and not with the guys at all. He came out and played some voicings on the piano. He knew what he wanted to get. He's not a trained musician but he knows in his head and with his ears what he wants and he's very good at getting it out. It wasn't really a wonderful experience or remarkable in any particular way.
 '''[[Paul McCartney]]?<br>

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 The first of the tapes transcribed from the Evil Prince's collection is with Robert (late Bobby) Martin. Interview conducted in North Hollywood on April 17. It appears to start with talking about the 1988 show in Finland, but this is missing, so we start right in with ...
-The 1988 tour was my favourite tour, by far. It was the most fun for me, for a number of reasons. It was the first time, or the only tour that I did, where we carried a full horn section, with great players, as all the players always were, but it was also the first time that I was the primary keyboard player. So that was a lot of fun for me and very challenging. I don't have the chops of a [[Tommy Mars]] – not many people do – but I'm no slash; you don't get into [[Frank Zappa|Frank]]'s band if you can't really play. But my primary function as a keyboard player was that I have a feel, especially for the old RnB stuff that Frank loves so much. I can play all the technical and demanding parts; that was no problem. I could also play the [[Béla Bartók|Bartok]]. It was interesting because on the previous tours, being a multi-instrumentalist was really one of the reasons that Frank liked me in the band. I could do a lot of different things. I wasn't really ever the guy to rely on for this blazing keyboard solo, but among other things, I could play the keyboards. So it was a big challenge for me to be the primary keyboard player on that tour.
+The 1988 tour was my favourite tour, by far. It was the most fun for me, for a number of reasons. It was the first time, or the only tour that I did, where we carried a full horn section, with great players, as all the players always were, but it was also the first time that I was the primary keyboard player. So that was a lot of fun for me and very challenging. I don't have the chops of a [[Tommy Mars]] – not many people do – but I'm no slash; you don't get into [Biography|Frank]]'s band if you can't really play. But my primary function as a keyboard player was that I have a feel, especially for the old RnB stuff that Frank loves so much. I can play all the technical and demanding parts; that was no problem. I could also play the [[Béla Bartók|Bartok]]. It was interesting because on the previous tours, being a multi-instrumentalist was really one of the reasons that Frank liked me in the band. I could do a lot of different things. I wasn't really ever the guy to rely on for this blazing keyboard solo, but among other things, I could play the keyboards. So it was a big challenge for me to be the primary keyboard player on that tour.
 '''So how did you become a multi-instrumentalist?<br>

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 Then I got a call from a bartender that heard me play back East with the good bands, who had come into contact with Orleans. He had gone from being a bartender to being a sound man at one of the clubs where the better bands played in Philadelphia. He called me and said that Orleans were looking for somebody else to join the band. So I went to Woodstock and auditioned for Orleans, and was in the band. That was Fall of 1977.
-Between then and the time the band started to do something, which was over a year later, I was on the Rolling Stones tour with Etta James whom I had started playing with as one of the first things I did when I reached LA. That was a lot of fun. I had a chance to play with someone that I had heard as a kid and really loved. I saw Etta on Bandstand when I was eight years old and a lot of other artists like that. Later in life, I had chances to play with some of these people, like Michael MacDonald, whom I really liked. I became aware of his work quite a few years before I toured with him. Playing with Etta was when I really started to get my vocal chops together. She could tell I had it in here and she would draw me out. We would do duets together.
+Between then and the time the band started to do something, which was over a year later, I was on [[The Rolling Stones]] tour with Etta James whom I had started playing with as one of the first things I did when I reached LA. That was a lot of fun. I had a chance to play with someone that I had heard as a kid and really loved. I saw Etta on Bandstand when I was eight years old and a lot of other artists like that. Later in life, I had chances to play with some of these people, like Michael MacDonald, whom I really liked. I became aware of his work quite a few years before I toured with him. Playing with Etta was when I really started to get my vocal chops together. She could tell I had it in here and she would draw me out. We would do duets together.
 That was all good preparation for being with Frank which would come a few years later. I did the 1978 Stones tour and then Orleans went into the Record Plant in New York and we did an album. Through into 1979, the album was released and it was doing really well. There was one cut that was the biggest hit the band ever had. Then there were some personnel weirdnesses, and the band broke up. So there I was again, in limbo. I had been sort of bi-coastal. I still kept my place in LA, but Orleans were based in Woodstock, so I was going back and forth. In the Fall of LA, I went back to LA, and I was struggling. I hooked up with Etta and did some things with her. The studio scene was starting to change, and there wasn't as much going on, so it was really tough.

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 The next thing I picked up was a little plastic flute. My brother and sister and I all played these little flutes. Then when I was in fourth grade, I started with the French horn. In the third grade in the public school system in Pennsylvania at that time, which was a very good system then – things have changed quite a bit – they gave all of us kids music tests to see who had aptitude for music and wanted to be in the band. I was the only kid they ever had as a third grader who scored a perfect result on the music test. They said 'Give this kid a French horn'. I started to play it and did quite well at it and went on to Curtis eventually with that.
-When I was about thirteen, I finally got a chance to do something I'd wanted to do for years. I was very much into RnB from an early age. The first thing I started to do on the piano was play blues just from ear, just by listening and understanding that and reproducing that. When I heard [[wikipedia:Ray Charles|Ray Charles]], I was just blown away. He had a tenor sax player called David 'Fathead' Newman, and when I heard Fathead, I said 'Man, I gotta make that sound. I gotta do that.' But I was already playing French horn and the band leader in the elementary school didn't want to have any part in giving me anything else because French horn players are real hard to find.
+When I was about thirteen, I finally got a chance to do something I'd wanted to do for years. I was very much into RnB from an early age. The first thing I started to do on the piano was play blues just from ear, just by listening and understanding that and reproducing that. When I heard [[Ray Charles]], I was just blown away. He had a tenor sax player called David 'Fathead' Newman, and when I heard Fathead, I said 'Man, I gotta make that sound. I gotta do that.' But I was already playing French horn and the band leader in the elementary school didn't want to have any part in giving me anything else because French horn players are real hard to find.
 Then finally, when I got to seventh grade junior high, the band leader there was a sax player. He used to play big band things. He was also very reluctant, but because he was a sax player, he finally broke down and gave me one. The Summer I turned thirteen, he gave me an alto which I hated. I wanted a tenor, but all he had was an alto. So he gave me an alto and he gave me a book. In a couple of weeks, I taught myself all the scales and how to work the thing, and that Fall, I came back and said 'Look, I gotta have a tenor'. So he gave me a tenor and I started to play lead tenor in the dance band, having only been playing for a few months. I just loved it and was playing it all the time.