Ali N. Askin
Ali N. Askin (born in Munich, 26 January 1962) is a German pianist, keyboardist, composer, record producer and musical arranger of Turkish descent. He graduated from the Munich Academy. [1]
Frank Zappa
In 1992, Askin was Frank Zappa's assistant for The Yellow Shark project, in collaboration with the Ensemble Modern. He replaced David Ocker as musical assistant, making arrangements of Zappa's music for the Ensemble Modern to perform, including from Synclavier compositions. [2]
He is thanked in the liner notes of the album. [3]
On Civilization Phaze III, Askin can be heard speaking German and Turkish during the tracks This Ain't CNN, This Is All Wrong, Put A Little Motor In 'Em, You're Just Insultin' Me Aren't You! and Cold Light Generation. [4]
After Frank Zappa's death
Askin continued to work with the Zappa Family Trust in Los Angeles after Zappa's death. He arranged and transcribed Zappa's compositions and recordings to create an evening-length concert program The Adventures of Greggery Peccary and Other Persuasions (2003) (for the Ensemble Modern with Péter Eötvös, Omar Ebrahim and David Moss), which has been performed to acclaim in many European cities.
For the Holland Festival in 2000, he reconstructed the original scores of the orchestral pieces in Zappa's legendary film 200 Motels, which had never before been performed 'live' in this form."
Askin provided the foreword for the album Everything Is Healing Nicely.
He appears in Frank Scheffer's Frank Zappa: The Present-Day Composer Refuses To Die (2000), Frank Zappa Phase II: The Big Note (2002) and Frank Zappa: Pioneer Of Future Music, parts 1 & 2 (2007).
Ali N. Askin was thanked in the liner notes of The MOFO Project/Object (2006) album.
