Zjakki Willems
Zjakki Willems is a Belgian radio producer, engineer, tour manager and curator. [1] He has worked for the Flemish national radio since 1975, where he made the weekly radio show Club Tropical (1984-...) about African and Caribbean music and Cucamonga (1993-2007) about rock, blues and world music. [2]
Frank Zappa
In 1970, 17-year old Willems attended Zappa's 1970 concert in Brussels and became a fan for life. He attended every concert the musician held in Belgium since. [3] [4]. He also travelled to Zappa concerts in Paris, Milan, London, Frankfurt and more.[5]
Willems also interviewed Zappa a few times [6], among others in 1977. [7]
As a huge fan and foremost expert in Zappa's music, Willems has produced several events, concerts, radio documentaries and albums highlighting Zappa's music. Among them a collaboration between the BRT Big Band and Trio Cucamonga in 1989, arranged by Luc Brewaeys, who released the album The Trio Cucamonga Plays Frank Zappa (1990).
He also produced albums by Zappa cover bands or with covers of Zappa songs on them: Feel The Good - Play Uncle Frank Live by The Muffin Men (1996), Fired (1997) by X-Legged Sally and Bonnen Plays Zappa: Watermelon En Regalia (1997) by Bonnen.
Willems' radio documentary series Cucamonga (1993-2007) was not only named after the town where Studio Z was located, but the intro also sampled the scratching sound from Zappa's Nasal Retentive Calliope Music. When the show went off the air in 2007, the final episode was completely devoted to Zappa's music for two hours. [8]
In December 2006, Willems produced the Black Brown Stone trio, a musical collaboration between Jimmy Carl Black, Steven De Bruyn and Jos Steen. [9]
On 21 March 2014, he organized a Zappa homage in the Singel! in Antwerp.[10]
In 2016, Willems wrote an introductory text to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Freak Out!, an event held in the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. [11]
In 2023, he organized a two-day musical event, Zappa. Yes. Yes. Yes in the Bozar in Brussels about Frank Zappa, where apart from performances, Zappa's music was also discussed. Two of the interviewees were writer Ben Watson and film director Frank Scheffer. [12]
References
- ↑ https://www.cultuurreizen.be/nl/reisleiderinfo/Zjakki+Willems
- ↑ https://wmce.de/zjakki-willems-293.html
- ↑ https://www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luister/radio/t/time-out~11-12/time-out~11-24941-0/fragment~16351ba5-cef9-45a8-bd5f-f79f5d90e82a/
- ↑ https://www.bruzz.be/culture/music-nightlife/waarom-gen-z-nog-niet-naar-zappa-zapt-2023-11-30
- ↑ https://www.bozar.be/en/watch-read-listen/long-haired-hippies-centre-fine-arts
- ↑ https://www.ccbelgica.be/nl/programma/bar-nostalgie-8/
- ↑ https://www.donlope.net/fz/notes/Zoot_Allures.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20081115003211/http://www.kkunst.com/kk/con20020926459.php
- ↑ https://www.united-mutations.com/b/jimmy_carl_black.htm
- ↑ https://flatearthsocietyorchestra.com/Terms-of-Embarrassment-1
- ↑ https://www.abconcerts.be/en/agenda/classic-album-listening-session-50-years-frank-zappa-freak-out/a105J000001wdTXQAY
- ↑ https://www.bruzz.be/culture/music-nightlife/waarom-gen-z-nog-niet-naar-zappa-zapt-2023-11-30
