steve chillemi is a percussionist who lives in the CT area.  steve recently started a band to play beefheart material, but before that, he was the man behind invisible them, an avant-garde quartet.  the band featured a synth / guitar, drums & percussion, bass and reeds.
steve told me that there were two reasons for him to stop with invisible them: it took too much of him.  he not only was a musician in the band, but he also was the contact-person, manager and whatever else they needed.  his second reason was, luckily, a more positive one: he really wanted to play beefheart stuff.  well, listening to some of the invisible them recordings sure made me curious to what he'll do with van vliet material.

• invisible them: the wood cd
      (2001, cdr, usa, private release)
• invisible them: live at the flywheel 2001-01-06
      (2001, cdr, usa, private release)
• invisible them: live at the cheshire academy 2001-03-08
      (2001, cdr, usa, private release) - with special guest john higgins
• invisible them: live at the buttonwood tree 2001-05-26
      (2001, cdr, usa, private release)
  invisible them has made a couple of their recorded concerts available on cdr.  as far as i can tell, the music was improvised on the spot.  it sounds okay.  i prefer it a bit speedier and i missed the freak-out type experimental parts, but it sounds good.  "the wood cd" is a bit different.  to my taste, it's a bit jazzier and has a more important role for the synthisizer.
  contact - Stephen A Chillemi <sachillemi@juno.com>

* * the omnipresent vinnie colaiuta has a guest appearance on the latest take 6 album, called "beautiful work". take 6 is an a capella sextet. * * zappa freak martin herberich told me about an austrian band, called freak out, that made an album in the early seventies called "life" on which they play a frank zappa composition.  the album is getting a cd rerelease. * * wednesday, july 17 2002, tv-channel arte presented a documentary on peter eötvös.  it carried a short fragment in which eötvös, the ensemble modern and frank zappa were featured, about the varèse album they did. (now there's another release we're waiting for...)  the documentary was called "peter eötvös: la septième porte" and was repeated on july 23. * * and while we're on the subject, one day later, july 24 2002, arte broadcasted "trois soeurs", an opera by peter eötvös, performed by the orchestre philharmonique de radio france, conducted by kent nagano & peter eötvös. * *