le concert impromptu

	le concert impromptu & bossini: prophetic attitude (1997, cd-pro, fr, l’empreinte digitale) - all compositions by frank zappa / includes one non-album track
	le concert impromptu & bossini: prophetic attitude (1997, cd, fr, l’empreinte digitale) - all compositions by frank zappa

From: Hanzo
Today I read a review in Het Parool (a dutch paper) about the cd with Zappa Compositions by the french wind-quintet Le Concert Impromptu. They play version of a.o. Cletus awreetus-awrightus, the Idiot Bastard Son, King Kong, Twenty Small Cigars, Blessed Relief, Peaches en Regalia & Outside Now Again. In the review they call the Zappa composition 'Wind Quintet' the least accessible (which immediately raises my curiosity).
Anybody in this forum heard this one already? If yes opinions please.

From: (Le Quan Ninh)
I received this CD. The title is Prophetic Attitude on the label l'Empreinte Digitale (ED 13071).
The music is very well played, very precisely. But all the compositions have the same colour... The good thing is that all the compositions are link together as in Zappa's albums. But the guitar improvisations are cruelly missing... I saw this group on stage here in France and they played the "wind quintet" (only 0'42") which is a "contemporary music" composition. Very short but very good.

From: Dennis Guertin
Reviewer gags me with:
"In Monseiur Bossini's hands, however, Zappa's Duke of Prunes and Uncle Meat are transformed into quirky, pungent and almost charming divertissements far more reminiscent of the boulevard swagger of Satie and Poulenc than of the strobe-lit enchantments of acid rock." Anyway,I don't care to input the entire review. It's from 1 March 1998.

From: "Philippe J.Drouhin"
I live in France and have this record and saw this (young) band in concert. This band is really refreshing. They not only play on stage, they also move, do mi mics, have fun. There is as much to see as to hear.
The music is of course adapted to the quintet but Zappa's spirit is here. The CD is 'cleaner' than there on-stage performance but they play marvellously and for me, the choice of songs is great.
Ph. Drouhin

From: Lewis Saul
This is a highly-stripped down version of the analysis I've prepared:

Blessed Relief
Nothing very striking about this arrangement. He endlessly repeats the exact same instrumentation and voicings for the same riff -- with such sparse timbres, he really shoulda mixed it up a little more.

Twenty Small Cigars
Let's see -- how slow *can* we take this sucka? Some pretty moments, but again, Mr. Bossini scoring leaves a lot to be desired, imo. He added some new harmonies, which I don't object to too much, they add a nice touch...

A Pound...
Again, too slow. But well-scored. A certain MIDI available of this tune (coupled with Dwarf) is a THOUSAND times more creative...nice pointillistic ending in octaves, tho...

Uncle Meat
This arrangement is much more clever than some of the others. Again, Mr. B adds some new stuff, all very acceptable. The back-and-forth between the five instruments works well here, without sacrificing any of the original musical material Frequent changes in tempi contribute to the kinetic feeling...

Strictly Genteel
I would *not* have chosen this if I was arranging Zappa music for wind quintet. And 6:38? Oh well...the best moment occurs when the flute sounds the trumpet fanfare which signifies that the horses are at the gate -- a nice mental image of the scene from 200 Motels pops into your mind at that point!
Just think what they could have done with this 6:38!
The last eight notes are cool...

Wind Quintet
Worth the price of the disc. Forty-two wonderful, glorious, happy, exciting, frolicking, delicious seconds...
Anyone out there have any substantial knowledge about the whys and wherefores of this composition? Was it just a "toss-off" which sat in a drawer -- or was it planned as part of what eventually became the Times Beach stuff? I'll bet Todd knows... 'scuse me todd...

Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus
Good choice! Very nice arrangement -- he does an excellent job of "transferring" this music to woodwinds. Trills, lots of chromaticism, and nice part-writing...even a few cool woodwind effects (listen at 1:52 to 1:54)...some very clever arranging here...

King Kong
Another good, clever arrangement. Fifty-four seconds. A good woodwind quintet with balls would have featured some improvisation. The French can be so shy.

Duke of Prunes
M. Bossini, as I've said, you have a nice touch -- but you don't always have to have the bassoon or French horn droning out the bass line, bar after bar! The first time through would be tolerable, but there's no need to keep repeating it over and over again. Try using some first, second, and even third inversions (a third inversion puts the 7th in the bass) -- very useful...

Peaches
Adequate. Some wrong notes. Perhaps Bossini's, intentionally. If I was arranging this, I wouldn't fuck with even one note of Frank's....

Black Page
Disco Woodwind Quintet version, including grunting. Nicely executed (for the most part)...

Mr. Green Genes
Thank you for giving the melody to the bassoon. As least I didn't have to endure another bass line pounded out. But at a certain point, his arrangements seem to lose some momentum. The melody switches back and forth between instruments, but the accompaniment never varies very much. Some sweeping counterpoint would have added a lot.

Idiot Bastard
Again, too static. Rolling 1/8th notes in a middle voice would make this whole thing work, imo. Very nice in a few spots -- like the flutter-tonguing at 1:07 --

Sofa
I can understand why they chose to do this -- what gorgeous music! -- but it just *doesn't* work, it simply won't transfer well to these five instruments. Perhaps my personal opinion shapes any judgment I make here -- I don't think the OSFA version(s) could ever be equaled anywhere, ever...

Outside Now Again
Another daring choice! And probably the best arrangement on the disc! This bass line sounds ultra-fine on the bass clarinet (low D) -- sounds a lot like an alto flute, too...
At 5:20, kinetic movement is quite a challenge -- I think he [they] pulled it off rather nicely...