There have been plenty of records made saluting the musical achievements of Frank Zappa, so why not make a record in tribute of his original drummer, Jimmy Carl Black? That’s what Jon Larsen asked – and, with The Jimmy Carl Black Story, answered.
Larsen is probably best known as one of the two guitarists in Hot Club De Norvege. That long-running gypsy swing revival quartet also released an album celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt on the same day as The Jimmy Carl Black Story – Nov. 25, 2008. For the most part, however, the Black record could hardly be more different than the continental jazz of Django. It’s also hardly the first time Larsen paid homage to the spirit of Frank Zappa’s jazzier side.
Jon Larsen made a record in 2007 that did indeed pay homage to Zappa with a set of all-original song that tried to evoke the spirit of Frank’s music, using keyboardist Tommy Mars, a longtime Zappa sideman. Larsen called this disc Strange News From Mars. On that release, the music was themed on a zany story about a space expedition to Mars (the planet, not the piano player) with a crew led by Black, “the Indian of the group,” naturally.
The Jimmy Carl Black Story actually built around the same story, only slightly modified, and featured Black more prominently than before. Not as a drummer, mind you, but instead portraying himself as the far-out astronaut and his transmissions back to Earth. If that sounds like a mighty hokey plot to digest, well, it probably is. But Larsen wisely kept the dialogue as a sideshow: The music itself was the focal point of the record.
That music, by the way, can best be described as blues-based rock-jazz fusion. Jon Larsen’s band was set up much the way Frank Zappa had his configured in the second permutation of the Mothers: a violin, marimba, a couple of guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. None of that made it sound much like Zappa’s music, though. The compositions, all written by Larsen, were much too smooth compared to the herky-jerky, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink manner that Zappa loved to do.
That’s not to say the music wasn’t good; it was, even if there weren’t a lot of variations within each song to make them as memorable as the music it seeks to pay homage to. Truth be told, you could say they were really blues and rock riffs stretched out into song length.
Larsen kept his lead role subdued, allowing others a good amount of solo space – especially Rob Waring. The marimba player’s mallet work was featured extensively on the strutting “An Early Glimpse of Planet Ruth,” while Ola Kvernberg applied a rock violin to the light-blues figure “Hi Boys and Girls, I’m Jimmy Carl Black.” “Jimmy Carl Black’s Dachs Reduction” was a recycled “Dachs Reductions” from Strange News From Mars, with the trombone solo replaced by Black’s narrative.
The nine-minute “Spaceship Bigear III” was all but a re-imagining of Jeff Back’s slow-burning bluesy remake of “Goodbye Porkpie Hat.” By contrast, “Oh No, She’s Trying to Rip My Spacesuit Open” was a John Lee Hooker blues boogie by way of ZZ Top’s “La Grange.” “Turn It On, Elliot” showcased Jon Larsen on acoustic guitar, playing it Django Reinhart style, but differentiated it from his Hot Club De Norvege work by casting this style on a song structured in the modal style. “Opal, You Hot Little Bitch” was a nondescript, relatively short foray into reggae.
Looking back, the opening “En Route” got closest to the true spirit of Frank Zappa, the beginning of which had the marimbas and violin quickly running through a tricky succession of notes before the song settled into a jazzy groove. While not matching the complexity of the patterns found in Zappa tunes like, say, “King Kong,” it at least hinted at it.
The Jimmy Carl Black Story album was packaged with a second disc, which consisted only of Black relating his life story in a relaxed conversation style, and occasionally broken up by three second marimba interludes, Zappa-style. Black had some pretty interesting stories to tell, even beyond his stint with the original Mothers of Invention, as it turned out. It’s surely worth a spin or two.
Jon Larsen set out to put Jimmy Carl back in the spotlight as a person, not a musician, while shining more spotlight on Frank Zappa the musician. The Jimmy Carl Black Story succeeded in achieving the first goal better than the second one. But Larsen still made some good music, anyhow.
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