Mothers of Invention Keyboard Legend! The Don Preston Trio to Play Virtual Concert at The World Stage on July 2, 2021

 

Don Preston leads a life filled with music, innovation, and experimentation. “Groundbreaking” is a phrase that is clearly overused…with Don it rings true. One of the first performers to drag a pile of oscillators and filters onstage, he brought his classical training to the avant-garde. In the early 60s a weird guy named Frank Zappa would come to see Don’s “electronic music with films of bacterial life” shows in Los Angeles. Don was soon in Zappa’s radical new group The Mothers Of Invention, touring and playing on classics like “We're Only In It For The Money” and “Roxy & Elsewhere” from 1966 to 1973.

Don’s played with everyone from Elvin Jones to The Residents, Jack Bruce and Robbie Krieger.  His keyboard solos on Zappa albums, as well as countless soundtracks like Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, are considered ground-breaking moments in synthesizer music history.

Still very active in his 80’s, Don was there for the dawn of electronic musical performance, and today grafts new technologies into his experimental palette with software synths & iPhone apps, blending jazz, rock, comedy, magic and ambient synths into a captivating performance.

Don has performed with artists like: Frank Zappa, Lou Rawls, Al Jarreau, Nat King Cole, Billy Daniels, Johnnie Ray, Vaughn Monroe, Connie Francis, Herbie Mann, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, Art Davis, Paul Bley, Carla Bley, Joe Beck, Shorty Rogers, Leo Sayer, Charles Lloyd, Nelson Riddle, J.R. Monterose, Flo & Eddie (Howard Kaylan & Mark Volman of The Turtles) Yusef Lateef, Don Ellis, Meredith Monk, Bobby Bradford, Michael Mantler, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

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Friday July 2, 2021
THE DON PRESTON TRIO@THE WORLD STAGE

THE WORLD STAGE SITE: http://theworldstage.org/events.html
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The Mothers ‎– Just Another Band from L.A. | Bizarre Records 1972

Just Another Band From L.A.

The last album from the abbreviated run of the Mothers of Invention that included Flo & Eddie, Just Another Band from L. A. is, to this listener’s way of thinking, a quite entertaining bit of silliness. You’ve got A-side’s worth of Billy the Mountain’s cross-country venture, accompanied by Ethel (his wife)—who was a tree growing off of his shoulder, as they make their way on a well-deserved trip across America.

And you can’t miss “Eddie, Are You Kidding,” which is an hilarious take on a Los Angeles clothier who claimed to have “60 tailors” working behind the scenes at every one of his Greater LA locations.

You may not stumble across much in the way of Frank’s legendary guitar prowess, and it is certainly of its time, but you could certainly do worse than taking in the twists and turns of this 1970’s, not really, masterpiece.

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Posted by: Robert “carpaldiem” Harmon -  Robert lives in the bustling metrozoid of Southwest Missouri, and usually folds when he has a full house. You should visit his website at isleofkong.com.