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Artist
Frank Zappa - Ensemble Modern
10+ albums
contemporary classical20th Century Classicalmodern compositionmodern classicalAvant-Prog
about
The Ensemble Modern orginates from a student orchestra, calling themselves "Ensemble modern der jungen Deutschen Philharmonie". They had as aim the performing and promoting of contemporary music. In 1980 it was established as an independant entity, called The Ensemble Modern. The ensemble has its base in Frankfurt, Germany, but its members are from divers countries. It also tours worldwide. The group is made up of some 20 musicians, who govern themselves on a democratic basis. Their contacts with Zappa start in 1991, when they thought of performing a major orchestral work of Zappa for the upcoming Frankfurt Festival. Zappa showed little enthusiasm for this idea, but he was interested in having them perform new work. Three members flew to L.A. and soon came to an agreement with Zappa. Then in July the whole ensemble came over to Zappa's studio "Joe's garage" for the first round of rehearsals. In 1992 Zappa on his turn flew over to Frankfurt for a second round. The result was a 90-minute program to be performed in three German cities. The ensemble continues working as a protagonist of Zappa's modern music and recently brought out a second program on CD. They rightfully claim to be Zappa's last band. THE YELLOW SHARK, 1993. The "Yellow shark" CD contains most of the material from these three concerts, all is recorded live. It consists of modern compositions from Zappa's whole career. The oldest ones date from the late fifties and the sixties and first appeared on "Uncle meat"
