FABRIZIO GROSSI
Supersonic Blues Machine’s acclaimed producer and bassist got into Frank Zappa by mistake, and has never looked back.
“In 1980 I dropped and broke my cousin’s vinyl copy of an Eagles live album. I looked everywhere for a replacement copy in my home town of Milan but couldn’t find one anywhere, then eventually this guy was selling his copy but would only sell it with this other record, which was Freak Out by Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention. I didn’t know who they were.
At the time I was into rock bands like Van Halen and AC/DC, so when I put on Freak Out
I was expecting loud guitars, banging drums and all that. I was not expecting that madness! Frank played Italy quite often, and I watched several shows after that and enjoyed them, but I had no great interest in his recordings until somebody gave me a copy of Sheik Yerbouti [1979]. That was life-changing.
I appreciated the music and the musicianship, and the lyrics too. I love his ability to make fun of things that are obviously idiotic, especially when they’re extremely common or current. Take [disco-era fashion victim parody] Dancing Fool – he had the gall to give a description of what half the western world looked like at that time!
Musically, Frank was so innovative. He had a natural-born passion for rhythm and blues, and he’d include elements of classical music, cacophony, rock, blues, jazz fusion.
He was an incredible multi-instrumentalist. He started off as a drummer, went into guitars, then screwed around with synthesisers, he sang and obviously did the arrangements and the orchestrations. He was also a monster recording engineer, he ran his own label… Dude, when did you sleep?!
I actually did meet Frank, when I was 16 [in 1983] and studying English in London. I was in Soho with some friends, we looked over and there he was. We spent 10 minutes with him and he was so kind to us, talking to us in broken Italian. He had his briefcase, he was going to a meeting. My English was just good enough back then to tell him, ‘I discovered you by mistake, and now I’m meeting you by luck!’ And he said, ‘I should remember that, it sounds like a good song title…’”
“Frank was an incredible musician and a monster recording engineer.”
Voodoo Nation is out on Mascot.
See www.supersonicbluesmachine.com.