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"Palermo developed these charts during years of live shows with these musicians, and their mastery of the material shows in the performances, which turn on a dime yet feel fierce with spontaneous invention.... Palermo’s arrangements and these performances are precise, dedicated, raucous and incisive—just like Zappa himself."
– JazzTimes

The Ed Palermo Big Band is led by alto saxist and arranger Ed Palermo; he has had this big band with much of the same personnel for over 30 years, which is a hugely impressive feat in itself, and has had his band performing the music of Frank Zappa for 20 years.

The band is a 18 piece ensemble of five woodwind players, four trumpeters, three trombonists, two keyboardists, guitar, violin, bass and drum. There are a number of ensembles performing the music of Frank Zappa, who, 20 years after his death, is now recognized as one of the greatest American composers of the 20th century, but no one does it with the ease, skill and originality that Ed and his band do!

'Oh No! Not Jazz!!' consists of two albums of musical performances. The first album (tracks 1-8) further explores Ed's distinctive, big band interpretations of the music of Frank Zappa and for the most part, he concentrates here on Frank's initial burst of creative works from original Mothers Of Invention era of 1966-1970. In addition, two notable pieces are performed here. One of Frank's most loved works, Inca Roads, with a vocal by guest Napoleon Murphy Brock contrasts with one of his most 'notoriously difficult' works, The Black Page #2. All of the performances and arrangements of these great pieces are fun, musically witty and masterful. The second album (tracks 9-19) features Ed's own colorful compositions, which are here featured on a recording for the 1st time in over 25 years!

This double album shows that despite the financial and practical difficulties of running a large sized band, that the very fact that there are so many musical voices in a big band allows for showcasing arrangements better than any other vehicle. This is an exciting listen for fans of Frank Zappa and all adventurous rock and jazz music.

Cuneiform Records is a record label releasing adventurous, boundary-bursting music by artists from around the world. They have always championed an eclectic mixture of musical styles and artists and have consistently danced at the dangerous intersection where genres meet. In doing so, they have become one of the most prominent labels of New Music.

Founded in 1984.
Based in Washington D.C.

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