Home »
Jazz News »
Performance / Tour
Frank Zappa
guitar, electric
1940 – 1993
” data-original-title title>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 has played with everyone from
Elvin Jones
drums
1927 – 2004
” data-original-title title>Elvin Jones,
Gil Evans
composer / conductor
1912 – 1988
” data-original-title title>Gil Evans, and
Nat King Cole
piano and vocals
1919 – 1965
” data-original-title title>Nat King Cole to The Residents,
Jack Bruce
bass, acoustic
1943 – 2014
” data-original-title title>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 ’90s, 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 Preston Solo European Tour
- 9/24 Porgy & Bess, Vienna
- 9/25 Prague, Czech
- 9/26 Prague, Czech
- 9/27 Broumod Under
- 9/29 NordHausen, Germany
- 9/30 Bb (Jazz Club) Berlin, Germany
- 10/2 Weert, Netherland
- 10/3 Russelsheim, Germany
- 10/5 Brussels, Belgium
- 10/6 Stuttgart, Germany
“The guy that really impressed me was Don Preston, I didn’t know what that stuff was when I heard it on Frank Zappa’s records. I said, ‘Man!’” —
George Duke
piano
1946 – 2013
” data-original-title title>George Duke
“Preston not only brought his skewed piano sensibility into the creative jazz context, he lugged along a little of his zany synthesizer as well…touching on all these associations (Carla and Paul Bley, John Carter, Zappa and Cole Porter), showing what he can do twisting a standard around and delving a bit into his own compositional bag as well. Preston resides on the edge of tonality, toying with it.” —Downbeat
“Revisiting choice moments of weirdness and glory, as well as dig into original works and unlikely standards, is not to be missed. The range of program is somewhat camouflaged by the seamless interplay of Preston and cohorts. They possess a cohesion born of fluidity that is reminiscent of
Paul Bley
piano
1932 – 2016
” data-original-title title>Paul Bley’s ’60s trios, but they have their own crisp edge. It is a high common denominator for such a diverse program.” —JazzTimes
“Best known as the first synth wielding Mother of Invention—Frank Zappa’s keyboardist aide de camp, to others he is an avowed New Music experimentalist, whose work in theatre, and with assorted sonic daredevils is the stuff of underground acclaim… … .in the jazz orbit Preston’s credits have included Gil Evans,
Carla Bley
piano
1938 – 2023
” data-original-title title>Carla Bley, Buell Niedlinger, Michael Mantler, John Carter, and
Bobby Bradford
trumpet
b.1934
” data-original-title title>Bobby Bradford” —Downbeat
“Preston demonstrated anew that he is one of the most consistently exciting keyboardists anywhere, he plays with an intensity and a rhythmic vitality that approached the demonic, at climactic moments smashing the keys with a forearm and elbow, as if the piano were just not instrument enough for him.” —LA Jazz Scene
For more information contact Glass Onyon PR – William James.