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Napoleon Murphy Brock | |
|---|---|
 Brock atKnuckleheads Saloon inKansas City, Missouri in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Napoleon Murphy Brock (1943-04-23)April 23, 1943 (age 82) San Jose,California, U.S. |
| Genres | Experimental music,rock,R&B,jazz,pop |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instruments | Vocals,saxophone,flute,clarinet,guitar,synthesizer bass,Fender Rhodes |
Napoleon Murphy Brock (born April 23, 1943)[2] is an American singer, saxophonist and flute player who is best known for his work withFrank Zappa in the 1970s, including the albumsApostrophe ('),Roxy & Elsewhere,One Size Fits All, andBongo Fury. He contributed notable vocal performances to the Zappa songs "Village of the Sun," "Cheepnis," and "Florentine Pogen."
Brock's musical career began in the San Francisco South Bay Area in the late 1960s with a seven and eight piece band he had organized named "Communication Plus". He was the lead singer, songwriter, and arranger of the band's strongly R&B-influenced rock performances. He also played the saxophone and flute. He played in a variety of local clubs including The Brass Rail, The Mecca, and Gary R. Schmidt's, The Odyssey Room. He was discovered playing for a dance band in Hawaii in the early 1970s by Zappa's road manager. The participation ofGeorge Duke andJean-Luc Ponty convinced Brock to join the band as lead singer.[3]
Brock's numerous performances with Zappa include the role of the "Evil Prince" on theThing-Fish album. He has also performed with George Duke,Captain Beefheart and more recently withNeonfire and[1]. He remains a regular performer at Zappanale.
Brock appeared in the 2005 filmRock School, a documentary aboutThe Paul Green School of Rock Music, an extracurricular music program that he andProject/Object have closely supported for several years.
In 2006, he toured with Frank Zappa's sonDweezil on the latter'sZappa Plays Zappa shows.[4] He also regularly tours with fellow Zappa alumnusIke Willis and others withAndre Cholmondeley'sProject/Object. Other Zappa related projects in which he has been involved include theTampa, Florida based band Bogus Pomp, and the 16 pieceEd Palermo Big Band from New York City.
He is most frequently seen fronting The Grand Mothers Of Invention withRoy Estrada, Tom Fowler andDon Preston (the only Frank Zappa alumni fromThe Mothers of Invention regularly performing the music of Frank Zappa), performing over 91 times since 2002.
His own most recent release is the 2003 albumBalls.
Brock is mentioned in the 2007 memoirMy Lobotomy byHoward Dully and Charles Fleming, which describes Dully's experiences before and after undergoing an icepick transorbitallobotomy in 1960, at 12 years of age. Brock, while studying psychology and music atSan Jose State University, was employed in the mid-1960s as a counselor at Rancho Linda, a "residential center for special education" where Dully lived after having the procedure and being released from juvenile hall and amental asylum. Dully had fond memories of Brock, and described him as "cool" and having "played all kinds of instruments."
At the51st Grammy Awards on February 8, 2009, Napoleon won aGrammy for his performance of the song "Peaches en Regalia" with the bandZappa Plays Zappa, which also featuredSteve Vai andDweezil Zappa. The song originally appeared on Frank Zappa's 1969Hot Rats LP.
Brock has appeared in several Zappa documentaries and movies. They include:
| Year | Album | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Balls | Flute, piano, keyboards, alto sax, tenor sax, vocals, whistle (human), producer, harmony vocals, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer bass, screams |
| Year | Album | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Apostrophe (') | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1974 | Roxy & Elsewhere | Tenor sax, flute, lead vocals, co-writer ofDummy Up |
| 1975 | One Size Fits All | Flute and tenor sax, lead vocals onFlorentine Pogen andAndy, background vocals on other tunes, flute on Inca Roads |
| 1975 | Bongo Fury | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1976 | Zoot Allures | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1979 | Sleep Dirt | Saxophone |
| 1979 | Sheik Yerbouti | Saxophone, vocals, background vocals |
| 1984 | Them or Us | Guitar, saxophone, vocals, harmony vocals |
| 1984 | Thing-Fish | Saxophone, vocals, cast |
| 1988 | You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1988 | You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1989 | You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1991 | You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1991 | You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 | Saxophone, vocals |
| 1996 | Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute | |
| 1997 | Have I Offended Someone? | |
| 2002 | FZ:OZ | Tenor saxophone, vocals |
| Year | Album | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Liberated Fantasies | Vocals |
| 1978 | Don't Let Go | Vocals |
| 1979 | Follow the Rainbow | Vocals |
| 1979 | Master of the Game | Vocals |
Zappa wanted Brock to be lead vocalist. Brock wasn't interested – until he found out jazz musicians George Duke and Jean-Luc Ponty were also in the band
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