Photo/Album: Post 2

Here is the second installment of my Photo/Album series -- where I post a photo from Leech Lake and an album that I find particularly important to the history of music (in my life).

As will be the case in all such posts, let's start with a photo from Leech Lake.

PHOTO


This was taken the on the Saturday afternoon five days before I left Minnesota for California in the Fall of 2009. It's taken from the end of my dock looking south on Sucker Bay toward Goose Island. This was a typical mid-afternoon, late-Autumn day on Leech Lake.

ALBUM


From the first time I heard Frank Zappa's music in 1974, he has been one of my favorite musicians. As I dug deeper into his extremely vast catalog of music (I now own all 80+ titles from Mr. Zappa) I found myself listening to his album Hot Rats more than any other. The cut Peaches en Regalia from the album is generally considered one of the greatest jazz-fusion tunes ever recorded.

It has been covered by numerous musicians ranging from the Dixie Dregs to Phish to Frank's son Dweezil, whose version of the song with former Zappa alumni Steve Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2009. Check out this clip for the version of Peaches en Regalia from the Baby Snakes video, or this clip for a live version of the song.