"Mudd Club/Munich '80" is a 3 CD set featuring Frank Zappa's band during the spring and summer of 1980, the band that featured the drummer David Logeman.
This lineup is basically the You Are What You is band. But when it comes to live recordings it has been somewhat overlooked. This new release features two shows, one of them a rare club gig at the Mudd Club in New York City and the other one is a concert at Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany.
The Mudd Club gig is only one hour long. It is recorded with some microphones placed in front of the stage, not a line recording which is unusual. Another odd thing is that there are no microphones on the drums so they are not heard through the PA speakers. The overall sound of the recording is rather dry. This plus that one can clearly hear the audience's response gives this recording an intimate club athmosphere.
There is an interesting thing about the two versions of City of Tiny Lites on this 3 CD release. On the Mudd Club show (where the song has a tape cut in the beginning) the guitar solo section has the same chord progression as on the Sheik Yerbouti version. But on the Munich show the band play that part as The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression (check out Shut Up'n Play Yer Guitar), an arrangement that bass player Arthur Barrow suggested to Zappa. That is an example of Zappa's ever ongoing development and change of his music, even during a tour.
The Munich show is a full concert (1 hour 45 minutes). Since parts of it was once released as a King Bisquit Flower Hour three sided (!) album for radio stations only it has been widely bootlegged. But here we get the entire show.
The Munich show of 1980 is Zappa's first ever live to 2-track stereo digital recording. It was recorded on a Sony PCM 1600 2-channel digital recording system. Zappa described it as "a live to 2-track original mix, executed from a makeshift 'instant studio' set up in the dressing room."
Drummer David Logeman adds a special flavor to the spring/summer band and also the album You Are What You Is that was recorded rinht after those tours. He had to rehearse and learn a lot of material in a very short time since Zappa's previous drummer Vince Colaiuta left shortly before the spring tour. There is an interesting interview with Logeman on the February 2023 episode of ZappaCast with Scott Parker, Joe Travers and Phil Surkis. (Check link below.)
It seems like Logeman has not been interviewed on his days with Zappa before but he has some good stories to tell and also seems to be a really nice guy.
"Frank would like to tour with material and then record it. You know most artists that I'd ever worked with would record the stuff first and then they would go and tour. To me that was very unique and very interesting. He gave me a lot of artistic freedom to come up with drumfills and parts that obviously he had to approve on."
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XZYP8xKus8wENaaTXdGk3?si=7461f4bc472b4f4a
