Bunk Gardner

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Bunk Gardner (bottom right) with Frank Zappa u. The Mothers of Invention (1968)

Bunk Gardner (born May 2, 1933 in Cleveland , Ohio ; real name John Leon Guarnera ) is an American fusion musician who plays a variety of wind instruments. He was best known for his collaboration with Frank Zappa and his group The Mothers of Invention .

youth

"Bunk", as he was later always called, is the son of Thelma and Charles Guarnera. Why his father later dropped the original family name and instead took the surname Gardner is not known. Bunk had a brother, Buzz Gardner , who was about two years older. Buzz became known as a trumpeter.

Bunk, who grew up in Cleveland, started taking piano lessons at the age of seven. At the age of twelve he gave up playing the piano and turned to various wind instruments: he learned to play the clarinet , bassoon , tenor saxophone and, finally, the flute . The brothers Bunk and Buzz formed a big band when they were teenagers. They played arrangements such as those supplied by the music shop, and local dance numbers. In addition, adaptations by the big band innovator Stan Kenton were part of the band's repertoire.

Early years

His musical career began in the early 1950s. At that time he played the bassoon with the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra . He later recorded film scores for popular Western TV series as a studio musician for the New York-based record label Roulette Records, founded in 1956 . In 1959, Bunk moved to Los Angeles with his brother Buzz, who was now also in town. There they could be "with the big boys of the jazz world", as Bunk put it. In the early 1960s he met Don Preston and Frank Zappa . From around May 1962, Bunk and Buzz met the two several times in Don's recording studio for musical experiments and gave several concerts. During this time, Bunk was also on tour with the chanteuse Eartha Kitt and the rock and roll star Little Richard .

"Mother" Gardner

Bunk Gardner joined the Mothers of Invention in the fall of 1966 when the group was preparing the recordings for the album Absolutely Free . Zappa was able to use the multi-instrumentalist, who was equipped with playing practice and experienced in jazz - Gardner now played the piccolo flute, bass clarinet, bass and soprano saxophone - for his musically ambitious projects. In the next two and a half years, Gardner recorded a total of eight albums with the Mothers and toured with them several times. (P. 35)

Quarrel with Zappa

When Frank Zappa dissolved the Mothers of Invention, who were just becoming famous, in early 1969, fans felt like fellow musicians offended. How much is shown by a quote from the Zappa biographer Barry Miles , according to which Bunk Gardner said about this time: "Unfortunately, it ended pretty quickly, and later we were all famous, but wealth avoided us." ( Pp. 218f, 376f) Gardner's involvement with the Mothers of Invention led to a dispute with Frank Zappa in January 1985 about money. At that time he was planning to re-release the early Mothers albums in a collector's box ( The Old Masters Box One ). Gardner and ex-Mothers members Jimmy Carl Black and Don Preston found out about this and sued Zappa for payment of $ 13 million in compensation for royalties outstanding since 1969. That lawsuit was joined by Ray Collins , Arthur Dyer Tripp III. and Jim Motorhead Sherwood added additional members of the early Zappa band, bringing the claim to $ 16.4 million. Zappa's attempts to avoid a lawsuit failed insofar as he ultimately agreed to an out-of-court settlement. Nothing is known about the result, the parties have agreed not to disclose. (P. 377)

With other musicians

Immediately after the break with Zappa founded Bunk Gardner, Buzz Gardner and bassist John Balkin - the brothers knew this from common times "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra" with which they orchestral contributions to the Zappa album in the spring of 1967 Lumpy Gravy recorded had - the trio "Menage a Trois". This ensemble made a number of appearances until 1972. In 1970 Gardner became a member of the hard rock group Geronimo Black founded by Jimmy Carl Black . In the same year he recorded an album with the songwriter Tim Buckley , who was influenced by folk music and open to jazz and musical experiments . Gardner can also be heard on Domenic Troiano's first solo album , which the former Guess Who guitarist released in 1972.

With the jazz drummer Les DeMerle , Bunk Gardner recorded his album Transfusion One in 1976 . In 1981 he produced an album with Andy Cahan under the name "Elmer & Fred", which was announced by Rhino Records , but never released. In the early 1990s, Bunk and Buzz Gardner founded the short-lived jazz band "Hollywood Allstars", with whom they performed once a week - for a tip as a fee - in the club "Legends of Hollywood". In 1995, Bunk supported Andy Cahan on his Snarfel project . To record jams in the rock style of the late 1960s and early 70s, rock musician Bruce Cameron brought in 1999 alongside Bunk Gardner rock greats like Jack Bruce , Mitch Mitchell ( Jimi Hendrix Experience ), Buddy Miles and Billy Cox ( Band of Gypsys ), Michael Bruce and Neal Smith ( Alice Cooper Group ), Ken Hensley ( Uriah Heep ) and Harvey Dalton Arnold from the Outlaws into the studio.

Bunk Gardner also went on tour with the jazz and rock influenced songwriter Van Morrison and the Four Winds Ensemble and made recordings in the studio. In a short biography written by him, Bunk Gardner reports on his participation in the "Montage Trio & Quartet". He also spent a year doing something completely different from music, cooking at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

"Grandmother" Gardner

Gardner's main interest has been groups since the 1980s that either played music from the early Mothers of Invention, or in which former Mothers musicians participated. When Geronimo Black's album Welcome Back was released in 1980 , the fact that it featured six musicians from the Zappa / Mothers environment gave Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black and Bunk Gardner the idea for a new project. They put it into practice that same year and founded the group The Grandmothers - a band that played songs by the early Mothers of Invention alongside their own compositions.

In 1994 Gardner worked for the first time on an album by "Ant-Bee", a Zappa-related music project by the studio musician and journalist Billy "Ant-Bee" James. A year later, Gardner was on the album Who the Fuck is Sandro Oliva?!? heard released by the Italian-born Grandmothers guitarist Sandro Oliva . In 1999 Gardner worked on the album God Shave the Queen from "The Muffin Men" - a British Zappa / Mothers cover band that by then had already released records for almost a decade. When the group "The Grande Mothers Re: Invented" split off from the Grandmothers in August 2002, Bunk Gardner was involved in recordings and releases of this band.

Discography (selection)

Bunk Gardner has not yet released a solo album. The number of records on which he was involved is nevertheless considerable, as the following overview shows.

with different artists:

  • Bud Wattles Orchestra: Themes From The Hip - 1959
  • Joanna & The Playboys: Joanna & The Playboys - 1962
  • Tim Buckley: Starsailor - 1970
  • Domenic Troiano: Domenic Troiano - 1972
  • The Les DeMerle Transfusion: Transfusion One - 1976
  • Snarfel: Thirty Years of Andy Cahan - 1995
  • Caged Heat 3000: Caged Heat 3000 - 1996
  • The Muffin Men: God Shave the Queen - 1999
  • Bruce Cameron: Midnight Daydream - 1999
  • Various artists: Zappanale 13 - 2003

with The Mothers of Invention (selection):

with Don Preston:

  • Vile Foamy Ectoplasm - 1993
  • Io Landscapes - 2001
  • The Don and Bunk Show: Necessity is ... - 2000

with Geronimo Black:

  • Geronimo Black - 1972
  • Welcome Back - 1980

with The Grandmothers:

  • Grandmothers - 1981
  • Lookin 'up Granny's Dress - 1982
  • Fan Club Talk - 1983
  • A Mother of an Anthology - 1993
  • Who Could Imagine - 1994
  • Eating The Astoria - 2000
  • The Eternal Question - 2001 (CDR)
  • A Grandmothers Night At The Gewandhaus - 2003

with Ant-Bee:

  • The Bizarre German EP - 1994 (EP)
  • With My Favorite "Vegetables" And Other Bizarre Music - 1994
  • Lunar Muzik - 1995

with Sandro Oliva:

  • Who the Fuck is Sandro Oliva?!? - 1995
  • Heavy Lightning - 2004

Videos (selection)

  • Ride For Your Life (Mothers Improvised Soundtrack) - 1967
  • Frank Zappa: Uncle Meat - 1987
  • Frank Zappa: Video From Hell - 1987
  • Frank Zappa: The True Story Of 200 Motels - 1989
  • The Muffin Men: Muffinz Moovies Vol. One (1990-1997) - 2005

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Biographical information on United Mutations (as of November 1, 2006)
  2. ↑ a b c d Biography Buzz Gardner (as of November 1, 2006)
  3. ↑ Roulette Records (as of November 1, 2006)
  4. ↑ Themes From The Hip (as of November 1, 2006)
  5. ↑ Contributions from Bunk Gardner (as of November 1, 2006)
  6. ↑ Cooperation with Zappa (as of November 1, 2006)
  7. ↑ Biographical information on WikiJawaka (as of November 1, 2006)
  8. ^ Carl-Ludwig Reichert : Frank Zappa . DTV, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-423-31039-1
  9. ↑ a b Barry Miles : Zappa . Rogner & Bernhard, 2005. ISBN 3-8077-1010-8
  10. ↑ Abnuceal's Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra (as of November 1, 2006)
  11. ↑ a b Les DeMerle Transfusion (as of November 1, 2006)
  12. ↑ Bruce Cameron ( Memento from June 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Status: November 1, 2006)
  13. ↑ Short biography (as of November 1, 2006)
  14. ↑ The Grandmothers (as of November 3, 2006)
personal data
SURNAME Gardner, Bunk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guarnera, John Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fusion musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio , USA