Don and Bunk, former Mothers of Invention, coming to Baltimore
Highlandtown hosted Zappa’s son Dweezil, now Orion hosts his Mothers
Above: “The Don and Bunk Show” (Don Preston and Bunk Gardner, original members of Frank Zappa’s “Mothers of Invention”) are coming to Baltimore’s Orion Studios.
“It can’t happen heeeeeeeeere…” Oh, yes it can!
Two original members of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, Don Preston and Bunk Gardner, will be at Orion Sound Studios on Saturday Feb. 26 to recreate — and reinvent for today — the revolutionary music they first made in the 1960s.
Zappa’s music will have a special resonance here in his hometown of Baltimore, but it’s also likely to get skillful and inspired treatment by this duo. Zappa always surrounded himself with incredible musicians, and this has allowed the music to continue to live and breathe, instead of merely being relegated to recordings or notes on a page.
From “Absolutely Free” to “Zoot Allures”, Don (keyboards) and Bunk (sax) were an integral part of the legacy. There’s also a strong visual element to the zany antics that the Mothers’ used to suck you into the music, which if anything, are even more incongruous from musicians who are now 40-some years older. Don Preston even played the title role of “Uncle Meat” himself, in the classic Zappa film.
Don and Bunk remind us that both Baltimore and the Mothers’ shared in the birth and upbringing of Frank Zappa.
The show which starts at 8 p.m., takes place at Orion Studios, at 2903 Whittington, off Washington Boulevard in southwest Baltimore.