On Sky Arts this evening (Tuesday) there is another opportunity to watch two recently broadcast programmes. At five minutes to midnight there is the bizarre story of Hitler's Jazz Band. A WWII Nazis concentration camp would appear to be an unlikely setting for a swinging jazz band, yet, thanks to Karl Schweidler jazz was heard loud and clear in Third Reich Germany. At 12:55am it's the Charlie Watts Orchestra telling the story of the Rolling Stone's love of jazz captured on film at Fulham Town Hall. And earlier (4:30pm) over on Radio 4 comedian John Robins makes the case for Frank Zappa in an edition of Great Lives. Russell
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There are now over 100 Zappa albums available. There is more diversity of music to be found than anywhere else in the history of music. I used to say he and Miles are the Mozart and Beethoven of our time but now correct myself that Mozart and Beethoven were the Miles and Frank of their time. Some people think he's a guitar hero, a comedy act, a weirdo, a hippy, heavy metal or a popstar. He's rock, he's a composer, an under-rated guitarist, a jazz musician, a jazz-rock pioneer, an insightful cultural observer pointing out the nakedness of the emperor. He's the great white artist of post-war music.
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