nigey lennon Nigey Lennon had a personal and professional relationship with Frank Zappa. She contributed to a couple of concerts in 1971 and she also wrote a book on Zappa, called "Being Frank".  Early 2006, Candy Zappa, joined forces with Ed Palermo, Nigey Lennon, and John Tabacco to present ZAPPA SINGS ZAPPA, a two-hour show featuring Candy's vocal renditions of her brother's songs, along with original compositions in the Zappa spirit, composed by Nigey Lennon and John Tabacco. In 2007, Nigey Lennon contributed their version of Frank Zappa's 'The Idiot Bastard Son' to "20 Extraordinary Renditions", Andrew Greenaway's project that got released on Cordelia Records.  The info said: Recorded by John Tabacco on 30th October 2007. Produced ("if such a simple track is actually 'produced' as opposed to merely recorded") by Nigey Lennon. Lyrics by Nigey Lennon and Eric Weaver. Personnel: Nigey Lennon (vocal, arrangement, programming); Jay Rozen (tuba); Eric Weaver (cameo vocal); John Tabacco (recording, minimal programming, mixing on Halloween 2007); David Walley (last laugh).
http://profile.myspace.com/zappasingszappa     selected bibliography nigey lennon: being frank     (1995, book, usa, california classics books) nigey lennon: being frank - new and updated edition     (2003, book, usa, california classics books)

discography

Bringing up the subject of Nigey Lennon in the company of Zappa fans is sure to cause heated debate.  No other players' credentials have been scrutinized closer, and without definitive results. 

Prior to the release of her book "Being Frank" in 1995, few had really heard of her.  Out of nowhere we have a new member to contend with, one who publishes a steamy tale à la pamela des barres, who recounts having been a band member during the 1971 tour but does not (or cannot) produce any specific dates, noone can seem to remember seeing her on stage, and there are no known audience tapes of her playing.

Yet, the story persists and has not been conclusively proven or discredited. The more fruitful bits of the debate reside at vladimir sovetov's site.

One big clue in her favor is that she was forthcoming to aff-z'er Andrew Fignar (drew40@ix.netcom.com) with some specific performance dates. they are:

•   august 25, community theater, berkeley
•   august 26, convention center (?), seattle
•   august 27 or 28, spokane
•   august 30, seattle
•   september 1 or 2, portland
•   october 1, memorial auditorium, sacramento

I think it lends credibility to her claim that she is willing to stick her neck out and name some specific dates.   one strike against her story, though, is that according to Doug Grose (dgrose@entrenet.com), Howard Kaylan doesn't recall ever being onstage with her.  One would think after 6 gigs and several other onstage non-musical antics, one would remember.  But this is coming from the guy who she was perhaps hired to replace in the event of a drug-induced absence, so who knows?  Read the book and decide for yourself.  It is a "kiss & tell" book to some extent, but is at least an entertaining read.  (She has also written books on Alfred Jarry and Mark Twain.) 

random notes

from: vladimir sovetov (sova@kpbank.ru) - newsgroups: alt.fan.frank-zappa
subject: nigey lennon revisited

        hiya, friends,
        have you ever heard that nigey lennon, the author of being frank: my time with frank zappa, controversial bio of our uncle frank was married? and very much so!-)) now she's divorced, but for some time enjoyed regular family life with the guy named lionel rolfe. and he happens to be nephew of yehudi menuhin and the writer as well. despite the fact that he never have slept with frank or played with him on stage, rolfe just published the autobiographic book

lionel rolfe, fat man on the left. four decades in the undeground.
california calssic books, la, 1998
isbn 1-879395-01-0
which contain couple of pages that could be interesting for fz fans. of course, they depict former husband view on nigey-frank realtionship. the place in question startes in the middle of page 20.

"it was also during this time i met nigey, my future wife. she was cold, tired and hungry the first time we get together. she was 19 and i had just turned 30, and was living a relatively wild bachelor life in hollywood. i had broken up with dianna, my first   wife and mother of my children, heather and haila. nigey had no permanent place to live and was sleeping on a friend's coach.  a short time before, she had been living in the basement of frank zappa's house on woodrow wilson drive in laurel canyon where she had been a secret lover as well as a guest. but nigey and zappa also had an intense musical reationship. she watched the great musical cynic cry as he played her some bartok, for example."

rolfe mused with the subject at some length like this:
"sometimes nigey's parroting of zappa' musical views irritated me a lot. perhaps my feeling was influenced by the thought that she still made love to him from time to time."
"one night shortly after we started living together, nigey said she wanted to go and make dirty love to capt.beefheart."

then abrupty indulge in 7 pages long and really boring shneersohns and lubavitchis torah-yarmulke stuff intermission, before returning to nigey-frank thingies conclusion, p.31

"when he [zappa]died, though, i think nigey rued that decision. his influence had stayed with her all those years, if not in body   certainly in spirit. i encouraged her to write a piece about him which run in the london independent. from that, she kept writing - day and night for several months - until she finished her book, being frank: my time with frank zappa."

on most hot nigey question, when and where she performed with mothers rolfe's answer is third-party eye-witness account who "saw her perfom on stage with zappa at carnegie hall."

that's all. and as a side note, the guy still seems to be in love with his former wife nigey lennon. believe it or not.

for full story see the book. pp.20-23 and p.31

     from: biffyshrew (biffyshrew@aol.com)
ironically, the carnegie hall show is one concert that lennon herself specifically says she *didn't* play at, or even attend.  zappa did, however, mention her name from the stage.  see chapter 6 of _being frank_.
(details, details: lennon actually says that there were *two* carnegie hall shows, and that the one fz dedicated to her in her absence was the second.  she also says that earlier she had been looking forward to being on stage for this show, because "i'd be able to tell people i appeared at carnegie hall."  i infer from this that she doesn't claim to have performed on the first night either, or she *would* have been able to make the above claim.)

     from: nigey lennon
nigey lennon (reachable via e-mail at calclass@earthlink.net) spent the '80s and early '90s leading various bands around los angeles (performing on slide guitar and keyboards) and publishing a number of books ("the sagebrush bohemian: mark twain in california" and "alfred jarry: the man with the axe" among them). she is presently recording a solo cd, "reinventing the wheel," which features some of the long lost material from her 'imaginary album'(to have been produced by fz) of 1972, described in her book "being frank: my time with frank zappa." musicians include mike keneally (guitar, vocal) and vocals by frank's sister candy zappa and victoria berding.  lennon plays guitar and keyboards and is co-producing with john tabacco (drums, keyboards, vocals) in los angeles and stony brook, ny.  deluxe package including 100-page book with additional observations and insights into fz and his influence on nl and "rtw", will be released in fall, 1999.  official website: http://www.nigeylennon.com/

      from: marc de bruyn (emdebe@village.uunet.be)
i've been going through some old diskettes - in order to get rid of them (does anybody remember diskettes in this high-tech world?) - and i found this message text file, dated 97-08-17... don't know how i initially got it and i don't know where it's going... since muffin records is now defunct...

 nigey lennon - "reinventing the wheel"
california classics books po box 29756 los angeles ca 90029 213/413-8400 f:213/484-6100 e-mail: calclass@wavenet.com for immediate release contact: lionel rolfe, (213) 413-8400. nigey lennon's "reinventing the wheel" to be issued as cd by muffin records. reinventing the wheel,
composer/guitarist/keyboardist nigey lennon's premiere solo cd, will be released by muffin records in 1998. lennon, whose book being frank: my time with frank zappa (california classics books) chronicles her professional and personal relationship with the late musician, will be joined on the cd by vocalist candy zappa, frank's sister. also contributing vocals is victoria berding. (as lennon observes, "having singers like candy and victoria available makes it possible for me to concentrate on what i do best -- twiddling knobs, tuning my guitar, drinking beer, and cursing.") although reinventing the wheel is not specifically a 'concept' cd, it is loosely based on lennon's relationship with frank zappa, and as might be expected,  the material runs the sylistic gamut from rhythm & blues to 20th-century orchestral. lennon explains: "it seemed appropriate for my first cd to assemble a sort of musical journal, with examples of frank's influence on me. i indicate my initial phase of slavish imitation by including earlier pieces i wrote, and then go on to show various stages of my 'fool's progress' until i come to the period when i finally broke free and found my own voice, although still drawing on frank's influence for inspiration."

zappa's unique brand of inspiration can be detected in tracks like messin' in the kitchen, featuring a blistering r&b vocal by candy zappa ("the family seems to be plagued by a fatal attraction to 'jump' records," lennon muses). on the other end of the scale, a complex work such as jupiter's basement -- which lennon originally composed when she was "temporarily housed under the bosendorfer grand piano in frank's basement" during the early '70s -- showcases lennon's ability to compose 'serious' music. the dense orchestral textures on reinventing the wheel are created by lennon using a macintosh power pc computer running cubase score. "in his last years frank invested a lot of time and money on the synclavier," says lennon, "and now i can do almost anything he did on my mac in about ten minutes for under a thousand bucks. "i guess there really is progress after all."  

from: Nigey Lennon
2006 07 03

Hello fans, fiends and friends --

ZAPPA SINGS ZAPPA now has its (their?) own little cubicle on MySpace Music, thanks to another great Belgian, Gina Vodegel! Please feel free to visit, add comments, or even list yourself as a friend of the group, should you feel so inclined. Watch the "Events" category for news on upcoming performances...there may even be a blog, when there's something noteworthy to report.

http://www.myspace.com/zappasingszappa

See you there!

Cheers,