ernie thomas
biography

more info from ernie thomas:
the photo on the right, is is a photo i took earlier this year, playing my flugelhorn for a surprise birthday / retirement party for my wife.
you asked me some questions relating to frank, but i sort of lost track of some of your question. let me say that frank and i got along ok. we played together in high school band and with our group called the "blackouts". as you probably know, frank was an innovator. he created a thing called the "bug". what we would do while playing, we would toss an imaginary "bug" at people in our audience and they would go along with the "gag" and start doing this weird kind of dance, indicating that they were "overcome" with this bug thing. upon my graduation from high school, i enlisted in the air force band. i performed all over the world, enrolled in courses from the berklee school of music and i got involved with doing some composition and dance band arrangeing. of course, by this time, frank had become well known. i saw very little of frank zappa during that period of time. eventually, i did retire out of the air force. i went back to college thinking i would continue music career, but later decided to change careers......music soon became a part time thing with me. i received both my bs and graduate degree from the university of redlands, here in california. again, the only time i ever heard from frank zappa after graduating from high school was through mutual friends who stayed in touched with him. in closing, i do know a few of the musicians who knew frank during that time who might be able to give you more information regarding him.