Napoleon Murphy Brock

Napoleon Murphy Brock (born April 23, 1943) is an American singer, saxophonist and flute player who is best known for his work with Frank Zappa in the 1970s, including the albums Apostrophe ('), Roxy & Elsewhere, One Size Fits All, and Bongo Fury. He contributed notable vocal performances to the Zappa songs "Village of the Sun," "Cheepnis," and "Florentine Pogen."

Career

Brock's musical career began in the San Francisco South Bay Area in the late 1960s with a seven and eight piece band he had organized named "Communication Plus". He was the lead singer, songwriter, and arranger of the band's strongly R&B-influenced rock performances. He also played the saxophone and flute. He played in a variety of local clubs including The Brass Rail, The Mecca, and Gary R. Schmidt's, The Odyssey Room. He was discovered playing for a dance band in Hawaii in the early 1970s by Zappa's road manager. The participation of George Duke and Jean-Luc Ponty convinced Brock to join the band as lead singer.

Brock's numerous performances with Zappa include the role of the "Evil Prince" on the Thing-Fish album. He has also performed with George Duke, Captain Beefheart and more recently with Neonfire and . He remains a regular performer at Zappanale.

Brock appeared in the 2005 film Rock School, a documentary about The Paul Green School of Rock Music, an extracurricular music program that he and Project/Object have closely supported for several years.

In 2006, he toured with Frank Zappa's son Dweezil on the latter's Zappa Plays Zappa shows. He also regularly tours with fellow Zappa alumnus Ike Willis and others with Andre Cholmondeley's Project/Object. Other Zappa related projects in which he has been involved include the Tampa, Florida based band Bogus Pomp, and the 16 piece Ed Palermo Big Band from New York City.

Grammy Award At the 51st Grammy Awards on February 8, 2009, Napoleon won a Grammy for his performance of the song "Peaches en Regalia" with the band Zappa Plays Zappa, which also featured Steve Vai and Dweezil Zappa. The song originally appeared on Frank Zappa's 1969 Hot Rats LP.

Film

Brock has appeared in several Zappa documentaries and movies. They include: Baby Snakes (background) The Dub Room Special A Token of His Extreme The Amazing Mr. Bickford (on a television screen in the background) The True Story of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (background) Roxy the Movie [DVD, 2015] Cheaper Than Cheep

Discography

Solo albums

YearAlbumCredit 2002 Balls Flute, piano, keyboards, alto sax, tenor sax, vocals, whistle (human), producer, harmony vocals, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer bass, screams

Appearances on Zappa albums

YearAlbumCredit 1974 Apostrophe (') Saxophone, vocals 1974 Roxy & Elsewhere Tenor sax, flute, lead vocals, co-writer of Dummy Up 1975 One Size Fits All Flute and tenor sax, lead vocals on Florentine Pogen and Andy, background vocals on other tunes, flute on Inca Roads 1975 Bongo Fury Saxophone, vocals 1976 Zoot Allures Saxophone, vocals 1979 Sleep Dirt Saxophone 1979 Sheik Yerbouti Saxophone, vocals, background vocals 1984 Them or Us Guitar, saxophone, vocals, harmony vocals 1984 Thing-Fish Saxophone, vocals, cast 1988 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 Saxophone, vocals 1988 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 Saxophone, vocals 1989 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 3 Saxophone, vocals 1991 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 4 Saxophone, vocals 1991 You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 6 Saxophone, vocals 1996 Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute 1997 Have I Offended Someone? 2002 FZ:OZ Tenor saxophone, vocals

Appearances on George Duke albums