BOGUS POMP

Many people consider Bogus Pomp to be the best band out there playing Frank Zappa’s music and I couldn’t agree more. The band has had a slightly shifting lineup since it’s inception in 1994. They have played shows with the FloridaOrchestra twice, the Boston Symphony once and with an 18 piece chamber orchestra made up of the braver musicians of the Florida Orchestra on two occasions, with custom arrangements created for these events by the composer Tom Trapp. In 2008 they were invited to play at St. Katharinen’s Cathedral in Hamburg, Germany at a Bach festival and performed as ‘The Bogus Pomp Semi-Acoustic Low-Budget Orchestra’. They have played as an acoustic band, a big band, a jazz band and a rock band. Every year in St. Petersburg, Florida, for Halloween, they put on a show that they call ‘Zappaweeen’. Ike Willis has played with them a few times and Napoleon Murphy Brock was a semi-permanent member of the band for 5 years, flying in from California for rehearsals and shows. Numerous amazing musicians have joined the band on stage. Dan Campbell from Iratowns frequently comes in to play violin and at the 2008 Zappaween the band introduced 15 year old Shane Blank to the audience, and the kid is amazing.

And it’s a part time band.

Yup, this band is a labor of love. Led by Jerry Outlaw, the members of this part time, non-profit band have ties to around 40 other groups and projects throughout the Southeast United States and Europe. No one is making a living off of Bogus Pomp. Very few for-profit, full time bands can boast of the accomplishments that this part-time group of educators, symphony players, jazz musicians and rockers from a retirement community in Central Western Florida can. And even fewer, far fewer, can play music of this sheer, mind boggling complexity. And of those who can, even fewer can do it with what, to the audience, appears to be apparent ease. But it’s not easy. I’ve played Frank Zappa’s music myself, in the confines of my home studio, never in public, because it really and truly is some of the hardest stuff to play that’s ever been written.

If you want to book Bogus Pomp for your next event, email me the details and someone will get back to you.