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Mr_Green_Genes kindly posted a shorter story about Allan Zavod's audition. I met this summer Allan and we had a lenghty talk. (I plan to post the full story somewhere.) This here is the audition part.<br><br>"His name was Chase who called me. He was the road manager for Jean Luc Ponty when I first joined Jean Luc Ponty. They had a few managers but he was the first one. I was out of Ponty for eight years and I hadn’t seen Chase for maybe six years. And I don’t know how he found me, but I was in Arizona, I’d just come back from the Grand Canyon, with my father. My father came to visit me in the US; he said we’d go for a holiday. My girlfriend lived in Phoenix, Arizona. So my father and I went to Phoenix, put our bags down, took the car and went to the Grand Canyon, just the two of us. Then we got back, got into bed, we were tired after three or four days of traveling and the phone rang. <br><br>How did this man find me? It’s eight o’clock at night and he says: Frank’s looking for a keyboard player and I know you’re the guy. You’re the guy, you’re the right person! Get to L.A.! Here’s Frank’s number. So I called Frank. He gets on the phone right away. He knew who I was because I’d been with Jean Luc Ponty, he’d followed my career. I didn’t know that. So he gets to the phone and he says: Can you come now to L.A.? <br><br>In those days (it was in ’84) the airlines only flew till 7.30, now they fly in each hour. I was an eight hour drive away from L.A. so I said: I can’t fly but I have a car, I’m gonna get there for two o’clock, why don’t we do it tomorrow? He said: no, no, come now. OK, then. <br><br>Nine o’clock I’m on the road with my father, we’re driving and about twelve o’clock we’re still not there, so I called Frank again and I said : Look, I wanna be good for the audition, I’d be so tired, maybe we’d do it tomorrow. No, come now, you have to come now. Don’t worry if you’re tired, I understand. So I get into car and I said to my father: Dad, I have to get some sleep, you have to drive. My father had never driven in America. So, he’s driving on the freeways of L.A. and I’m sleeping, I got a one hour sleep, which was good. <br><br>We got there three o’clock in the morning, Frank was there, the whole band was there because they said this guy must be good, if the boss is stayin’, we’re gonna stay, we’re gonna check this guy out. Some of them knew me anyway. I had my father with me so it looked good, you know, good family upbringing, Frank was a big family man. <br><br>And he puts the most impossible music – Drowning Witch - can’t read it, he was making a joke. I tried. He took the music and said I can see you can read and then he said: we’ll play. So we just played a couple of chords. I was playing with everything I’ve got and he liked that. I could see they were all smiling and he was looking and smiling at his band so I got more confident and then he played and I accompanied him. Then he stops the band and he says: Excuse me, he says, can you hear me? Very rude. He was just testing — can I take his personality, will I fit into his band? He’s already made up his mind, but he wanted to test me, checking out my vibe. So I said nicely, yes I can hear you very well. He says you’re playing too many notes. So I played beautifully. So now he knew he could give me orders and that I could understand them and that I was strong, so he could rely on me to give him information. He wanted me to give him ideas, too. Frank Zappa was very strong but he always looked for others too around him for ideas. He wanted to bring out the best in everybody and sometimes on the tour I’d play something and he’d say listen to this idea or some other. He would always go for the challenge. <br><br>Anyway, so we played and he said: OK, we’d like to have you." <br>
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<br><br>Jimmy Carl Black moved to California in 1964 and there he met Roy Estrada and Ray Collins and started the band called "The Soul Giants". When their guitar player got drafted into the Army, Ray said he knew a guitar player named Frank Zappa, so they auditioned him and hired him. One month later, Frank took over as leader of the rockin' combo and the band was called "The Mothers".<br><br>JCB bio:<br>http://www.jimmycarlblack.com/Biography/bio.htm
