The Bogus Pomp Website


Bogus Pomp is a 10 piece ensemble based in Tampa Bay, Florida. Since 1994, the group has performed the music of Frank Zappa exclusively. Bogus Pomp's members are an unlikely combination of educators, symphony players, jazzers, and rockers, all with a common interest in Zappa's repertoire. This diversity is a key factor in the groups ability to recreate Zappa's compositions in the style of his 70's and early 80's rock bands.
Bogus Pomp performs several times a year and has presented several memorable concerts with the Florida Orchestra, The Buffalo Philharmonic, a cappella legends The Persuasions, and six annual halloween shows dubbed ZAPPAWEEN. The group performed several concerts with Ike Willis in 98 and 99 and since October, 99, Napoleon Murphy Brock has been a permanent member. This has led the band to focus primarily on material from the period of time Brock spent with Frank Zappa and The Mothers.

Napoleon's unmistakable voice and stage presence takes the audience back to the period of Zappa's career where many of the great compositions were being written, refined, and recorded. Napoleon, however, has not been silent in the 20 years since his last work with Zappa. Living in San Jose (not Reseda), California, he has recorded with George Duke, gigs regularly with his Bay Area group, the Nighthawks, and has performed with the San Francisco Opera. The vocal prowess of Napi, teamed up Bogus Pomp's powerful instrumentalism, has been a tremendous success with BP's growing audiences.

A Brief History - Bogus Pomp began in August, 1994, when guitarist Jerry Outlaw and keyboardist Rick Olson got together for some informal jamming. Both were ardent Zappaphiles and, inevitably, they jammed on various progressions from Zappa's catalog. This went on for a few weeks until Jerry mentioned the sessions to Bill Templeton, then managing editor of Jam Magazine, a popular music industry trade rag. The next issue of Jam had a square inch of text simply stating that Jerry and Rick were jamming on Zappa's material and within days, bassist Alex Pasut had contacted the two and, after hearing "Keep It Greasy", played for him over the phone, joined them. Soon, drummer Tom McCowan was recruited and a Halloween set, opening for local trio Deloris Telescope, was scheduled.

In the weeks leading up to that first set, the quartet was aware of the risk they were taking. Zappa fans are among the most demanding afficionados and Bogus Pomp wondered how their presentation would be received. Being Zappa hard-cores themselves, the group knew what the expectations would be. Simply knowing that led to a sense of trepidation until the evening of the show.

In a full page review of the set printed in Jam Magazine, music critic Eric Snider wrote "That four Bay Area musicians would attempt to do justice to Zappa, whose compositions are among the most complex and sacred in the annals of popular music,had raised a few eyebrows among the local Frank fanatics." Snider went on to call the set "a triumph". With the enthusiastic response of the ample crowd, and good words from a known unforgiving critic, Bogus Pomp decided to take it on and continue.

Within days, in response to a tiny ad placed on the bulletin board in the music department of St Petersburg Junior College, Trombonist and Brass Studies instructor David Manson signed on as organizer of, and arranger for what would become, and remains, Bogus Pomp's 3 piece brass section.

The group began to develop its repertoire and its audience. Working locally, BP began to earn a reputation as a substantial draw and received steady offers from local clubs and venues.

The next addition to the band's line-up was mallet percussion, the sound that makes Zappa's music almost instantly recognizable and dominated his compositions throughout his career. The band has worked with several talented percussionists including George Bernardo and Florida Orchestra percussionist David Coash, who currently occupies the chair. Then came the first ZAPPAWEEN concert.

Exactly one year after its debut performance, Bogus Pomp presented the first ZAPPAWEEN concert at Jannus Landing, a large courtyard venue in St Petersburg. The concert was nearly four hours long before a capacity crowd who stayed to very last note. This began a tradition of ZAPPAWEEN concerts, held each Halloween weekend.

At the first ZAPPAWEEN, Steve Evans, a Boston businessman who had flown down for the show, introduced himself to the band, beginning a relationship that would result in a trip to Boston to perform at Ryles jazz club in Cambridge, in celebration of Evans' 40th birthday. (Lots of fun)

In early 1998, former Zappa frontman, Ike Willis joined Bogus Pomp for several shows including ZAPPAWEEN 4 and the first of two concerts with the Florida Orchestra. Ike's engaging personality was a real crowd pleaser and his guitar playing was a good fit with Outlaw's but enough of a contrast to make back-to-back solos interesting. Pat Buffo (missing link in a tophat) added primal screams and other feral noises during those performances. Ike Willis currently tours with his own band and appears with Band From Utopia whenever they play.

The Orchestra Shows - In early 98, Bogus Pomp, through percussionist David Coash, along with bank executive Fred Hemmer, presented a proposal to the Florida Orchestra. The idea was to present an unprecedented concert format. The Florida Orchestra, a full symphony, would peform a program of Zappa's orchestral works. After an intermission, Bogus Pomp would juxtapose 90 minutes of Zappa's rock repertoire. The orchestra was immediately receptive to the idea and after a few months of meetings and discovery, added the concert to their 1999 season and began what would become a 9 month process to obtain the scores and negotiate with the Zappa Family Trust, particularly Gail Zappa. Republic Bank, through the efforts of Fred Hemmer, sponsored a portion of the event and the support they provided was instrumental in making the concert a success.
	Bogus Pomp enlisted the talents of Ike Wills, New York Big Band leader Ed Palermo, and vocalists Dave Martin and Pat Buffo, to augment the 9 piece band. The weekend of the concert also included a Composer's Symposium, held at the Salvadore Dali Museum in St. Petersburg which featured lectures by Andy Holinden, who teaches courses in Zappa's music at the University of Indiana, and Dr. James Borders, a musicologist who provided fascinating insight into Zappa's creative process.
Held at the beautiful Mahaffey Theater is St Petersburg, the concert sold out at nearly 2000 seats on January 16, 1999. Resident Conductor, Thomas Wilkins, lead the orchestra through a powerful and moving program and were joined by Bogus Pomp on the two closing orchestral numbers, Strictly Genteel and Uncle Meat. Bogus Pomp selected pieces from a wide slice of Zappa's repertoire. The concert was a success. It received a wonderful review in the St Petersburg Times and earned the distinction of "Best music event of 1999" by the Weekly Planet magazine and it's annual "Best of the Bay" awards. Bogus Pomp and the Florida Orchestra repeated the event again in January of 2000. On May 23rd, 2000, Bogus Pomp, along with Thomas Wilkins, performed the program again with the Buffalo Philharmonic in Buffalo, New York. The 2000 concerts featured Napoleon Murphy Brock as a regular member of Bogus Pomp by then. Bogus Pomp continues to perform the music of Frank Zappa and is constantly striving for a larger repertoire from Zappa's vast catalog. The band plans more orchestral collaborations and the ongoing ZAPPAWEEN concerts. Frank Zappa's music is timeless and will have a lasting place in 20th Century music history. Bogus Pomp is grateful for the opportunity to perform this music for anyone willing to listen.