Steve Fowler - 1991 - The Last Blue Sky

Steve Fowler

1991

The Last Blue Sky

01. Prisoner Of Dreams (5:10)

02. The Last Blue Sky (5:30)

03. Sneaky (4:47)

04. In The Drums (5:13)

05. A Trip With Bill (4:34)

06. Reunion At Phil's (5:24)

07. Klaope (5:31)

08. May I See Your Cotangent Bundle, Please? (6:06)

09. Misgivings (4:18)

Steve Fowler / flute, alto sax

Walt Fowler / trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards

Ed Fowler / bass, organ, electric piano

Chester Thompson / drums, percussion

Alex Acuna / percussion

Bruce Fowler / trombone

Albert Wing / tenor sax

Tom Fowler / electric bass

Mike Miller / acoustic guitar, electric guitar

George Souza / electric guitar

Kevin Chokan / electric guitar

Chris Trujillo / percussion

Russ Henry / percussion

Mike O'Neill / electric guitar

Ed Mann / percussion

Ramon Estagnaro / acoustic guitar

Steve Fowler is one of the two Fowler brothers (the other was Ed) to not appear on a Frank Zappa album. But from this release, I wonder why this was so. Here, Steve shows to be every bit as talented as his brothers. Perhaps Frank didn't have much use for flute in his compositions.

With all but two of the tracks written by Steve, the music on this album is primarily fusion, unlike the more big band oriented released under brother Bruce's and The Fowler Brothers monnikers. And the fusion is quite good. While using the flute as the primary instrument can often cause a bit too much lightness, Steve manages to curtail this by having quite a few interesting twists and turns to his music.

However good his compositions are, the best songs on the album were written by other brothers. Ed contributed In The Drums, a song that seems like it's going to be a simple samba, except it kepps veering into Zappa-like interludes. And Bruce wrote, May I See Your Cotangent Bundle, Please, which features Ed Mann on percussion.

Zappaphiles should note that aside from Fowlers Bruce, Walt and Tom, the album also features Chester Thompson on drums and Albert Wing on tenor sax. Mike Miller, who played with many Zappa alumni in Banned From Utopia, is also on this album.