SAL MARQUEZ
Sal Marquez is one of the baddest trumpet players of all time hands down. I met him through Richie Cole when Richie was crashing at my crib. We had a few jam sessions and Sal told me about the secret behind his incredible style. Sal was from Texas. The secret was his training as a Mariachi trumpeter as a child.
Check out the LP Waka Jawaka for some incredible Mariachi double tonguing techniques applied to Jazz Fusion. Richie and Sal met in Buddy Rich's band. Contrary to the reputation of Rich brought on by the famous Buddy Rich tapes, if you knew your part and behaved like a professional, Buddy would never yell at you. Those tapes were made during the era when Rich couldn’t afford a big band and had to hire young college kids out of Berklee, who on any given night sounded like a bunch of howling dogs.
The tape was made after Sal’s and Richie’s time, they loved Buddy. But getting back to Zappa. Any Zappa fan had to wonder at the incredible change of the horn parts when comparing the first debut of Zappa’s LPs: Hot Rats and the next one with horns: Waka Jawaka. Sal told me the story; the difference was him arranging the horns. It’s an art form to get that clean sophisticated sound you can’t just write the notes from your guitar chords. I found this out with my horn chart & on my tune Chord Climb. When I heard horn players play it I thought that sounds like Zappa LOL. I mean it still sounds pretty cool but definitely wouldn’t measure up to the
standard of the slick jazz of the classic era.
When I was in High School, we all eagerly awaited Zappa’s next instrumental LP. We pretty much thought the Mothers of Invention LPs were comedy records with incredible intermission music. So, when we first dropped the needle on Waka Jawaka we freaked out, Zappa had elevated himself to the status of a Weather Report or Billy Cobham Band. It was the most sophisticated sound he ever got. His next LP was a Mothers record it still had Sal on it but it only had a few horn heavy tunes and went back to some goofy comedy.
The next Zappa production had no Sal Marquez and never again could Zappa boast of a real jazz recording. Sal arranged all the horns and got ZERO credit. Not only that he
suggested the idea for the LP cover! This lack of recognition and recompense obviously stuck in his craw, so he decided to confront Zappa. The reaction tells one of the characteristics of this famed composer. Sal went to see Zappa in his office and said he didn’t mind getting any credit for arranging but he did want to be paid for it. In addition, he said he wanted a PER DIEM when they went on the planned tour.
Zappa was notoriously cheap and coming up in Rock and Roll didn’t understand that in those days real jazz musicians were all union guys and were used to union scale and treatment which included a per diem for meals. The musicians’ union was never even heard of in the street bred rock and roll bands or funk bands for that matter. Zappa glared at Sal and told him to turn in his charts. Now this was bad enough but to illustrate the evil in man’s hearts ZAPPA THEN CALLED SALS BROTHER AND OFFERED HIM THE GIG! Zappa knew Sal's brother was hard up and would take the gig driving a wedge between the family.
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