Meet Robert Martin
Here he is singing an ass-kicking cadenza at the end of a Zappa concert at “The Pier NYC USA 26th August 1984,” aka Does Humor Belong In Music? On an earlier tour, some savvy fan screamed out “Whippin’ Post” at concert’s end, a reference to what had become an Allman Brothers concert cliché. Zappa was uncharacteristically humiliated that his top-notch band couldn’t just “whip it out,” so every band from that day on had Whippin’ Post in the repertoire.
And nobody ever sang it better than Bobby Martin. All true Zappa fans know he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, a classically-trained French horn player who also can wail on the sax, keyboards, and vocals. In the world of musicianship, where fools rush in and angels fear to tread, he walks confidently on the clouds as though they were solid ground. He married Cybill Shepherd and produced an album for her. This is the last information, from 1998, that I’ve heard from him, probably posted on alt.fan.frank-zappa:
from: robert martin (ramusic10@aol.com)
dear everybody,
i had no idea this information about me was floating around on the web until my best friend from high school e-mailed me about it. it's great to see ongoing interest in fz's music and alumnae.
the discography is mostly correct and includes a few things i had forgotten about. yes, there is another bobby martin from philly who arranged many of the sessions i played french horn on at sigma sound in the early 70's. i'm proud to have played on so many hit records from that era, songs like backstabbers, love train, money, money, betcha by golly wow, me and mrs jones, etc., etc... laura nyro and the osmonds never happened. that must have been the other bobby martin. anyway, i've been "robert" since the '88 zappa tour.
i'm currently music editor for baywatch...hey, it pays the bills!
and i am working on a few other projects and my own music, but i'm sorry to say it won't be out anytime soon. it will include some philosophical content based on years of studying my favorite writer, ayn rand.
yes, i split with cybill shepherd in october of '98 (major political and philosophical differences) and a year later happily reconnnected with my former wife, patsy pease. i'm happy to be a full time husband and father again. thanks for being there, i really appreciate it!
having just discovered this series of web pages, i'm waxing quite nostalgic about my tenure with frank from '81 'till the end. i particularly remember the new york pier 11 show as being an incredibly fun show. the dependence on cheezy early digital synths was unfortunate but it was more than made up for by the best vocal band in my experience with frank. it was the only time that i got to sing with both ray and ike at the same time, which cut down on my leads a bit, but we had killer range, power and blend.
here's some more info for the discography: i played french horn on just about everything that had horn on it that came out of sigma studios from 1969 through 1974. i don't know exact dates or album titles, but here's the list of artists: the stylistics, delphonics, o'jays, spinners, billy paul, harold melvin & the bluenotes, teddy pendergrass, major harris, connie stevens (it's true), and some others i don't remember. records of the session dates and players probably exist, but i don't have them.
i also arranged and overdubbed entire french horn sections and sax sections on the moody blues "octave" album after moving to california. i played off and on with etta james for 14 years in between other tours, including opening for the rolling stones 1978 u.s. tour. we also played at numerous jazz and blues festivals like monterey, atlanta, montreux, northsea, etc. there are probably videos and bootlegs floating around of some of those concerts. with etta i also did midnight special with george benson, dr. john and van morrison, and i know there's a video of that.
i toured briefly with michael mcdonald and did the tonight show, soul train, and american bandstand with him in 1986 (all on video somewhere). one other major career highlight was singing "hey jude" with paul mccartney at the hollywood bowl. it was somewhere around '93 or so, and i was there singing backgrounds for kenny loggins, and paul asked everyone to join him at the end. when it was over, paul, who didn't know me from adam, looked across the stage at me and came over and shook my hand before greeting the rest of the singers. i'm sure someone somewhere has a picture of that. it was almost as good as playing with frank!
i've got more information and anecdotes, but this is not the kind of keyboard i'd like to be tapping right now. i'll save more goodies for later.
again, thanks to all for keeping the flame.
robert martin
p.s. yes, that's me on the philinganes album.
2:40:50 PM 
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