By Rick Mattingly

Ed Mann, best known for being a percussionist with Frank Zappa from 1977 to 1988, died on June 1, 2024. Born January 14, 1954 in Great Barrington, Mass., Mann began playing piano at age 3 and acquired a drumset at age 11. During his teenage years he played in a variety of bands and ensembles, and he studied with Richie LePore and at the New England Music Camp and the Hartt Music School. He entered the Hartt College of Music in 1972, where he studied with Al Lepak, and Mann moved to California in 1973 to study with John Bergamo at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he played contemporary music and studied music from Indonesia, Africa, and South India. He was a founding member of the Repercussion Unit ensemble, and after developing an interest in vibes and marimba he took lessons from Dave Samuels, Emil Richards, and Victor Feldman.

A few months after doing some overdubs at a Frank Zappa recording session, he was hired full-time by Zappa in 1977, and appeared on over 30 of Zappa’s albums, alongside drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Chad Wackerman. In a 1982 interview, Mann commented, “Frank is never easy. He’ll write something which, at the time, is more difficult than anything he has written before, and it’s a challenge to see if you can cut it. You spend hours learning this thing, and once you do, that becomes the new standard. Then he’ll write something past that.”

With Zappa, Mann did everything from playing complex mallet parts to blowing duck calls. Outside of Zappa’s band, he did a lot of drumset and timpani playing. He explained, “Once you decide to take on all of these instruments and play them actively throughout the rest of your life, it is more difficult to become a virtuoso on any one of them. But I think it is possible to kind of specialize on one and still be as competent as you like on the others. With me, mallets is pretty much my specialization. That’s something I spent enough time on, and I’m definitely more comfortable soloing on mallets. So I guess I would say I specialize on mallets but do all the others.”

Mann also performed and/or recorded with Mark Isham, Rickie Lee Jones, Andy Summers, Kenny Loggins, Ambrosia, Tammy Wynette, Los Lobos, Blotto, John Cage, Bill Bruford, Shadowfax, Frogg Cafe, Wrong Object, The Grandmothers, London Symphony Orchestra, Don Ellis, Repercussion Unit, Lou Harrison, Don Preston, Bruce Fowler, Steve Fowler, Rumdummies, ASANI, The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Bill Eddins, and several L.A. film composers including Jeff Rona, Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Harry Gregson Williams, and CJ Vanston. He released several solo albums including Get Up (1988), Perfect World (1991), Global Warming (1994), Have No Fear (1997), and (((GONG))) Sound of Being (1998).

Ed developed an interest in the solo use of gongs and found objects in the creation of resonant soundfields. In 1989, he began bringing those sounds to Yoga schools and alternative health practitioners, and in 1990 he began a 14-year association with cymbal and gong manufacturer Paiste, serving as recordist, product specialist, and interface with the holistic community. In 2005, Ed began an association with Italian gong, bell, and cymbal maker UFIP. Ed’s Gong and Resonance presentations were well received by Yoga and music therapy organizations as well as individual clients.

As an electronic sound designer Mann created digital content libraries and programs for Wireless Developer, E-mu, Tell Me, Beatnik, FineCut Productions, Creative, National Young Audiences, Paiste, and Frank Zappa. Ed scored independent films for Finecut Productions, National Young Audiences, Midnite Chimes Productions, Knight Owl entertainment, and other indie production companies. His music was also featured in the 1993 remake of The Wrong Man featuring Rosanna Arquette.

After Mann’s death, Chad Wackerman wrote of Ed on social media, “A masterful and brilliant percussionist. He could read anything Frank Zappa threw at him, and I never once heard him make a mistake. He toured with Frank for 11 years and went on to record with many of the greats. Ed was a creative force and a great teacher and will be missed.”

Ruth Underwood, mallet percussionist with Frank Zappa for a decade, remembers her successor in the Mothers of Invention ensemble. “The timing in 1977 was uncanny! As one percussionist turned away from the inferno and the man at its center, another one — 23-year-old Ed Mann — raced toward it, armed with an open heart and a strong determination to succeed.

“Frank and Ed found important common ground,” she continues, “sharing a passion for envelope-pushing experimental music, a love of playing extended improvised solos, and an equally insatiable appetite for the rapidly evolving digital music technology, through which new soundscapes previously thought impossible, or even unimaginable, could be incorporated into the percussion section of this traveling rock band for the first time. They had both hit the jackpot!”