Ed Mann, percussionist for Frank Zappa, dead at 70

Ed Mann, a percussionist who played on more than 30 albums with Frank Zappa, has died. He was 70.

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Chad Wackerman, a musician and longtime collaborator with Mann, announced the news in an Instagram post. No cause of death was revealed, NJ.com reported.

“Rest easy my old friend Ed Mann,” Wackerman wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Mann was born on Jan. 14, 1954, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, according to NJ.com.

He received his first drum kit when he was 11 and began performing with local bands, according to the Ultimate Classic Rock website.

In 1972 he began studying at the Hartt College of Music at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. A year later he went west and enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita.

Mann was introduced to Zappa in 1977 by composer-percussionist John Bergamo, and the “Valley Girl” singer recruited him into his band the following year, according to NJ.com.

He would play onstage and in the studio with Zappa and his band until 1988, the news outlet reported.

After his stint with Zappa, Mann worked with David Arvedon, Andy Summers, Kenny Loggins, Tammy Wynette, Los Lobos, and the London Symphony Orchestra, NJ.com reported. He also collaborated with composers such as Hans Zimmer, Jeff Rona and Klaus Badelt.

“May he rest in peace,” singer-songwriter Carl Restivo wrote in a comment on social media. “I listened to ‘When Yuppies Go To Hell’ today in his honor. You and (Zappa) had a great back-and-forth battle on that song that night.”

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