Jimmy Carl Black

Born: 1st February 1938, El Paso, Texas, USA.
Died: 1st November 2008, Traunstein, Germany.

American drummer and vocalist. Best known for his work with Frank Zappa and original drummer in the first line-up of ‘The Mothers’, with his introductory line “Hi, boys and girls - I’m Jimmy Carl Black, and I’m the Indian of the group”. Also referred to by Don Van Vliet as “Indian Ink” during their musical association. Black co-founded several groups and featured on many recordings after departing Zappa’s band - with whom he made the first 8 albums. However, JCB appeared on some Zappa works thereafter, such as the vocalist on “Harder Than Your Husband” - a number on which he can also be seen performing with FZ (in Albuquerque) on friend John Cline’s vid-clip on YouTube (To which FZ agreed).

JCB met his wife Moni () at a gig (whilst drumming with the Farrell/Black Blues Band) in Traunstein, Germany when he was 58. He spoke no German and she spoke no English, although the fact she had been a devoted Mothers fan for 25 years obviously helped communications and they married 11 months later. Soulmates until he passed away, Moni regularly accompanied him to Zappanale events. Black had almost completed a book of his life story when he died and it was finally published in the Fall of 2013, entitled “For Mother’s Sake - The Memoirs And Recollections Of Jimmy Carl Black 1938-2008”.

Black was first a member of The Soul Giants with Roy Estrada and Ray Collins, who were joined by Zappa, whose concepts subsequently morphed the band into a Mothers line-up. After his long association with FZ, Black formed Geronimo Black with Bunk Gardner in 1970 (Geronimo Black also being the name of his 3rd son). He then co-founded The Grandmothers with Gardner, Don Preston and Collins in 1980. He also formed his own label ‘’, performed with The Muffin Men and and has collaborated with a diverse number of artists, including: Arthur Brown, Mannish Boys, Ant-Bee, Eugene Chadbourne (Jack & Jim Show), Sandro Olivia (Black Olive), Zjakki Willems, The X-tra Combo, Ener Bladezipper, Ella Guru and the artist who also worked on “The Jimmy Carl Black Story”, Jon Larsen.