Tom Fowler, the bassist finest recognised for enjoying with Frank Zappa and the Moms of Creation as nicely as Ray Charles, died this week at the age of 73.

Engineer and producer Dennis Moody confirmed the decline in a Facebook publish, noting that Fowler died on July 2 from complications of an aneurysm he suffered the former week. Moody praised Fowler as “a single of the most inventive, clever and wackiest men and women I’ve at any time fulfilled. Tom played bass on a half-dozen Frank Zappa albums, and as nicely of the last 10 a long time with Ray Charles. I met Tom and his brother Walt when I was 20 yrs old. He and I remained buddies permanently, touring the entire world and producing loads of remarkable songs.”

Arthur Barrow, who played bass for Zappa in the late ’70s and early ’80s, also mourned the loss of Fowler in a Fb submit. “He was a hero to me,” Barrow wrote. “The initial time I listened to ‘Echidna’s [Arf (Of You)]’ I pretty much fell over when he performed the major 5/16 lick on the bass! I had no notion that a clumsy bass could do this kind of a factor! He was an inspiration for me to get a bass and begin practising. I have recognized him due to the fact about 1976. RIP outdated pal — lacking you really much.”

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Tom Fowler’s Lifestyle and Career

Born on June 10, 1951, in Salt Lake Metropolis, Fowler picked up violin at an early age just prior to switching to bass. He developed his recording debut with Zappa on 1973’s Over-Nite Feeling, which also highlighted his brother, Bruce Fowler, on trombone. He appeared on numerous further Zappa albums via the ’70s, up to 1978’s Studio Tan.

Fowler played bass for several other artists in the course of that time, like George Duke, Jean-Luc Ponty and Steve Hackett. He was also part of the jazz fusion band Air Pocket, which featured his brothers Walt (trumpet, miraphon), Bruce (trombone), Steve (alto saxophone, flute) and Ed (bass). He played with Ray Charles from 1993 to 2004 and appeared on his closing studio album, the posthumously released Genius Enjoys Enterprise, which received the Grammy Award for Album of the Yr in 2005.

Sharing his philosophy on a thriving dwell efficiency, Fowler instructed Zappa Publications in 2000: “A dwell scenario has to have heaps of peaks and valleys and it’s a great display, then you can have sluggish things. Ray Charles executing tremendous gradual. Frank Zappa and Ray Charles in live performance together for the to start with time, with specific guest appearances from Jean-Luc Ponty and It can be a Gorgeous Day. And there is certainly my everyday living in a 1 concert nutshell. Fowler Brothers as the opening act. Then we all go to my restaurant and eat something.”