Frank Zappa - 1996 [2012] ''Läther''

''Läther'', is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously as a triple album on Rykodisc in 1996.
The official version of Läther was released posthumously in September 1996. It remains debated whether Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP set from the beginning, or only when approaching Phonogram; In the liner notes to the 1996 release, however, Gail Zappa states that "As originally conceived by Frank, Läther was always a 4-record box set." Along with most of Zappa's material, a "mini-LP" CD edition was also released by Rykodisc in Japan, with the artwork reformatted to resemble the packaging of a vinyl album. In December 2012, the album was reissued with different packaging that better reflected the intended album cover.

The recordings for the album were originally delivered to Warner Bros. in 1977. Contractual obligations stipulated that Zappa deliver four albums for release on DiscReet Records, which eventually resulted in much of the material on Läther being released on four separate albums: Zappa in New York (1977), Studio Tan (1978), Sleep Dirt (1979), and Orchestral Favorites (1979), only the first of which was produced with Zappa's oversight. Zappa had planned to include much of the material from these albums as a quadruple box set entitled "Läther", but Warner Bros. refused to release it in this format. However, bootlegs of the original recording had existed for decades before the album's official release as a result of Frank Zappa broadcasting it over the radio in 1977 and encouraging listeners to make tape recordings of it.

Gail Zappa has confirmed that the 2-track masters for the planned original album were located while producing the 1996 version. While the official CD version of Läther released is reportedly identical to the test-pressings for the original quadruple album, four bonus tracks were added to the 1996 release and the title of the song, "One More Time for the World" was changed to "The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution", the title under which the same song appears on the album Sleep Dirt. The album does not include "Baby Snakes", a song which was originally planned for the album. A version of the song served as the title of the film from the same era.

Zappa managed to get an agreement with Phonogram Inc. to release Läther in its original configuration, and test pressings were made targeted at a Halloween 1977 release, but Warner Bros. prevented the release by claiming rights over the material. Zappa responded by appearing on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ, allowing them to broadcast Läther and encouraging listeners to make their own tape recordings. After Warner Bros. censored Zappa in New York to remove references to Angel guitarist Punky Meadows, and demanding four additional albums, a lawsuit between Zappa and Warner Bros. followed, during which no Zappa material was released for more than a year. Eventually, Warner Bros. issued Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. The original cover artwork had featured a photograph of Zappa in blackface and holding a mop; this photograph was eventually used as the cover for Joe's Garage, Act I.

In the spring of 1977, Frank delivered the master tapes for a four-record boxed set called Läther (pronounced “leather,” due to the umlauts over the A) to Warner Bros., who then decided not to pay the amount they contractually owed him, oafishly thinking that he’d frivolously thrown the package together just to speed along his remaining album requirements, thereby freeing himself from his recording contract. He retrieved the tapes and offered the set to EMI instead. Warner, currently being sued by Frank (who wanted the rights to his old albums, plus damages for years of bad bookkeeping and deficient royalties), threatened EMI with a lawsuit, scaring them out of negotiations. Frank then tried Mercury/Phonogram, who was to press and distribute the set as the first release on Zappa Records; but after it had gone through the test-pressing phase and had even been assigned a catalogue number, they suddenly refused to distribute it, as someone there had noticed its “offensive lyrics.”

He resorted to splitting the set into four separate LPs, leaving out all linking transitions, adding a few songs and omitting others. He delivered the first Läther-ette, Zappa in New York, with packaging and liner notes that were preserved when Warner finally released the album on DiscReet. Shortly after providing that live double-disc, he handed over the other three all at once, fulfilling his contractual obligations anyway. Whether he planned to turn in his packaging designs upon being paid for these three, submitted designs that were ignored by Warner, or was shut out of the process as soon as they had the actual tapes, the albums were ultimately issued with sequencing and artwork that he hadn’t approved.

Before Warner could begin these staggered releases, Frank played the orignal Läther in its entirety on KROQ-FM (Burbank-Pasedena, California), encouraging listeners to record it off the radio. The conflicting report that the four separate albums came first, and were rearranged into Läther after Frank learned that Warner wouldn’t pay fairly, is false, according to Gail Zappa’s booklet notes in the CD set: “As originally conceived by Frank, Läther was always a 4-record box set.” The triple-CD package was released in 1996 on Rykodisc. Four bonus songs were added, extending the length to nearly three hours. Included were a 1993 remix of “Regyptian Strut” (spelled without the hyphen this time, as on Sleep Dirt); Frank’s opening and closing comments on the radio at the time of his broadcast; a piece called “Leather Goods,” which was made up of unused Lumpy Gravy dialogue, some Gravy-reminiscent instrumental music, and the original beginning of “Duck Duck Goose” (which included Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” riff before the “Whole Lotta Love” one heard on Läther proper, as well as two solo breaks, tributing Jimmy Page’s in “Whole Lotta Love” and “Heartbreaker”); “Revenge of the Knick-Knack People,” heard during some of the non-stage segments in the Baby Snakes movie; and the instrumental “Time Is Money” (included on Sleep Dirt but not Läther itself).

Gary Panter, an artist best known for his work in Raw Comix, was responsible for the illustrations on the covers of Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. Frank hadn’t chosen Gary’s work; one of the titles wasn’t his, either. “I might point out that [Sleep Dirt is] not the name of the album,” he told Record Review in the spring of 1979. “That’s just a further violation of the original contract. The original title of that album, as delivered to them, was Hot Rats III. I presume that’s just another snide attempt to undermine the merchandising of it. If you saw an album sitting in the rack with the title Sleep Dirt on it, you probably wouldn’t be too intrigued by it. And based on the job they did with the cover of Studio Tan, they made [all of the packaging] as unappealing as possible.”

The full saga of Läther (pronounced leather) is tangled enough to give a migraine to all but committed Zappaphiles. Basically, what you need to know is that this project was originally conceived of as a four-record box set. When record company politics prevented its release in that format, much of the material was spread over the albums Live in New York, Sleep Dirt, Studio Tan, and Orchestral Favorites. This three-CD set presents the album as it was originally conceived, with the addition of four bonus tracks at the end. It mixes previously available material, alternate mixes, and edits, and previously unissued stuff, though only the most serious Zappa fans will have a good grip on exactly what has appeared where (the liner notes are surprisingly unexact in this regard). And the music? It's almost like a résumé of Zappa's bag of tricks: Uncle Meat-like experimentation, intricate jazz-rock, straight hard rock, orchestral composition, and comedy. Some of those comedy tracks became some of his most notorious routines, like "Punky's Whips" and "Titties 'n Beer," which amounted to avant- rock for drunk frat boys and pot smoking, underachieving junior high school students. The juvenile humor, hamfisted parody of hard rock clichés, and the shaggy-dog opera of the 20-minute "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" are outshone by the lengthy, more experimental instrumental passages. It's interesting, but exhausting to wade through all at once, and the avant-garde/composerly cuts are not as exceptional as his earlier work in this vein in the late '60s and early '70s. That means that this will appeal far more to the Zappa cultist than the general listener, though the Zappa cult -- which has been craving Läther in its original format for years -- is a pretty wide fan base in and of itself. [In 2005, Rykodisc made available the Japanese Mini LP replica version...which is a bit strange since Läther was never officially released on LP.]

Track listing

All tracks written by Frank Zappa.
Disc one
1.     "Re-Gyptian Strut"       Appears on the album Sleep Dirt (1979).     4:36
2.     "Naval Aviation in Art?"       Appears on the album Orchestral Favorites (1979).     1:32
3.     "A Little Green Rosetta"       Previously unreleased.     2:48
4.     "Duck Duck Goose"       Previously unreleased.     3:01
5.     "Down in De Dew"       Previously unreleased (Outtake from The Grand Wazoo/Waka Jawaka sessions).     2:57
6.     "For the Young Sophisticate"       Previously unreleased (Overnite Sensation Outtake).     3:14
7.     "Tryin' to Grow a Chin"       Previously unreleased.     3:26
8.     "Broken Hearts Are for Assholes"       Previously unreleased.     4:40
9.     "The Legend of the Illinois Enema Bandit"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978).     12:41
10.     "Lemme Take You to the Beach"       Appears on the album Studio Tan (1978).     2:46
11.     "Revised Music for Guitar & Low Budget Orchestra"       Appears on the album Studio Tan (1978).     7:36
12.     "RDNZL"       Appears on the album Studio Tan (1978).     8:14

Disc two
1.     "Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?"       Different edit of the version that appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978). The ZINY version is a single performance while the "Lather" version is a combination of two different performances.     4:56
2.     "The Black Page Part 1"       A longer take appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978) with a drum solo included.     1:57
3.     "Big Leg Emma"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978).     2:11
4.     "Punky's Whips"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978) with a different mix and alternate guitar solo.     11:06
5.     "Flambé"       A longer version appears on the album Sleep Dirt (1979) under the title "Flam Bay".     2:05
6.     "The Purple Lagoon"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978).     16:20
7.     "Pedro's Dowry"       Appears on the album Orchestral Favorites (1979).     7:45
8.     "Läther"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978) under the title "I Promise Not to Come in Your Mouth".     3:50
9.     "Spider of Destiny"       A longer version appears on the album Sleep Dirt (1979).     2:40
10.     "The Duke of Orchestral Prunes"       Appears on the album Orchestral Favorites (1979).     4:21

Disc three
No.     Title     Original release     Length
1.     "Filthy Habits"       A longer version appears on the album Sleep Dirt (1979). Outtake from Zoot Allures (1976).     7:12
2.     "Titties & Beer"       Appears on the album Zappa in New York (1978).     5:23
3.     "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" (Originally entitled "One More Time for the World")     A longer version appears on the album Sleep Dirt (1979).     8:31
4.     "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary"       Appears on the album Studio Tan (1978).     21:00

Personnel:

Disc One, Track 1

    Frank Zappa – percussion
    George Duke – keyboards
    Bruce Fowler – all brass
    James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass
    Ruth Underwood – percussion
    Chester Thompson – drums

Disc One, Track 2; Disc Two, Track 7 & 10

    Frank Zappa – guitar
    Dave Parlato – bass
    Terry Bozzio – drums
    Emil Richards – percussion
    Orchestra conducted by Michael Zearott

Disc One, Track 3 (part One)

    Frank Zappa – vocal
    George Duke – keyboards

Disc One, Track 3 (Part Two)

    Frank Zappa – lead guitar
    Andre Lewis – keyboards
    Roy Estrada – bass
    Terry Bozzio - drums

Disc One, Track 4, 7 & 8; Disc Three Track 6

    Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
    Ray White – guitar, vocals
    Eddie Jobson – violin, keyboards
    Patrick O'Hearn – bass
    Terry Bozzio – drums, vocals

Disc One, Track 5

    Frank Zappa – all guitars, bass
    Jim Gordon – drums

Disc One, Track 6

    Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals
    George Duke – keyboards
    Tom Fowler – bass
    Paul Humphrey – drums
    Ricky Lancelotti – vocals

Disc One, Track 9; Disc Two, Track 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8; Disc Three, Track 2

    Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals
    Ray White – rhythm guitar, vocals
    Eddie Jobson – violin, keyboards, vocals
    Patrick O'Hearn – bass, vocals
    Terry Bozzio – drums, vocals
    Ruth Underwood – percussion, synthesizer
    David Samuels – timpani, vibes
    Randy Brecker – trumpet
    Mike Brecker – tenor sax, flute
    Lou Marini – alto sax, flute
    Ronnie Cuber – baritone sax, clarinet
    Tom Malone – trombone, trumpet, piccolo
    Don Pardo – sophisticated narration

Disc One, Track 10

    Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
    Davey Moire – vocals
    Eddie Jobson – keyboards, yodeling
    Max Bennett – bass
    Paul Humphrey – drums
    Don Brewer – bongos

Disc One, Track 11; Disc Three, Track 4

    Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
    George Duke – keyboards
    Bruce Fowler – trombone
    Tom Fowler – bass
    Chester Thompson – drums

Disc One, Track 12; Disc Three, Track 8

    Frank Zappa – guitar
    George Duke – keyboards
    James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass
    Ruth Underwood – percussion
    Chester Thompson – drums

Disc Two, Track 5 & 9

    Frank Zappa – guitar
    George Duke – keyboards
    Patrick O'Hearn – bass
    Ruth Underwood – percussion
    Chester Thompson – drums

Disc Three, Track 1

    Frank Zappa – guitar, keyboards
    Dave Parlato – bass
    Terry Bozzio – drums

Disc Three, Track 3

    Frank Zappa – guitar, synthesizer
    Patrick O'Hearn – bass
    Terry Bozzio – drums

Disc Three, Track 5

    Frank Zappa – percussion
    George Duke – keyboards
    Bruce Fowler – all brass
    James "Bird Legs" Youman – bass
    Ruth Underwood – percussion
    Chad Wackerman – drum overdubs

Frank Zappa - 1986 [1995] "Jazz From Hell"

Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1986 by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and by Rykodisc on CD. This is Official Release #47.

All compositions were executed by Frank Zappa on the Synclavier DMS with the exception of "St. Etienne", a guitar solo excerpted from a live performance Zappa gave of "Drowning Witch" during a concert in Saint-Étienne, France, on his 1982 tour.
"While You Were Art II" is a Synclavier performance based on a transcription of Zappa's improvised guitar solo on the track "While You Were Out" from the album Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981). The unreleased original Synclavier performance was done using only the unit's FM synthesis, while the recording found here was Zappa's "deluxe" arrangement featuring newer samples and timbres.
"Night School" was possibly named for a late-night show that Zappa pitched to ABC; the network did not pick it up. A music video was made for the song.
"G-Spot Tornado", assumed by Zappa to be impossible to play by humans, would be performed by Ensemble Modern on the concert recording The Yellow Shark (1993).

Zappa won a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for this album.

Though Jazz from Hell is an entirely instrumental album, there is an unconfirmed report that the Fred Meyer chain of stores sold it in their Music Market department featuring an RIAA Parental Advisory sticker. This could have been the result of Zappa's feud with the Parents Music Resource Center (which had also inspired the 1985 Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention), an objection to the use of the word "hell" in the album title, or in reference to the track "G-Spot Tornado", describing the erogenous zone in human anatomy commonly known as the G-Spot.

While Frank Zappa had ostensibly been "on his own" since the dissolution of the Mothers of Invention in 1969, never before had he used the term "solo artist" as literally as he does on the Grammy Award winning (in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance by an orchestra, group or soloist" category) Jazz from Hell (1986). After two decades of depending on the skills, virtuosity, and temperament of other musicians, Zappa all but abandoned the human element in favor of the flexibility of what he could produce with his Synclavier Digital Music System. With the exception of the stunning closer "St. Etienne" -- which is a guitar solo taken from a live performance of "Drowning Witch" at the Palais des Sports in St. Etienne, France on May 28, 1982 -- the remaining seven selections were composed, created, and executed by Zappa with help from his concurrent computer assistant Bob Rice and recording engineer Bob Stone. Far from being simply a synthesizer, the Synclavier combined the ability to sample and manipulate sounds before assigning them to the various notes on a piano-type keyboard. At the time of its release, many enthusiasts considered it a slick, emotionless effort. In retrospect, their conclusions seem to have been a gut reaction to the methodology, rather than the music itself. In fact, evidence to the contrary is apparent as it brims throughout the optimistic bounding melody and tricky time-signatures of "Night School." All the more affective is the frenetic sonic trajectory coursing through "G-Spot Tornado." Incidentally, Zappa would revisit the latter -- during one of his final projects -- when the Ensemble Modern worked up Ali N. Askin's arrangement for the Yellow Shark (1993). Another cut with a bit of history to it is "While You Were Art II," which is Zappa's Synclavier-rendered version of the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1982) entry "While You Were Out." Speaking of guitar solos, as mentioned briefly above, "St. Etienne" is the only song on Jazz from Hell to feature a band and is a treat specifically for listeners craving a sampling of Zappa's inimitable fretwork. The six-plus minute instrumental also boats support from Steve Vai (rhythm guitar), Ray White (rhythm guitar), Tommy Mars (keyboards), Bobby Martin (keyboards), Ed Mann (percussion), as well as the prominent rhythm section of Scott Thunes (bass) and Chad Wackerman (drums). Zappa-philes should similarly note that excellent (albeit) amateur-shot footage of the number was included by Zappa on the companion Video from Hell (1987) home video.

Jazz From Hell may not be one of Frank's most popular albums and I'm sure it's one of the lowest sellers, but it's also one of his finest.
Frank had announced his intention of quitting the liva arena in 1982 and then again in 1984 ( he would be tempted back in 1988 ) but by 1986 he was composing solely on his Synclavier within the comfort of his recording studio, and the results are amazing.
Night School and G-Spot Tornado are among his best ever compositions, nobody else to this day writes such odd and yet beautiful music, it's ironic to note that the title track ( one of the weaker tracks ) won Frank a Grammy !
Probably to placate the fans of his guitar solos he choose to include one very fine ( and delicate ) solo.
This album rewards repeated listenings and and it's great insight into what made the man really tick .

On this solo digital-synth excursion, the indefatigable Zappa takes a breather from R-rated satire and battling the PMRC dragons to cook up one of his periodic classical-jazz-boogie stews. There is nothing particularly hellish about the eight pieces on the album, though it may have been a bitch to program these densely packed parcels of subdivided rhythms and Chinese-checker themes. But while most of Jazz from Hell employs now-standard Zappa compositional devices — abrupt tempo changes, harmonic broad jumps and volcanic polyphonic clusters — there is a deviant playfulness and almost affable melodic resolution about these tracks that is unique in Zappa's serious instrumental canon.

While purchasing this CD:
Just got back from LA and while I was there I went to Time Warp Records, a little record store off of Venice BL. Among the just over 80 CD's I own by Frank I hadn't replaced the "Jazz From Hell" from my lp collection. It was there so I picked it up and there was only one guy there besides the owner and another gentleman walked in just as I was about to leave. Just as I found my last purchase (McCoy Tyner - Infinity (with Michael Brecker) and I over heard the guy that had just walked in that he had been to an event with Moon Zappa the previous night as I'm walking up to the counter with Jazz From Hell, I showed to the guy talking and the owner and we all had a little laugh, :-)
Crimhead420.

http://jazz-rock-fusion-guitar.blogspot.com/search?q=Frank+Zappa

Tracks Listing

1. Night School (4:47)
2. The Beltway Bandits (3:25)
3. While You Were Art II (7:17)
4. Jazz From Hell (2:58)
5. G-Spot Tornado (3:17)
6. Damp Ankles (3:45)
7. St. Etienne (6:26) *
8. Massaggio Galore (2:31)

* Recorded 1982 at Palais des Sports, St. Etienne, France.

Total Time: 34:26

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, Synclavier, keyboards, production
On "St. Etienne":
Steve Vai – rhythm guitar
Ray White – rhythm guitar
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Bobby Martin – keyboards
Scott Thunes – bass guitar
Chad Wackerman – drums
Ed Mann – percussion

Frank Zappa - 1986 [2003] "Jazz From Hell"

Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1986 by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and by Rykodisc on CD. This is Official Release #47.

All compositions were executed by Frank Zappa on the Synclavier DMS with the exception of "St. Etienne", a guitar solo excerpted from a live performance Zappa gave of "Drowning Witch" during a concert in Saint-Étienne, France, on his 1982 tour.
"While You Were Art II" is a Synclavier performance based on a transcription of Zappa's improvised guitar solo on the track "While You Were Out" from the album Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (1981). The unreleased original Synclavier performance was done using only the unit's FM synthesis, while the recording found here was Zappa's "deluxe" arrangement featuring newer samples and timbres.
"Night School" was possibly named for a late-night show that Zappa pitched to ABC; the network did not pick it up. A music video was made for the song.
"G-Spot Tornado", assumed by Zappa to be impossible to play by humans, would be performed by Ensemble Modern on the concert recording The Yellow Shark (1993).

Zappa won a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for this album.

Though Jazz from Hell is an entirely instrumental album, there is an unconfirmed report that the Fred Meyer chain of stores sold it in their Music Market department featuring an RIAA Parental Advisory sticker. This could have been the result of Zappa's feud with the Parents Music Resource Center (which had also inspired the 1985 Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention), an objection to the use of the word "hell" in the album title, or in reference to the track "G-Spot Tornado", describing the erogenous zone in human anatomy commonly known as the G-Spot.

While Frank Zappa had ostensibly been "on his own" since the dissolution of the Mothers of Invention in 1969, never before had he used the term "solo artist" as literally as he does on the Grammy Award winning (in the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance by an orchestra, group or soloist" category) Jazz from Hell (1986). After two decades of depending on the skills, virtuosity, and temperament of other musicians, Zappa all but abandoned the human element in favor of the flexibility of what he could produce with his Synclavier Digital Music System. With the exception of the stunning closer "St. Etienne" -- which is a guitar solo taken from a live performance of "Drowning Witch" at the Palais des Sports in St. Etienne, France on May 28, 1982 -- the remaining seven selections were composed, created, and executed by Zappa with help from his concurrent computer assistant Bob Rice and recording engineer Bob Stone. Far from being simply a synthesizer, the Synclavier combined the ability to sample and manipulate sounds before assigning them to the various notes on a piano-type keyboard. At the time of its release, many enthusiasts considered it a slick, emotionless effort. In retrospect, their conclusions seem to have been a gut reaction to the methodology, rather than the music itself. In fact, evidence to the contrary is apparent as it brims throughout the optimistic bounding melody and tricky time-signatures of "Night School." All the more affective is the frenetic sonic trajectory coursing through "G-Spot Tornado." Incidentally, Zappa would revisit the latter -- during one of his final projects -- when the Ensemble Modern worked up Ali N. Askin's arrangement for the Yellow Shark (1993). Another cut with a bit of history to it is "While You Were Art II," which is Zappa's Synclavier-rendered version of the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1982) entry "While You Were Out." Speaking of guitar solos, as mentioned briefly above, "St. Etienne" is the only song on Jazz from Hell to feature a band and is a treat specifically for listeners craving a sampling of Zappa's inimitable fretwork. The six-plus minute instrumental also boats support from Steve Vai (rhythm guitar), Ray White (rhythm guitar), Tommy Mars (keyboards), Bobby Martin (keyboards), Ed Mann (percussion), as well as the prominent rhythm section of Scott Thunes (bass) and Chad Wackerman (drums). Zappa-philes should similarly note that excellent (albeit) amateur-shot footage of the number was included by Zappa on the companion Video from Hell (1987) home video. 

Jazz From Hell may not be one of Frank's most popular albums and I'm sure it's one of the lowest sellers, but it's also one of his finest.
Frank had announced his intention of quitting the liva arena in 1982 and then again in 1984 ( he would be tempted back in 1988 ) but by 1986 he was composing solely on his Synclavier within the comfort of his recording studio, and the results are amazing.
Night School and G-Spot Tornado are among his best ever compositions, nobody else to this day writes such odd and yet beautiful music, it's ironic to note that the title track ( one of the weaker tracks ) won Frank a Grammy !
Probably to placate the fans of his guitar solos he choose to include one very fine ( and delicate ) solo.
This album rewards repeated listenings and and it's great insight into what made the man really tick .

On this solo digital-synth excursion, the indefatigable Zappa takes a breather from R-rated satire and battling the PMRC dragons to cook up one of his periodic classical-jazz-boogie stews. There is nothing particularly hellish about the eight pieces on the album, though it may have been a bitch to program these densely packed parcels of subdivided rhythms and Chinese-checker themes. But while most of Jazz from Hell employs now-standard Zappa compositional devices — abrupt tempo changes, harmonic broad jumps and volcanic polyphonic clusters — there is a deviant playfulness and almost affable melodic resolution about these tracks that is unique in Zappa's serious instrumental canon.

"The Beltway Bandits," for example, is a nifty piece of electronic fun, an imaginary rush-hour auto chase enacted with agitated jungle noises and a synthetic muted car horn. Even more whimsical are "Night School," a typically serpentine air underscored with rich lyric chording and lively street-corner finger popping, and the altered-states funk-up "Massaggio Galore," which sounds like Zappa's "Dancin' Fool" on Planet Claire. Make no mistake: this album is not easy listening. The complexity of a score like the extended "While You Were Art II" would confound a stadiumful of Human Leagues. Yet its sly humor and lighter tonal palette make Jazz from Hell more easily digestible, if no less demanding, than the abrasive orchestral sawing on Zappa's past concertos, like the classic Lumpy Gravy.

It would have been nice to hear Zappa tear up his digital soundscape here and there with a little more real-sound guitar. Jazz from Hell's only fuzz 'n' fusion showcase is the slow, brooding alien blues "St. Etienne," an in-concert Zappa-band recording of unspecified vintage. Nevertheless, Jazz from Hell is the Present Day Composer's most engaging and accessible serving of his singular serio-pop vision since Hot Rats. Listeners who deserted Zappa after his hard turn into scatological social protest should have no trouble putting aside their prejudices for this thirty-five-minute trip down Avant-Classical Lane, while MTV teens will be surprised to learn there's more to this old Mother than just being Dweezil's dad.

Tracks Listing

1. Night School (4:47)
2. The Beltway Bandits (3:25)
3. While You Were Art II (7:17)
4. Jazz From Hell (2:58)
5. G-Spot Tornado (3:17)
6. Damp Ankles (3:45)
7. St. Etienne (6:26) *
8. Massaggio Galore (2:31)

* Recorded 1982 at Palais des Sports, St. Etienne, France.

Total Time: 34:26

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, Synclavier, keyboards, production
On "St. Etienne":
Steve Vai – rhythm guitar
Ray White – rhythm guitar
Tommy Mars – keyboards
Bobby Martin – keyboards
Scott Thunes – bass guitar
Chad Wackerman – drums
Ed Mann – percussion

Frank Zappa - 1970 [1990] "Weasels Ripped My Flesh"

Weasels Ripped My Flesh is the seventh studio album by the American rock band the Mothers of Invention, released in 1970. It is the second album released after the Mothers' disbanding in 1969, preceded by Burnt Weeny Sandwich. In contrast to its predecessor, which predominately focused on studio recordings of tightly arranged compositions, Weasels Ripped My Flesh largely consists of live recordings and features more improvisation.

Given Zappa's already stated penchant for expressing his music in "phases"—We're Only in It for the Money was written up as "phase one of Lumpy Gravy"— Zappa fans occasionally label this album Phase Two of Burnt Weeny Sandwich. Both albums consist of previously unreleased Mothers tracks released after Frank Zappa disbanded the original group in 1969.

Whereas all but one of the pieces on Burnt Weeny Sandwich have a more planned feel captured by quality studio equipment, five tracks from Weasels Ripped My Flesh capture the Mothers on stage, where they employ frenetic and chaotic improvisation characteristic of avant-garde jazz and free jazz. This is particularly evident on "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue," a tribute to the multi-instrumentalist, who died in 1964 and is cited as a musical influence in the liner notes to the band's Freak Out! album. The song opens with a complex melody over a 3/4 rhythm, breaking into howls and laughter at the three-minute mark, then the theme is repeated and elaborated; after a brief rave-up section, the number concludes in stop-start fashion.

Zappa's classical influences are reflected in characteristically satirical fashion on "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", a play on Claude Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)". "Oh No" is a vocal version of a theme that originally appeared on Zappa's Lumpy Gravy album, as well as a pointed barb aimed at the Beatles and John Lennon's "All You Need Is Love". "The Orange County Lumber Truck" incorporates the "Riddler's Theme" from the Batman TV show. The album's closer and title track consists of every player on stage producing as much noise and feedback as they can for two minutes. An audience member is heard yelling for more at its conclusion.

In contrast to the experimental jazz material, the album also contains a straightforward interpretation of Little Richard's R&B single "Directly From My Heart to You", featuring violin and lead vocal from Don "Sugarcane" Harris. This song is actually an outtake from the sessions for the Hot Rats album.

The album also documents the brief tenure of Lowell George (guitar and vocals), who went on to found the band Little Feat with Mothers bassist Roy Estrada. On "Didja Get Any Onya?", George affects a German accent to relate a story of being a small boy in Germany and seeing "a lot of people stand around on the corners asking questions, 'Why are you standing on the corner, acting the way you act, looking the way you look, why do you look that way?'"

The Rykodisc CD reissue of the album features different versions of "Didja Get Any Onya?" and "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask", which featured music edited out of the LP versions. The extended version of "Didja Get Any Onya?" features a live performance of the composition "Charles Ives", a studio recording of which had previously been released as the backing track for "The Blimp" on the Captain Beefheart album Trout Mask Replica, produced by Frank Zappa. The 2012 Universal Music reissue reverts to the original LP versions.

A fascinating collection of mostly instrumental live and studio material recorded by the original Mothers of Invention, complete with horn section, from 1967-1969, Weasels Ripped My Flesh segues unpredictably between arty experimentation and traditional song structures. Highlights of the former category include the classical avant-garde elements of "Didja Get Any Onya," which blends odd rhythmic accents and time signatures with dissonance and wordless vocal noises; these pop up again in "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "Toads of the Short Forest." The latter and "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue" also show Frank Zappa's willingness to embrace the avant-garde jazz of the period. Yet, interspersed are straightforward tunes like a cover of Little Richard's "Directly From My Heart to You," with great violin from Don "Sugarcane" Harris; the stinging Zappa-sung rocker "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama," and "Oh No," a familiar Broadway-esque Zappa melody (it turned up on Lumpy Gravy) fitted with lyrics and sung by Ray Collins. Thus, Weasels can make for difficult, incoherent listening, especially at first. But there is a certain logic behind the band's accomplished genre-bending and Zappa's gleefully abrupt veering between musical extremes; without pretension, Zappa blurs the normally sharp line between intellectual concept music and the visceral immediacy of rock and R&B. Zappa's anything-goes approach and the distance between his extremes are what make Weasels Ripped My Flesh ultimately invigorating; they also even make the closing title track -- a minute and a half of squalling feedback, followed by applause -- perfectly logical in the album's context.

Frank Zappa disbanded the Mothers in 1969, with the band mired in financial struggle, personality clashes and creative squabbling. But the bandleader was as crafty as he was prolific: Determined to make the most of unused live and studio recordings, Zappa started tinkering with the archival material, resulting in two 1970 LPs, Burnt Weeny Sandwich and its demented younger brother Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Zappa's original plan for the post-Mothers era was to release all the material in a massive, 12-record set. But he nixed the idea after considering the financial logistics.

Zappa would explore jazz themes more overtly under his own name, veering into big-band fusion with acclaimed albums like 1973's The Grand Wazoo. But as he explained in a 1970 interview with Sounds, those influences had been there all along.
"One of the reasons why the Mothers have never been associated with jazz is because most reviewers have never listened to jazz," Zappa said. "They wouldn't guess unless it said on an album cover that we were influenced by jazz. If I had stated on an early album that I had been influenced by Eric Dolphy or Archie Shepp, then for the last five years they would have been writing about jazz influences instead of Stravinsky influences. ... The group has always been encouraged in jazz-type improvisation within a framework of atonal music. The trouble is that most of the audience thinks of jazz as going from Louis Armstrong to Blood Sweat and Tears. They don't know about today's self-determination music."
Frank Zappa would revive the Mothers brand later that year, recruiting a hoard of new members – some legendary (keyboardist George Duke), some infamous (three former Turtles, including vocalists "Flo and Eddie"). The band's awkward transitional phase – documented on LPs like 1970's Chunga's Revenge and the 1971 soundtrack 200 Motels – only illustrates the original line-up's charm and potency.

http://jazz-rock-fusion-guitar.blogspot.com/search?q=frank+zappa

Track listing:

01 Didja Get Any Onya? 3:44
02 Directly From My Heart To You 5:17
03 Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask 3:35
04 Toads Of The Short Forest 4:48
05 Get A Little 2:35
06 The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue 6:53
07 Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula 2:12
08 My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama 3:35
09 Oh No 1:46
10 The Orange County Lumber Truck 3:18
11 Weasels Ripped My Flesh 2:05

Personnel:

Frank Zappa – lead guitar, vocals
Jimmy Carl Black – drums
Ray Collins – vocals
Roy Estrada – bass, vocals
Bunk Gardner – tenor saxophone
Lowell George – rhythm guitar, vocals
Don "Sugarcane" Harris – vocals, electric violin
Don Preston – organ, RMI Electra Piano, electronic effects
Buzz Gardner – trumpet and flugel horn
Motorhead Sherwood – baritone saxophone, snorks
Art Tripp – drums
Ian Underwood – alto saxophone

Frank Zappa - 1969 [1995] "Hot Rats"

Hot Rats is the second solo album by Frank Zappa. It was released in October 1969. Five of the six songs are instrumental ("Willie the Pimp" features a short vocal by Captain Beefheart). It was Zappa's first recording project after the dissolution of the original Mothers of Invention. In his original sleeve notes Zappa described the album as "a movie for your ears."
Because Hot Rats largely consists of instrumental jazz-influenced compositions with extensive soloing, the music sounds very different from earlier Zappa albums, which featured satirical vocal performances with extensive use of musique concrète and editing. Multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood is the only member of the Mothers to appear on the album and was the primary musical collaborator. Other featured musicians were Max Bennett and a 16-year old Shuggie Otis on bass, drummers John Guerin, Paul Humphrey and Ron Selico, and electric violinists Don "Sugarcane" Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty.
This was the first Frank Zappa album recorded on 16-track equipment and one of the first albums to use this technology. Machines with 16 individual tracks allow for much more flexibility in multi-tracking and overdubbing than the professional 4- and 8-track reel-to-reel tape recorders that were standard in 1969.
The album was dedicated to Zappa's newborn son, Dweezil Zappa. In February 2009, Dweezil's tribute band to his father's musical legacy, Zappa Plays Zappa, won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for their rendition of "Peaches en Regalia."
In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #13 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums". It was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. This is Official Release #8.

Zappa composed, arranged and produced the album himself. His primary instrument on the album is lead guitar. "Willie the Pimp", "Son of Mr. Green Genes", and "The Gumbo Variations" are showcases for his powerful and unconventional solo guitar performances. Four of the tracks have intricately arranged charts featuring multiple overdubs by Ian Underwood. Underwood plays the parts of approximately eight to ten musicians, often simultaneously. His work includes complicated sections of piano and organ, as well as multiple flutes, clarinets and saxophones.
The song "Peaches en Regalia" is widely recognized as a modern jazz fusion standard and is one of Zappa's best-known songs. Zappa plays a short solo on an instrument credited as an octave-bass, which is a conventional bass guitar recorded at half-speed so it sounds an octave higher in normal speed playback. When one listens to the song, it is apparent that many other instruments were also recorded at half-speed: organ, reed instruments, percussion. Underwood contributes flute and multiple saxophone, clarinet and keyboard parts. Zappa later re-recorded the song several times in live performances. It has been re-interpreted by many other jazz and rock artists, including Phish, the Dixie Dregs, and Frogg Café.
"Willie the Pimp" is a rock tune which features a vocal by Zappa's longtime friend and collaborator Captain Beefheart. It has violin by Don "Sugarcane" Harris and guitar solos by Zappa in what appear to be loose jams, though the performances were edited before release. The title Hot Rats comes from the lyric of this song.
"Son of Mr. Green Genes" is an instrumental re-arrangement of the song Mr. Green Genes from the Mothers album Uncle Meat. The unusual title of this song led to an urban legend that Frank Zappa was related to the character Mr. Green Jeans from the television show Captain Kangaroo. This is the only song on the album to feature both intricate horn charts and extended guitar solo sections.
"Little Umbrellas" is similar in style to "Peaches", another short carefully arranged tune with numerous keyboard and wind overdubs by Underwood.
"The Gumbo Variations" also is a jam performance that features a tenor saxophone solo by Underwood and some intricate electric violin playing by Don "Sugarcane" Harris in addition to a guitar solo by Zappa. The CD issue is a longer version containing portions that were edited for the LP. It includes a brief spoken segment at the beginning where Zappa's voice is heard instructing the musicians on how he wants them to start the tune.
"It Must Be a Camel" is also an intricately arranged tune with numerous wind and keyboard overdubs by Underwood. The very unusual melody of this song is highly rhythmic and often makes large melodic leaps. The title may come from the fact that these leaps resemble "humps" when written on paper. The recording contains a violin performance by Jean-Luc Ponty.
A recording from the Hot Rats sessions titled Bognor Regis was set to be released on the B-side of an edited version of "Sharleena", a track from the 1970 Zappa album Chunga's Revenge. The single release was canceled; however, an acetate disc copy was leaked to the public and the track has appeared on Zappa bootlegs. The song was named after a town on the south coast of England. Musically it's a basic blues instrumental with electric violin solo by Don "Sugarcane" Harris. Another track recorded during these sessions, titled "Twenty Small Cigars", was later released on Chunga's Revenge.

Aside from the experimental side project Lumpy Gravy, Hot Rats was the first album Frank Zappa recorded as a solo artist sans the Mothers, though he continued to employ previous musical collaborators, most notably multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood. Other than another side project -- the doo wop tribute Cruising With Ruben and the Jets -- Hot Rats was also the first time Zappa focused his efforts in one general area, namely jazz-rock. The result is a classic of the genre. Hot Rats' genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock's down-and-dirty attitude -- there's a real looseness and grit to the three lengthy jams, and a surprising, wry elegance to the three shorter, tightly arranged numbers (particularly the sumptuous "Peaches en Regalia"). Perhaps the biggest revelation isn't the straightforward presentation, or the intricately shifting instrumental voices in Zappa's arrangements -- it's his own virtuosity on the electric guitar, recorded during extended improvisational workouts for the first time here. His wonderfully scuzzy, distorted tone is an especially good fit on "Willie the Pimp," with its greasy blues riffs and guest vocalist Captain Beefheart's Howlin' Wolf theatrics. Elsewhere, his skill as a melodist was in full flower, whether dominating an entire piece or providing a memorable theme as a jumping-off point. In addition to Underwood, the backing band featured contributions from Jean-Luc Ponty, Lowell George, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, among others; still, Zappa is unquestionably the star of the show. Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy.

Tracks Listing

1. Peaches en Regalia (3:39)
2. Willie the Pimp (9:23)
3. Son of Mr. Green Genes (8:57)
4. Little Umbrellas (3:09)
5. The Gumbo Variations (16:55)
6. It Must Be A Camel (5:17)

Total Time: 43:11

Line-up / Musicians

- Frank Zappa / guitar, octave bass, percussion, arranger & producer

With:
- Captain Beefheart / vocals (2)
- Lowell George (uncredited) / rhythm guitar
- Ian Underwood / piano, organ, flutes, clarinets, saxes
- Don 'Sugarcane' Harris / electric violin (2,5)
- Jean-Luc Ponty / electric violin (6)
- Max Bennett / bass
- Shuggy Otis / bass (1)
- Ron Selico / drums (1)
- John Guerin / drums (2,4,6)
- Paul Humphrey / drums (3,5)

Frank Zappa - 1967-1968 [1986] "We're Only In It For The Money" + "Lumpy Gravy"

This twofer CD reissue contains two 1968 albums by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. We're Only In It For The Money, originally released in January 1968, is The Mothers' third album, containing some of the group's sharpest satires, including "Who Needs The Peace Corps?" and the anti-hippie "Flower Punk." When he was putting together The Old Masters, Box One in 1985, Zappa re-recorded the album's rhythm tracks and re-edited it in places in an attempt to improve its sound. Instead, the album now sounds like an odd mixture of old and new. Lumpy Gravy, originally released in March 1968, is a Zappa solo album recorded with an orchestra, but although it isn't song-oriented, its approach is not much different from that of We're Only In It For The Money, so the two make a good pairing.

We're Only in It for the Money is the third studio album by the Mothers of Invention. Released on March 4, 1968 on Verve Records, it was subsequently remixed and re-recorded by Frank Zappa and reissued by Rykodisc in 1986.

As with the band's previous two albums, We're Only in It for the Money is a concept album, and satirizes left and right-wing politics, particularly the hippie subculture, as well as the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat.

We're Only in It for the Money encompasses rock, experimental music and psychedelic rock, with orchestral segments deriving from the recording sessions for Lumpy Gravy, which was previously issued as a solo instrumental album by Capitol Records and was subsequently reedited by Zappa and released by Verve; the reedited Lumpy Gravy was produced simultaneously with We're Only in It for the Money and is the first part of a conceptual continuity, continued with the reedited Lumpy Gravy and concluded with Zappa's final album, Civilization Phaze III (1994).

Lumpy Gravy is the debut solo album by Frank Zappa, an album of orchestral, electric and concrete sound written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his third album overall: his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention.

It was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak format only and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records. In 1968 it was reedited and reissued by MGM's Verve Records on May 13, 1968. It consisted of two musique concrète pieces that combined elements from the original orchestral performance with elements of surf music and the spoken word. It was praised for its music and editing.

Produced simultaneously with We're Only in It for the Money, Zappa saw Lumpy Gravy as the second part of a conceptual continuity that later included his final album, Civilization Phaze III.

Later it was re-edited by Zappa as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which included three other albums: We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat.

In college, our "hippie" friend Lowell W... introduced our group to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Soon, I was adding Mothers LPs (They came on vinyl, you know) to my ecclectic record collection. So, what was this stuff anyhow? Political comment? Rock N Roll? It certainly was not Country & Western! What a puzzle! (However, it might have been political satire because Zappa seems to have written a song about my family friendly congressman before he was even elected. "Just have your fun, you old son of a gun, and drive off in your Lincoln..." So, Lowell up and writes Frank about what's it really mean anyhow and signs it Lo W... Now, Zappa was not one to waste a stamp on a fan. But, a few months later a full page ad appeared for the newest Mother's album in "The Rolling Stone." The headline read: "Dear Lo: We're only in it for the money!" and there was a large photo of the album cover and some other stuff. Well, we still did not know what it was all about, but I enjoyed the album. I cannot speak for the entire listings of the Mothers on Amazon, but "We're only in it for the money" is my favorite Zappa CD. I still do not know what the goofy thing is all about, but I think the title is telling the truth.

Track listing:

We're Only In It For The Money
1 Are You Hung Up? 1:29
2 Who Needs The Peace Corps? 2:35
3 Concentration Moon 2:17
4 Mom & Dad 2:19
5 Telephone Conversation
Voice [On Telephone] – Suzy Creamcheese
0:45
6 Bow Tie Daddy 0:33
7 Harry, You're A Beast 1:21
8 What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? 1:03
9 Absolutely Free 3:28
10 Flower Punk 3:04
11 Hot Poop 0:29
12 Nasal Retentive Calliope Music 2:02
13 Let's Make The Water Turn Black 1:45
14 The Idiot Bastard Son 2:43
15 Lonely Little Girl 1:44
16 Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance 1:35
17 What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? (Reprise) 0:57
18 Mother People 2:31
19 The Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny 6:25
Lumpy Gravy
20      Lumpy Gravy I    15:48
21      Lumpy Gravy II    15:51

Personnel:

Frank Zappa (guitar, piano, lead vocals, "weirdness & editing")
Dick Barber ("snorks")
Jimmy Carl Black ("Indian of the group", drums, trumpet, vocals)
Roy Estrada (electric bass, vocals, "asthma")
Bunk Gardner (all woodwinds, "mumbled weirdness")
Billy Mundi (drums, vocal, "yak & black lace underwear")
Don Preston (keyboards)
Euclid James Motorhead Sherwood (soprano & baritone saxophones, "all purpose weirdness")
Ian Underwood (piano, woodwinds, "wholesome")
Pamela Zarubica as Suzy Creamcheese ("telephone")
Also:
Spider ("is the one who wants you to turn your radio around")
Eric Clapton ("has graciously consented to speak to you in several critical area")
Gary Kellgren ("creepy whispering")
Dick Kunc ("cheerful interruptions")
Sid Sharp (orchestral segments conductor)
Vicki ("telephone ")
Ronnie Williams (backwards voice)

Frank Zappa - 1970 [1991] "Burnt Weenie Sandwich"

Burnt Weeny Sandwich is an album by The Mothers of Invention, released in 1970. It consists of both studio album and live elements. In contrast to Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which is predominately live and song-oriented, most of Burnt Weeny Sandwich focuses on studio recordings and tightly arranged compositions.
The LP included a large triple-folded black and white poster ("The Mothers of Invention Sincerely Regret to Inform You") which has never been reproduced in any of the CD reissues. Until the 2012 Zappa Family Trust reissue campaign, CD editions had a severe dropout at the beginning of "The Little House I Used to Live In" that wasn't present on the original LP pressing. This is Official Release #9.

The album's unusual title, Zappa would later say in an interview, comes from an actual snack that he enjoyed eating, consisting of a burnt Hebrew National hot dog sandwiched between two pieces of bread with mustard.
Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh were also reissued together on vinyl as 2 Originals of the Mothers of Invention, with the original covers used as the left and right sides of the inner spread, and the front cover depicting a pistol shooting toothpaste onto a toothbrush.

The album was essentially a 'posthumous' Mothers release having been released after Frank Zappa dissolved the band.
Ian Underwood's contributions are significant on this album. The album, like its counterpart Weasels Ripped My Flesh, comprises tracks from the Mothers vault that were not previously released. Whereas Weasels mostly showcases the Mothers in a live setting, much of Burnt Weeny Sandwich features studio work and structured Zappa compositions, like the centerpiece of the album, "The Little House I Used to Live In", which consists of several movements and employs compound meters such as 11/8 with overlaid melodies in 6/8 and 4/4.
The guitar solo portion of the "Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich" is an outtake from an unused extended version of "Lonely Little Girl" from the 1967 sessions for the We're Only in It for the Money LP. Zappa and Art Tripp later added multiple percussion overdubs for the released version (The source recordings for the percussion overdubs were issued in 2012 on the posthumous Zappa release Finer Moments under the title "Enigmas 1-5").
"Valarie" was originally intended to be released as a single coupled with "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama". However, either Zappa or his label, Reprise Records, cancelled its release, resulting in its inclusion on the LP.

"Igor's Boogie" is a reference to a major Zappa influence, composer Igor Stravinsky.
Cal Schenkel has noted that his unique cover art for Burnt Weeny Sandwich was originally commissioned for the cover of an Eric Dolphy release.
The piano introduction of "The Little House I Used to Live in" appears in Yvar Mikhashoff's four CD set "Yvar Mikhashoff's Panorama of American Piano Music"
After guiding the Mothers of Invention to significant critical respect and even modest commercial success over the second half of the ‘60s, Frank Zappa welcomed 1970 as a newly minted solo artist. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it based on his recently disbanded group’s lingering presence all over Zappa’s first album of the new year, Burnt Weeny Sandwich, which arrived in stores in February 1970 and was credited to the defunct group.

Named after one of Zappa’s favorite snacks in times of hunger emergency, the burnt weeny sandwich essentially consisted of flash-roasting a hot dog over an open flame, sticking it between two slices of bread, and snarfing it down while expediently returning to work, which, in Zappa’s case, entailed filling endless pieces of paper with little black dots called notes.

‘Burnt Weeny Sandwich’ in many ways mirrored the recipe for the snack in that it somewhat hastily and haphazardly threw together songs of radically diverse style and origin, as was aptly represented by artist Cal Shenkel’s chaotic collage adorning the LP cover. As such, two doo-wop covers — the Four Deuces’ “WPLJ” and Jackie & the Starlites’ “Valarie” — book-ended the other musical contents like thin slices of white bread. They may have harked back to Zappa’s earliest musical influences, but they had pretty much zero in common with the musical condiments they surrounded.

These included a dazzling display of the Mothers’ ensemble virtuosity in “Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich” (complete with blazing lead guitar and found sound effects), a mutant sea shanty named “Aybe Sea” (named after its A-B-C chord progression) and a quartet of bite-sized avant-classical pieces in “Igor’s Boogie, Phases 1 & 2,” “Overture to a Holiday in Berlin” and “Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown.” Though consistently stimulating, and typical of Zappa’s fearless genre-hopping tendencies, many of these songs were essentially leftovers from previous recording sessions with the recently unemployed Mothers, and mostly an exercise in closet cleaning.

The biggest single ingredient packing this savory musical hoagie was a near-20-minute concert performance entitled “The Little House I Used to Live In.” Recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall in June 1969, the song’s extended improvisations provided an epic send-off to the beloved Mothers, in all of their eclectic audaciousness under the leadership and in the service of  Zappa’s singular vision. The recording even contains a snippet of heated repartee between Zappa and an audience member that spawned his famous critique of all the flower children present: “Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform.”

Everyone, that is, except for Zappa, who would almost finish clearing out his vaults of Mothers material later in the year with the release of Weasels Ripped My Flesh. In October, Zappa released Chunga’s Revenge, which introduced the first of many new Mothers lineups that would back him over the decade ahead.


Burnt Weeny Sandwich is the first of two albums by the Mothers of Invention that Frank Zappa released in 1970, after he had disbanded the original lineup. While Weasels Ripped My Flesh focuses on complex material and improvised stage madness, this collection of studio and live recordings summarizes the leader's various interests and influences at the time. It opens and closes on '50s pop covers, "WPLJ" and "Valarie." "Aybe Sea" is a Zappafied sea shanty, while "Igor's Boogie" is named after composer Igor Stravinsky, the closest thing to a hero Zappa ever worshipped. But the best material is represented by "Holiday in Berlin," a theme that would become central to the music of 200 Motels, and "The Little House I Used to Live In," including a virtuoso piano solo by Ian Underwood. Presented as an extended set of theme and variations, the latter does not reach the same heights as "King Kong." In many places, and with the two aforementioned exceptions in mind, Burnt Weeny Sandwich sounds like a set of outtakes from Uncle Meat, which already summarized to an extent the adventures of the early Mothers. It lacks some direction, but those allergic to the group's grunts and free-form playing will prefer it to the wacky Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Frank Zappa except where noted.

No.     Title     Length
1.     "WPLJ" (The Four Deuces)     3:02
2.     "Igor's Boogie, Phase One"       0:40
3.     "Overture to a Holiday in Berlin"       1:29
4.     "Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich"       4:35
5.     "Igor's Boogie, Phase Two"       0:35
6.     "Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown"       6:27
7.     "Aybe Sea"       2:45
8.     "The Little House I Used to Live in"       18:42
9.     "Valarie" (Jackie and the Starlites)     3:14

Personnel

    Frank Zappa – organ, guitar, vocals
    Jimmy Carl Black – percussion, drums
    Roy Estrada – bass, backing vocals, Pachuco rap on "WPLJ"
    Janet Ferguson – backing vocals on "WPLJ"
    Bunk Gardner – horn, wind
    Buzz Gardner - trumpet
    Billy Mundi – drums (uncredited, left group in December 1967, possibly played on "Theme from Burnt Weeny Sandwich")
    Lowell George – guitar, vocals
    Don "Sugarcane" Harris – violin on "The Little House I Used to Live In"
    Don Preston – bass, piano, keyboards
    Jim Sherwood – guitar, vocals, wind
    Art Tripp – drums, percussion
    Ian Underwood – guitar, piano, keyboards, wind
    John Balkin – bass on "WPLJ", string bass on "Overture to a Holiday in Berlin" 

Jean-Luc Ponty - 1970 [1993] "King Kong"

King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (or simply King Kong) is an album by French jazz fusion artist Jean-Luc Ponty first released in 1970 on Liberty Records' World Pacific Records subsidiary label and later released on Blue Note. The album contains numerous selections Zappa had previously recorded either with the Mothers of Invention or under his own name, including:

• "King Kong", originally included on the Mothers' 1969 album Uncle Meat
• "Idiot Bastard Son", from the Mothers' 1968 album We're Only in It for the Money
• "Twenty Small Cigars", from Zappa's 1970 album Chunga's Revenge
• "America Drinks and Goes Home", from the Mothers' 1967 album Absolutely Free

In addition, the track "Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra" includes the themes from "Duke of Prunes", from Absolutely Free, and "Pound for a Brown", from Uncle Meat.^[3] Zappa excised those themes, and everything that followed them, when he later recorded the piece himself under the title "Revised Music For Guitar And Low-Budget Orchestra", which was first released on his 1978 album Studio Tan.
George Duke, who would eventually join Zappa and Ponty in the Mothers, is featured on piano on all tracks. Ernie Watts is featured on alto and tenor saxophone on all tracks except for "Music for Violin and Low Budget Orchestra". Zappa himself plays guitar on one selection, and Mothers members Ian Underwood (tenor sax) and Art Tripp (drums) contribute to the album as well.

Rolling Stone's Bob Palmer called it "one of the most rewarding and boundary-obliterating collaborations" and said "Zappa, donning his Jazz Composer - Arranger suit, emerges as a first-rate practitioner of the art: his previous lack of acceptance by the jazz community is probably due to the same bizarre touches that endear him to his younger audiences. Here he is reminiscent of Charles Mingus, not musically (except for the Mingus-like melody and violin-tenor voicing of "Twenty Small Cigars") but in the way he examines and finds new expressive possibilities in his earlier pieces, and combines them with new music that refers to wide areas of experience without centring in any one stylistic bag.

Not just an album of interpretations, King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa was an active collaboration; Frank Zappa arranged all of the selections, played guitar on one, and contributed a new, nearly 20-minute orchestral composition for the occasion. Made in the wake of Ponty's appearance on Zappa's jazz-rock masterpiece Hot Rats, these 1969 recordings were significant developments in both musicians' careers. In terms of jazz-rock fusion, Zappa was one of the few musicians from the rock side of the equation who captured the complexity -- not just the feel -- of jazz, and this project was an indicator of his growing credibility as a composer. For Ponty's part, King Kong marked the first time he had recorded as a leader in a fusion-oriented milieu (though Zappa's brand of experimentalism didn't really foreshadow Ponty's own subsequent work). Of the repertoire, three of the six pieces had previously been recorded by the Mothers of Invention, and "Twenty Small Cigars" soon would be. Ponty writes a Zappa-esque theme on his lone original "How Would You Like to Have a Head Like That," where Zappa contributes a nasty guitar solo. The centerpiece, though, is obviously "Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra," a new multi-sectioned composition that draws as much from modern classical music as jazz or rock. It's a showcase for Zappa's love of blurring genres and Ponty's versatility in handling everything from lovely, simple melodies to creepy dissonance, standard jazz improvisation to avant-garde, nearly free group passages. In the end, Zappa's personality comes through a little more clearly (his compositional style pretty much ensures it), but King Kong firmly established Ponty as a risk-taker and a strikingly original new voice for jazz violin. 

Tracks Listing

1. King Kong (4:54)
2. Idiot Bastard Son (4:00)
3. Twenty Small Cigars (5:35)
4. How Would You Like to Have a Head Like That (7:14)
5. Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra (19:20)
6. America Drinks and Goes Home (2:39)

Total Time: 43:42

Personnel

    Jean-Luc Ponty – electric violin, baritone violectra
    Frank Zappa – guitar
    George Duke – piano, electric piano
    Ernie Watts – alto and tenor sax
    Ian Underwood – tenor sax
    Buell Neidlinger – bass
    Wilton Felder – Fender bass
    Gene Estes – vibraphone, percussion
    John Guerin – drums
    Art Tripp – drums
    Donald Christlieb – bassoon
    Gene Cipriano – oboe, English horn
    Vincent DeRosa – French horn, descant
    Arthur Maebe – French horn, tuben
    Jonathan Meyer – flute
    Harold Bemko – cello
    Milton Thomas – viola

Frank Zappa - 1966 [1995] "Freak Out!"

Freak Out! is the debut album by American band The Mothers of Invention, released June 27, 1966 on Verve Records. Often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums, the album is a satirical expression of frontman Frank Zappa's perception of American pop culture. It was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music (although Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde preceded it by a week), and the first 2-record debut. In the UK the album was originally released as a single disc.
The album was produced by Tom Wilson, who signed The Mothers, formerly a bar band called the Soul Giants. Zappa said many years later that Wilson signed the group to a record deal in the belief that they were a white blues band. The album features Zappa on vocals and guitar, along with lead vocalist/tambourine player Ray Collins, bass player/vocalist Roy Estrada, drummer/vocalist Jimmy Carl Black and guitar player Elliot Ingber, who would later join Captain Beefheart's Magic Band under the name Winged Eel Fingerling.
The band's original repertoire consisted of rhythm and blues covers; though after Zappa joined the band he encouraged them to play his own original material, and the name was changed to The Mothers. The musical content of Freak Out! ranges from rhythm and blues, doo-wop and standard blues-influenced rock to orchestral arrangements and avant-garde sound collages. Although the album was initially poorly received in the United States, it was a success in Europe. It gained a cult following in America, where it continued to sell in substantial quantities until it was discontinued in the early 1970s.
In 1999, it was honored with the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and in 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it among the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." In 2006, The MOFO Project/Object, an audio documentary on the making of the album, was released in honor of its 40th anniversary. This is Official Release #1.

One of the most ambitious debuts in rock history, Freak Out! was a seminal concept album that somehow foreshadowed both art rock and punk at the same time. Its four LP sides deconstruct rock conventions right and left, eventually pushing into territory inspired by avant-garde classical composers. Yet the album is sequenced in an accessibly logical progression; the first half is dedicated to catchy, satirical pop/rock songs that question assumptions about pop music, setting the tone for the radical new directions of the second half. Opening with the nonconformist call to arms "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," Freak Out! quickly posits the Mothers of Invention as the antithesis of teen-idol bands, often with sneering mockeries of the teen-romance songs that had long been rock's commercial stock-in-trade. Despite his genuine emotional alienation and dissatisfaction with pop conventions, though, Frank Zappa was actually a skilled pop composer; even with the raw performances and his stinging guitar work, there's a subtle sophistication apparent in his unorthodox arrangements and tight, unpredictable melodicism. After returning to social criticism on the first song of the second half, the perceptive Watts riot protest "Trouble Every Day," Zappa exchanges pop song structure for experiments with musique concrète, amelodic dissonance, shifting time signatures, and studio effects. It's the first salvo in his career-long project of synthesizing popular and art music, high and low culture; while these pieces can meander, they virtually explode the limits of what can appear on a rock album, and effectively illustrate Freak Out!'s underlying principles: acceptance of differences and free individual expression. Zappa would spend much of his career developing and exploring ideas -- both musical and conceptual -- first put forth here; while his myriad directions often produced more sophisticated work, Freak Out! contains at least the rudiments of almost everything that followed, and few of Zappa's records can match its excitement over its own sense of possibility.

"This is the voice of your conscience, baby..." The recording debut of the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention is a brilliantly wicked counter-strike to the flower power sensibilities prevalent at the time of it's release in 1966. Arguably rock music's first true "concept album," Zappa's aural collage mashes together chunks of psychedelic guitars, outspoken political commentary, cultural satire, and avant-garde musical sensibilities, and then hides it all under cleverly crafted pop melodies. Not diminished in the slightest by the passage of time, Freak Out! remains as vital and relevant today as it was in the 1960's.

Frank Zappa's extraordinary 60+album output is, in essence, one single thematically related piece of music. True Zappaphiles (of which I am one) appreciate all aspects of this remarkable lifetime achievement, but the point of reviews like this are to point out the salient characteristics of individual albums.
Released in 1966, Freak Out! presented itself as the annunciation of a cultural revolution. Much like the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks (1977), this was pop music as threat. But its scope goes far beyond this. The album begins with the proto-punk anthem, "Hungry Freaks, Daddy," a raw, blistering electric rave-up that works as well as "Anarchy in the U.K.," and stands up just as well. If this was all that remained of Freak Out!, it would still be a classic, but the album goes much deeper. Zappa works dilligently on perfectly realized pop songs built on cliche's, contrasting them with "reality songs" like "Motherly Love" (a brutal rocker that appeals for groupies to have sex with the band members), "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" (a savage attack on the shallowness of the youth culture likely to consume the album), and most importantly, the strange, enigmatic "Who Are the Brain Police?" (in which people and objects are unreal, manufactured, interchangeable and subject to melting). The overly arranged love songs sit side by side with material that deconstructs them as false representations (particularly the '50s doo-wop parody "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder."
I'll never complain about 2 LPs on one CD, but the breakup of the two sections does hurt the psychological impact of the album somewhat. Keep in mind that Side 3 of the LP was where Freak Out! began moving the listener into deeper territory, throwing more light upon what had already occured. The sprawling, grungy blues of "More Trouble Every Day" kicks this off, with a savage, biting report of the Watts riots and the media coverage in a racially and economically divided America that has not changed much. Here, we're a million miles from the pop gleen of "Wowie Zowie" and "How Could I Be Such a Fool?" The next step takes us where no "popular" artist had dared step before.
"Help, I'm a Rock" is musical event in stasis, relieved by shock. Everything the album has been so far has mutated into a new form, an "abstract" pop where representations become more difficult to pin down. The "freak" threat now arises full-blown: but what is it? (These are not hippies, friends--but they are the dissafected, the "left behinds" who are rising up to claim a stake in the American dream--and they will transform it in a new image.) An atonal barbershop quartet taunts, "You're safe, mama. You're safe, baby." (Meaning of course, quite the opposite.)
Did Zappa believe this was actually going to happen? Possibly in 1966 he did, but not much longer. The message of Freak Out! is much larger than that--it amounts to nothing less than a demand for complete social/sexual/aesthetic emancipation. His conclusion lies in the side-long epic, "The Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet" Often castigated/dismissed as chaotic noise, close listening will reveal a very controlled hand at work. This is the soundtrack of the awakening of a new individual sensibility. Section 1 ("Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer") is a destruction of the innocence that allows people to accept a prefabricated reality (the "Brain Police"), while the avant-garde Section 2 ("Nullis Prettii") translates "No Commercial Potential," a slogan Zappa wore as his badge of honor.
Now or in 1966, this album is an audacious, vital masterpiece by one of the greatest artists of the century. (And did I forget to mention it's melodic, catchy and funny, too?)For the uninitiated, or the underinitiated, this is the perfect place to start what could be a lifelong dialectic with the most challenging, exciting and rewarding musicians/composers you will ever encounter.
The present-day composer refuses to die! Long live Frank Zappa.

Tracklisting:

01. Hungry Freaks, Daddy 3:27
02. I Ain't Got No Heart 2:33
03. Who Are The Brain Police? 3:33
04. Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder 3:39
05. Motherly Love 2:43
06. How Could I Be Such A Fool 2:11
07. Wowie Zowie 2:51
08. You Didn't Try To Call Me 3:16
09. Any Way The Wind Blows 2:54
10. I'm Not Satisfied 2:38
11. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here 3:38
12. Trouble Every Day 5:49
13. Help, I'm A Rock 4:43
14. It Can't Happen Here 3:55
15. The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet 12:16

The Mothers of Invention:

Frank Zappa: Leader and Musical director
Ray Collins: Lead vocalist, harmonica, tambourine, finger cymbals, bobby pin & tweezers
Jim Black: Drums (also sings in some foreign language)
Roy Estrada: Bass & guitarron; boy soprano
Elliot Ingber: Alternate lead & rhythm guitar with clear white light