Frank Zappa: Difference between revisions

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==The Seventies==
==The Seventies==


After Zappa disbanded the original Mothers Zappa released the acclaimed solo instrumental album ''Hot Rats'', featuring his [[jazz]]-inflected guitar playing backed by jazz, blues and R&B players session players. It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and arguably had a major influence on the development of the [[jazz-rock fusion]] genre.
After he disbanded the original Mothers, Zappa released the acclaimed solo instrumental album ''Hot Rats'', featuring his [[jazz]]-inflected guitar playing backed by jazz, blues and R&B players session players including violinist [[Don 'Sugarcane' Harris]], drummer [[John Guerin]] and bassist [[Shuggie Otis]]. It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and arguably had a major influence on the development of the [[jazz-rock fusion]] genre.


Around 1970 Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer [[Aynsley Dunbar]], multi-instrumentalist [[Ian Underwood]] and singers [[Howard Kaylan]] and [[Mark Volman]], who had been the lead singers in Sixties folk-pop band [[The Turtles]]. Because contractual problems prevented them from recording as The Turtles or even under their own names, Volman and Kaylan were often billed as "Flo and Eddie".
Around 1970 Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer [[Aynsley Dunbar]], jazz keyboardist [[George Duke]], multi-instrumentalist [[Ian Underwood]] and singers [[Howard Kaylan]] and [[Mark Volman]], who had been the lead singers in Sixties folk-pop band [[The Turtles]]. Because contractual problems prevented them from recording as The Turtles or even under their own names, Volman and Kaylan were often billed as "Flo and Eddie".


The new lineup debuted on Zappa's next solo LP '''Chunga's Revenge''', which was followed by the sprawling soundtrack to the movie project '''200 Motels''', at which time Duke was replaced by Don Preston from the original Mothers. This was followed by two superb live sets, Fillmore East - June 1971''' and '''Just Another Band From LA''' , which included the 20-minute track 'Billy The Mountain', Zappa's satire on rock opera.
⚫
They debuted on the sprawling soundtrack to Zappa's movie project '''200 Motels''', which was followed by as well as a superb live set recorded at the Fillmore East and featuring [[John Lennon]]. He continued this high rate of production through the early [[1970s]], including the excellent and accessible albums ''One Size Fits All'' and ''Apostrophe'', with ever-changing versions of the Mothers.

In late 1971 there were two serious setbacks. While performing in Montreux, Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a disastrous fire at the casino where they were playing -- an event immortalised in [[Deep Purple]]'s 'Smoke On The Water'.

Then in December, Zappa was attacked on stage at the Rainbow Theatre, London. The jealous husband of a female fan pushed Frank into the orchestra pit, causing serious injury to his back, leg and neck and forcing him off the road for over a year.

In 1971-72 he released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, '''Waka Jawaka''' and '''The Grand Wazoo''', which were recorded during the layoff from touring, using floating lineups of session players and Mothers alumni. He began touring again in late 1972 with groups that variously included Ian Underwood on brass and reeds, Ian's wife Ruth on vibes, Sal Marquez (trumpet), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), George Duke (kbds) and [[Jean Luc Ponty]] (violin).

⚫
He continued a high rate of production through the early [[1970s]], including the excellent and accessible albums ''One Size Fits All'' and ''Apostrophe'', featuring ever-changing versions of the Mothers.


==1980's==
==1980's==

Revision as of 04:54, 17 August 2004

File:Zappa1.jpg

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993) was an American rock and jazz musician, composer and satirist.

Life

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Zappa was raised in Lancaster, California where he grew up influenced in equal measures by avant garde composers such as Edgar Varèse and Igor Stravinsky, local rhythm and blues and doo-wop groups and by modern jazz, including bebop and free jazz. In his high school years he met Captain Beefheart and they influenced each other musically at that time.

The Mothers of Invention

After a short career as a professional songwriter (his elegiac "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by The Penguins) Zappa joined a local R&B band as a guitarist. During this peroid he also ran a small commmercial recording studio in San Bernadino, where he was famously arrested for obscenity after by local Vice Squad officers tricked him into producing a so-called 'stag tape' which purported to contain the sounds of people having sex (in fact it had been conconcted by Zappa and his friends largely as a joke). A short time later he re-christened the band "The Mothers" (and, later still, "Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention" at the insistence of the record company.)

The Mothers were signed by well known producer Tom Wilson, and soon produced the double album Freak Out (1966), a mixture of often topical R&B and experimental sound collage that attempted to capture the 'freak' subculture of Los Angeles at that time. It was also only the second double LP of rock music ever released and firmly established Zappa as a major new voice in rock music. He oversaw all the Mothers and solo recordings from this point on.

During the late Sixties Zappa developed rapidly as a superb lead guitarist and a composer and arranger of extraordinary range and facility. He also became highly skilled as an engineer and producer and his editing skills are apparent on the stunning work he produced in the late Sixties with The Mothers. Zappa evolved a highly individual style (which he dubbed 'conceptual continuity') that ranged almost every genre of music. His work combines satirical lyrics and pop melodies with virtuoso instrumental prowess, where long, jazz-inflected improvisational passages are counterbalanced with densely edited and seemingly chaotic collage sequences that mix music, sound effects and snatches of conversation. He also regularly quoted musical phrases that influenced or amused him -- one of his most famous and regular quotes was the riff from the perennial Sixties rock hit 'Louie Louie' -- although he also often dropped in quotes from TV show themes and advertisements, from other famous songs, and even from classical works such as Stravinsky's "The Rite Of Spring".

Zappa also became legendary as a ruthless taskmaster with a tireless capacity for work (he regularly worked about twenty hours a day in the studio until very late in his career) who also possessed an immense technical knowledge and a photographic memory of the contents of his vast archive.

He became friends with Jimi Hendrix during a residency in New York's Greenwich Village in late 1966 and is reputed to have introduced Hendrix to the Wah-wah pedal.

The Mothers' anarchic stage shows were legendary -- during one famous 1967 performance at te Garrick Theatre in New York, Zappa managed to entice some soldiers from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a collection of baby dolls.

Around 1968 Zappa also began regularly recording his concerts, beginning with a simple two-track recorder and eventually progressing to a portable 48-track digital system, in the process building up a vast archive of live tapes. In the late 1990s many of these recordings were collected in the ironically titled ten-CD set You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. Because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing in concert, in the 1970s Zappa was able to frequently augment his studio productions with exceprts from live shows, and he frequently inserted live guitar solos into the final studio recordings of his compositions.

The next two studio albums were landmarks of record production and were highilghted by liberal use of Zappa's famous 'cut-up' editing techniques. The brilliant We're Only In It For The Money (1967) ruthlessly satirised the hippie and flower power phenomena and the cover photo (which included Jimi Hendrix) famously parodied that of the Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It was followed by the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late Sixties work, Absolutely Free (1968) which featured some of the most radical audio editing and production yet heard in pop music and continued Zappa's lyrical preoccupations with the hypocrisy and conformism of American society and the sinister suppression of underground and alternative culture. It was followed by two essential companion pieces, the dazzling instrumental collage Lumpy Gravy, which took his production techniques to a new peak, and his Doo-Wop tribute Cruisin' With Ruben And The Jets. Many other important Mothers recordings from this period (including the pivotal song Oh No) were collected in the 1970 compilation album Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

Although they were lauded by critics and their peers and had a rabid cult following, mainstream audiences often found much of the Mothers' music, appearance and attitude impossible to comprehend, and the band were often greeted with derision. More importantly, the financial strain and interpersonal tensions involved in keeping a large jazz-rock ensemble on the road eventually led to the group's demise in 1969, although numerous members would remain with or return to Zappa in years to come.

During this period Zappa also produced the extraordinary double album Trout Mask Replica for his old friend [[[Captain Beefheart]] as well as releases by Alice Cooper, Tim Buckley, Wild Man Fisher and The GTOs.

The Seventies

After he disbanded the original Mothers, Zappa released the acclaimed solo instrumental album Hot Rats, featuring his jazz-inflected guitar playing backed by jazz, blues and R&B players session players including violinist Don 'Sugarcane' Harris, drummer John Guerin and bassist Shuggie Otis. It remains one of his most popular and accessible recordings and arguably had a major influence on the development of the jazz-rock fusion genre.

Around 1970 Zappa put together a new version of The Mothers that included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood and singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who had been the lead singers in Sixties folk-pop band The Turtles. Because contractual problems prevented them from recording as The Turtles or even under their own names, Volman and Kaylan were often billed as "Flo and Eddie".

The new lineup debuted on Zappa's next solo LP Chunga's Revenge, which was followed by the sprawling soundtrack to the movie project 200 Motels, at which time Duke was replaced by Don Preston from the original Mothers. This was followed by two superb live sets, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From LA , which included the 20-minute track 'Billy The Mountain', Zappa's satire on rock opera.

In late 1971 there were two serious setbacks. While performing in Montreux, Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a disastrous fire at the casino where they were playing -- an event immortalised in Deep Purple's 'Smoke On The Water'.

Then in December, Zappa was attacked on stage at the Rainbow Theatre, London. The jealous husband of a female fan pushed Frank into the orchestra pit, causing serious injury to his back, leg and neck and forcing him off the road for over a year.

In 1971-72 he released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the layoff from touring, using floating lineups of session players and Mothers alumni. He began touring again in late 1972 with groups that variously included Ian Underwood on brass and reeds, Ian's wife Ruth on vibes, Sal Marquez (trumpet), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), George Duke (kbds) and Jean Luc Ponty (violin).

He continued a high rate of production through the early 1970s, including the excellent and accessible albums One Size Fits All and Apostrophe, featuring ever-changing versions of the Mothers.

1980's

In 1980, Zappa helped former band members Warren Cuccurullo and Terry Bozzio launch their new band, Missing Persons, by letting them record their 4-song demo EP in his brand new UMRK studios.

After a break Zappa returned, and much of his later work was influenced by his use of the synclavier as a compositional and performance tool and his mastery of studio techniques for producing specific instrumental effects. His work was also more explicitly political satirising the rise of television evangelists and the Republican party.

On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the US Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music censorship organization founded by Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore and including many other political wives, including the wives of five members of the committee. He said,

"The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design.
"It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation."

1990's

In the early 1990s Zappa devoted almost all of his energy to modern orchestral and synclavier works. In 1992 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a disease which caused his death on December 4, 1993. His last tour in a "rock band format" took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which was reported to have a repertoire of over 800 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split acrimoniously before the tour was completed. The tour was documented on the albums The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (Zappa "standards" and obscure cover tunes), Make a Jazz Noise here (mostly instrumental and experimental music) and Broadway The Hard Way (new original material), with bits also to be found on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 6.

On his death in 1993, Frank Zappa was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.

Zappa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. That same year the only known cast of Zappa was installed in the center of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Konstantinas Bogdanas, the most renowned Lithuanian sculptor who had previously been casting portraits of Vladimir Lenin immortalized Zappa.

Zappa was married twice, once to Kay Sherman (1959–1964) and then to Gail Sloatman, whom he remained with until his death. Sloatman and Zappa had four children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom had rather unusual names. They are: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Rodin, and Diva.

There is an asteroid named in his honor called 3834 Zappafrank.

Quotes

"Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST..." - from Packard Goose
"Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny."
"Arf, she said."
"The poodle bites, the poodle chews it."
"Look here brother, who you jivin' with that Cosmic Debris?"
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another. "
"I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?" Senate Hearing on Porn Rock, 1985, in response to Tipper Gore's allegations that music incites people towards deviant behavior, or influences their behavior in general
"In the fight between you and the world, back the world."
"The Quality of Our Lives (if we think of this matter in terms of "How much of what we individually consider to be Beautiful are we able to experience every day?") seems an irrelevant matter, now that all decisions regarding the creation and distribution of Works of Art must first pass under the LIMBO BAR (a.k.a "The Bottom Line"), along with things like Taste and The Public Interest, all tied like a tin can to the wagging tail of the sacred Prime Rate Poodle. The aforementioned FESTERING POOT is coming your way at a theatre or drive-in near you. It wakes you up every morning as it droozles out of your digital clock radio. An ARTS COUNCIL somewhere is getting a special batch ready with little tuxedos on it so you can think it's precious."
"A lot of things wrong with society today are directly attributable to the fact that the people who make the laws are sexually maladjusted."
"It pays to make the U.S. school system a crock of shit because the dumber the people are that come out, the easier it is to draft them, make them into docile consumers, or, you know, mongo employees. There are plenty of yuppies out there with absolutely nothing upstairs. Graduate airheads with Ph.Ds and everything but they don't know anything. And what do they listen to? Certainly not MY records."
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

Samples

Discography

Cover of Sheik Yerbouti (1979)

Further reading

  • The Real Frank Zappa Book, by Frank Zappa and Peter Occhiogrosso, is the definitive Zappa autobiography. Includes his Senate testimony.
  • No Commercial Potential--The Saga of Frank Zappa, by David Walley
  • Frank Zappa; The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, by Ben Watson, contains extensive notes on history, tours and releases.
  • In Cold Sweat-Interviews With Really Scary Musicians, by Thomas Wictor, contains an extensive interview with Scott Thunes, one of Zappa's most creative bassists.
  • Lunar Notes-Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience, by Bill Harkleroad, contains several references about Zappa's collaboration with Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Zappa&oldid=5256316"