Frank Zappa - Petit Wazoo (live 1972, rel. 2006 & 2016)

Following on from the "Wazoo" big band, Zappa spent October and November 1972 taking a slimmed-down version of his jazz ensemble on the road.  This became known as the "Petit Wazoo" band, and in Zappa's late life and after his death an official document of this group became one of the most sought-after releases by fans.

Well, he had been working on one.  When the keepers of The Vault looked for Petit Wazoo tapes in the mid-00s to compile into an album, they found tapes cut, sequenced and mixed by Zappa periodically between 1972 and 1977.  This was released in 2006 as Imaginary Diseases, and has the unmistakable stamp of being Zappa's own concept.  A couple of short pieces lead into a lengthy minor-key blues, and the album's just warming up.  A belter of a Farther O'Blivion follows, including a great drum solo by Jim Gordon, then another slinky groove-improv.  The highlights keep coming in the form of the title track and the final piece, a jam from Montreal, capping off an extremely satisfying album of great arrangements and top-notch guitar playing.

link

pw: sgtg

Plans for the 'vault release' of Petit Wazoo music were then shelved - for no less than a decade, for whatever reason (no less than 30 albums separate the two releases, so possibly the Zappa Family Trust just like to keep things varied, and certainly can't be viewed as stingy to fans, as new archive releases continue unabated to this very month).  In any case, Little Dots came out in 2016 as a vault-selected companion piece to Imaginary Diseases, and contained a couple of non-instrumentals this time: a fine but no great revelation Cosmik Debris, and a full-length (literal) shaggy-dog story Rollo.  

 

Added to this are more jam-based pieces from Kansas City and Columbia, and the two-part composition that gives the album its title.  All great to hear, and the players interact brilliantly once again, but I think the Zappa-conceived sequence of Imaginary Diseases just edges it slightly as an overall album experience.  Great to have both to listen to side by side though, as a two-hour insight into this all-too short-lived ensemble.

 

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Road Tapes Venue #2 (Live 1973)

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Total Immersion at The Barbican, London (live 2022)

Frank Zappa (BBC Symphony Orchestra / uBu Ensemble) - Total Immersion at The Barbican, London (19th March 2022)

With the Proms posts over, here's a 'Total Immersion Day' broadcast from earlier in the year.  Taking a fresh look at the Zappa music of the London Symphony Orchestra, Perfect Stranger and Yellow Shark eras, and more besides, the day's events also threaded in Zappa's formative influences as a composer.  This gives us a great take on Varèse's Intégrals as well as some lesser-known Stravinsky, in his late work written in memoriam of Aldous Huxley and the miniature song-cycle Pribaoutki from 1914.

For Zappa's music, the 'Total Immersion' concerts were divided between the full force of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to play the LSO-era works, and the contemporary ensemble uBu for the rest.  From the former, we get the lushly-orchestrated version of Pedro's Dowry, the complementary ballet pieces Bob In Dacron and Sad Jane, and the full-length Mo 'N Herb's Vacation.  The ensemble play The Perfect Stranger, Outrage At Valdez, Dog/Meat and Be-Bop Tango, giving full vivid life to Zappa's musical colourings.  Taken together, this broadcast is a great presentation of unique music, made even more informative by a couple of chats with Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play author Ben Watson.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Road Tapes Venue #2 (Live 1973)

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Road Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki (rec. 1973, rel. 2013)

From the music of Finland to someone who certainly enjoyed playing there - here's an archive recording that came out of the Zappa vault nine years ago to provide an interesting contrast to the better-known Helsinki tapes.  Road Tapes Venue #2 comes from a visit to the Finnish capital just over a year earlier, and musically provides a fascinating snapshot of the embryonic Roxy band.  Jean-Luc Ponty is on board at this point, giving a nice jazzy-prog shading, and tempos are more considered on material that would flash by in road-hardened form a year later.

After a maybe-hear-twice introduction (sounds like there hadn't been time for an in-depth soundcheck pre-show), the opening medley is a good grab-bag starter - it also jumps between shows, as does the whole release, to get the best out of a less-than-perfect collection of tapes.  Following Montana are around 40 minutes of looser improvisations and audience participation, then to open Disc 2 we get some early-stages Roxy material.  The very mellow Village Of The Sun is particularly nice to hear, including its unusual intro passage (George Duke, jeez... the guy could've made Chopsticks sound sublime).  Big Swifty, a thunderous Farther Obilvion and a Brown Shoes revival round out a really nice package, especially if you love this Zappa era as much as I do.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Wazoo (recorded Sept. 1972, released 2007)

One from the vault, in the concert that wound up a still-recuperating Zappa's brief tour with the 'Grand Wazoo' big band, recorded in Boston Music Hall on 24 September 1972.  Band introductions come first, along with an unfortunate tale of squashed instruments under a falling speaker cabinet.  The beginning of this appears to not have been captured by the soundboard tape: apparently the missing words are "Well, here we are in Boston, ladies and gentlemen. Just to fill you in on some of the zaniness that took place earlier this afternoon."

 

That out of the way, we first get an extended blast of The Grand Wazoo title track.  If you love that album as much as I do, this is a treat to hear, as is Big Swifty from Waka/Jawaka.  In between is Zappa's improvisational vehicle from the era, Approximate.  Apparently there's a bit of shifting around in the running order to get a good fit for double-CD, so Disc 2 centres on an early version of The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary, without vocals but with specially-arranged sections for more improvisation (no mean feat with so many musicians).  A couple of short encores close proceedings: it's particularly interesting to hear an embryonic Regyptian Strut, here titled Variant I Processional March.  So much great stuff here from the Zappa albums I love best - the sound might be spotty in places but this is a wonderful concert to have.

 

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg 

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

Road Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1973

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Orchestral Favourites (1979)

First LP dedicated to Zappa's orchestral music, taken from concerts held at UCLA's Royce Hall in September 1975.  An early attempt was made at pitching an album from the concerts to Columbia Masterworks in 1976, but when this fell through the music was lost in the shuffle of Zappa's contractual woes and finally emerged as one of the "ugly covers" trio (I mean, I like the cover of Sleep Dirt, but definitely not this one) in 1979.

Orchestral Favorites combines then-new material with reworkings of previous pieces, and starts with the melodic grandeur of Strictly Genteel, which in its original form closed the 200 Motels film.  Some tricksier music is next in Pedro's Dowry, one of Zappa's typically lurid seduction stories, and the brief Naval Aviation In Art? (which would later be re-done under Boulez on The Perfect Stranger) closes out the LP's first side.  Rather than being arrangements solely for classical orchestra, the Royce Hall recordings combined orchestral players with Zappa band regulars, and the Duke Of Prunes revival here is the most 'rocked-up orchestra'-style piece, complete with a later overdubbed guitar solo.  The rest of the album is then given over to Bogus Pomp, a suite of reworked themes from 200 Motels and even farther back.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

 

Bonus post: Macca at Glasto

Got hold of Paul McCartney's Glastonbury set from a week ago (the radio broadcast), primarily just for myself after reading reviews.  Then thought I may as well share it here for anyone who wants to pick it up.  I mean, the guy's just turned 80, and zips through almost three hours of a headline festival show drawing on one of the most legendary back catalogues around.  Blasts out Helter Skelter, turns in a gorgeous Blackbird, takes the audience through a living history lesson that spans six decades, is reasonably judicious with the most recent material, and brings out Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen as guests.  Lovely stuff.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa - Jazz From Hell (1986)

More computer music from Zappa at his Synclavier, with the exception of one Shut Up 'N Play Year Guitar-style live snippet from a 1982 concert in Saint-Étienne, presumably included for a bit of textural variety.  

 

On all of the Synclavier performances, Zappa's increasing adeptness with the system - sampling odd sounds, pairing samples of different instruments together - comes through in the increasing sophistication of these tracks.  Some of them may sound like dated video-game music by today's standards, but they're all remarkable creations for the mid 80s, and remain enjoyable.  The opening Night School, the most straightforwardly melodic piece, is probably my favourite thing here, but the tricksier ones like While You Were Art II, the title track and the polyrhythmic tumble of G-Spot Tornado are lots of fun too.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger 

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger (1984)

 

Three fine examples of Zappa's writing for orchestra - in this case chamber orchestra, as Pierre Boulez in preparatory correspondence advised that he had Ensemble InterContemporain most closely to hand.  The Perfect Stranger (the album) is filled out by 14 minutes of Synclavier music (the "Barking Pumpkin Digital Gratification Consort" is simply Zappa at his new favourite instrument).  

 

In the longest ensemble piece and title track, the liner notes explain that "A door-to-door salesman, accompanied by his faithful gypsy-mutant industrial vacuum cleaner cavorts licentiously with a slovenly housewife."  A recent live version, conducted by Ivan Volkov, is in the links list below.  The other two Boulez/InterContemporain renditions are Naval Aviation In Art?, first attempted at the 1975 Royce Hall concerts, and an arrangement of the live-improv vehicle Dupree's Paradise (see YCDTOSA 2 for a nice meandering band example).

On the Synclavier, Zappa gives us the twinkling atonality of The Girl In The Magnesium Dress; the Joe's Garage track re-arrangement Outside Now Again; the minute-long note-bending exercise Love Story, and the suitably ominous Jonestown.  He'd later remaster the album in a new mix, different running order and with noticeably different Synclavier instrumentation on Magnesium Dress - this first-pressing CD matches the original vinyl.

link

pw: sgtg

 

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1981)

Definitely wound up with a fresh appreciation of Zappa's considerable guitar talents this year, so an hour and a half of guitar solos sounded like a worthwhile acquisition.  Originally a set of three individual mail-order records: Shut Up, Some More & Return Of The Son Of, then a 3-LP box set, then 2 CDs, this entirely instrumental patchwork was mostly recorded live between 1977 and 1980.  

 

Sometimes excerpted from known songs (eg the three title tracks come from Inca Roads performances), sometimes on-the-fly improvisations, Zappa deftly edited these solo highlights into an order that aimed to vary the textures and tempi.  He also "grouted" it all with little snippets of chatter which "just served as punctuation", "to hear another texture and then set you up for the next thing".

The results, which might have come across like the ultimate overindulgence in lesser hands, form a durable, enjoyable portrait of a guitarist who was really maturing as an individual stylist in this era.  Even when there's not much beyond a basic vamp going on behind him (Treacherous Cretins, Soup 'N Old Clothes), Zappa's playing is never less than scintillating.  The sequencing works really well too: rather than front-load all the best cuts, the three-volume album actually gets better as it goes on, so my personal highlights Pink Napkins and Stucco Homes sit on Disc 2 here.  Then, to finish with something completely different (or perhaps he didn't have quite enough material selected for six sides), Zappa lets the album play out on a violin/electric bouzouki duet with Jean-Luc Ponty from 1972.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

For Zappa-CD-variation trainspotters: source is Japanese Ryko 2-CD from the 80s ("grouts" sit at the beginning of tracks rather than end of track prior).

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Sleep Dirt (1979)

Found this lovely little sleeper (sorry, couldn't resist) album lurking in the midst of Zappa's late 70s legal debacle with Warner Brothers.  Sleep Dirt is part of a group of contract-fulfilling albums which Zappa tried at one point to compile into a 4-LP set, eventually posthumously released as such on triple-CD.  Anyway, the seven instrumental tracks here were recorded in '74 and '76, meaning that my holy trinity of Zappa musicians (George, Chester & Ruth) make appearances.  Sounds promising already - as does the fact that Zappa had wanted to call this album Hot Rats III.

 

After an atmospheric, almost King Crimson-like guitar-based opener, a fantastic jazzy sequence of tracks spotlight my three faves named above; the Grand Wazoo-era composition Regyptian Strut is particularly enjoyable.  From the original side two, the title track is a very nice, almost proto-Windham Hill acoustic guitar duet, then the final track is simply magnificent.  After a fun catchy intro, The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution builds into a multi-tangent guitar-bass-drums jam (edited down from over 40 minutes to 13), with Zappa on uniquely-tuned Fender 12-string.  More FZ-shredding next week!

Come the 80s, with Zappa having regained control of his catalogue, he set about tweaking Sleep Dirt into how he'd always wanted it to sound.  By the time the album debuted on CD, there were drum overdubs, editing and remixing in places, and most drastically three tracks had gained a female lead vocal (performed by Thana Harris).  With lyrics from an unfinished theatrical project about an evil queen and a giant spider, these songs now suggested the monster-flick equivalent of classic Bond themes gone insane, and are loads of fun.  So which version of the album wins overall?  Only way to decide is to try both...

Original instrumental album (restored by 2012 CD)

Vocal/remix album (from 1995 CD)

pw for both: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa / Mothers Of Invention - One Size Fits All (1975)

This album is about as far as I go with 'songwriter Zappa' - after 1975, it's pretty much just his increasingly ambitious instrumental music and ever-better lead guitar noodlings that tickle my fancy, so more of that in the coming months.  For now, here's the wonderful OSFA (that anagram of 'sofa' not escaping anyone's notice), which kicks off with one of Zappa's most satisfyingly oddball song masterpieces.

We actually heard Inca Roads a couple of weeks back in its Helsinki performance from the previous year, and here it is in studio-polished form with parts of the Helsinki guitar solo expertly grafted in, and of course the closing shout-out to Ruth Underwood's sterling performance.  Purportedly mocking the pretentiousness of progressive rock lyrics, the UFO narrative sung by George Duke gets progressively sillier, with his high-pitched vocal inadvertently bringing Jon Anderson to mind - especially when Yes duly obliged the exact stereotype with Arriving UFO a few years later.

Can't Afford No Shoes is next - as a mid-70s economic malaise lament with "can you spare a dime" references, it's like Stephen Stills' Buyin' Time a year early, only way better/wittier.  Other highlights include two versions of part of the 'Sofa' suite from earlier in the 70s, one instrumental and the other with partly German vocals; the lengthy guitar solo in Po-Jama People, and the always entertaining San Ber'dino with Beefheart harmonica cameo.  Source for this classic album is another 2012 remaster, so everything sounds exactly as it originally did - a shout out here is definitely due by now to this fantastic resource for keeping me right.

 

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert (rec. 1974, rel. 1988)

Huge thanks to the commenter who hipped me to this one.  It's an incredible document of a Zappa concert (well, tracks from a couple of concerts edited together, but it works in giving the flow of a full show across two hours of music) from Helsinki in September 1974.  

 

In this second volume of Zappa's YCDTOSA live archive series, a reduced version of the Roxy band (oh, and check out that link for an added download - I tracked down the original-mix CD) blitz through most of the material from that album, and more besides.  Inca Roads, which hadn't been released at the time of the concert, is an early highlight: part of Zappa's guitar solo here was in fact worked into the album version in 1975 (must post OSFA sometime).  Other songs unreleased at time of performing are A Token Of My Extreme, RDNZL, Approximate and Dupree's Paradise, the latter topping 20 minutes with lengthy solos from George Duke and Chester Thompson.

Short appearances of older material from the original Mothers era also fill out the set, as does a brief Big Swifty theme to close.  Then there's the core songs from Roxy & Elsewhere, well and truly road-hardened after a year of performance, and mostly (except a long, slow Pygmy Twylyte) taken at a lightning-streak clip.  Your mileage may vary as to how they compare against the Roxy versions - I prefer the slower Village Of The Sun on Roxy, but the others are incredible here.  Plenty of the usual comedic antics throughout, as the band crack in-jokes about staying in European hotels, perform a famous Finnish tango (sight-reading from scratch!), and have fun with an audience shout-out for the Allman Brothers' Whipping Post.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - The Grand Wazoo (1972)

Frank Zappa spent much of 1972 recuperating from serious injuries, after being pushed into an orchestra pit by a disgruntled audience member.  He used his convalescence period well, with this album following hot (rats?) on the heels of Waka/Jawaka, and furthering his composing and arranging skills for a larger jazz-fusion ensemble.

The Grand Wazoo is one of a number of albums that has shape-shifted over the years due to Zappa's tinkering, so here we have the latter-day canonical running order that starts off with the 13 minute title track (I quite like For Calvin... sitting at the 'end of side one' position).  Starting from a sunny, swinging groove, The Grand Wazoo passes through great solos for trumpet and trombone, variations with guitar solos, then recaps its main themes with a late Minimoog feature for Don Preston in there too.  Next come the only sung lyrics on the album, a nice short verse of funny-creepy nonsense in For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitchhikers), before the track delves into more solos.

The album's second half is fast becoming one of my favourite album sides in Zappa's entire discography.  Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus is like a Peaches En Regalia sequel, a perfectly-formed three minute earworm that never fails to put a big dumb grin on my face, especially when George Duke, Ilene Rappaport and Zappa vocalise the melody at the end.  Speaking of George Duke, here come two of his most sumptuous performances on electric piano, introducing the jazzy brilliance of Eat That Question, then laying the foundation of the gorgeously mellow Blessed Relief.  As with last week, the whole album sounds fantastic - my previous knowledge of Grand Wazoo is limited to a memory of one of the very early CD pressings from way back, but this 2012 remaster is again original analogue tape-sourced, and is very well regarded.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

Roxy & Elsewhere

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa - Waka/Jawaka (1972)

Sometimes known as "Waka/Jawaka - Hot Rats" from the cover drawing, and even written as such on some releases, this 1972 slice of prime Zappa functions pretty well as a sequel to, well, Hot Rats.  Not least on the side-long opener Big Swifty, a Son Of Mr Green Genes/Gumbo Variations-style jazzy theme and lengthy variations.  Close your eyes at certain points during this track and you could be listening to a Miles Davis track from the same era.

Oh, and this 2012 original-tapes remaster sounds fantastic, sans Zappa-instigated digital reverb that marked my generation's first exposure to many of his albums via Rykodisc.  Big Swifty sounds finely detailed throughout; the two short tracks with vocals improved too.  The country-rock inflections and unsettling voice effects of One-Shot Deal come through better, making it an utterly bizarre standout even by Zappa's standards.  Then the closing title track (per Zappa, Waka/Jawaka is "something that showed up on a ouija board" - I remember assuming it was onomatopoeia for wah-pedal guitar) is another breezy jazz-fusion masterpiece, including Don Preston's great Minimoog performance and Zappa's guitar solos.

Next Monday: as if one jazz-fusion masterpiece in 1972 wasn't enough, Zappa made another one.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Roxy & Elsewhere

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Frank Zappa/Mothers Of Invention - Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)

Had a big Zappa re-appraisal phase in the last couple of months, so expect a few more posts.  Here's over an hour of jaw-dropping musicianship and low-brow comedy based mostly on live recordings from December 1973.  With some of Zappa's greatest ever musicians on board, including Ruth Underwood, Chester Thompson and George Duke, Roxy captures the jazz fusion Mothers at their finest - never better IMO than in the pairing of Echidna's Arf (Of You) and Don't You Ever Wash That Thing.  Some of the humour might be dated, but the music is timeless from start to finish.  Village Of The Sun, a genuinely sweet (but still oddball) rumination on Zappa's formative years, might be my favourite thing here.

 

Link(s) updated July 2021!

source: Rykodisc CD 1995

source: Zappa Records CD 1992 (original mix: Cheepnis sounds distinctly different; other tracks may have minor differences)

pw for both: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: 

Lumpy Gravy

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov - Zappa, Anderson, Ives (2018)

A concert recording from the Glasgow City Halls a year and a half ago, which I picked up when it was given a recent re-broadcast.  The focus on Zappa for the promotional material (like the image above) might seem a bit off-target when you realise his music only takes up the first 13 minutes of the concert, but regardless, it's great to hear The Perfect Stranger performed live.  Originally conducted by Pierre Boulez for the album of the same name in 1984, the evocation of a sleazy vacuum cleaner salesman is in good hands with Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO.

So what music would be ideal to pair with Zappa, to make up the main meat of a concert?  Varèse might be the obvious thought, but here we get Charles Ives' New England Holidays, which is also a great choice.  Written over a few years as four individual pieces, the movements are intended to evoke memories of childhood holidays, and do so in grand style.  Programmed in between Zappa and Ives is British composer Julian Anderson's piano concerto The Imaginary Museum, which the SSO/Volkov originally premiered in 2017.  Written as a virtual world tour, it sounds fantastic and makes me want to hear more by Anderson.  More Ives coming next week.

link
pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy (1967)

Posting this as a postscript to the previous post.  I've tried on many Zappa albums for size over the years, and this remains the one that fits best - most likely due to its proximity to the kind of sounds I like the most.

FZ once posed the question 'Does Humour Belong In Music?' in an album title, and I think the problem I have with so many of his records is that much of the humour has dated so badly; Filmore East 1971 is instrumentally solid, but other than that it's a bit like experiencing a 1971 issue of Mad magazine, or National Lampoon sketch.  Lumpy Gravy suffers from this to a slight extent, but has enough of a 'pigs and ponies'-centric surrealist bent to make it more timeless and durable, and flits around enough musically to keep you engaged.

link