The French music teacher and Zappa fan Christophe Delbrouck has written a very extensive 3 volume chronological biography (1300 pages which is very well written in French.
http://christophe.delbrouck.free.fr/livres.htm
The French music teacher and Zappa fan Christophe Delbrouck has written a very extensive 3 volume chronological biography (1300 pages which is very well written in French.
http://christophe.delbrouck.free.fr/livres.htm
Dieter Moebius : "Art people like things they don’t understand!"
It's currently part of my tsundoku problem.Originally Posted by Steve F.
Chris
I have less than 20 FZ CDs, although I have certainly heard more than that.
The book was interesting just to see how much WORK (editing back and forth in ways I didn’t realize and etc etc etc) FZ put into everything, even stuff I don’t like.
It made me even more admiring of his work ethic and craft.
So....still well worth reading.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Very interesting! I've put it on my shopping list.
Yo tambien...a good birthday ask...
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
I learned a useful new word today.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
March 29th release 5 CD set of Live in New York
https://www.amazon.com/Zappa-New-Yor.../dp/B07KS8SBJN
Wow! Is that your car, or did you just happen across it somewhere?
You people, you people...ordered...shit...what I will be eating soon enough hanging around here
Someone I know took the picture and sent it to a FZ fan we both know, who sent it to me. Thus do photos travel across the country.
If it's not blasphemy, I'd like to say that I'm not 100% satisfied with Wazoo (my satisfaction rate climbs only to 93%). Grand Wazoo and Big Swifty sound a little sloppy to me. Of course I understand the possible difficulties to rehearse and conduct properly such a large ensemble, but the tightness of other performances is lacking imo. Also I am not sure about Jim Gordon's input on these pieces, compared with the total Dunbar assault of the studio versions.
On the other hand we get the Adventures of Greggery Peccary instrumental version. I am not really too fond (blasphemy again?) of the original appearing in Studio Tan, but this instrumental version absolutely nails it, and deserves to be a part of Zappa's "serious" music compositions. I believe the musical content is a lot different, if anyone could help pointing the degree of difference it would be nice. There is a recurrence of music that ended up on (or sprung from) For Calvin from the Grand Wazoo (another underrated masterpiece in my opinion.)
Anyway, I believe the Petit Wazoo combo, as shown in Imaginary Diseases, works a bit better. And it contains some of Frank's most captivating guitar play.
As I recall there was a brief quote in "For Calvin" of the "New Brown Clouds" theme that shows up more prominently in Greggery Peccary.
Approximate is even worse. It doesn't work at all with a big band, sounds like total chaos. I agree about Imaginary Diseases, its the better of the releases (as is Little Dots). But I still really enjoy most of Wazoo. As far as Calvin goes, it really is an amazing piece of music. Not easy to listen to but there's a lot of depth to it. Probably one of his most complex non-classical works.
You are correct, sir! I just listened to The Grand Wazoo (along with Waka/Jawaka, One Size Fits All, Roxy And Elsewhere, and most of Make A Jazz Noise Here) today. That's one of the things I do enjoy about Zappa, is picking out those bits hwere he quotes somethign else that you're not expecting, like King Kong and Oh No popping up on Lumpy Gravy (though, of course, Lumpy Gravy preceded the albums where the more fleshed out versions of those pieces appear, but I got both of them years before I got Lumpy Gravy).
One question about Make A Jazz Noise Here: are Star Wars Won't Work and Dupree's Paradise taken from the same concert? I know the same bit of whammy guitar noise looped in both pieces. I wonder if that was something he played at one point in the show, then stored in one of his delay units, and brought back at a later point in the show, or if that whammy bar thing was something he had stored on the Synclavier and in fact pulled out on multiple occasions throughout the tour.
"Dupree's Paradise" is edited together from several different performances, one of which is the same Stuttgart show that "Star Wars Won't Work" is from. The loop is from FZ's foot pedal; IIRC it's one of the loops he would create before the show which would be used for one show only--they were not saved when he powered down.
Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
https://michaelpdawson.bandcamp.com
http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Pr...MCD-spc-7.aspx
There is a very good bootleg where Zappa tells the story of Dupree's Paradise. From memory the only one I know with this spoken intro 'Around the world' 74 ???
Dieter Moebius : "Art people like things they don’t understand!"
Help I'm a cop, help I'm a cop (np Road Tapes #1)
I think that is from the WXRT Un-concert that FZ edited together from various road tapes. He told Dupree's stories a few times in 1973/74.
The live releases are really the best stuff to come out of this. IMO I don't see how you could be disappointed in one of them if you are a fan of that particular lineup/style/time period of the great frank.
Please don't ask questions, just use google.
Never let good music get in the way of making a profit.
I'm only here to reglaze my bathtub.
Oh my God, "The Big Note:A guide to the recordings of Frank Zappa" is finally in my hands and I'm drooling all over it! It's the best thing I've held in my hands since the time I've held my daughter as a newborn!
It looks a bit like the books Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin wrote on:
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Of the recent (and semi-recent) vault releases, the ones I have been spinning the most lately are:
Road Tapes, Vol. 2
Wazoo
Halloween '77
Little Dots
Imaginary Diseases
Hammersmith Odeon
...it's expensive being a Zappa fan/collector, but it's immensely rewarding.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Anyone has made a connection with Civilization Phase III? I admit of still being rather cold towards it - not that I have spent that much with it (I am giving it another go today).
Most of these would be my picks too for the best of the semi-recent releases. I haven't heard Halloween 77 yet. Buffalo is also a good one, and Chicago 78's second disc is quite good but I find the first disc is not very noteworthy.
Gave it a few listens when it first came out, never clicked with me. I especially tried to get into N-lite but like you said, it left me cold. There's really only been 1 synclavier piece that is a must listen for me, Night School from Jazz From Hell.
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