Frank Zappa Zoot Allures

Frank Zappa - Zoot Alors! (2017) {4CD Set Coda Publishing CPLCD248 rec 1975-1981}
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© 1975-81, 2017 Coda Publishing / Stormbird | CPLCD248
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

This powerful four disc anthology is a wonderful illustration of the genius that was the late, great Frank Zappa in performance and broadcasting live to air. Zappa always defies categorisation. He blended humor, satire, virtuoso guitar, challenging lyrics, bawdy tales, brilliant compositions, and inspired improvisation and somehow managed to make those diverse elements work together in a unique, musical form which defies categorisation, and is known to posterity by the term "Zappa".

Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart & The Mothers - Bongo Fury (1975) {1995 Ryko Remaster Complete Series}
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© 1995 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10522
Rock / Experimental Rock / Blues Rock

Zappa and Beefheart were birds of a feather. Though each was fiercely individualistic, idiosyncratic and uncompromising, they both followed their own path of sophisticated wierdness so far that each was probably the only artist the other could relate to in terms of peerage. The pair had collaborated here and there many times, but BONGO FURY is their only album-length effort. Recorded at a 1975 Austin concert, this is essentially a Zappa program, with Beefheart sitting in (Zappa's monstrously talented mid-'70s band featuring Terry Bozzio and George Duke provides accompaniment).

Frank Zappa - Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa, A Memorial Tribute (1996) {ZFT UMRK 02}
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© 1996 Zappa Family Trust | UMRK 02
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

This 1996 CD compilation was the first one put out privately by the Zappa family following Frank Zappa's death in 1993 from prostate cancer. The music includes three new versions of familiar Zappa works, followed bytheir better-known counterparts that have previously appeared on both LPs and CDs. As Dweezil Zappa explains in his liner notes, this previously unreleased excerpt from "Black Napkins" is not yet fully formed; oddly enough, like the version that follows from Zoot Allures, the Napoleon Murphy Brock sax solo has been edited out. The new version of the next instrumental, "Zoot Allures," fares better in comparison to the well-known take from the Zoot Allures CD, in spite of some distortion inadvertently added by the Tokyo PA system during its recording.

Frank Zappa - ZAPPAtite - Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks (2016) {Zappa Records ZR 20023}
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© 2016 Zappa Records / ZFT / Universal | ZR 20023
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Jazz Rock

Official Release #106. In his trailblazing and incredibly prolific career, artist, composer and all-around musical pioneer Frank Zappa released more than 60 albums in his lifetime, as a solo artist and with his bands the Mothers of Invention and the Mothers. Coupled with more than 40 posthumous releases since his death in 1993 at 52, figuring out where to start in Zappa’s vast, genre-leaping catalog can be daunting. ZAPPAtite – Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks, out now on Zappa Records/UMe, collects some of Zappa’s best known and beloved compositions, from his early psychedelic rock beginnings to his avant-garde experimentation, jazz-rock explorations, symphonic suites and satirical send-ups, compiling them into one easily digestible collection and offering key entryways into the many musical worlds of the visionary musician.

Frank Zappa - Sleep Dirt (1979) + Sheik Yerbouti (1979) {2012 UMe Remaster}
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© 2012 UMe / ZFT | ZR 3858 / ZR 3859
Rock / Experimental Rock

Sleep Dirt was never conceived as a stand-alone album. Five of its seven tracks were suppose to appear on the ill-fated 1976 box set Läther; three had been recorded for Zoot Allures but were shelved after Zappa decided to trim it down from a double to a single LP; finally, three had been written as part of the abandoned musical Hunchentoot. Zappa pieced the album together from these various discarded parts. "The Ocean Is the Ultimate Solution" (one of the leftovers from Zoot Allures) is now considered to be one of his finest instrumental rock pieces.

Frank Zappa - FZ-OZ (2002) {2CD Vaulternative Records VR 2002-1 rec 1976}
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© 1976, 2002 Vaulternative Records / Zappanese | VR 2002-1
Rock / Experimental Rock / Avant-Garde / Art Rock / Jazz Rock

Official Release #70. This two-disc set represents almost all of Frank Zappa's concert on January 20, 1976, at Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia. The only problem is that there was only one reel-to-reel machine to record the concert, necessitating missing portions of several songs to change tapes; these gaps were replaced by excerpts from a pitch-corrected bootleg from the same tour, with an obvious drop in sound quality but little loss in continuity. This particular band – with tenor saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock, bassist Roy Estrada, drummer Terry Bozzio, and keyboardist Andre Lewis (in his only tour with Zappa) – has only been represented sporadically on Zappa's earlier releases.

Frank Zappa - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore. Vol. 1-6 [Purple Box] (1995) {Rykodisc}
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© 1995 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10561~72
Rock / Experimental Rock

To simplify my life considerably, I'm going to combine the "reviews" of all six Stage releases into a single entry, even though they were released individually. Also, to save a lot of time and effort, I'm not going to give complete track listings of the twelve discs, or do song-by-song reviews (hey, we're talking over 800 minutes of music here, give me a break). If you need to know the track listings, they're probably available through an on-line music sales site like CDNow, or an information site like the All Music Guide. There's probably a few other Zappa sites that list them as well. Maybe one day when I have the time, I'll come back and expand this section to really cover all twelve discs in detail. Until then, I'll just give some general facts and opinions, focusing on highlights and material unique to the Stage series.