JOE'S DOMAGE

This one is definitely only for hard core FZ fans. This was recorded during rehearsals for the Waka/Jawaka and the Wazoo sessions. It is a very interesting insight into the rehearsals of FZ and his band, and helps to show that Zappa's music wasn't just a bunch of sounds thrown together, but that the very technically difficult parts of his music were not just accidents, but were structured and well composed pieces.

On the second track, we have mostly a rehearsal of "Little Brown Clouds" which somehow got a snippet of "Big Swifty" in there. When it hits that spot, it sounds almost like a bad edit in there, so I question as that was one specific session or not. The third track (all 17 minutes of it) is the band trying to rehearse the very challenging section of "One Shot Deal" from "Waka/Jawaka". This is the section that bookends the instrumental section of that song, and if you are familiar with it, you know the strange section I'm talking about, the part that is unbelievable that the musicians were able to ever play together. For those not familiar with this material, this will mean nothing, and this is why this is a recording only for completionists, because it won't make sense to anyone that isn't extremely familiar with Zappa's music, or only of interest to a musician who understands some theory or who has had to deal with rehearsals and know what the band is going though. The entire 55 minute run time of this album is only rehearsals all the way through. Don't expect to hear any full run thru's at all, it's all about Frank coaching his band how to play his difficult music and them practicing over and over those difficult sections in the music that was created during this time period.

This period of FZ's career is one of my favorite periods, but that doesn't help this recording. You must get the original studio albums "Waka/Jawaka" or "The Grand Wazoo" to know how excellent this era in his career really way, but "Joe's Domage' is not the way to listen to this era unless you are already familiar with it, and even then, it is not entertainment as it is a curiosity for completionists. Acoording to Gail Zappa, these recordings were all taken off of a rehearsal tape that FZ carried around with him during the tours supporting this part of his history. The recording is bad, the subject matter is only good for occasional interest and not for entertainment so to speak. 1 star.