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Who IS Frank Zappa
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HolyMoly View Drop Down
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Points: 23341 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HolyMoly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 04 2013 at 14:11
Here's the info on Hammersmith Odeon


It's a 1978 concert, and I believe a lot of the basic tracks for what became Sheik Yerbouti were taken from this concert.  It's 3  CDs and features the same band as was featured in the Baby Snakes movie.

I don't have it (yet), so I don't know how good it sounds. 


Edited by HolyMoly - October 04 2013 at 14:12
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Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Here's the info on Hammersmith Odeon


It's a 1978 concert, and I believe a lot of the basic tracks for what became Sheik Yerbouti were taken from this concert.  It's 3  CDs and features the same band as was featured in the Baby Snakes movie.

I don't have it (yet), so I don't know how good it sounds. 

An interesting aside...a handful of songs on Tinseltown Rebellion were also recorded at the Hammersmith but on the '79 tour...FZ must have really liked that venue for live recordings Wink
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Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Here's the info on Hammersmith Odeon


It's a 1978 concert, and I believe a lot of the basic tracks for what became Sheik Yerbouti were taken from this concert.  It's 3  CDs and features the same band as was featured in the Baby Snakes movie.

I don't have it (yet), so I don't know how good it sounds. 
 
The sound quality is excellent.
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I can't understand why 'Tinsel Town Rebellion' rates rather low here at P.A. This album is pure entertainment, well done, fun, complex, Prog, etc. etc...... I love how Zappa has morphed into a left-handed guitarist
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Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Here's the info on Hammersmith Odeon


It's a 1978 concert, and I believe a lot of the basic tracks for what became Sheik Yerbouti were taken from this concert.  It's 3  CDs and features the same band as was featured in the Baby Snakes movie.

I don't have it (yet), so I don't know how good it sounds. 
"HolyMoly" ..thanks for sharing.
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I think Finn Forest said it best, Zappa is a major committment.
 
At first I was going to list for you my chronological Zappa listening over the years, but that had 42 albums on it. And that's not even his entore collection, so there's alot I never heard myself and I consider myself pretty savy on Frank Zappa, since I saw him live and continue to listen to his catalog.
 
But, I think I will give you Key Albums I see over his career. And it was a career of an evolved body of work.Approve
 
Hot Rats,
Grand Wazoo,
Over Nite Sensation,
Apostrophe, 
One Size Fits All, 
Joe's Garage Act 1 Act II and III, 
You Are What You Is, 
Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar, 
Lather,
Guitar, 
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life
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Would someone be kind enough to comment on Carnegie Hall? If you own it...what do you think of the performance? ...The production? Is it a soundboard recording or an audience recording? For example...Does it compare to the sound quality of the posthumous release Wazoo?

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Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Would someone be kind enough to comment on Carnegie Hall? If you own it...what do you think of the performance? ...The production? Is it a soundboard recording or an audience recording? For example...Does it compare to the sound quality of the posthumous release Wazoo?

I don't own it, but I've been obsessed with this version of "Stick It Out" ever since I heard it. My favorite version and the best Aynsley Dunbar I've heard. Listen to that snare drum.
 
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Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Would someone be kind enough to comment on Carnegie Hall? If you own it...what do you think of the performance? ...The production? Is it a soundboard recording or an audience recording? For example...Does it compare to the sound quality of the posthumous release Wazoo?

 
I own it.
It's a soundboard recording, and sounds about as good as the Fillmore album and JABFLA.   The first disk has the entire Persuasions opening performance.  So if you don't like that style of a cappella doo-wop, be warned.
 
The Flo & Eddie era wasn't my favorite, but it is still amusing.
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Originally posted by Evolver Evolver wrote:

Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Would someone be kind enough to comment on Carnegie Hall? If you own it...what do you think of the performance? ...The production? Is it a soundboard recording or an audience recording? For example...Does it compare to the sound quality of the posthumous release Wazoo?

 
I own it.
It's a soundboard recording, and sounds about as good as the Fillmore album and JABFLA.   The first disk has the entire Persuasions opening performance.  So if you don't like that style of a cappella doo-wop, be warned.
 
The Flo & Eddie era wasn't my favorite, but it is still amusing.
Thanks for the insight!
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I just got back from the ZPZ Roxy and Elsewhere show in Boston.
 
WOW!!!!
 
Thet warmed uo with The Gumbo Variations
Next came the entire Roxy album, in order, followed by
Florentine Pogen
Teen-Age Wind
Teenage prostitute
The Black Page 1 & 2
Flakes
Broken Hearts Are For A**holes
Wonderful Wino
I Come From Nowhere
The Torture Never Stops
 
There was no encore, as the House of Booze had to clear the crowd for a lame dance party.
 
 
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Frank is a Master.
The Master of Music of modern age.

Considering him as a musicians or a composer, even a good one, is not the best way to understand his real dimension.
FZ has had , and still has nowadays, a deep influence in modern music: how to think, compose, play and perform it.
I'm sure that for years there will be a discover of his way to do Music.

Best albums... is very hard to say
form the first album to 1977-79,  are all masterpieces, One Size Fits All, Roxy and Elsewhere, FZ in NY, the best.
From 1979 to 80' are times of changements, some albums are good, others very good:You Are What You IS and Them or US, the best of this period.
In the 90s FZ changes again the way, mainly the devices, but not the output: inventions, humor, quality eclecticism, terrific players and performers, are leading always the master:
Jazz from Hell , overall, Francesco Zappa, Make a Jazz Noise Here, and the last Civilizations Phase II, in wich FZ make for us a trip in the "other" world, the one he's going to discover.

By the way, buying any FZ's album are not waste money.
There are good covers also, made by famous artists, the most remarkable, IMO, is The Ensemble Ambrosius and Ensemble Modern: acoustic players that have made two very very good albums rearranging his music only with acoustic instruments.

Oreste



    
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Welcome to the party, Oreste.
I cannot disagree with anything you wrote.
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Originally posted by Evolver Evolver wrote:

Welcome to the party, Oreste.
I cannot disagree with anything you wrote.

Yes, welcome Oreste!  We can never have too many Zappa fans around here Thumbs Up
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Here's a very nice concert I was just listening to for the first time


May 15, 1970 with Zubin Mehta and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra  (at UCLA)

A rare rock band-with-orchestra performance, including a wonderful specially prepared instrumental suite of freshly arranged old and new melodies, some from the early Mothers albums, some from the work-in-progress 200 Motels.  I'd heard of this special concert but had never had the chance to hear it before.


Edited by HolyMoly - November 03 2013 at 11:11
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Originally posted by HolyMoly HolyMoly wrote:

Here's a very nice concert I was just listening to for the first time


May 15, 1970 with Zubin Mehta and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra  (at UCLA)

A rare rock band-with-orchestra performance, including a wonderful specially prepared instrumental suite of freshly arranged old and new melodies, some from the early Mothers albums, some from the work-in-progress 200 Motels.  I'd heard of this special concert but had never had the chance to hear it before.
 
I once had that on a bootleg album (not the one shown).
Nice concert. 
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Sometimes Zappa would get the perfect guitar tone for the style of soloing he was attempting to master for a.... improvisation ....and other times he did not and yet continued relentlessly with that sound until you accepted it or grew to like it. He wasn't that kind of guitar player. You had to grow with his sound and he wasn't about to deal you in with smooth sounding notes. Not all of the time like a Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or a Alan Holdsworth would often do. Yet....Zappa had a technical side to his playing ..which brought to mind that if he was that advanced, he might have had reasons for making his guitar sound ugly or even neglected in the performance sense.
 
In "Black Napkins" from Zoot Allures ...the guitar has a tone which was his own personal desire to create and yet probably had a lot to do with the  sound of the instruments and the mix. My guitar wants to kill you're mama.
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Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Sometimes Zappa would get the perfect guitar tone for the style of soloing he was attempting to master for a.... improvisation ....and other times he did not and yet continued relentlessly with that sound until you accepted it or grew to like it. He wasn't that kind of guitar player. You had to grow with his sound and he wasn't about to deal you in with smooth sounding notes. Not all of the time like a Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or a Alan Holdsworth would often do. Yet....Zappa had a technical side to his playing ..which brought to mind that if he was that advanced, he might have had reasons for making his guitar sound ugly or even neglected in the performance sense.
 

In "Black Napkins" from Zoot Allures ...the guitar has a tone which was his own personal desire to create and yet probably had a lot to do with the  sound of the instruments and the mix. My guitar wants to kill you're mama.

I so agree. Some musicians, like Steve Hackett, take you to other realms. They do this to some extent with note selection and some extent with inventive use of timbre. Others, like Zappa, might affect the mood certainly but the focus was seldom allowed to stray from the music as a playing event. It parallels the difference between Impressionism and Expressionism in art history, to my mind. The hand of Zappa the musician never gets lost. His compositions functioned similarly. This was all in line with how he spoke of his work with the press. He was never shy about advocating quality musicianship and calling crap 'crap'. He would've been a great member of this forum.

Edited by HackettFan - November 03 2013 at 20:03
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My Dad recently overheard me listening to be-Bop tango and liked it alot. He was surprised it was Zappa; all he knew was some of the stuff his friend in high school would olay, mainly just Yellow Snow, Montana, that kind of stuff. He hadn't heard any of his more impressive and serious compositions. So he asked me to make him a mix and I did. :)
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Originally posted by TODDLER TODDLER wrote:

Sometimes Zappa would get the perfect guitar tone for the style of soloing he was attempting to master for a.... improvisation ....and other times he did not and yet continued relentlessly with that sound until you accepted it or grew to like it. He wasn't that kind of guitar player. You had to grow with his sound and he wasn't about to deal you in with smooth sounding notes. Not all of the time like a Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or a Alan Holdsworth would often do. Yet....Zappa had a technical side to his playing ..which brought to mind that if he was that advanced, he might have had reasons for making his guitar sound ugly or even neglected in the performance sense.
 
In "Black Napkins" from Zoot Allures ...the guitar has a tone which was his own personal desire to create and yet probably had a lot to do with the  sound of the instruments and the mix. My guitar wants to kill you're mama.

The best example I can think of that is the tone he continually used during the '81 Halloween night performances (captured on the video "The Torture Never Stops") and solos on "Ship Arriving too Late" and "Them or Us".  It was this crazy flanger processing that was so heavy on the effect that you often couldn't discern the individual notes as they just blurred together to sound like a jet plane engine on takeoff LOL
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