KING KONG - JEAN-LUC PONTY PLAYS THE MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA

This is a nice little album, that contains a few gems. I had been looking for it back in the seventies, when Pacific kindly re-released it in a set with "The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience With The George Duke Trio", another nice album. And the CD version somehow made it to the great Blue Note label.

All of the songs except one are Zappa compositions. Frank arranged the songs for this band, and plays guitar on the one Ponty composed tune, the Zappa inspired How Would You Like To Have A Head Like That. That song is actually one of the highlights. Zappa plays great solo on the piece.

Another highlight is Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra, sort of a modern classical/jazz/rock blend that works surprisingly well. The piece was releases much later by Zappa himself, in a "revised" (shortened) form. In this version, we get snippets of Duke Of Prunes and A Pound For A Brown On The Bus blended in for our enjoyment.

And despite being very short, the arrangement of America Drinks And Goes Home has a bridge section that I've never heard in any other rendition.

This is a great fusion album, and a must for the Zappa collector.