FUNKY NOTHINGNESS

Funky Nothingness finds Frank Zappa and a hand-picked group of musicians, many of whom were major contributors to Hot Rats, workshopping a potential followup to that album in early 1970, prior to the lineup changes which would eventually see Flo and Eddie join the group and a more scatological comedy rock direction emerging by the end of the year.The keepers of the Zappa vaults have arranged this so that the theoretical album proper consists of the first CD of the three-CD set (or both LPs of the vinyl release); the remaining material is unfinished session material and the like, much as was collected on The Hot Rats Sessions.

So, if we entertain the idea that this would have been a double album followup to Hot Rats, what do we make of it? Well, it's certainly an interesting one. Sugarcane Harris' violin work makes him a star player for sure, whilst the overall tenor of the compositions feels like a notch deeper into blues and R&B territory than the previous release. You don't really have any frenetic, high-energy workouts to compare with, say, Son of Mr. Green Genes from Hot Rats, but the precision production and jazzy atmosphere feels much of a piece with it. Take the slowest tracks on Hot Rats, make that your benchmark for the fastest things get, and you may have a rough pointer in the direction of Funky Nothingness territory.