JOE'S DOMAGE

Ever since the Zappa Family Trust started releasing archived recordings from "The Vault", some of the most requested material (after the Roxy" videos) has been performances of The Grand and Petit Wazoo bands (both of these have since been covered by "Wazoo" and "Imaginary Diseases:).

This was the first hint of Wazoo material. The CD, almost an hour long, covers the rehearsals of material that became "Waka Jawaka" and "The Grand Wazoo". There are not many full songs. What we hear is an insight into one of the ways Zappa worked with his bands. Here, he chose not to give out sheet music, but to giive each musician his parts by singing or playing them on his guitar, forcing them to memorize each section.

The result is fascinating, but not easy to listen to often, as much of the disk consists of the band playing short sections of the songs over and over. On the other hand, there are some differences in the arrangements, roughly played, from the final versions.

For a Zappaphile, this is a must-have CD. For everyone else, get "Waka Jawaka" and "The Grand Wazoo".