ZAPPA'S UNIVERSE

In 1991, after Frank Zappa had been diagnosed with cancer, there was a two night celebration of his music at The Ritz in New York City. The band was headed up by Mike Keneally, a long time Zappa fan, and guitarist on Zappa's final tour, and Scott Thunes, Zappa'a primary bassist doring the eighties.

There is a video release of these concerts, and I recommend getting that over this disk, a single CD sampling of the festivities. While the CD is good, the editing of the concert, which was played the way Frank's concerts usually went, with songs segued together, rarely stopping, is distracting at times.

Otherwise, the disk is good. They play a mixture of easy and hard songs. Brown Shoes Don't Make It is fantastic, with airy sounds filling out the abstract sections. A version of Nite School a Synclavier piece from "Jazz From Hell" is spectacular. But Echidna's Arf (Of You) is too simplified, and Waka Jawaka is edited too far down.

The a capella groups really help Heavenly Bank Account and The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing, and Steve Vai and Dweezil Zappa do some fine solo sharing in Dirty Love.

It's a good album, but I would have preferred a two disk set, to preserve some of the concerts' continuity.