Cal Schenkel

From Zappa Wiki Jawaka
Revision as of 15:23, 8 March 2006 by Duncan (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Born: Calvin Schenkel 27th January 1947 in Willow Grove, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dropped out of Philadelphia College of Art. Went to California where he encountered Zappa several times, even visiting the studio where Freak Out! was being recorded. Returned to Philadelphia in the summer 1966.

The following spring The Mothers arrived in New York. Schenkel had met Sandy Hurvitz when she was a student at Philadelphia College of Art. After she had joined The Mothers she suggested Schenkel to Zappa to work on promotional artwork and cover designs.

When I first met him in New York, the art studio was in his apartment – but that was only for a brief period. I didn’t actually live there, but I would commute to work at his place. When we moved to LA when he had rented the log cabin, I had a wing of it. It was my living q uarters and art studio, which I rented separately from him. There was probably more of a chance to fraternize when I lived in that close proximity than when I didn’t, but even when I lived in my own place I’d be hanging out a lot and listening to what he was doing with the music. I think that it was just that I happened to fit the mold. I’m not sure I totally did understand it, but it just happened to coincide with what I was doing. I liked working in a lot of different directions and doing very eclectic stuff and working in different styles and Frank was doing that with his music.

Cal Schenkel

Cal provided artwork, graphics, and/or design for:

We're Only In It For The Money

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets

Uncle Meat

Hot Rats

Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Chunga's Revenge

Fillmore East, June 1971

200 Motels

Just Another Band From L.A.

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Over-Nite Sensation

Apostrophe (')

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Bongo Fury

Zoot Allures

Tinseltown Rebellion

Does Humor Belong In Music? CD

The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

Playground Psychotics

Ahead Of Their Time

Cheap Thrills

Mystery Disc

Son Of Cheep Thrills

Threesome No. 1 slipcase art

Threesome No. 2 slipcase art.

The track For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers) (from The Grand Wazoo) tells of an episode at the time Schenkel was working on the Uncle Meat cover.


A production designer for 200 Motels (The Film)

Schenkel can be seen in the Zappa movies:

Uncle Meat (The Film)

Video From Hell.

Conceptual Continuity: the artwork for Burnt Weeny Sandwich was originally done for an Eric Dolphy album.