Biography - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 19:29, 11 June 2026

2026-06-11T19:29:41Z

Spider of Destiny at 16:21, 28 May 2026

2026-05-28T16:21:10Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 16:56, 12 July 2025

2025-07-12T16:56:03Z

Duncan: /* Youth */

2022-04-21T08:55:52Z

Youth

Jason.Kreitzer at 16:00, 14 December 2021

2021-12-14T16:00:58Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 23:07, 30 November 2021

2021-11-30T23:07:13Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 14:10, 29 November 2021

2021-11-29T14:10:49Z

Duncan at 15:19, 12 November 2021

2021-11-12T15:19:07Z

Duncan: /* Youth */

2021-11-05T14:24:52Z

Youth

Duncan: /* Youth */

2021-11-05T14:22:53Z

Youth

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 [[Category:Producers|Zappa]]
 [[Category:Bandmembers|Zappa]]
-[[Category:Composers|Zappa]]
+[[Category:Classical Composers|Zappa]]
 [[Category:Film Directors|Zappa]]
 [[Category:Zappa Family|Zappa]]
 [[Category:We're Only In It For the Money (The List)|Zappa]]

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 He suffered with asthma and ear and sinus problems throughout his early childhood.<ref name="BM"></ref>  In 1944 his father took a job working for the US Navy calculating shell trajectories which required the family to move to Florida. And so began Zappa's peripatetic childhood.  They moved back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the [[wikipedia:Aberdeen Proving Ground|Aberdeen Proving Ground]].  In 1951 his father was employed at the [[Wikipedia:Naval Postgraduate School|Naval Research Center & School]] and the family relocated to Pacific Grove, Monterey in California.
-Young Zappa attended orchestral percussion lessons at tutor Keith McKillop's summer school in Monterey, where he played a solo self-composed piece on the snare drum, entitled '[[Mice]]' for a year-end concert. This was in the summer of 1953, before the family moved again - south to San Diego - where Zappa was enrolled in [[Wikipedia:Grossmont High School|Grossmont High School]]. Pursuing his interest in percussion he joined [[The Ramblers]], a high school R&B band that managed to secure a gig at the [[Uptown Hall]] in nearby Hillcrest. After ninth grade he entered [[Wikipedia:Mission Bay Senior High School|Mission Bay High School]], where he was enlightened about 'twelve-tone music' by [[Mr. Kavelman]]. In 1956 Zappa's father became employed on [[Wikipedia:Atlas (rocket)|Atlas]] programs at the Air Force Base in Lancaster, to where the family again moved and 16 year-old FZ enrolled at [[Antelope Valley High School|Antelope Valley High School]]. The desolation and surroundings of this location, together with the nearby air-base activities and emergency gas-masks about the house, were to have a strong influence on the fertile mind of the juvenile Frank Zappa and his musical relationships.
+Young Zappa attended orchestral percussion lessons at tutor Keith McKillop's summer school in Monterey, where he played a solo self-composed piece on the snare drum, entitled '[[Mice]]' for a year-end concert. This was in the summer of 1953, before the family moved again - south to San Diego - where Zappa was enrolled in [[Wikipedia:Grossmont High School|Grossmont High School]]. Pursuing his interest in percussion he joined [[The Ramblers]], a high school R&B band that managed to secure a gig at the [[Uptown Hall]] in nearby Hillcrest. After ninth grade he entered [[Wikipedia:Mission Bay Senior High School|Mission Bay High School]], where he was enlightened about 'twelve-tone music' by [[Mr. Kavelman]]. In 1956 Zappa's father became employed on [[Wikipedia:Atlas (rocket)|Atlas]] programs at the Air Force Base in Lancaster, to where the family again moved and 16 year-old FZ enrolled at [[Antelope Valley High School|Antelope Valley High School]]. The desolation and surroundings of this location, together with the nearby air-base activities and emergency [[Gas masks|gas masks]] about the house, were to have a strong influence on the fertile mind of the juvenile Frank Zappa and his musical relationships.
 In Lancaster Zappa's future attitude in mixing humor with ''socio-political'' music can be glimpsed in his forming of the racially-integrated [[The Blackouts]] in 1957, who rehearsed in nearby [[Sun Village]], whilst earlier exposure to [[Ionisation]] - a recording by avant garde classical composer [[Edgard Varèse]] - instilled an interest in advanced rhythmic experimentation that never left him. This interest was compounded when he managed to speak to the composer's wife by 'phone late in '56, leading to a latter 'phone conversation with Varèse himself in early '57- who then responded further to FZ with a letter in the summer of that year.

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 <blockquote>It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had the master tapes and I could take a razor blade<ref>[[wikipedia:Reel-to-reel audio tape recording#Hostory|Tape editing]] required physically cutting the tape with a blade and sticking the required parts together.</ref> and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to.... I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related.<ref name="BM">Barry Miles, [[Frank Zappa: A Biography]] (Atlantic Books 2004)</ref></blockquote>
-Each piece of work added another element to the whole; a process he referred to as [[Project/Object]] and the thread that ran throughout the works to draw them into a unified whole was known as [[Conceptual Continuity]].  As Miles averred in his biography it is too simplistic to follow a trail of readily identifiable concepts, a poodle here or a sausage there, when the real intention was far more serious.<ref name="BM"></ref>
+Each piece of work added another element to the whole; a process he referred to as [[Project/Object concept|Project/Object]] and the thread that ran throughout the works to draw them into a unified whole was known as [[Conceptual Continuity]].  As Miles averred in his biography it is too simplistic to follow a trail of readily identifiable concepts, a poodle here or a sausage there, when the real intention was far more serious.<ref name="BM"></ref>
 ==Youth==
 [[Image:ZappaFamily.jpeg|right|thumb|300px|The Zappas: Patrice, Francis, Rose, Carl, Frank, Bobby]]

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 Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland on the east coast of the USA one year before the USA's formal entry [[wikipedia:Attack on Pearl Harbor|into World War 2]]. He was the first child of [[Francis Zappa|Francis]] and [[Rose Marie Zappa|Rose]]. He would be joined by two brothers: [[Bobby Zappa|Bobby]] (1943 - 2018)  and [[Carl Zappa|Carl]] (1948  - 2020) and a sister [[Patrice Zappa|Patrice]] (1951).
-He suffered with asthma and ear and sinus problems throughout his early childhood.<ref name="BM"></ref>  In 1944 his father took a job working for the US Navy calculating shell trajectories which required the family to move to Florida. And so began Zappa's peripatetic childhood.  They moved back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  In 1951 his father was employed at the [[Wikipedia:Naval Postgraduate School|Naval Research Center & School]] and the family relocated to Pacific Grove, Monterey in California.
+He suffered with asthma and ear and sinus problems throughout his early childhood.<ref name="BM"></ref>  In 1944 his father took a job working for the US Navy calculating shell trajectories which required the family to move to Florida. And so began Zappa's peripatetic childhood.  They moved back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the [[wikipedia:Aberdeen Proving Ground|Aberdeen Proving Ground]].  In 1951 his father was employed at the [[Wikipedia:Naval Postgraduate School|Naval Research Center & School]] and the family relocated to Pacific Grove, Monterey in California.
 Young Zappa attended orchestral percussion lessons at tutor Keith McKillop's summer school in Monterey, where he played a solo self-composed piece on the snare drum, entitled '[[Mice]]' for a year-end concert. This was in the summer of 1953, before the family moved again - south to San Diego - where Zappa was enrolled in [[Wikipedia:Grossmont High School|Grossmont High School]]. Pursuing his interest in percussion he joined [[The Ramblers]], a high school R&B band that managed to secure a gig at the [[Uptown Hall]] in nearby Hillcrest. After ninth grade he entered [[Wikipedia:Mission Bay Senior High School|Mission Bay High School]], where he was enlightened about 'twelve-tone music' by [[Mr. Kavelman]]. In 1956 Zappa's father became employed on [[Wikipedia:Atlas (rocket)|Atlas]] programs at the Air Force Base in Lancaster, to where the family again moved and 16 year-old FZ enrolled at [[Antelope Valley High School|Antelope Valley High School]]. The desolation and surroundings of this location, together with the nearby air-base activities and emergency gas-masks about the house, were to have a strong influence on the fertile mind of the juvenile Frank Zappa and his musical relationships.

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 By 1959 Zappa had gained the friendship of English teacher [[Don Cerveris]], who had written an off-the-wall low-budget cowboy movie involving a bad ranch lady, a nympho cowgirl, a hunchback handyman and sexual union beside a rotting donkey. It was called [[Run Home Slow (The Film)|Run Home Slow]], for which Zappa was commissioned to score a soundtrack. He completed it, but there were setbacks and nothing came of this work until 1963, when Zappa produced and directed a recording of [[Run Home Slow Theme|Run Home Slow]] with a small pick-up orchestra, engineered by [[Paul Buff]], at [https://www.discogs.com/artist/392601-Art-Laboe Art Laboe's Original Sound] in Hollywood. The film was finally produced by Tim Sullivan, starred Mercedes McCambridge, and was released in 1965. Zappa said of Run Home Slow, "The money from this job was used to buy an electric guitar and the [[Pal Studio|Pal Recording Studio]] in [[Cucamonga]]. Pal was re-named [[Studio Z]]."
-After writing the movie score Zappa moved south to Ontario, near Pomona, with his girlfriend [[Kay Sherman]], whom he married in December, 1960. In 1961 Mr & Mrs Zappa, Carl and Candy moved to Sarasota, Florida, leaving Bobby in California. The newly-married Zappa audited a course on composition set by [[Karl Kohn]] at Pomona College, Claremont, and this is the point at which he rented a white Fender Telecaster but couldn't maintain the payments. However, this didn't prevent him playing lead guitar with [[The Boogie Men]], a band which had Doug Rost on rhythm, Kenny Burgan on sax and [[Al Surratt]] on drums. In the summer he scored [[The World's Greatest Sinner]], a dark 'operatic' piece, narrated by the characters of [[The Devil (CC)|Satan]], Clarence and his wife Edna.
+After writing the movie score Zappa moved south to Ontario, near Pomona, with his girlfriend [[Kay Sherman]], whom he married in December, 1960. In 1961 Mr & Mrs Zappa, Carl and Candy moved to Sarasota, Florida, leaving Bobby in California. The newly-married Zappa audited a course on composition set by [[Karl Kohn]] at Pomona College, Claremont, and this is the point at which he rented a white Fender Telecaster but couldn't maintain the payments. However, this didn't prevent him playing lead guitar with [[The Boogie Men]], a band which had Doug Rost on rhythm, Kenny Burgan on sax and [[Al Surratt]] on drums. In the summer he scored [[The World’s Greatest Sinner (The Film)|The World's Greatest Sinner]], a dark 'operatic' piece, narrated by the characters of [[The Devil (CC)|Satan]], Clarence and his wife Edna.
 In fact, between 1961 and 1962 Zappa's involvement with bands was quite gregarious. In Pomona he teamed up again with drummer Al Surratt in a group consisting of Rex Jakabowski and [[Ronnie Williams]] on guitars, [[Joe Perrino]] on piano and [[Dwight Bement]] on tenor sax. Up in Lancaster, Zappa, Surratt, Bement and Williams teamed up with [[Johnny Franklin]] on guitar, bass and baritone sax, [[Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood]] on baritone sax, and The Omens' guitarist [[Alex St. Clair|Alex Snouffer]]. Over at Pal Studio in Cucamonga, Zappa began a working relationship with Paul Buff, recording [[Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance]] (and possibly [[It's From Kansas]]?). From November 1961 to August 1962 Zappa and Bement performed with Perrino in his band, Joe Perrino & The Mellotones, in a residency at Tommy Sandi's Club Sahara in San Bernardino. At [[Wikipedia:Chaffey College|Chaffey Junior College]] in 1961, where he had studied harmony, Zappa introduced an 8-piece rock n' roll band in November, followed by a 20-piece chamber ensemble in December and the 55-member [https://www.discogs.com/artist/758080-Pomona-Valley-Symphony-Orchestra Pomona Valley Orchestra] in mid-December, conducted by Fred E. Graff.  'The World's Greatest Sinner' was the piece played on each occasion. There was a little light relief amid all this with Ronnie & Kenny Williams' [[Booger Stories]].

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 Zappa had a hit in 1982 with "[[Valley Girl]]", which featured his daughter [[Moon Zappa|Moon Unit]] satirizing the accents of young moneyed Hollywood people. That same year saw him produce and introduce a New York concert of music by Varese. The title track of [[Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch]] indicated that Zappa's interest in extended composition was not waning; this was confirmed by the release of a serious orchestral album recorded with the [[London Symphony Orchestra (The Orchestra)]] in 1983. Zappa was quite outrageously prolific in 1984: renowned French composer [[Pierre Boulez]] conducted Zappa's work on [[Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger]]; he released a rock album [[Them Or Us]], which widened still further the impact of his scurrilously inventive guitar; [[Thing-Fish]] (its scenario was first published in [[Larry Flynt]]'s Hustler magazine...) was a "Broadway musical" about AIDS, homophobia and racism; and he unearthed an eighteenth-century composer named [[Francesco Zappa]] and recorded his work on a synclavier. The following year's [[Does Humor Belong In Music?]] and [[Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention|Meets The Mothers Of Prevention]] were effective responses to the rise of powerful censor groups in America. [[Jazz From Hell]] presented wordless compositions for synclavier that drew inspiration from the expatriate American experimentalist composer [[Conlon Nancarrow]]'s pieces written for piano player. Zappa could satisfy here his liking for using samples and highly complicated, "impossible for humans" rhythmic orgy. From the flood of his works during the 80's it is absolutely worth mentioning the highly courageous, triple-LP box set, [[Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (The Series)|Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar]], a collection of his madly individual guitar solos (also a masterpiece of overdubbing and musical editing), which was the first of a series represented also by the later [[Guitar]] and [[Trance-Fusion]] albums.
-Zappa's next big project materialized in 1988: a 12-piece band playing covers, instrumentals and a brace of new political songs (collected respectively as [[Broadway The Hard Way]], [[The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life]], and [[Make A Jazz Noise Here]]). After rehearsing for three months the power and precision of the band were breathtaking, but they broke up during [[Tours/1988|their first tour]]. As well as the retrospective series [[You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore]] (six volumes of double CD-s!), Zappa released his most popular bootlegs in two installments as part of his "[[Beat The Boots]]" campaign.
+Zappa's next big project materialized in 1988: a 12-piece band playing covers, instrumentals and a brace of new political songs (collected respectively as [[Broadway The Hard Way]], [[The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life]], and [[Make A Jazz Noise Here]]). After rehearsing for three months the power and precision of the band were breathtaking, but they broke up during [[Tours/1988|their first tour]]. As well as the retrospective series [[You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore]] (six volumes of double CD-s!), Zappa released his most popular bootlegs in two installments as part of his "[[:Category:Beat The Boots|Beat The Boots]]" campaign.
 ==1990s: the final years==

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 In 1962 Zappa, Paul Buff and Ronnie Williams, as [[The Masters]], produced a single at Pal Studios on Buff's 'Emmy' label; '16 Tons/[[Breaktime]]'. An earlier meeting with [[Don Preston]] led to a jamming session in Preston's garage in late spring, with Preston on keyboards and 'object-trove' percussion, brothers [[Bunk Gardner|Bunk]] & [[Buzz Gardner]] on woodwinds and trumpet, [https://www.discogs.com/artist/3259983-Vic-Mio Vic Mio] on bass, and [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1135822-Jack-Lake Jack Lake] & Zappa on percussion. They also auditioned for a Channel 7 TV show in September. In August, Zappa had assisted in the production of [[Heavies]] at Pal Studios where, in December, he engineered a [[Dave Aerni]] production of [https://www.discogs.com/artist/252795-The-Tornadoes The Tornadoes].  During 1962 Zappa had also met [[Ray Collins]], and some 'field recordings' were made of Collins, Zappa and Surratt, which can be heard on [[Joe's XMASage]], along with Zappa and his wife Kay conversing on [[Mormon Xmas Dance Report]]. Kay also plays clarinet on the pre-recorded orchestral tape Zappa employed on The [[Steve Allen]] Show. They divorced in 1963.
-Zappa's work through 1963 in Pal Studios at Cucamonga was prolific, reflecting the nature of dedication he would apply to his work throughout his career. A number of recordings are now available of these [[Cucamonga Years (by Cover)|Cucamonga Years]]. The song  [[Any Way The Wind Blows]] was produced in this period, and a third recording of it would subsequently appear on Zappa's first contractual-album release. Names to check out in this period are; [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1359136-Ron-Roman Ron Roman], [[Baby Ray & The Ferns]], [[Bob Guy]], [[The Heartbreakers]], [https://www.discogs.com/artist/5028681-Brian-Lord-2 Brian Lord & The Midnighters], [[Ned & Nelda]], [[The Hollywood Persuaders]], [[Mr. Clean]], [https://www.discogs.com/artist/520674-The-Rotations The Rotations], Sin City Boys, and [[Loeb & Leopold]].
+Zappa's work through 1963 in Pal Studios at Cucamonga was prolific, reflecting the nature of dedication he would apply to his work throughout his career. A number of recordings are now available of these [[Cucamonga Years (by Cover)|Cucamonga Years]]. The song  [[Any Way The Wind Blows (The Track)|Any Way The Wind Blows]] was produced in this period, and a third recording of it would subsequently appear on Zappa's first contractual-album release. Names to check out in this period are; [https://www.discogs.com/artist/1359136-Ron-Roman Ron Roman], [[Baby Ray & The Ferns]], [[Bob Guy]], [[The Heartbreakers]], [https://www.discogs.com/artist/5028681-Brian-Lord-2 Brian Lord & The Midnighters], [[Ned & Nelda]], [[The Hollywood Persuaders]], [[Mr. Clean]], [https://www.discogs.com/artist/520674-The-Rotations The Rotations], Sin City Boys, and [[Loeb & Leopold]].
 The studio also became the place for a reunion with Don van Vliet, where he and Zappa briefly formed [[The Soots]], with Zappa & Snouffer on guitars, Vliet on vocals, and [[Vic Mortenson]] on drums. Zappa also recorded [[Speed Freak Boogie]] with [https://www.discogs.com/artist/530617-Doug-Moon Doug Moon] at Pal, and these musicians would later appear in [[Magic Band]] line-ups.

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 __NOTOC__
-'''Frank Vincent Zappa''' (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was widely known as an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader but was also a satirist, film director, graphic designer, a campaigner against censorship, and an autodidact.  When combined with his interest in multiple other topics it can be a challenge to document it all.
+[[image:FrankZappa70s.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Frank Zappa in the early 1970s]]
-For over thirty years Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works. He produced most of the 60+ [[wikipedia:Album|albums]] that he released with his bands, variously known as the Mothers of Invention, The Mothers or as Zappa. These recordings were primarily distributed as vinyl [[wikipedia:phonograph record|Phonograph records]] and, later, as [[wikipedia:compact disc|compact disc]]s.<ref>Vinyl records were the main means of distributing music in Zappa's lifetime, eventually superseded by digital compact discs towards the end of the 20th century. But note Zappa's [[ A Proposal For A System To Replace Phonograph Record Merchandising]], which anticipated digital downloading and streaming services decades before they would be available.</ref>
+For over thirty years Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works. He produced most of the 60+ [[wikipedia:Album|albums]] that he released with his bands, variously known as the Mothers of Invention, The Mothers or as Zappa. These recordings were primarily distributed as vinyl [[wikipedia:phonograph record|phonograph records]] and, later, as [[wikipedia:compact disc|compact disc]]s.<ref>Vinyl records were the main means of distributing music in Zappa's lifetime, eventually superseded by digital compact discs towards the end of the 20th century. But note Zappa's [[ A Proposal For A System To Replace Phonograph Record Merchandising]], which anticipated digital downloading and streaming services decades before they would be available.</ref>
 Zappa considered his work a continuum:
 <blockquote>It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had the master tapes and I could take a razor blade<ref>[[wikipedia:Reel-to-reel audio tape recording#Hostory|Tape editing]] required physically cutting the tape with a blade and sticking the required parts together.</ref> and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to.... I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related.<ref name="BM">Barry Miles, [[Frank Zappa: A Biography]] (Atlantic Books 2004)</ref></blockquote>
-Each piece of work added another element to the whole; a process he referred to as [[Project/Object]] and the thread that ran throughout the works to draw them into a unified whole was known as [[Conceptual Continuity]].  As Miles averred in his biography it is too simplistic to follow a trail of readily identifiable concepts, like an Easter-egg hunt, when the real intention was far more serious.<ref name="BM"></ref>
+Each piece of work added another element to the whole; a process he referred to as [[Project/Object]] and the thread that ran throughout the works to draw them into a unified whole was known as [[Conceptual Continuity]].  As Miles averred in his biography it is too simplistic to follow a trail of readily identifiable concepts, a poodle here or a sausage there, when the real intention was far more serious.<ref name="BM"></ref>
 ==Youth==
 [[Image:ZappaFamily.jpeg|right|thumb|300px|The Zappas: Patrice, Francis, Rose, Carl, Frank, Bobby]]
-Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland on the east coast of the USA. He was the first child of [[Francis Zappa|Francis]] and [[Rose Marie Zappa|Rose]]. He would be joined by two brothers: [[Bobby Zappa|Bobby]] (1943 - 2018)  and [[Carl Zappa|Carl]] (1948  - 2020) and a sister [[Patrice Zappa|Patrice]] (1951).
+Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland on the east coast of the USA one year before the USA's formal entry [[wikipedia:Attack on Pearl Harbor|into World War 2]]. He was the first child of [[Francis Zappa|Francis]] and [[Rose Marie Zappa|Rose]]. He would be joined by two brothers: [[Bobby Zappa|Bobby]] (1943 - 2018)  and [[Carl Zappa|Carl]] (1948  - 2020) and a sister [[Patrice Zappa|Patrice]] (1951).
-Zappa's father was a scientist and worked at various times as an analyst, engineer and metallurgist for the [[Wikipedia:Lockheed|Lockheed]] and [[Wikipedia:Convair|Convair]] aircraft corporations. Zappa Snr's occupation required the family to move to Florida in 1944 and back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the Aberdeen Proving Ground. His father was then employed at the [[Wikipedia:Naval Postgraduate School|Naval Research Center & School]] in Monterey in 1951 and the family relocated to Pacific Grove, Monterey.
+He suffered with asthma and ear and sinus problems throughout his early childhood.<ref name="BM"></ref>  In 1944 his father took a job working for the US Navy calculating shell trajectories which required the family to move to Florida. And so began Zappa's peripatetic childhood.  They moved back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the Aberdeen Proving Ground.  In 1951 his father was employed at the [[Wikipedia:Naval Postgraduate School|Naval Research Center & School]] and the family relocated to Pacific Grove, Monterey in California.
 Young Zappa attended orchestral percussion lessons at tutor Keith McKillop's summer school in Monterey, where he played a solo self-composed piece on the snare drum, entitled '[[Mice]]' for a year-end concert. This was in the summer of 1953, before the family moved again - south to San Diego - where Zappa was enrolled in [[Wikipedia:Grossmont High School|Grossmont High School]]. Pursuing his interest in percussion he joined [[The Ramblers]], a high school R&B band that managed to secure a gig at the [[Uptown Hall]] in nearby Hillcrest. After ninth grade he entered [[Wikipedia:Mission Bay Senior High School|Mission Bay High School]], where he was enlightened about 'twelve-tone music' by [[Mr. Kavelman]]. In 1956 Zappa's father became employed on [[Wikipedia:Atlas (rocket)|Atlas]] programs at the Air Force Base in Lancaster, to where the family again moved and 16 year-old FZ enrolled at [[Antelope Valley High School|Antelope Valley High School]]. The desolation and surroundings of this location, together with the nearby air-base activities and emergency gas-masks about the house, were to have a strong influence on the fertile mind of the juvenile Frank Zappa and his musical relationships.