The Zappa Legacy - Revision history

Spider of Destiny at 12:08, 25 April 2026

2026-04-25T12:08:56Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 16:08, 14 December 2021

2021-12-14T16:08:23Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 17:59, 21 October 2021

2021-10-21T17:59:33Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 13:29, 4 October 2021

2021-10-04T13:29:38Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 20:28, 1 October 2021

2021-10-01T20:28:08Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 16:05, 23 September 2021

2021-09-23T16:05:24Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 05:29, 5 September 2021

2021-09-05T05:29:46Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 02:34, 8 August 2021

2021-08-08T02:34:41Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 15:34, 4 August 2021

2021-08-04T15:34:43Z

Jason.Kreitzer at 02:58, 22 July 2021

2021-07-22T02:58:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:08, 25 April 2026
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	[[Category:Articles about Zappa\|Zappa Legacy]]<br>		[[Category:Articles about Zappa\|Zappa Legacy]]<br>
	[[Category:Bandmember Interviews\|Zappa Legacy]]		[[Category:Bandmember Interviews\|Zappa Legacy]]
		+	[[Category:1994\|Zappa Legacy]]

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 Frank Zappa is third and final totem in this pole. By coming at music not from academic roots, as Satie and Cage had done, but from R&B bands with names like the Omens, [[The Blackouts]], and Captain Glasspack And His Magic Mufflers, he demonstrated that "formal training" was no longer essential, even among those who would call themselves, in the old sense, artists. He represents the triumph – or, possibly, the civilizing – of the barbarian/artist.
-Purely on the technical level, his accomplishments astonish. He started playing drums at the age of 12, and switched to guitar at 18. Two years later, in 1960, he scored a B flick, [[The World's Greatest Sinner]], a follow-up soundtrack, to [[Run Home Slow (The Film)|Run Home Slow]] in 1963, helped him set up his own recording studio in [[Cucamonga]]. Much of what he played in those days was based on doo-wop R&B; he even co-authored a modest hit, with [[Ray Collins]], for the Penguins, titled "[[Memories Of El Monte]]." One of his R&B bands, [[The Soul Giants]], eventually mutated into [[The Mothers]] and began stretching out in strange directions. Their debut album, [[Freak Out!]], was released in mid-1966 and, in the alarmed words of hippie rock journalist Lillian Roxon, "grew on the public like an evil fungus"; the seeds of acerbic commentary and musical experimentation were already sprouting on "[[The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet]]," "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," and other cuts from this double LP.
+Purely on the technical level, his accomplishments astonish. He started playing drums at the age of 12, and switched to guitar at 18. Two years later, in 1960, he scored a B flick, [[The World’s Greatest Sinner (The Film)|The World's Greatest Sinner]], a follow-up soundtrack, to [[Run Home Slow (The Film)|Run Home Slow]] in 1963, helped him set up his own recording studio in [[Cucamonga]]. Much of what he played in those days was based on doo-wop R&B; he even co-authored a modest hit, with [[Ray Collins]], for the Penguins, titled "[[Memories Of El Monte]]." One of his R&B bands, [[The Soul Giants]], eventually mutated into [[The Mothers]] and began stretching out in strange directions. Their debut album, [[Freak Out!]], was released in mid-1966 and, in the alarmed words of hippie rock journalist Lillian Roxon, "grew on the public like an evil fungus"; the seeds of acerbic commentary and musical experimentation were already sprouting on "[[The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet]]," "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," and other cuts from this double LP.
 Even in those early days, Zappa stalked the orchestral format. His first solo album, [[Lumpy Gravy]], featured a 50-piece ensemble that included 19 string players. Later, he alternated between largely instrumental albums, such as [[Hot Rats]] and [[Just Another Band From L.A.]], ground-breaking multimedia projects ([[200 Motels]]), and sardonic vocal performances that, as if in defiance of logic and gravity, occasionally floated toward the top of the charts ("[[Dancin' Fool]]," "[[Valley Girl]]").

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 Frank had this wonderful open-door policy. You could always go up to his place, provided he wasn't locked into his studio and not to be disturbed, hang out, play, or listen to what he was working on. He was enthusiastic about sharing thoughts, ideas, or technological tips. That's actually how I got into synthesizers. In '76 and '77, not only were these instruments not widely available, they were terribly expensive. The Oberheim Four-Voice was a $5,000 proposition, and that's in 1976 dollars. But Frank could afford to purchase these new instruments, and he always encouraged me to fool with them. He would let me borrow stuff, like his ARP 2600, and take it home. Or I could go into another room in his studio and play with the tremendous E-mu modular system he had. He also had all this outboard gear, an enormous collection of pedals and gadgets; I was free to sift through them, pull something out, and try it. Anything that wasn't on-line in the studio was open to be fiddled with. That whetted my appetite big-time.
-All these legends and mythologies surrounded Frank – things he had supposedly said or done. It was all a bunch of nonsense. Perhaps a certain amount of this came from outrageous actions by members of his band. As Frank once said to me, "I seem to bring out the Barnum & Bailey in my musicians." That was true. I remember going to see Frank's band in the early '70s, when Flo and Eddie (singers [[Mark Volman]] and [[Howard Kaylan]]) were with him. It was a smokin' band. Frank ran the show, conducted, and whatnot. But it was the band, not Frank, that did all the flamboyant and theatrical stuff.
+All these legends and mythologies surrounded Frank – things he had supposedly said or done. It was all a bunch of nonsense. Perhaps a certain amount of this came from outrageous actions by members of his band. As Frank once said to me, "I seem to bring out the Barnum & Bailey in my musicians." That was true. I remember going to see Frank's band in the early '70s, when [[Flo & Eddie|Flo and Eddie]] (singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) were with him. It was a smokin' band. Frank ran the show, conducted, and whatnot. But it was the band, not Frank, that did all the flamboyant and theatrical stuff.
 I last saw Frank on March 20, 1992. He had 25 or 30 people up for dinner, including some musicians I hadn't seen for a while. Most of them were like his former students, people who had worked with him, and he was really curious about what was going on with them. It was a good time to see Frank. He had been sick, but he was in good shape that night, and quite animated. He was putting together [[You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore]], so he was demonstrating his incredible prowess with editing on his hard disk system. He had assembled something that sounded like a single performance but was actually taken from different bands over a period of probably 15 years, then cut and pasted together.

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 '''[[Ian Underwood]]''' with Zappa 1967–73<br>
-I had graduated from the master's program in composition from the University of California at Berkeley. Then I was in New York, unemployed. I happened to drop by the Mothers performance at the [[Garrick Theater]]. I had never heard of the Mothers; this was the first time I had any exposure to them at all. But they were doing just the kind of thing I was interested in. It wasn't just classical, it wasn't just jazz. And there was a lot of humor. In those days, [singer] [[Ray Collins]] and [[Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood|Motorhead Jim Sherwood]], saxophonist] were doing a lot of interplay. They had their own routines, which were mostly made up at the time.
+I had graduated from the master's program in composition from the University of California at Berkeley. Then I was in New York, unemployed. I happened to drop by the Mothers performance at the [[Garrick Theatre|Garrick Theater]]. I had never heard of the Mothers; this was the first time I had any exposure to them at all. But they were doing just the kind of thing I was interested in. It wasn't just classical, it wasn't just jazz. And there was a lot of humor. In those days, [singer] [[Ray Collins]] and [[Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood|Motorhead Jim Sherwood]], saxophonist] were doing a lot of interplay. They had their own routines, which were mostly made up at the time.
 I hadn't really hit on any work at that point, so I simply went up after the show, told Frank that I liked it very much, and wondered if I could play with them. Frank said he was interested. He asked me to come up to the recording studio, which was in midtown on the west side. I did, and Frank hired me because I could play keyboards and woodwinds, and I could read. At that point, nobody in the band was an accomplished reader, although [saxophonist] Bunk Gardner could read. But I was able to let Frank hear the notes he wanted to hear. Plus I had a background in jazz, so I could improvise. So I fit in.

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 Even in those early days, Zappa stalked the orchestral format. His first solo album, [[Lumpy Gravy]], featured a 50-piece ensemble that included 19 string players. Later, he alternated between largely instrumental albums, such as [[Hot Rats]] and [[Just Another Band From L.A.]], ground-breaking multimedia projects ([[200 Motels]]), and sardonic vocal performances that, as if in defiance of logic and gravity, occasionally floated toward the top of the charts ("[[Dancin' Fool]]," "[[Valley Girl]]").
-More and more, however, "serious" orchestral composition became a central part of Zappa's output. [[Zubin Mehta]] and the L.A. Philharmonic premiered his score to [[200 Motels]] in 1970. More ambitious large-scale pieces were featured in his concert film [[Baby Snakes (The Film)|Baby Snakes]] in 1981. The London Philharmonic performed a program of his music in 1983. [[Pierre Boulez]] conducted the premiere of Zappa's [[The Perfect Stranger]] in Paris the following year. Zappa himself began making guest conductor appearances in the '80s, and gave the keynote address at the American Society of University Composers convention in 1984. He assembled a massive [[Synclavier]] system and used it to write works of bedeviling complexity. His most recent release, a nearly posthumous concert document titled [[The Yellow Shark]], deposits him square on the pedestal of respectability. Aside from an occasional trombone fart or politico-slapstick libretto, this could be mistaken for contemporary art music at its finest.
+More and more, however, "serious" orchestral composition became a central part of Zappa's output. [[Zubin Mehta]] and the L.A. Philharmonic premiered his score to [[200 Motels]] in 1970. More ambitious large-scale pieces were featured in his concert film [[Baby Snakes (The Film)|Baby Snakes]] in 1981. The London Philharmonic performed a program of his music in 1983. [[Pierre Boulez]] conducted the premiere of Zappa's [[The Perfect Stranger]] in Paris the following year. Zappa himself began making guest conductor appearances in the '80s, and gave the keynote address at the [https://wp.societyofcomposers.org/ American Society of University Composers] convention in 1984. He assembled a massive [[Synclavier]] system and used it to write works of bedeviling complexity. His most recent release, a nearly posthumous concert document titled [[The Yellow Shark]], deposits him square on the pedestal of respectability. Aside from an occasional trombone fart or politico-slapstick libretto, this could be mistaken for contemporary art music at its finest.
 As the next century looms, the danger grows that a critical aspect of Zappa's work will be misunderstood – namely, that while textbook education may lose relevance in the postmodern era, hard work is as essential as ever. Aside from one six-month theory class at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, California, Zappa had no old-fashioned music training. Yet according to those who knew and worked with him, few people have ever put so much effort into mastering a discipline. In a world teeming with fraudulent "conceptual artists," Zappa was an anomaly – an exhaustive perfectionist, an obsessive grind, driven, perhaps, by intimations of his own mortality to demand the maximum from himself and his associates.

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 Irreverence has been the most effective catalyst in the democratization of music. Those who understood the old ways well enough to ridicule them were tradition's most dangerous foes. [[wikipedia:Erik Satie|Erik Satie]] was the first; by composing a 52-beat piece for piano and directing that it be repeated 840 times over a 24-hour period, he reduced the profundities of composition to the idiocy of babble. Decades later, [[John Cage]] made the point through silent pieces, which elevated random sound – a cough in the audience, an airplane flying by – above music itself in the hierarchy of performance.
-Frank Zappa is third and final totem in this pole. By coming at music not from academic roots, as Satie and Cage had done, but from R&B bands with names like the Omens, [[The Blackouts]], and [[Captain Glasspack And His Magic Mufflers]], he demonstrated that "formal training" was no longer essential, even among those who would call themselves, in the old sense, artists. He represents the triumph – or, possibly, the civilizing – of the barbarian/artist.
+Frank Zappa is third and final totem in this pole. By coming at music not from academic roots, as Satie and Cage had done, but from R&B bands with names like the Omens, [[The Blackouts]], and Captain Glasspack And His Magic Mufflers, he demonstrated that "formal training" was no longer essential, even among those who would call themselves, in the old sense, artists. He represents the triumph – or, possibly, the civilizing – of the barbarian/artist.
 Purely on the technical level, his accomplishments astonish. He started playing drums at the age of 12, and switched to guitar at 18. Two years later, in 1960, he scored a B flick, [[The World's Greatest Sinner]], a follow-up soundtrack, to [[Run Home Slow (The Film)|Run Home Slow]] in 1963, helped him set up his own recording studio in [[Cucamonga]]. Much of what he played in those days was based on doo-wop R&B; he even co-authored a modest hit, with [[Ray Collins]], for the Penguins, titled "[[Memories Of El Monte]]." One of his R&B bands, [[The Soul Giants]], eventually mutated into [[The Mothers]] and began stretching out in strange directions. Their debut album, [[Freak Out!]], was released in mid-1966 and, in the alarmed words of hippie rock journalist Lillian Roxon, "grew on the public like an evil fungus"; the seeds of acerbic commentary and musical experimentation were already sprouting on "[[The Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet]]," "[[Help, I'm A Rock]]," and other cuts from this double LP.

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:29, 5 September 2021
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−	By [~~[Bob Doerschuk\|~~Robert L. Doerschuk]]<br>	+	By [https://www.facebook.com/bob.doerschuk Robert L. Doerschuk]<br>
	[[Keyboard]], April 1994<br>		[[Keyboard]], April 1994<br>

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 ''Tommy Mars recently finished recording and touring with ''Mona Lisa Overdrive.'' He is now working on his first solo album for ''Stone Records.''''
-[[Category:Articles about Zappa]]<br>
+[[Category:Articles about Zappa|Zappa Legacy]]<br>
-[[Category:Bandmember Interviews]]
+[[Category:Bandmember Interviews|Zappa Legacy]]

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 I last saw Frank about a year ago. He kept trying to get me to come up and do some stuff with him at his house, but I was involved with doing a lot of records. I had my own career going. I didn't really have time to be a part of Frank's world at that point. I kept planning to go up and see him, but I just never did. It's a drag.
-''George Duke is currently working on his next solo release for [[Warner Bros.]] Recent projects include production work for Johnny Gill and Anita Baker, music direction for Comic Relief, incidental music for assorted children's television shows, and The Muir Woods Suite, an album of original orchestral music.''
+''George Duke is currently working on his next solo release for [[Warner Brothers|Warner Bros.]] Recent projects include production work for Johnny Gill and Anita Baker, music direction for Comic Relief, incidental music for assorted children's television shows, and The Muir Woods Suite, an album of original orchestral music.''
 '''[[Patrick O'Hearn]]''' with Zappa 1976–78<br>

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 [[Image:FZ_Steve_Knotts.jpg|frame|Picture by Steve Knotts]]
-<blockquote>Veterans of his keyboard chair recall the life & work of [[Frank Zappa]]</blockquote><br>
+<blockquote>Veterans of his keyboard chair recall the life & work of [[Biography|Frank Zappa]]</blockquote><br>
 At age 52, rock stars are typically shunted onto gondolas and shoved across the Styx toward an afterlife of oldies tours and appearances with Peter Noone on VH-1. Meanwhile, politicians, at that same age, keep busy casting furtive glances toward Pennsylvania Avenue, while classical composers savor one last season of critical characterization as "young." Fifty-two is young, old, the prime of life, a plateau, a time for autumnal reflection or a brisk second wind. All you can say for sure about 52 is that ifs too soon to check out. Yet that's just what Frank Zappa did. On the evening of Dec. 4,1993, the rock innovator (not a star, exactly), political commentator (certainly not a politician, or anything nearly as tawdry), and composer (see below) succumbed after three years of battling prostate cancer. Or, as the Zappa family put it in an official statement released the following day, "Frank Zappa [has] left for his final tour."
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 Frank worked a lot on the road. He never liked to hang out at all, because his mind was always busy thinking about something. He was constantly writing music, busy with this or that. Some people are always amazed to hear that he didn't indulge in drugs, but he didn't, except for cigarettes and coffee.
-I don't think that playing with Frank helped me in any specific professional way. It didn't improve my technique. What happened, what happens to everybody in an interesting and challenging situation, is that I grew. When I joined the band, I knew nothing about '50s music. But because I had a classical background, I was already aware of all the other things that Frank was doing. I knew [[Edgar Varèse|Varèse]], [[Béla Bartók|Bartok]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], and all that music; it wasn't new to me.
+I don't think that playing with Frank helped me in any specific professional way. It didn't improve my technique. What happened, what happens to everybody in an interesting and challenging situation, is that I grew. When I joined the band, I knew nothing about '50s music. But because I had a classical background, I was already aware of all the other things that Frank was doing. I knew [[Edgard Varèse|Varèse]], [[Béla Bartók|Bartok]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], and all that music; it wasn't new to me.
-''lan Underwood now makes his living playing keyboards on film soundtracks in LA.''
+''Ian Underwood now makes his living playing keyboards on film soundtracks in LA.''
 '''[[George Duke]]''' with Zappa 1970–75<br>