Cal Schenkel

The king of rendered absurdities, painter, designer, and illustrator Calvin Schenkel was entrusted by Frank Zappa to design the lion's share of Zappa's album covers. And though foremost an artist, Cal provided vocal for Lumpy Gravy. Schenkel: "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 [as widely reported], but I would commute to work at his place. When we moved to LA...he had rented the log cabin, I had a wing of it. It was my living quarters and art studio, which I rented separately from them." 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, and Threesome No. 2 slipcase art. Though a production designer for 200 Motels (The Film), Cal can be seen in the Zappa movies Uncle Meat (The Film) and Video From Hell. Conceptual Continuity: the artwork for Burnt Weenie Sandwich was originally done for an Eric Dolphy album.