Frank Zappa - Studio Tan

How many albums released only to fill contractual obligation sound as solid as this one? This contains music originally intended to be included on quadruple LP set Läther, but disagreements with Warner Bros led to a host of single albums, which were just spat out, so to say. Cover art is questionable, the hired a hack artist to design its cover. Disregarding its cover, the music on Studio Tan is nothing short of great. The album consists of a side long epic composition "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary" and three shorter pieces. Most of the music is recorded within the 1974-1975 time frame, when Zappa's Roxy and Elsewhere period (which began in 1973) was drawing to close. It contains much of the same personnel (George Duke, Fowler brothers, Chester Thompson and Ruth Underwood), and more. There's even bits of the 1975 Orchestral Favorites sessions integrated into the mix. And not surprisingly, most of the album presents Zappa's classicist direction, although mixed with jazz-rock fusion elements. The sole exception to all of the above parameters is "Lemme Take You To The Beach", a multi-year track that has seventies synth sounds mixed with high pitched vocals alluding to Zoot Allures and Sheik Yerbouti, but has a decidedly sixties sensibility and groove. Basic track was done in 1969 with guitars, bass, drums; vocals, synth and bongos were added in 1976. The result is a quirky surf-rock parody with doo wop sensibility reminiscent of Ruben & The Jets album.

Zappa also revises his "Music For Low Budget Orchestra" composition, that was originally composed in late sixties and was recorded for a Jean Luc Ponty album of Zappa interpretations. The original version was a nineteen minute showcase for electric violin integrated with an 11-piece band conducted by Ian Underwood; with inserts from Zappa themes such as "Duke of Prunes" and "Pound For A Brown". The original version was very interesting, but often quite sprawling. Zappa tightened the piece here with a line up that may not be as low budget as the band on the 1969 recording, as it sounds fuller and more involved. Zappa adds great guitar playing into the mix and there are new sections on this piece which make this revised version totally dissimilar to the original version from about 4:30 mark onwards. "Revised Music For Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra" showcases Zappa's integration of classical, jazz and rock influences at its most mature and polished. "RDNZL" does something similar for a stripped down lineup featuring just bass, drums, keyboards, mallet percussion and guitar. It was a live staple for the 1973-74 band and that piece too was originally very different. What used to be a four minute piece with lots of solos and sectional changes crammed into it, is now an expansive, polished multi-part epic starting with virtuoso synth and marimba display, leading to an electrifying Zappa guitar solo which leads way to a couple of pompous melodic blocks, a nice jazz waltz section, a piano solo and some more deliberately bombastic sounding themes which close the composition. A great display for the virtuoso musicianship of Duke and Ruth Underwood as well as Zappa's stinging guitar solo, everything held together well by the tight rhythm section.

"The Adventures of Greggary Peccary" is an expansion of the ideas represented in the above-mentioned instrumentals into a 20 minute epic, that also adds satire in the mix. This is a surreal satirical tale of a peccary (a species of pig) working as a copywriter specializing in inventing trends, who invents the calendar. The combination of music that amounts for 20 minutes and the tale mixing surreal fiction and social satire alludes to "Billy The Mountain" (that is quoted in the piece actually), but is more complex and orchestral. Whereas "Billy The Mountain" was performed live and recorded as such by the 1971 Mothers, "Greggary Peccary" is a studio-centric piece. Which is confirmed by the fact that Zappa himself does virtually all the voices, voicing the peccary character by the tape speed alteration technique he already used in late sixties. Musically it's all over the place with loads of instruments and instrumental sections which could form a basis for compositions worth a double album. As a result, it often feels sprawling, but the piece is still involving overall. Zappa's sped up peccary voice is hilarious and the overall effect is cartoonish and surreal. By the way, the 1972 Grand Wazoo orchestra played an early, instrumental version of it live. The proto-version is now released on the archival album Wazoo.

Studio Tan is a record for Zappa fans more into his orchestral and jazzy works, such as 200 Motels, Uncle Meat, The Grand Wazoo and Roxy & Elsewhere. This under-rated record is every bit as worthwhile, as any of the above-mentioned records, but more polished and even more sophisticated. The pieces work great both as a single album, and as part of the vast and eclectic Läther set that was eventually unleashed as a triple CD in 1996.