Frank Zappa - Lumpy Gravy

Lumpy Gravy is one of those records which challenges a lot of preconceived notions about music and noise. Essentially, this 1968 Frank Zappa release (his first real solo album) which followed We're Only In It For The Money album, consists of two 16 minute collages of orchestral and otherwise instrumental pieces, studio chatter recorded inside the piano and tape edit sounds in the fashion of musique concrete. It's evident that Zappa is a prime melodist and a skilled arranger judging by the musical segment, but when put next to treated tape sounds and bizarre Dadaist dialogue, the result gives an entirely different meaning to the notion of composition. Originally Zappa wanted to record an all-orchestral piece for Capitol Records, as proposed by a producer for the label. However, there was a thirteen month litigation holding back the release. Meanwhile, FZ had recorded loads of dialog by having people sit under the piano with a sustain pedal depressed, giving the voices the unique ambiance. Putting it all together, we have a record which is not the most accessible Zappa release, but nonetheless features lots of innovative production techniques as well as unbelievable sounds. Not to mention, some of Zappa's best melodies, like "Duodenum", instrumental versions of "Oh No" and "Take Your Clothes Off", as well as a haunting orchestral piece "I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again". Lumpy Gravy presents Zappa at his most radical as a composer, arranger, record producer and conceptualist.

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.

Michael Nyman live at Charles' Church in Tallinn, Estonia on 29th November 2007

British minimalist composer Michael Nyman and his twelve member band gave a concert at Charles' Church (Kaarli kirik) in Tallinn, Estonia on 29th of November 2007. The concert was billed as the opening event of the annual Dark Nights Film Festival (Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival) in Estonia. For the night, Michael Nyman Band performed a set containing the well known compositions from Nyman's movie soundtracks. They opened with two numbers from The Draughtsman's Contract, "Chasing Sheep is Best Left To Shepherds" as well as "An Eye for Optical Theory", both with significantly more orchestral sound than on the original recordings. Pieces from Wonderland and Prospero's Books followed and these were among Nyman's most interesting pieces, each of them showcasing the composer's hypnotic, repetitive, rhythmically sustained and multi-layered scoring at its finest. Nyman also performed solo pieces from The Piano, including one of his most well known themes called "The Heart Asks Pleasure First". Finally the group rendered selections from Drowning By Numbers.

The sound quality was fair, but it left a bit desired in terms of clarity. The quieter songs sounded fine, but the more orchestrated pieces sounded a bit unclear. Although all the instruments were heard to some extent, some of these didn't cut through enough to display their tonal character in their whole. Given how Nyman's band with its twelve members can sound very orchestral for a group that one would expect to sound more chamber like, they certainly deserve better acoustics and sound balancing in order to make their sound more appreciated. Nonetheless, the public's reception to the performance was so enthusiastic that the band couldn't help it but play not only an encore, but three of them. First they played some more band pieces, and the final encore was yet another Nyman solo piano composition. All in all, a pretty good live concert.

Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract

British minimalist composer Michael Nyman's score for Peter Greenaway film from 1982, The Draughtsman's Contract is based on the repetitive bass motifs from 17th century composer Henry Purcell. The soundtrack album features one of Nyman's most well known pieces called "Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds", which is the opening number. This short piece has a memorable melody in C major scale rendered on strings and soprano sax carried by a bouncy bass rhythm. Aside the repetition of the bass lines and inventive use of counterpoint, Michael Nyman Band's instrumentation is also worth mentioning: they use saxophones combined with string quartet, brass instruments, electric bass and Nyman himself on piano, who also doubles on harpsichord. "Watery Death" starts with low brass tones and a soprano sax melody that seems to hint at the "Chasing Sheep" theme, and then turns into a sinister amalgam of clanging harpsichord, staccato strings and bubbly brass that indeed lives up to the track's title. "Queen of the Night", another classic Nyman tune is the most bass heavy track: the electric bass really has a rather rock-oriented drive to it. "An Eye For Optical Theory" focuses on the unique saxophone arrangements, whereas the closing "Bravura In The Face of Grief" has a funeral atmosphere, with sad progression ongoing for several minutes, before the harpsichord eventually enters for the final minutes, giving the ending section a very vivid edge. Recommended for minimalist/contemporary classical fans.

Frank Zappa - Everything is Healing Nicely

Everything Is Healing Nicely is a collection of sessions and rehearsals with the Ensemble Modern (the chamber orchestra playing on The Yellow Shark) from 1991-2 that contains some of Frank Zappa's more accessible classical stuff. Even aside the more melodic pieces, some of his more atonal stuff is spiced up with humorous monologues and improvisation. You can tell the players were having fun when they were performing those compositions. Therefore, if The Yellow Shark album was too heavy to take, one might as well go with this album to get some idea about Zappa's work during his final years. Highlights include "This Is A Test", which harks back to some of Zappa's chamber music work from Burnt Weeny Sandwich era, "T'Mershi Duween" in its orchestral glory and two standout compositions which manage to be both experimental and accessible. "Roland's Big Event/Strat Vindaloo" is an improvisation over a brooding slow groove beginning with a rapid fire clarinet solo followed by a low key duet between FZ and the guest violinist Shankar. As the guitarist was already seriously ill, it was obvious that the glory days of fast'n'furious guitar solos was over once and for all for Zappa, so he wisely opts to play minimal notes and dialogue with the violinist. "9/8 Objects" however is one hell of a number: a four-meter reggae-ish drum pattern supports variety of contrapuntal lines played on cello, marimba, brass and woodwinds, several of them in 9/8 time signature which are played against the overall straight tempo. Mind-blowing! Very reminiscent of some hypnotic Eastern music. Shankar again improvises on violin in this number. Even some of the less accessible pieces feature interesting elements in them. "Nap Time" can well work as a mellow ambient composition. "Master Ringo" and "Wonderful Tattoo" have hilarious monologues on them. Recommended if you want to get the idea of Zappa's avant garde classical work.

Frank Zappa - Orchestral Favorites

Orchestral Favorites features several Frank Zappa's instrumental melodies rendered by a very large big band bordering on classical orchestra combining electric combo (bass, drums, electric keyboards) with the vast array of woodwinds, brass, strings and percussion. The 37 piece lineup is known as Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Orchestra (a tag FZ also used for the entire line up on Lumpy Gravy album). This is a fairly inventive fusion of orchestral music and electric sonorities of rock. Not only does the listener get electric organs and synthesizer along with electric bass and a guitar solo during one of the numbers, there are also touches like wah pedal on viola and creative stereo-panning. This is one of the outstanding examples of Zappa's skills regarding musical synthesis.

The drummer here is none other than Terry Bozzio, having already appeared on the Bongo Fury tour in Spring 1975. Apparently this was where he proved to be the true monster drummer for the first time. A critic, blown away by his drumming during the orchestral shows in September 1975, called him the drummer with a future. And it shows. Not only is Bozzio providing strong and loaded backbeat to the majestically arranged "Duke of Prunes" (which also features a feedback heavy guitar solo in the middle), but he also fights himself through the advanced rhythmical labyrynths on the denser numbers such as the ultra-dissonant "Pedro's Dowry" or the multi-sectioned "Bogus Pomp". This 13 minute piece blends several items from the 200 Motels album (off which a fine instrumental version of "Strictly Genteel" is also included) and is made up from several sections ranging from dissonance and atonalism to accessible and memorable melodies. It's also said to be a parody of movie music clichès. Actually the entire album suggests how Zappa might have scored a soundtrack for films, given not only the cinematic qualities of orchestration, but also the inclusion of material Zappa had used in movies (200 Motels material, plus "Duke of Prunes" was originally featured in "Run Home Slow" film). The dissonant pieces could also work well in a soundtrack for a horror movie or a motion picture about some ecological disaster or something (years later FZ wrote a piece called "Outrage At Valdez" which indeed was used in a documentary regarding pollution). The music on this album is very vivid and are played accordingly by musicians. Essential orchestral Zappa.