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Frank Zappa

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Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, musician, filmmaker and political activist. Over a career spanning thirty years, Zappa produced a prolific and diverse catalog of music, both solo and with his band The Mothers of Invention (sometimes simply known as The Mothers).

Zappa's output ranged from modern classical music to doo-wop to jazz fusion, and was often noted for its experimental and irreverent style. He considered his entire musical oeuvre to be conceptually connected, and accordingly, musical phrases, characters and inside jokes recur throughout his discography. He was a noted critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and later in life became an outspoken advocate for freedom of speech and political participation.

Zappa died aged 52 on December 4th 1993, after a long battle with prostate cancer. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. Since his death, the Zappa Family Trust (administered by his widow Gail and, after Gail's death in 2015, their son Ahmet) has continued to regularly issue previously unreleased live and studio material, with more than sixty posthumous releases since 1994.

The Residents have often been said to have been influenced by the work of Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (although Zappa's influence on The Residents has since been downplayed by at least one associate of the group); most notably, they recorded a version of Zappa's composition "King Kong" with guitarist Snakefinger, on their long-unreleased demo album B.S. in 1971.

History[]

Origins[]

Frank Vincent Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 21st 1940, the eldest of four children to parents Rose Marie and Francis Vincent Zappa. The family moved often during Zappa's childhood, as his father worked as a chemist and mathematician for the defense industry.

After some time in Florida in the 1940s, the family returned to Maryland, where the elder Zappa worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, operated by the U.S. Army; due to the proximity of their home to the arsenal (which included mustard gas), gas masks were kept in the home in case of an accident.

Zappa's father often brought home mercury-filled lab equipment, giving it to his son to play with; Zappa later recalled putting liquid mercury on his bedroom floor and using a hammer to spray the droplets in a circular pattern. Zappa often suffered from asthma, earaches and sinus problems throughout his childhood; at one point, a doctor inserted radium pellets into each of Zappa's nostrils to treat his sinusitis.

By age twelve, Zappa had acquired a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion. Zappa joined his first band as a drummer while a student at Mission Bay High School in San Diego, California, in 1952. Around the same time, his parents purchased a phonograph, which allowed him to begin developing his interest in music.

Musical career[]

As a self-taught composer and performer, Zappa's diverse musical influences led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and Halim El-Dabh, along with 1950s rhythm and blues and doo-wop music (such as Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Guitar Slim, Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King). He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands, later switching to electric guitar.

Musically, Frank was a perfectionist, working his countless different bands night and day to make sure that they had perfected their craft and knew the music they were playing inside and out. However, once he was thoroughly convinced that they knew the music, he granted almost complete creative control of the way the music was played, encouraging improvisation and a mindset of playing what they felt sounded right.

Frank was a multi-instrumentalist, picking up the drums at an early age. He had a very strong love for percussion throughout his life, often working complex drum and marimba parts into his compositions. Frank played drums for several bands throughout his highschool years, but shortly thereafter, he started playing R&B guitar for a local group, and guitar would soon become his "main" instrument, and by far his most well known.

As a young adult, Frank began composing music using a piano, and he can be seen playing piano at several early Mothers shows. However, as synthesizers became more prevalent in his later years, he began using them more and more, with the Synclaiver being his main form of composition in the years leading up to his death. Frank would create several albums worth of exclusively Synclavier music.

Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes, structures and movements, often humorously so, and he has been described as the "godfather" of comedy rock. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he personally disapproved of drugs, but supported their decriminalization and regulation.

His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. The album was relatively popular, reaching 130 in the US charts. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz or classical. In 1969, the Mothers released the double album Uncle Meat, featuring the composition "King Kong". The album charted at No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Zappa toured regularly throughout his lifetime, only stopping after receiving an almost fatal injury at the age of 31, and during a short period during the 80s to focus on studio endeavors. His final tour was the "Broadway The Hard Way" world tour in 1988, which ended disastrously due to increasing conflicts within the band.

Final years and death[]

Frank-Zappa-88

Zappa during his final tour in 1988.

In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The disease had been developing for several years (having been missed by doctors Zappa had consulted in the 1980s) and was considered inoperable. Zappa devoted most of his energy from this point onwards to modern orchestral and Synclavier works; his final projects included a 1991 live appearance in Prague, a 1992 performance of new and old works by the Ensemble Modern, and the completion of his final studio album, Civilization Phaze III, a follow-up to his 1968 album Lumpy Gravy which he had begun developing in the 1980s.

Frank Zappa died peacefully surrounded by his family at his home in Los Angeles on December 4th 1993, shortly before his 53rd birthday. Because Frank kept a personal archive of almost everything he ever did during his thirty year career, his estate has been able to release new archival recordings regularly since his death. His eldest son Dweezil Zappa has also spent the last twenty years touring the world, performing his father's music and keeping his legacy alive.

Zappa and The Residents[]

Zappaunclesam

Zappa dressed as Uncle Sam, 1978 (photo by Michael Ochs)

Zappa has often been cited as a formative influence on The Residents. The Residents' long-time producer and co-composer Hardy Fox saw Zappa live on one occasion, and recalled a particular appreciation for The Mothers' 1966 debut album Freak Out!, which he described as "shocking" and "so terrible and wonderful at the same time", but claimed not to have "noticed any 'nods' to Zappa" in the work of The Residents, or "any conscious influence other than the general influence of music floating around in the air".[1]

In 1971, when they were known as Residents, Uninc., the group recorded a version of Zappa's composition "King Kong" with guitarist Snakefinger, which was featured on their 1971 demo album B.S.. The following year, the group released their first EP, Santa Dog, featuring two 7" singles housed in a gatefold sleeve designed to look like a Christmas card from an insurance company. The EP was sent in the mail to numerous notable figures including Zappa, however Zappa never received it, as he had moved house; his copy was returned to the group.

In the late 1970s, The Residents worked with Don Preston (formerly of The Mothers of Invention) on their album Eskimo. Preston was later described by Hardy Fox as "a [spectacular] musician".[1] Zappa's on-and-off friend and collaborator Captain Beefheart (himself noted as a major formative influence on The Residents) was dismissive of the group, describing them in a 1982 interview as "smut".[2]

Zappa's 1968 album Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (where The Mothers of Invention are presented as a fictional doo-wop band named Ruben & The Jets) was an influence on the concept of The Residents' 1985 album The Big Bubble, where the group are presented as a fictional "garage" band, also named The Big Bubble.[3]

Selected discography[]

The Mothers of Invention (1964-1969)[]

  • Freak Out! (1966)
  • Absolutely Free (1967)
  • We're Only In It For The Money (1968)
  • Cruising With Ruben & The Jets (as Ruben & The Jets) (1968)
  • Uncle Meat (1968)
  • Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)
  • Burnt Weeny Sandwich (1970)

The Mothers (1970-1975)[]

  • The Grand Wazoo (1972)
  • Over-Nite Sensation (1973)
  • One Size Fits All (1975)
  • Bongo Fury with Captain Beefheart (1975)

Solo (1968-1993)[]

  • Lumpy Gravy (1968)
  • Hot Rats (1969)
  • Chunga's Revenge (1970)
  • 200 Motels (1971)
  • Waka/Jawaka (1972)
  • Apostrophe (') (1974)
  • Zoot Allures (1976)
  • Studio Tan (1978)
  • Sleep Dirt (1978)
  • Sheik Yerbouti (1979)
  • Orchestral Favorites (1979)
  • Joe's Garage Act I (1979)
  • Joe's Garage Acts II & III (1979)
  • Tinsel Town Rebellion (1981)
  • You Are What You Is (1981)
  • Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch (1982)
  • The Man From Utopia (1983)
  • Them Or Us (1984)
  • Thing-Fish (1984)
  • Francesco Zappa (1984)
  • Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers of Prevention (1985)
  • Jazz From Hell (1986)
  • Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison (recorded 1986, released 2011)
  • The Yellow Shark with Ensemble Modern (1993)
  • Dance Me This (recorded 1993, released 2015)
  • Civilization Phaze III (1994)

Credits on Residents projects[]

See also[]

External links and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hardy Fox, Hacienda Bridge no. 19, July 1st 2017
  2. ↑ Jim Green, "In Search of Captain Beefheart", Trouser Press, February 1983 (via beefheart.xyz)
  3. ↑ Big Brother, "Scars", The Last Word, February 3rd 2008
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