Zappa #1: Many people believed Frank Zappa was a musical genius, others thought of him more as a seksist, dirty pig and others had other opinions. Fact is that Zappa shaped his own musical world: a world which was unique compared to all other musical worlds and islands.
‘I’m a composer’ was one of his favourite lines. Besides that it did not really matter what he was or what he stood for. The fact that he was a guitar player in a ‘Rockin Teen Combo’, which made it possible for him to compose, was something that he put up with, just like any other additional, financial as well as relational stuff. In his compositions we recognize his love for other kinds of music, like doo-wop, jazz, modern-classic and ethnic music. ‘Everything consists of trembling atoms and trembling creates sounds so everything is music’; his theory of The Big Note was essential. Where John Cage used the I-Ching in his composing, Zappa used the basic thought AAAFNRA: ‘Anything, Anywhere, Anytime For No Reason At All.’ That’s why it is not just his music but also his records, CDs, films that make one large collage, which could consist of anything: early and new compositions, old and new bands, old and new sounds but also jazz, rock, classic, electronic; anything was possible and allowed and mixed through one another. The Zappa fans are well aware that he was an excellent guitar player but in the world of pop/ rock music he is still seen as one of the lesser ‘gods’. That’s a shame because his solo plays are in fact stand-alone mini compositions and not some trick he learned or a technical stunt. Anyone who understands that will discover a new musical (guitar) world. Today we offer you the chance to enter that world in a pleasantly mixed setting. In the next broadcasts other aspects of Zappa’s music will be highlighted, for example the time before his first LP Freak Out.
More about Frank Zappa, this broadcast’s music and its background can be found on the website of the programme maker:www.littleumbrellas.nl
1. Frank Zappa ‘Sleazette’ (Frank Zappa).
CD: Finer Moments.
2. Frank Zappa ‘Florentine Pogen’. (Frank Zappa).
CD: A Token of his Extreme.
3. Frank Zappa ‘Shortly, Suite (incl. Holiday in Berlin Full Blown)’. (Frank Zappa).
CD: Road Tapes, Venue #1.
4. Frank Zappa ‘King Kong/Chunga’s Revenge/Mr. Green Genes’. (Frank Zappa).
CD: Roxy by Proxy.
5. Frank Zappa ‘Black Napkins’. (Frank Zappa).
CD: Joe’s Camouflage.
6. Frank Zappa ‘Big Swifty’. (Frank Zappa).
CD: Road Tapes, Venue #2.
