subject: Frank Vincent Zappa : Artist Of All Ages [print this page] Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 in Baltimore - December 4, 1993 in Los Angeles) is a rock musician, songwriter, guitarist, singer, director, producer and satirist. During his musical career of 33 years, Zappa proved to be one of the musicians-most prolific composers of his era, releasing over 60 albums, most consisting of original compositions. He was also a renowned guitarist and a gifted producer-engineer who has made himself almost all his recordings since his debut in 1966.
His work spanned virtually every contemporary musical styles (including avant-garde or experimental music, rock, doo-wop, jazz, jazz fusion, reggae, ska, electronic music, contemporary music, the Blues, funk, musique concrete, hard rock, the big band, progressive rock, pop, rap and the proto-world music), and was often noted for its mix of art, rock opera, absurdity, scathing humor, sometimes gravelly , and for his hilarious social satire. He was also known as a developer of talent, and his various groups counted among their members well-known musicians like Adrian Belew, Lowell George, Jean-Luc Ponty, Aynsley Dunbar, Ruth Underwood, George Duke, Vinnie Colaiuta, Mike Keneally, Terry Bozzio, Tommy Mars, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Jeff Simmons and Steve Vai.
Born in Baltimore (Maryland) in a family of Greek-Italian and Lebanese by his father, Francis Vincent Zappa, and Franco-Italian by his mother, Rose Marie Colimore, he was the eldest of four children, having two brothers and one on. Zappa grew up in California, in a mixture of influences combining avant-garde composers like Edgar Varese and Igor Stravinsky, and local groups and rhythm and blues.
After a brief career as a professional songwriter (the elegiac Memories of El Monte is recorded by the Penguins), Zappa joined a local R & B as a guitarist. Shortly thereafter, he renamed the group The Mothers, abbreviation of Motherfuckers, which did little to please the record company. The group is renamed The Mothers of Invention.
The Mothers are then accompanied by producer Tom Wilson, and released the double album Freak Out! (1966), a mixture of R & B and experimental sound collages. Relatives and eclectic Absolutely Free and Lumpy Gravy released the following year. Zappa also recorded We're Only In It For The Money, a rasping satire of flower power, but also the traditional American way of life; parodies that coverage of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Beatles, replacing flowers with vegetables.
After several albums with the Mothers, whose Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, flavored doo-wop music, or the concept album Uncle Meat, Hot Rats Zappa released a solo instrumental writing which appears chiseled his game guitar influenced by jazz and also an album recorded in public sessions at the Fillmore East with the participation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (collaboration does not appear on the disc but the part of the live double album of John Lennon "Some Time In New York City "). He continues to produce in quantity in the early 1970s, but saw a terrible month of December 1971:
On December 4, while it takes place with his band at the Casino in Montreux on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a fire in the ceiling of the room, lit by a flare fired by one of the spectators. The Casino and the equipment's Mothers are completely destroyed, but Zappa manages to leave the public without any serious incidents and calm. This event will be immortalized in the song "Smoke on the Water from Deep Purple, recorded at the same time that the album Machine Head in the mobile studio Stones. You can hear this event on the bootleg "Fire!" published officially in the box "Beat the Boots II.
By 1972 they released two albums ambitious: Waka / Jawaka and one of his most successful album, The Grand Wazoo. Failing to trade, he decided to become more easily accessible without compromising its quality standards. The results are Over-Nite Sensation, Apostrophe, Roxy & Elsewhere and (finale) One Size Fits All, with a new version of the Mothers, one of his best bands, including George Duke on keyboards, Napoleon Murphy Brock on sax and vocals, Ruth Underwood on percussion, Chester Thompson on drums. One of the most acclaimed as who will get a whole album of the series "Live" in six "volumes" You Can not Do That On Stage Anymore. It is also the ultimate declination Mothers of Invention. After a final live album recorded in 1975 with his old friend Captain Beefheart, Bongo Fury Frank Zappa disbanded the final, and no longer publish under his own name.
After a break, Zappa returned and much of his later work is influenced by its use as a tool for the Synclavier scene or composition, as well as his mastery of studio techniques to produce unusual sound effects. He is the inventor of the Xenochrony, studio technique used on many albums. His work is also more explicitly political: he makes fun of televangelists and the Republican Party America.
Shortly before his death, Zappa busied cultural policy at the request of the Czech Vaclav Havel, the two men had a deep mutual respect.
Both his son Dweezil Zappa and Ahmet are also musicians and together they formed the group Z. In May and June 2006, his son Dweezil has organized and led the tour with Zappa Plays Zappa songs written exclusively by his father.
