FRANK ZAPPA — Waka/Jawaka

Jazz music community with review and forums

FRANK ZAPPA - Waka/Jawaka cover
4.11 | 31 ratings | 2 reviews
Buy this album from MMA partners

Album · 1972

Tracklist

1. Big Swifty (17:22)
2. Your Mouth (3:12)
3. It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal (4:16)
4. Waka/Jawaka (11:18)

Total Time: 36:09

Line-up/Musicians

Frank Zappa – guitar, percussion, electric bed springs
Tony Duran – slide guitar, vocals
George Duke – ring-modulated & echoplexed electric piano, tack piano
Sal Marquez – trumpet, vocals, flugelhorn, chimes
Erroneous (Alex Dmochowski) – electric bass, vocals, fuzz bass
Aynsley Dunbar – drums, washboard, tambourine
Chris Peterson – vocals
Joel Peskin – tenor sax
Mike Atschul – baritone saxophone, piccolo, bass flute, bass clarinet, tenor sax
Jeff Simmons – Hawaiian guitar, vocals
Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar
Janet Ferguson – vocals
Don Preston – guitar, Minimoog
Bill Byers – trombone, baritone horn
Ken Shroyer – trombone, baritone horn
Gerry Sack - muted maracas

About this release

Bizarre MS 2094

Thanks to EZ Money, js, snobb for the updates

Buy FRANK ZAPPA - WAKA/JAWAKA music

More places to buy jazz & FRANK ZAPPA music

FRANK ZAPPA WAKA/JAWAKA reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

No FRANK ZAPPAWAKA/JAWAKA reviews posted by specialists/experts yet.

Members reviews

smartpatrol
Frank Zappa made so much music in his lifetime. Each album was differant and varied, bringing new styles and genres into the mix. In the early/mid seventies, Zappa made two very Jazz-infulinced albums; Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazzo. Waka/Jawaka is my favorite of the two. The album opens with "Big Swifty", an 18 minute long big-band swing piece full of improv and solos. After losing yourself in the opening tracks, you find yourself in "Your Mouth", a slow, odd Jazzish rock ballad. Then comes my favorite Zappa song, "It Just Might Be a One Shot Deal". It starts off as a slow country song with teird-sounding, mumbling vocals. After a serise of time signature and theme changes, it's back to a country song, but fast this time. After an instumental passage, Zappa breaks in with the final line of the song, which abrutptly ends and goes straight into the title track, an eleven minute big-band swing song, much like the opener. Favorites from the album:

"Big Swifty" "It Might Just be a One Shot Deal" "Waka/Jawaka"

This is a fantastic album, especialy if you're looking for something jazzy and avant. 4/5
Warthur
Unable to tour due to injuries caused by a fan shoving him offstage during the ill-fated final tour with the Flo and Eddie lineup of the Mothers, Zappa spent a couple of months during his recuperation indulging a fascinating experiment in fusion - taking fusion-based compositional ideas as developed during the Hot Rats session, and applying them not to a rock group-sized band as most fusion artists were doing at a time, but to a "big band" lineup reminiscent of the larger jazz groups of bygone years.

The Grand Wazoo big band yielded two albums, of which this is one, and fans of Zappa's Hot Rats work - featuring minimal lyrics and complex, interwoven soloing between instruments - will find a lot to like here, and whilst it isn't quite the groundbreakingly innovative piece that Hot Rats was, it's certainly a great contribution to the genre. Try Hot Rats first, but give this a go if you liked it.

Ratings only

  • Brown Clown
  • ed141414
  • tupan
  • MoogHead
  • Decao
  • b4usleep
  • lunarston
  • zrong
  • esset55
  • Lynx33
  • nebol
  • Kontiki
  • historian9
  • chrijom
  • Ponker
  • Dr Dopo
  • Reg
  • timzurita
  • darkprinceofjazz
  • Croteau
  • darkshade
  • frippism
  • Drummer
  • HeadlessJazzman
  • POW
  • Tychovski
  • zorn1
  • Noak2
  • Sean Trane

Write/edit review

You must be logged in to write or edit review

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Cabaret Eclectic Fusion
MARIUS NESET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Living Ghosts Post-Fusion Contemporary
MICHAEL WOLLNY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Live at Donte's, Vol. 1 Vocal Jazz
MIKE CAMPBELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sunday Afternoon Fusion
FURIO DI CASTRI
Buy this album from MMA partners
São Paulo Creative 4 : Supernova Avant-Garde Jazz
IVO PERELMAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Sunday afternoon
FURIO DI CASTRI
snobb· 4 hours ago
Harmônicos
FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO
js· 19 hours ago
Con Alma
GENE BERTONCINI
js· 22 hours ago
Our Walk (Live)
BEN MARKLEY
js· 22 hours ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us