Frank Zappa & Jazz

(Wow ... 2018!!! ... hope he reads this, or anyone else)

I'm not sure that Frank Zappa fits in any area of music any more than the other. In his early days, it was more about the satirical edge on things around him on radio and TV, and later, things kinda changed, as he began to take his own music more seriously, and while some things appear to have some jazz this and that on it, in the end, I find that his compositional ability is way beyond rock/jazz and even classical ... and his comment about it "smells funny" is probably a joke and he likely would say something just as weird about rock music or even classical music.

I've always thought that he was more interested in making sure that he added the touches he felt were needed to each musical piece ... and we, on the outside of the whole thing tend to generalize how we think it might have some of this or some of that ... the strange thing being I have never looked at a lot of his music and thought ... ohh there's some jazz there ... or there's some rock there ... in the majority of his work, although into the 1970's he became more of a rock writer than anything else, culminating with "Overnight Sensation" which showed his cleverness and ability as a composer, even of things that were more commercial than most of his work, which was always challenging the status quo.

However, it is really nice to see someone write this kind of stuff about an artist ... which is something not often done in America, where too much of the music is about the commerciality and not the music ... and this was something that Frank fought all his life. And perhaps it is most visible in his 200 MOTELS film, where the material itself is a complete satire, non-stop to the end, including the amazing choir piece, which was better shown in the UCLA revival created by Gayle Zappa just before she passed away ... which made the whole thing sound even better and more entertaining. Somehow we missed all the fun ... along the way ... and in many ways, this was what Frank was really about ... but as a composer, there are very few in America that can come close to Frank's ability and output.

I'm not sure I would recommend folks listen to Frank's work for jazz or rock, or anything else, because it will get folks frustrated, and this is clear in the rock side of things on PA, where some fans dislike Frank because he is not a riff minded player, or a typical melody minded player at all, and he is by very far one of the best improvisational guitar players ever ... however, not much of his extended solos have been released by the family, which kinda keeps him stuck on the commercial side of things, likely for the sale of the stuff, more than anything else ... and sadly, we don't get to hear more, and they have a hundred times more material in their vault. 

I guess we have to wait until the copyrights run over and it all becomes public domain, and then we can, finally, find out what he had left behind.