Jazz Noise Here

It was a stroke of pure casting genius to have Ringo Starr play Frank Zappa in the bonkers movie 200 Motels.
Since Frank's demise in 1993 others have played him, too; many others.

They've played him baroque, in tribute, rock, orchestral, straight, a capella, avant garde and jazz.
And it's the jazz genre Mar Vista Philharmonic decide on for playing Zappa.

The brainchild of Tommy Mars, the Mar Vista Philharmonic (Mar Vista being the district in L.A. where they play and record) collectively refer to themselves as 'Zappa's last touring band' (although I'm not sure they were [?]), and the 'Band from Utopia', which I presume means the band from nowhere.
(It's all puns, of course: Mar Vista Philharmonic is itself a pun (Tommy Mars, the area and the Mahavishnu Orchestra [!]); 'Band from Utopia' refers to Zappa's Man From Utopia, and if they do come from 'nowhere', then they come from Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which tells us 'I Come From Nowhere'.
Man, it all starts folding in on itself! Where's my medicine!?)

Seven musicians in all, MVP play some very cool jazz. There's no holding back on the chops, and even with my not very with it jazz ears I can tell these guys really know what they're doing, and they do it really well.
I'm sure Frank wouldn't have had it any other way.

The piece here was recorded in 2003, ten years after Frank's death, and was performed in tribute to their old master and muse.
A twenty-five minute mash or medley of Zappa's tunes woven together into one piece of live music.
The way familiar melodies ('Chunga's Revenge', 'Treacherous Cretins', 'Inca Roads'...) emerge from this piece of music is rather like spotting a recognisable face among a crowd of strangers; they just float out and greet you, and you immediately feel comfortable, safe; but then you lose sight of them and you become lost again (lost in music); eventually you find solace as another familiar face comes along, and hey, you immediately feel comforted, connected; but not for long....
It goes on like this for some time - well, twenty-five minutes actually, as I said earlier....
(Did you find it? My medicine?)

Anyway. It's really good. And if you like interpretations of Zappa's beautiful music, then this is well worth checking out.
Arf.

Mar Vista Philharmonic - Shut Up and Make a Jazz Noise Here (2003)
Dedicated to FZ. Recorded by BBC Radio 3, broadcast on Jazz on 3, Dec 3.

Features:
Albert Wing - Tenor Sax
Bruce Fowler - Trombone
Walt Fowler - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Kurt McGettrick - Baritone Sax, Bass Clarinette, Flute
Tommy Mars - Keyboards, Vocals
Arthur Barrow - Bass
Vinnie Colaiuta - Drums

Excellent rip from cassette captured FM broadcast @320kbs
Visit Mars here

Frankly

As it's my birthday I figured I'd share with you something from 'The Best'.

Despite this 2008 album's official release status, it seems to have gone beneath many's radar, especially in Britain where I believe it only existed as an import - if such things can exist in that fashion in today's technology reduced planet.

Essentially an album of fragments from seventies' shows, this, unlike some of the posthumous releases, is definitely of interest to both the casual and the hardcore Zappa fan. The fragments are extremely well selected; offering some wonderfully tasty morsels for the ears to chomp upon.
Chomp Chomp.

To open, there's a glorious piece from the Apostrophe/One Size Fits All band, where the playful stretching of words, mainly the word 'well', can be heard; all done in the spirit of jazz of course: an old joke it may be, but it always makes me chuckle.
The clowning is followed by some masterful loose keyboard playing by Duke - surely one of Zappa's most homogeneous and complimentary of collaborators (after all, they wrote 'Uncle Remus' together, right, say no more!).

After a mosaic of quite discordant instrumentals, FZ gets down to business and two of those gorgeously claustrophobic squitty solos are captured.
'Occam's Razor', lifted from a recording of 'Inca Roads', highlights Zappa's tactile playing - as much done with pedals as it is with his fingers - and it's so precise and so extraordinary it totally mesmerizes.
'Heidelberg', a solo extracted from a recording of Sheik Yerbouti's 'Yo Mama', is deep: deep, deep notes squirted straight into your head; even the pauses, the spaces, creating a deep sense of claustrophobia.

To be there, to experience what Zappa referred to as 'air sculptures' was incredible.
The notes, especially those 'deep' ones, would leave you catatonic.
When that spotlight picked out that guitar player the audience were one.
Not in a 'Radio Ga-Ga' way, but held, suspended; beheld by something truly great; beheld by something magical: sublime.
And no matter how many people were in that venue, when that guitar player played that guitar there existed in that moment merely you and him.
And that doesn't happen very often.
Well, not to me it doesn't.

'Australian Yellow Snow' is a revamped version of the Nanook songs from Apostrophe. A real hodge-podge this one: each section taking on a different genre, making it very new and fresh to the ear.

And no matter how familiar you think it's going to be, you can never assume you've heard it all before with Zappa, he always went beyond expectations; even evening shows following a matinee were considerably different.
Hence the glut of bootleg material.

But this isn't a bootleg, and you have no need to worry about the sound quality; as with all released by the ZFT, sometimes the artistic quality may not always be top notch (Trance Fusion, what was going on there?) but the sound quality always is.

Fortunately, this selection meets all criteria.

Frank Zappa - One Shot Deal (2008)

Bathtub Man
Space Boogers
Hermitage
Trudgin' Across the Tundra
Occam's Razor
Heidelberg
The Illinois Enema Bandit
Australian Yellow Snow
Rollo

CD rip to mp3s
Feel it here

Doo Wot!

You're probably wondering why this is here; something that is seemingly readily available?

If not immediate within the Blogosphere then merely a click away from your favourite cyber-retailer.

Well, my reasoning is that what I'm posting here isn't readily available.

Not in this format.

This is a vinyl rip of the album; and it really does sound very different indeed from the now available CD version.

When I first heard Ruben & the Jets on CD I couldn't believe it was being marketed as 'Remastered'; a more appropriate description would be 'Remixed'.

The 'lewd pulsating rhythm' is far, far lewder here, and there are all manner of pulses, reverberations, frequencies and sonics on the vinyl version that are completely absent from the digitized edition - and that's not down to my well-played hunk of forty-two year old heavyweight vinyl; those old Verve pressings have really stood the test of time, you know, and sound as rich and vibrant now as they ever did; and certainly in this case: so much richer and 'alive'.

So if you only know this in its CD format, check this out. Make the comparison for yourself.
I think you'll be mighty surprised.

And if you don't know the album... well, it is in a sense a Doo-wop album recorded by The Mothers of Invention.
They don't pretend to be Ruben and the Jets; for this in reality is an early concept album; they remain The Mothers of Invention, but as the album informs the probably at the time very confused listener:

"This is an album of greasy love songs & cretin simplicity. We made it because we really like this kind of music (just a bunch of old men with rock & roll clothes on sitting around the studio, mumbling about the good old days). Ten years from now you'll be sitting around with your friends someplace doing the same thing if there's anything left to sit on"

And also asks the question:

"Is this The Mothers of Invention recording under a different name in a last ditch attempt to get their cruddy music on the radio?"

Which of course it wasn't.
One of the most subversive things an artist such as Zappa could do in 1968 was revert back to the music that turned him on as a young teenager: the music of the early to mid-fifties.

Cruising With Ruben &The Jets is often described as a satire; or at best a parody.
It isn't. It's a pastiche.
There's real genuine reverence here; the album is all homage.
And because of that respect, this is played straight; authentic: real.

Just listen to Ray Collins' 'Anything' - a great example to compare with the CD, the space and reverberation created in this recording is gorgeous - the band really give it their all; and Collins' vocal is just so heartfelt, proving that he really loved this stuff, and also proving, if any proof were needed that he really was [one of?] the greatest vocalist[s] Zappa ever worked with.

The lyrics do seem overblown; exaggerated to a ridiculous degree; but it is in essence true to Doo-wop.
The lyrics may be dumb, but they're not really satirical, and compared to original Doo-wop lyrics, especially those of the later period, they're really not that hyperbolic.
Even the wonderful 'Stuff Up the Cracks', that includes what has to be one of my favourite opening lines:

"If you decide to leave me, it's all over".

Yes, totally self-absorbed, egotistical and vain beyond belief.
But hey, that's pop music, right; and it's most certainly Doo-wop.

I do recognise the paradox in offering this in the form of mp3s.
I mean, I'd like to invite you round so you could listen to my lovely vinyl version, but logistically that may be problematic...
But this is a 320 vinyl rip, and a carrot's as close a rabbit can get to a diamond as a slightly relevant musical genius once said.
So this will have to do.

The Mothers of Invention - Cruising With Ruben &The Jets (1968)

Cheap Thrills
Love of My Life
How Could I Be Such a Fool
Deseri
I'm Not Satisfied
Jelly Roll Gum Drop
Anything
Later That Night
You Didn't Try To Call Me
Fountain of Love
"No. No. No."
Anyway the Wind Blows
Stuff Up the Cracks

Lovely vinyl rip @320kbs
Get into the groove here

As a footnote to my comment, it's interesting what Ben Watson had to say in his book about Zappa, The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, about the ending of Ruben & The Jets; literally what occurs during the final bars of the album as the final track 'Stuff Up the Cracks' comes to an end:

"The guitar playing pushes the music out of its circular triteness, a flash of linear development, history, freedom: all the more poignant after the rest of the album's suffocating limitations."

Nice!

Intertextuality

Richard Penniman, one of the true subversive heroes of the Twentieth Century, and the writer and performer of some of the most far-out songs ever to enter the mainstream.

By the time the sixties came around, Little Richard had tasted success, controversy and a return to the church.
Like so many American artists who emerged from the 1950s, Little Richard seemed to be troubled by a morality problem associated with performing rock n roll music.
The propaganda was strong; rock n roll was the devil's music, and those who championed it were demons, diabolists: sinners!

After a brief absence, and a chance for Penniman to redeem his soul, the original Upsetter returned to the road; he couldn't stay away, and by the mid-sixties he was back, embracing the rock n roll lifestyle in a gloriously big way, apparently deciding, in a truly Satanic manner: if you can't be good then you may as well be wicked.
He also added blues, soul and funk to his ever increasingly flamboyant and outrageous stage shows.

This album comes out of that period, and features a very eclectic Little Richard: soulful and deep; wild and frantic.

It also includes a Penniman composition that has always been one of my favourite Mothers of Invention tracks, and what has to be one of the greatest covers of all time: 'Directly From My Heart', from Weasels Ripped My Flesh, deliciously belted out by Don 'Sugarcane' Harris, supported by his own tasty violin licks and Zappa's thuggish guitar accompaniment.

Just goes to prove that nothing comes from nothing: everything comes from something.
Right!
The Wild and Frantic Little Richard (1966)

Baby What Do You Want Me To Do?
Do the Jerk
Directly From My Heart
I'm Back
Holy Mackeral
Good Golly Miss Molly
Send Me Some Lovin'
Groovy Little Suzy
Baby Don't You Want a Man Like Me?
Miss Ann
Do You Feel It
Slippin' and Slidin'

Vinyl rip @320kbs
Some crackles and pops, mainly on outs
Get Wild and Frantic here

I'm sure this must have been a popular play in the Zappa household; not only does it feature the original of 'Directly' but it also includes Little Richard's cover of B.B. King's 'Baby Don't You Want a Man Like Me?' A track that must surely have been the inspiration for Zappa's mid-seventies composition 'Honey Don't You Want a Man Like Me?'
Coincidence?
Probably
not.

In case you want to hear the Mothers' even-better than the original version of Little Richard's blues classic; I've put the two versions back to back for your pleasure and comparison here

Draft Exclusion

Released at the height of Ronnie Reagan kick starting the good ol' Cold War; probably the most paranoid time in post McCarthy America; until Al-Qaeda came along of course.

What comes around goes around.

And just to prove how paranoid times really were, the U.S. distributors of this 7"45 (Mercury-Phonogram) refused to handle the record; and not merely down to subject matter; Cal Schenkel's artwork on the reverse was considered 'unpatriotic'.

Yeah, I know.
I don't get it either.

As for the music itself; this single version of 'I Don't Wanna Get Drafted' varies enormously from the You Are What You Is version; different enough on the album to warrant the title 'Drafted Again'.

The flip side features a gorgeous live recording of the instrumental 'Ancient Armaments'; a superb mesmerizing guitar solo recorded live at the New York Palladium at Halloween in 1978.
Ben Watson describes it in his The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play as 'majestically slow and melancholy'.
Perfect!

Frank Zappa - I Don't Wanna Get Drafted 7"45 (1980)

I Don't Wanna Get Drafted
Ancient Armaments

Decent vinyl rip @320kbs
Open your own envelope here

Space Magic

There's a heck of a lot of Zappa boots and unofficial releases out there - I know, I've downloaded most of 'em - much to the chagrin of the Zappa Family Trust.
Well, the ol' man shouldn't have been so fucking sublime, should he!

Anyway, here's my tuppeth worth; and it's not one you see very often, so hopefully this isn't a complete waste of time.

I acquired this double slab o' vinyl a way back; swapped it for a vinyl copy of Spirit's Potatoland, an album I wasn't particularly keen on, but now apparently fetches a small fortune.

But who values music merely for its material worth and format?
That would be madness...

As for this little beauty: no company is credited, although Zappa's Barking Pumpkin logo is stamped on the front; sides A and B have red labels, sides C and D are yellow: stamped on all four are merely the words "Space Magic" plus an "A", "B", "C" or "D".
There are good credit notes, musicians, venues, dates, and altogether it's a very professional gatefold package.

Part 1, all live recordings, is decent soundboard quality.
It takes a slight dip on the left channel for a couple of tracks, but easily remedied, and really it's only noticeable with cans.

Lisa Popeil gets to tell her life story ('Lisa's Story of Her Life'), and very enlightening and entertaining it is.
We also get to hear how authoritarian and grammar school masterly Zappa could be when dealing with 'bad people' in his audience.
'Broken Hearts' is suspended while Zappa cringingly forces a fan to clear up the stage with his face after hurling something messy upon it.
Hmm.

Part 2 opens with a big instrumental; for me the highlight of the album: a tasty and well recorded version of 'The Deathless Horsie'.
Slower and meaner than the Shut Up and Play Your Guitar version, with its neat bookending of do de-do, do de-do, do de-do; do de-do, do de-do, do de do-do; a perfect motif that envisages the western: big empty plains and lonesome cowboys.
A solo is pushed inbetween, one of those real gorgeous claustrophobic numbers with the squirty wah-wahed notes really shaping and squeezing the air.
Know what I mean?

Side D of the original vinyl (the second part of Part 2) is not the greatest of pressings, and here the quality is a bit wanting (not helped by a little crackle and pop I'm afraid), but the tracks are curious enough to deem attention.

'Flambay', 'the love song of Drakma, the Queen of Cosmic Greed, to Hunchentoot the Giant Spider', and 'Spider of Destiny' are included with original lyrics (both were initially released as instrumentals), sung, curiously, by the credited 'Unknown Woman' [Thana Harris?]; the female vocal bringing an even more skewed perspective to Zappa's odd musings on materialism.

Other tracks towards the end are all demo versions of songs from Them and Us, including one of the most unlike-Zappa songs Zappa wrote: 'The Planet Of My Dreams', an unusually moral elegy ruminating on the poor state of humanity; or as Ben Watson claims, Zappa reveals "a proud boast of integrity".*

There is also a macabre, stripped down version of 'Frogs With Dirty Little Lips', a song Zappa composed with his then infant son Ahmet.
It's much more down and dirty than the 'finished' product, and I must say, I do prefer it.

So, all in all, well worth checking out.

Would I swap it back for Potatoland?
Would I bollocks.

*The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play by Ben Watson.
The best damn rock-crit book ever written.

Frank Zappa - Demos (1986)

Teenage Prostitute
A Pound For a Brown on the Bus
Lisa's Story of Her life
Broken Hearts Are For Assholes
Doreen
Easy Meat
Stick It Out
Truck Driver Divorce
The Deathless Horsie
Outside Now Again & Again
Flambay
Planet of My Dreams
Spider of Destiny
Truck Driver Divorce
Frogs With Dirty Little lips
In France

Vinyl rip @320kbs
Part 1 includes cover and notes

Part 1 here
Part 2 here