Part 2 of Joe Travers’ archaeological exploration of the Zappa vault resulted in probably the most controversial ZFT release thus far: an old cassette containing a rehearsal from FZ’s preliminary explorations with the repertoire for the albums that would soon come to be known as Waka/Jawaka and the Grand Wazoo. So, what’s wrong with it? Well, the sound is somewhat “roomy”, with the room in question being a wretched sounding rehearsal space in Hollywood. A boomy, nasty tone that will be tragically familiar to anyone who has rented a second rate rehearsal space anywhere in the world, only to hear their music being sonically destroyed by rooms that were not meant to have notes played in them! So, the sound sucks….but actually, that is for me the only real issue to complain about. What you have here is the chance to be a fly on the wall at the turning point of one of Frank’s most fascinating projects – and the fact that the music is some considerable distance away from the finished result only adds to the intrigue. Blessed Relief and bits of Greggery Peccary all appear in radically different forms, plus The Grand Wazoo itself with lyrics!!

You also get to hear FZ painstakingly teaching parts to the musicians by rote with guitar in hand (probably still confined to his wheelchair too)….and despite all of the “magic” that we know and love from the finished recordings, there is a matter of fact, almost perfunctory nature to these rehearsals that reminds the listener that behind every FZ masterpiece was a shit load of hard graft. The end of the cassette is quite revealing as Frank and Aynsley Dunbar play a new section, that in the end wasn’t incorporated into the finished work (although the Mothers had played it on stage previously) and Frank says that he hopes that he’ll have time to copy out parts before the next rehearsal. There is some chat about what day is best for the next meeting and who can make it, and as the recording abruptly cuts of, you are left with a real sense of the normality of Frank’s day to day existence in 1972.

Or you are bored to tears and regretting splashing out the full CD price (plus shipping) for a hard to listen to bootleg with lots of talking and songs you already own in better versions! Well, either opinion is fair. I’m not sure how many times I listen to this one, but I am glad I own it.

A real surprise this one, but as with the Halloween DVDaudio, the success really depends on if you have a 5:1 system….which I don’t. So…what’s in it for the Luddite who doesn’t really fancy positioning a multitude of speakers around his already crowded living space? Well, actually many tasty treats – and perhaps one track that could even make it into a Zappa top 10 songs list.

The premise for this cumbersomely titled album was the notion that Frank was interested in multi-channel mixing as early as 1970, as demonstrated by a “quad” recording of Chunga’s Revenge made in the Zappa basement that has a wonderfully intimate and loose feel to it that feels as though you are sat in the corner of the room next to the bass amp – and this is just the stereo mix. Of course, Frank did release quadraphonic mixes of albums in the 70’s, such as Overnite Sensation, and there are other examples of previously released Zappa tracks (Wild Love, Naval Aviation In Art?) in the surround sound mode, and of course for “boring” stereo dwellers such as myself it’s these moments that hold little interest. Although, as any Hardcore Zappa fan knows, it’s always fun to hear familiar songs in a different context which is of course a major Zappa speciality.

But what of the gold buried within the album? Look no further than Rollo. It’s strange to consider the poor results of many rock/orchestra collaborations in the light of the joyously successful noise that Frank manages to produce here. It just seems so natural to have these seemingly opposing musical forces wailing away together live on stage in 1975. But of course, it’s the composition that is king – previously released as the coda to the 1979 live version of Yellow Snow (You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol: 1) and actually dating much further back to the 1972 “Petit Wazoo” tour, Rollo really is Frank at his best. Comically heroic brass fanfares, funky clavinet driven grooves, a biting guitar solo and a remarkable sense of orchestration (listen to when everyone starts folding in after the brief cor anglais solo near the end) all show Frank to be at the top of his game. Dweezil sums it up in the liner notes: Bitchen!

The best of the rest is an unoverdubbed Waka-Jawaka, which is perhaps less interesting to listen to but more thought provoking as to the level of further composition that was to come in order to provide the piece’s conclusion. Then there is the wonderful Basement Music #2, a further example of Frank enjoying messing around with early electronics that was a precursor to his later obsession with the Synclavier. And in a similar spirit there is a hitherto unheard version of the vamps from Easter Hay and Deathless Horsie overlaid with a stinging yet poignant Zappa interview about the state of the music industry.

So, with the caveat about 5:1 taken into account, this was certainly a fun and interesting release.

An agonizing 15 month wait was on the cards for Zappa fanatics after the release of Halloween and it did sort of feel as if the Vault may have involuntarily sealed itself up, especially as the ZFT had begun their curious policy of less than helpful information distribution: i.e, you got a new Zappa album in your hands roughly a few days or so after they announced it, with precious little promotional build up and little or no explanation as to why any particular release had been chosen. So it was with Joe’s Corsage that appeared somewhat unexpectedly in May 2004. The Zappas though had really shot themselves in the foot in terms of fan expectations by making available the film trailer for the Roxy Performances a few years before, as any release that didn’t in some way feature Frank and the Mothers live on stage in December ‘73 would inevitably be a tad dissapointing. Despite that though, the concept of the “Joe’s” series was an interesting one: Joe Travers, now firmly trusted with the alarm code for the Vault had been given a further licence to collate releases of particularly unique historical value, that might otherwise not fit in to any other project.

First up in the collection (which at the time of writing is currently at four volumes) were a selection of pre – Freak Out demos by the “original” Mothers featuring, on the first four tracks, second guitarist Henry Vestine, plus a few covers (the Wedding Dress Song/Handsome Cabin Boy combo makes an early appearance here) and a few brief spoken word sections with Zappa talking about the early days. There’s also a fun early version of Take Your Clothes of When You Dance with different lyrics. Sound quality is quite stunning considering the era, and overall this brief CD makes a nice little companion to both Freak Out and the Mystery Disc and Lost Episodes albums. But, you can’t help feeling that maybe it’s real home would have been on the giant MOFO boxset from a few years down the line. The following “Joe’s” albums (each with it’s own bewilderingly obscure rhyme for Garage) would produce even more controversey regarding just what Zappa fans were prepared to pay for. But before that there was yet another unexpected release in the form of Quaudiophiliac….

A few years back, it was possible via the Zappa.com website to send an email to the Vaultmeister Joe Travers asking about upcoming releases. One such email sent by me enquired about the possibility of L. Shankar being featured on any future albums. A reply came back informing me that my world would be “rocked” very shortly. Well…almost. For those in the know of course, Zappa and Halloween at the New York Palladium became a legendary pairing like Floyd in Pompeii, or Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard. It was his place, and for a few nights every year leading up to Halloween night, Frank and his”rocking teenage combo” (which at this time featured Vinnie Colaiuta, Arthur Barrow, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf, Ed Mann, Denny Walley and bonus Bass guitar guest Patrick O’Hearn) put on shows of epic proportions. None more so than Halloween 1978: 6 shows in total culminating in a truly momentous 4 hour extravaganza on the 31st, with the aforementioned L (Larry as Frank called him) Shankar, fresh out of Shakti, on hand to provide what can only be described as a dueling partner for Frank throughout the show. These solo battles took place in Pound For a Brown, Little House I Used to Live In, Watermelon in Eater Hay, Packard Goose and Black Napkins and were one of the reasons that the concert nearly hit the 4 hour mark, the other being the sheer variety of material being played from throughout Frank’s career. As he says at the start of this DVD-A: “we’re going to play a very long show, I hope you people arn’t in a hurry to get home…”. He then lets us know that after playing the normal part of the show we’ll be treated to a “whole collection of stuff that we don’t normally do”.

So far so good, and with this being DVD-A the possibilities for cramming an ungodly amount of prime Zappa into one disc seemed exciting. Things start of well with the opening guitar solo Ancient Armaments wonderful setting up the hysteria of the event. But, tragically what follows becomes merely a Zappa greatest hits show. The “whole collection of stuff” that they don’t normally do gets moved to one side to make way for Yellow Snow, Stinkfoot and…wait for it….Dinah-Moe Humm!! To be fair, this album’s version of Easy Meat kicks supreme arse with a great guitar solo, some hilarious seal noises from Vinnie and a lovely swagger throughout. There’s also some hot guitar in Stinkfoot and a nice moment of crowd interaction as Frank spots someone that he recognises from the Garrick theatre days, which makes up for this song seeing it’s 5th official release at this stage. But by the time that the Dinah-Brillo-Muffin Man encore kicks in, you can’t help but feel that a great opportunity to present one of Frank’s greatest concerts has slipped away.

That is until the final track quietly starts up: a softly rendered version of Black Napkins that slowly disintegrates into discordantly scattered guitar phrases over Vinnie’s typically splintered drumming, before the most miraculous transformation occurs. Out of nowhere Zappa starts poking away at the melody to the Deathless Horsie and the band, rather than simply dropping straight into the correct chord sequence, instead modulate and pull around the harmony benind the guitar before finally easing into the tonic key as the groove gets re-established. At which point, out pops Shankar for a some more of what had been taking place all night at the Palladium but sadly not on this album. Shankar ghosts Zappa’s solo beautifully, before a cue form the boss sends everyone back to Black Napkins to finish things off.

It must be something to do with the ZFT’s deal with DTS that warranted such a “hits” intensive release, and the Napkins/Horsie combo clearly comes across as the bait to get the hardcore fans on board. And of course, don’t forget the fact that it was a 5:1 release which was quite ahead of the game for 2003. And Vinnie’s drums do sound edible!! But you can’t help hoping that more is to come from these particular shows…

The late 90’s was a strange time for Zappa fans. The Zappa Family Trust in partnership with Rykodisc had unveiled the rather wonderful “Lost Episodes” and “Lather“, but by the time that “Have I Offended Someone” and “Mystery Disc” came out they seemed to be accompanied by the highly ambient sound of the bottom of a barrel being vigorously scrapped. What about the mythical Vault we had heard so much about? A subterranean lair 73 miles deep filled with 2,396 unreleased Zappa albums…or at the very least a few cool live shows? Time passed…something Zappa fans would soon get used to in regards to new releases. But then! Suddenly! An animated Kangaroo appeared on zappa.com signalling the arrival of the first, official Vault release: FZ:OZ – Live In Australia. After getting over the initial disappointment that this was not from the 1973 world tour with the Ponty/Duke era band, fans could start getting excited about what was contained on these two discs. Firstly, the extremely rare line up of Napoleon Murphy Brock, Roy Estrada, Terry Bozzio and the “blink and you’ll miss him” super rare appearance of Andre Lewis on Keyboards, who has a very distinct playing style, particularly when he takes his many synth solos throughout the show. Then there was the prospect of a full, complete concert. Not even the Helsinki Concert had been a single unedited performance, so this was a first. And also, a great set list. Certainly, short on the instrumentally challenging side of things, but interesting nonetheless with both Freak Out and We’re Only in it for the Money medleys, prototype versions of soon-to-be-classic Zappa songs, and lots and lots of great guitar solos. In fact, disc 1 feels a little like a Blues version of Shut up and Play Your Guitar at times.

But it’s on disc 2 that, for me the fun really starts. There’s the just about recognizable early draft of Let’s Move to Cleveland, here going by the title of Canard Toujours, a 100% unreleased “new” song in the form of Kaiser Rolls – not a Zappa classic, but still well worth hearing – and the aforementioned Money medley, featuring my favourite moment on the whole album: the blistering re-working of Lonely Little Girl that contains the coolest guitar solo since…well, Advance Romance back on disc 1.

Chunga’s Revenge (amazingly receiving its first official live release here) and Zoot Allures finish the main part of the set with nearly 30 mins of solos and, later on in Frank’s case, some extremely introverted guitar improvisation that makes you forget the fact that there were several thousand, possibly inebriated, Australians waiting for Dinah-Moe-Humm. In fact, it’s worth remembering what a challenge a Zappa show must have been for the “average” audience, with a good 50% of this material being unreleased at the time of the recording. Even on CD, and listening in the comfort of your own home, the full concert experience is quite exhausting – name any other artist in history who played, completely uninterrupted for over 2 hours?? – so much so that the encores are a bit of a let down and probably will be listened to considerably less that the bulk of the main concert.

As an opening shot from the ZFT this was a great start with lots to keep rediscovering upon each listen. But the next few years would prove to be an extremely bumpy ride….

to be continued…