StarThrower

^^^^ Thanks! Maybe it was never performed to FZ's satisfaction?

A nice collection! Check out some of the earlier stuff (although you've got 25 minutes on Early and Late)- Evidence from the early 1960's, Disposability from the middle of the decade, and some early-to-mid 1970's stuff - Trickles, maybe. And you've got to have at least one unaccompanied solo album - 5 X Monk, 5 X Lacy is maybe my favorite, although there are many excellent ones. I've been itching for some more Lacy. I think I'm going to get the Soul Note box. I'd love to have the Hat Hut set that Clifford mentioned, but I think it's oop. I listened to the club recording of Seagulls from one of those albums which is sublime and surreal. Such a beautiful performance accompanied by indifferent patrons talking away in the background. Since my last post I picked up One-Upsmanship, and I ordered the 2-fer Sortie/Disposability.

I was surprised the '88 band didn't perform Marqueson's Chicken from Them Or Us. The head of the tune is brilliant, with some tricky guitar lines that Mike Keneally could have played. And then it modulates to a swinging groove for the solo section, which would have sounded great with the horns.

To my ears, You Are What You Is features a brilliantly sequenced collection of very catchy and challenging pop/rock tunes. And FZ's guitar playing was at it's stylistic and technical zenith before he switched gears and adopted the custom strat w/ locking tremolo bar. His playing on Sinister III is pretty astounding. Them Or Us is a mixed bag, but I like it for the instrumentals and extended guitar solos. I always loved his doo-wop covers, so The Closer You Are is a favorite. Both of these albums feature fantastic vocal performances. I never did buy a copy of Thing Fish.

I would never describe the compositions on Jazz From Hell as weak. Pieces like Night School, and Beltway Bandits are beautiful to my ears. And the guitar piece, St. Etienne is probably one of the finest recorded solos from the 80s that I've heard. This performance was filmed, and parts of it are on the Video From Hell VHS release.

The Guitar CD probably has too much material. There is some great stuff, and some OK solos. Trance Fusion is pretty weak to my ears. Most of the solos are from the '88 tour, and FZ's guitar playing was not on the same level as earlier days. FZ was writing and playing some amazing stuff in the early 80s. Compositions including Drowning Witch, Moggio, Sinister Footwear, the orchestral scores for London Symphony.

You don't know what you're talking about. Zappa had some of the finest keyboard players in modern music. George Duke, Tommy Mars, Don Preston, Peter Wolf, Allan Zavod, etc...

I don't need any convincing. I've been listening to Shut Up for almost 30 years. As Zappa fans know, the solo sections of the tunes are compositions within themselves. This is why these solos are so remarkable. It's spontaneous composition that is melodic, inventive, and has continuity.

The whole point of the Shut Up records was to feature FZ's guitar improvisations. And IMO, they stand up great on their own. You seem to be going through a bunch of Zappa recordings at a swift pace. Like I asked before, how much time have you spent listening to each piece of music? As for Inca Roads, several different complete versions of the composition have been released. The guitar solo from Inca Roads on Vol. 2 is the one that was used in the studio version on the One Size Fits All album. It was edited for the album, but the full solo can be heard on the Helsinki concert. To my ears, the Shut Up records were very carefully sequenced and edited, and they don't sound unstructured at all. Of course, it helps if you are already familiar with FZ's music when you come around to this set. And in the end, these records aren't going to have a very broad appeal. As FZ used to say, they are for guitar fetishists. But if you can forget about the guitar and focus on the musical content, there's plenty of inventive stuff here to enjoy.

"Loneliness is the next best thing to solitude." -Frank Zappa

I've seen this "aimless" description applied to some of these solos by others, and I don't agree in the slightest. They are not unstructured jams. If you listen to the three title tracks, you can hear that they are highly melodic and imaginative variations performed in the tune Inca Roads. Pink Napkins is another brilliant performance, and obviously a different "Black Napkins" solo. I don't know how much time you've spent with the music, but the more you listen, the more this will become apparent to your ears. I encourage Big Wheel not to brush off Studio Tan; Sleep Dirt; and Orchestral Favorites. These albums contain loads of great music.

Cecilia Bartoli

I didn't say no good. But I've already got 2000 jazz records. How much more can I listen to? I like other music too. I'm not interested in discussing where artists fit in. It's all music to me. When I use the term jazz, it encompasses all improvised music from Armstrong to Zorn.

Wow. You can't say there's no interest here The search engine doesn't always work for me. I typed in Why Not before I started this thread and got nothing.

Anyone pick up any of these? I ordered the two Air CDs. http://www.candidrecords.com/index.php?cPath=41

I was never interested in Wynton and his followers. I'm the same age, and his vision for jazz at the time had no appeal. Of course the record companies ran with it, and dropped a lot of the more progressive artists, which drove them underground 15-20 years before the internet began destroying the record business. I'm sure there are some very creative and unique musicians making music today, but It's tough to find them. Who's got time to wade through tens of thousands of releases at CD Baby?

I have The Skipper, and Infant Eyes. I dig both. Good stuff!

The Devil's Advocate question is why would anybody from after their generation want to play it either? Whatever the answer is, it ain't "comforting"! Or is it? I guess because they like it? Why do people still make blues records? They ain't gonna do it any better than Muddy, Howlin' Wolf, T-Bone, etc. Zappa and Beefheart loved the blues, but they knew it was pointless to make straight blues records. They had imagination and did something creative. As far as today's jazz scene is concerned, I can do without 98 percent of it. I'm just looking for a few unique voices to listen to. I don't care about all these cats that know all their jazz chords, but keep regurgitating what's already been done. Right now John Hollenbeck catches my ear. He has his own sound. As far as guitarists go, I haven't heard anybody in the past few years who sounds unique. I like Oz Noy. He has his own sound, but how many of these funk/jazz/soul trio albums is he going to do? He's got 4 out already.

Mike Keneally-Boil That Dust Speck Deluxe Edition CD/DVD

Finding And Believing is an incredible tune! And I never had a problem with the wordless Brazilian style vocals. In fact, Tell It All, from The First Circle is a really cool tune with a beautiful vocal melody and an interesting cowbell rhythm. Pat's guitar solo is fantastic on that track!

Why would anyone from Coryell's and McLaughlin's generation want to play straight ahead jazz in the late 60s-early 70s? That music had already been done to perfection by Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Pat Martino, etc. They wanted to do something else. Even Allan Holdsworth, who is known for his harmonically advanced compositions was playing modal music with Soft Machine in those days. Di Meola is very rhythm oriented, and I'm sure he found most 4/4 swing jazz not to his liking. But his music is not as harmonically advanced as traditional jazz. I still don't think he can do it convincingly. Someone like Scott Henderson or Mike Stern can do both very well.

A leisure suit, toe tappin' good time!

John Hollenbeck recorded a great rendition of this tune on his new album, Songs I Like A Lot.