7/4 Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Born December 21, 1940 Origin Baltimore, Maryland Died December 4, 1993 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 (edited) I was pretty bummed when Frank died in '93. I was in college at the time (about 23 years of age), finishing a B.A. in music (after having already completed another more "career-oriented" BA in 1991). In the Spring of 1993, I had taken a 300-level 20th Century "Classical" music history class. Zappa was covered, slightly, but the only musical examples presented were one track each from Freak Out, and Apostrophe. Pissed me off that NONE of Frank's more "serious" music was covered (or even mentioned, at least not until I brought it up in class). So I got a whole bunch of music major friends of mine to each kick in $10 or $15, and I bought CD copies of The Yellow Shark, London Symphony (2CD version), the date with Pierre Boulez (The Perfect Stranger), Jazz From Hell and Civilization Phase III (which are Zappa's two Synclavier-based releases), plus all 5-discs of the live '88 band (Broadway The Hard Way, Best Band You Never Heard (2CD), and Jazz Noise (also 2CD)), and we donated them to the college music library. And I thought, the NEXT time this class is taught -- there's gonna DAMN well be some examples of what Frank tried to do with "serious" music, along with what he's known better for. (Or if not in the class itself, then at least available in the music library.) And to the best of my knowledge, there's a shit-load of interesting Zappa at Knox College's music library, to this very day. (By the way, until this thread came up -- I'd nearly forgotten all about having done this.) Edited December 4, 2006 by Rooster_Ties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted December 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I was up early the next morning, listening to Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet. I noticed a message on my answering machine, a friend called in tears to tell me the news. It seems like yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 (edited) I see Knox has their music library catalog on-line now. Here's what I found (obviously some things have been "lifted" since they were donated over 10 years ago). I don't remember donating a "Roxy & Elsewhere" disc, but all the rest are my doing... 1. Roxy & Elsewhere [sound recording] / Frank Zappa, the Mothers. 2. Civilization Phaze III / [sound recording] [Frank Zappa] 3. The Yellow Shark [sound recording] / Zappa. 4. The Perfect Stranger and Other Chamber Works [sound recording] : Boulez conducts Zappa. 5. Orchestral Favorites sound recording / Frank Zappa. 6. London Symphony Orchestra [sound recording] / [composed, arranged and produced by Frank Zappa]. 7. Serious Music - by Zappa, Frank. --> ICA Masterworks, 1984? NOTE: That last disc ("Serious Music") was a silver-disc bootleg CD I guess I must have managed to find a second copy of and donated (I still own a copy to this very day, but where I found TWO copies of this back then - I'll never remember ). It has a 15-minute condensed version (highlights) of one of the orchestral movie soundtracks that Frank did back in about 1959 or '60 (including the very, very first "Duke of Prunes" theme) -- (movie title = "The World's Greatest Sinner", IIRC), along with an unreleased 30-minute orchestral version of "Sinister Footware" conducted by Kent Nagano leading the Berkley Symphony Orchestra -- along with a handful of other unreleased "serious" Zappa efforts. PS: Yeah, you're damn right I'm tootin' my own horn about all this. I was a piss poor college student back then, without much money -- but I'll be damned if I was gonna let that "20th Century Classical Music" class ever be taught again with only "Don't You Eat That Yellow Snow" being the primary thing Frank was remembered for. Edited December 4, 2006 by Rooster_Ties Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porter_esq Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Eternal Flame today at www.zappa.com. They have done a number of flash tributes on Dec 4. My favorite is http://zappa.com/dec/. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randissimo Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Zappa was born and died the same month... In GR, MI on the 21st there is a Zappa birthday party and this I believe will be the 15th year.. A lot of people come through and there is always a trivia questionaire of 18 - 20 questions and some of them are pretty tough! There are prizes for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place. Last year I won 1st prize, a nice warm Zappa hoodie.. Every room in the house has either Zappa videos or Cds playing.. And you can't miss the house because ZAPPA is spelled out on the roof in Xmas lights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youdig Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Zappa was born and died the same month... In GR, MI on the 21st there is a Zappa birthday party and this I believe will be the 15th year.. A lot of people come through and there is always a trivia questionaire of 18 - 20 questions and some of them are pretty tough! There are prizes for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place. Last year I won 1st prize, a nice warm Zappa hoodie.. Every room in the house has either Zappa videos or Cds playing.. And you can't miss the house because ZAPPA is spelled out on the roof in Xmas lights. Dude we are so there! LONG LIVE ZAPPA ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcy62 Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I got the news of His death from the front page of an italian newspaper. There was a full page photo of Frank playing the guitar. It was one of the many indipendent newspaper left oriented that disappeared in a sea of debt after a couple of years. It was a real national newspaper, with a lot of good journalists that ended to work in the today's major national newspapers. I found very touching the fact they considered the death of a musical genius much more important that every political issues, national or international. I forgot the name of the newspaper, nor I found it googling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rostasi Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 I honestly don't remember where I was then. My friend of 20 years, composer Jerry Hunt, had passed away exactly one week earlier, so I wasn't in a stable frame-of-mind you might say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted December 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 I was pretty bummed when Frank died in '93. I'm pretty bummed that I missed this anniversary. WTF is wrong with me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32818 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted December 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32818 NEDERLAND, CO—In spite of your insistence that you are not into Frank Zappa, avid fan Roger Von Lee believes that you would change your mind if you heard the right album. "You're prejudiced, because the only Zappa you know is 'Valley Girl' and 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow,'" Von Lee told you Tuesday. "Seriously, you need to check out Hot Rats or Absolutely Free. Zappa and the Mothers were at their peak, and Zappa's jazz-rock fusion experiments predate Bitches Brew. That'll totally convince you that Zappa's the shit." Von Lee added that if those two don't get under your skin, he can recommend another 15 to 20 albums that will for sure. Didn't I just go through this with someone here a few weeks ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 What a shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 Didn't I just go through this with someone here a few weeks ago? My therapist suggested I stopped stalking people on message boards, so I wouldn't know.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted December 11, 2007 Report Share Posted December 11, 2007 "Zappa was born and died the same month" boy, and they say Mozart was a prodigy - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted December 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2008 I was pretty bummed when Frank died in '93. I'm pretty bummed that I missed this anniversary. WTF is wrong with me? This won't happen this year. I'm pulling out my copy of Civilization Phase III a day early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluerein Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Seeing this threat up I thought: did he die again??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Yeah, I was wondering how to break it to 7/4 that he was already dead... Strange to see Zappa's name at this point for me, though. I was just thinking the other day about how I never cared for Zappa back when I was into rock. He just didn't make a lot of sense to me, even after having met person after person in life who just knew I'd love Zappa and forced me to listen to LP after LP...wait a minute; I'm beginning to realize why I couldn't stand him. However, I must admit that, after getting into jazz, I cannot say that his music doesn't make sense anymore. And I have a feeling that, if I live another twenty years or so, I'll become a big fan. That's about the weakest endorsement of an artist I've ever written or read, so take it for what it's worth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted December 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 Yeah, I was wondering how to break it to 7/4 that he was already dead... Bah! Strange to see Zappa's name at this point for me, though. I was just thinking the other day about how I never cared for Zappa back when I was into rock. He just didn't make a lot of sense to me, even after having met person after person in life who just knew I'd love Zappa and forced me to listen to LP after LP...wait a minute; I'm beginning to realize why I couldn't stand him. I never did that to anyone, I don't even like it all. I remember back in the pre-y2k Internet days, whenever someone would poll to rate his albums in popularity, my favorites were always listed at the bottom - the ones without much comedy. I even have my own opinions about politics and religion. Imagine that... I do like discovering a photo I've never seen before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr jazz Posted December 4, 2008 Report Share Posted December 4, 2008 One of Baltimore's finest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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