Gail Zappa

Gail Zappa (born January 1, 1945 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania as Adelaide Gail Sloatman , † October 7, 2015 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American entrepreneur. She ran the business of her husband Frank Zappa from 1984 until his death in 1993. She managed his extensive estate until a few months before her death.

Life

Gail Zappa came from a strictly Catholic family. Her father's ancestors were of Danish descent, her ancestors on her mother's side came from Madeira. She had three siblings: two brothers and a sister. Her father worked as a nuclear physicist for the US Navy. This led to her meeting Jim Morrison as a toddler . The future singer of the Doors was also the child of a high-ranking Navy member and was cared for in the same naval kindergarten as Gail. ^{(Pp. 148ff, 178f)}

In 1959 the family moved to London. Gail attended a girls' school there. At 17 she left her parents' apartment and worked for a while as a secretary in the Office of Naval Research and Development. Through her friend Anya Butler, with whom she lived, she came into contact with the vibrant London music scene. When her family moved back to New York in 1965, Gail began studying there at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She also made contacts with the local music scene and became a roadie for Emmaretta Marx, who was the lead singer of Al Kooper's band Blues Project at the time . She eventually moved to Los Angeles with Anya Butler, who had also come to New York. ^{(P. 148ff)}

After a short time, the two young women made the acquaintance of the Beach Boys and the Byrds - Gail was connected to Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, Anya married Chris Hillman from the Byrds. Gail was working as an assistant to Elmer Valentine, the founder and co-owner of the music clubs The Trip, The Roxy and Whiskey A Go-Go . The close contacts with the music scene in Los Angeles meant that Gail, who was briefly in a relationship with Kim Fowley , recorded a single with him : The piece America's Sweethearts by Bunny and Bear (Gail was Bear) was not a success. ^{(P. 148ff)}

At a meeting at the Los Angeles airfield in July 1966, Gail met Frank Zappa. For both of them the encounter was love at first sight. A few weeks later, Gail moved into Frank's house on Kirkwood Drive. They married in September 1967 in New York City Hall - shortly before Zappa and his group The Mothers of Invention set out on their first European tour. While the band was traveling in Scandinavia, their daughter Moon was born. This was followed by the sons Dweezil (1969) and Ahmet (1974) and the daughter Diva (1979). ^{(P. 34f) (p. 152, 184) (p. 89)}

Professional background

In the first 17 years the roles within the marriage were distributed according to the traditional pattern: Frank took care of his music (and thus the livelihood), Gail took care of the household and children. That changed suddenly in 1984: Zappa's management at the time got into considerable financial difficulties, which caused Zappa to terminate his contracts. Since then the management of all Frank Zappa activities has been in the hands of Gail. "I really jumped into the freezing water," she said about this time. ^{(P. 381)} How seriously she took the new task her husband described in his autobiography: "Gail cooks maybe once or twice a month - otherwise she hangs out on the phone and runs the business." ^{(P. 286)}

Gail Zappa later became President of the Zappa Family Trust , which, as an umbrella organization, manages all Zappa companies and Frank Zappa's extensive estate in trust. For outsiders, her activity was most clearly recognizable on the covers of the Zappa albums released after her husband's death. Her name appears regularly in the liner notes in one or more of the following functions: author of the liner notes, art director and designer of the cover concept, executive producer and music producer .

"My job is to protect the composer's intentions", she described in 2002, which she saw as her primary task after the death of her husband. She always tried to prevent the activities of third parties by legal means, which she felt could not be brought into line with this guiding principle. At the end of 2007 it became known that lawyers from the Zappa Family Trust were taking action against several nationally active Zappa cover associations and against the organizers of the German Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan. In June 2008, an oral hearing before the Düsseldorf Regional Court in the Zappa Family Trust against Zappanale made headlines in the German press. On January 21, 2009, the court dismissed the lawsuit.

Participation in projects

In addition to her work as a manager, Gail Zappa was involved in several of his projects in various ways during Frank Zappa's lifetime. She can be seen in the film Uncle Meat (1987) and in the video productions Video From Hell (1987) and The True Story Of 200 Motels (1989). On the early Zappa album Lumpy Gravy (1968) her voice can be heard in a short vocal passage. For the record sleeves of the albums Zappa In New York (1978) and Sheik Yerbouti (1979) photos that she had taken were used. She also made vocal contributions to the album Havin 'A Bad Day (1986) by her son Dweezil and to Gene Simmons ' album *** hole (2004).

In 1995 Gail and Frank Zappa were awarded a Grammy for designing the cover of the album Civilization Phaze III .

death

Gail Zappa died on October 7, 2015 after a long battle of lung cancer. She was buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Web links

• Interview with Gail Zappa: Kai Müller: The seven dwarfs, that was me. Tagesspiegel , May 21, 2006
• Gail Zappa in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Widow of rock legend Frank Zappa is dead. Report on t-online.de, October 8, 2015. Accessed October 8, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Barry Miles : Zappa . German edition, Rogner & Bernhard at two thousand and one, 2005, ISBN 3-8077-1010-8
3. ^ Carl-Ludwig Reichert : Frank Zappa . DTV, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-423-31039-1
4. ^ ^{A b} Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso: I am the American Dream . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich, 1991. ISBN 3-442-32536-6
5. ↑ Mothers tours (as of June 2008)
6. ↑ Activities (as of June 2008)
7. ↑ Pamela Des Barres: "Gail Zappa - Mother Of Invention". Feature, June 12, 2002. (As of June 2008)
8. ↑ Welt-Online: "Zappa widow fights against the Zappanale." Hamburg, April 10, 2008 (as of June 2008)
9. ↑ Projects (as of June 2008)
10. ↑ Grammy database (as of June 2008)
11. ↑ rollingstone.com: Frank Zappa's Widow Gail Zappa Dead at 70