The Grand Wazoo
The Grand Wazoo | ||||
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Studio album by Frank Zappa | ||||
Publication |
November 27, 1972 |
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Label (s) |
Bizarre Records Reprise Records Zappa Records (CD) Rykodisc (CD) |
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Format (s) |
LP vinyl , CD |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
37:05 |
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occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Paramount Studios, LA |
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The Grand Wazoo is a jazz rock album by Frank Zappa from 1972. It follows stylistically the jazz rock albums Hot Rats from 1969 and Waka / Jawaka , which was released in the same year. It was also known as Hot Rats 3 .
The album
With the previous album Waka / Jawaka (1972) a new period began when Frank Zappa turned to composing after the canceled tour in 1971/72 - he fell from the stage. Despite his injury, Zappa undertook another tour with his new formation Grand Wazoo in 1972 with eight concerts, mainly in Europe. This formation derived its name from the album released in the same year, in which Zappa assembled a large orchestra with musicians who mainly came from the jazz scene , such as the saxophonists Anthony Ortega and Ernie Watts or the trombonist Billy Byers ; "He prefers this type of formation that allows a rainbow of musical nuances [e], infinitely more subtle and developed than the limited group he usually works with," said his biographer Alain Dister in 1975. In the album's blurb, the bandleader, who “told the fictitious and bizarre legend of the great Wazoo,” made fun of his attitude “by expressing an even crazier wish: He sees himself as the emperor of some decadent ancient regime, the an army leads 5,000 different brass instruments ( air force ), 5,000 different percussionists ( artillery ), 5,000 musicians who play various electronic instruments (chemopsycho-bacteriological weapons) (...) Dadaist situation representation of the reality of the music offered by Zappa versus the incongruous, stuff hatched by show business to dumb down the masses ”. With this conceptual work, Zappa followed up on his earlier productions Uncle Meat (1968) and 200 Motels (1971). However, this experiment was short-lived: the musicians who recorded this album were different from those who then went on tour in 1972; the band then saw the entry of the brothers Bruce and Tom Fowler , who contributed to the following album Over-Nite Sensation .
Track list
No. | title | Duration |
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1. | The Grand Wazoo | 13:20 |
2. | For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers) | 6:06 |
3. | Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus | 2:57 |
4th | Eat That Question | 6:42 |
5. | Blessed relief | 8:00 |
reception
The Grand Wazoo did not reach the Billboard 200 chart. The Anglist Kelly Fisher Lowe notes that the album documents a compositional development of Zappa. In general, the album, like its predecessor Waka / Jawaka, was received rather positively by the critics. Alain Dister highlighted the role of drummer Aynsley Dunbar , who "gave the band a rhythmic pulsation very characteristic of the idioms of pop : a powerful beat that drives every soloist and on which the entire rhythmic structure of the group seems to be based."
literature
- Kelly Fisher Lowe: The Words and Music of Frank Zappa . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln / London 2007, ISBN 978-0-8032-6005-4 , Chapter 4, Section Waka / Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo , pp. 100-104 .
- Wolfgang Ludwig: Investigations into the musical work of Frank Zappa - a music-sociological and analytical study to determine a musical style (= European university publications, series XXXVI, musicology . Volume 88 ). Verlag Peter Lang, 1991, ISBN 3-631-45128-8 .
- Ben Watson: Frank Zappa. The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play . Quarted Books, London 1996, ISBN 0-7043-0242-X , Chapter 4, Section The Grand Wazoo , pp. 201-207 .
Web links
- The Grand Wazoo in the official discography on zappa.com. Retrieved April 8, 2010 .
- Frank Zappa. Texts and background information on The Grand Wazoo on globalia.net. Retrieved April 8, 2010 .
- The Grand Wazoo on Allmusic (English)
- Reviews of The Grand Wazoo on the baby blue pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Alain Dister: Frank Zappa - The rebel from the underground. Heyne, Munich 1980, p. 96 ff.
- ↑ Kelly Fisher Lowe: The Words and Music of Frank Zappa . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln / London 2007, ISBN 978-0-8032-6005-4 , Chapter 4, Section Waka / Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo , pp. 100-104 .