The Grand Wazoo

The Grand Wazoo
Studio album by Frank Zappa
Publication (s)	November 27, 1972
Label (s)	Bizarre Records Reprise Records Zappa Records (CD) Rykodisc (CD)
Format (s)	LP vinyl , CD
Genre (s)	Jazz rock , big band , progressive rock
Title (number)	5
running time	37:05
occupation	Frank Zappa - acoustic and electric guitar , percussion , vocal Mike Altschul - woodwind instruments Billy Byers - trombone Chunky (Lauren Wood) - vowel Lee Clement - percussion George Duke - keyboard , vocal Earl Dumler - woodwind instruments Aynsley Dunbar - drums Tony Duran - guitar, slide guitar Erroneous (Alex Dmochowski) - bass Alan Estes - percussion Fred Jackson junior - woodwind instruments Sal Marquez - bass, trumpet , vocal, brass instruments Joanne Caldwell McNabb - vocal, brass and woodwind instruments Malcolm McNabb - trombone, horn , D trumpet Janet Neville-Ferguson - vocals Tony Ortega - woodwind instruments Joel Peskin - saxophone , woodwind instruments Don Preston - Mini Moog Johnny Rotella - woodwind instruments Ken Shroyer - trombone, brass instruments Ernie Tack - brass instruments Ernie Watts - tenor saxophone , tenor saxophone in C in solo in Cleetus Awreetus Awritus , woodwind instruments Robert Zimmitti - percussion Gerry Sack - "Phantom Tambourine"
production	Frank Zappa
Studio (s)	Paramount Studios, LA
chronology Waka / Jawaka (1972) The Grand Wazoo Over-Nite Sensation (1972)

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
1.	The Grand Wazoo	13:20
2.	For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)	06:06
3.	Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus	02:57
4th	Eat That Question	06:42
5.	Blessed relief	08:00

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

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Alain Dister: Frank Zappa - The rebel from the underground. Heyne, Munich 1980, p. 96 ff.
2. ↑ 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 .