Frank Zappa
Imaginary Diseases
(Zappa Records)
"Right
from the early days of The Mothers (roughly from 1964), I was interested
in forming a sort of electric orchestra – an orchestra capable of performing
difficult compositions with an intensity of sound normally associated with
pop music."
At
the moment when this statement by Frank Zappa appeared in print (in the
pages of Reprise Circular, Volume 4, Number 40,
October 9, 1972), his dream had already become a wonderful reality called
Grand Wazoo: a large line-up (twenty players!) that added a multitude of
wind and brass instruments to the usual rock arsenal. During the month
of September, The Grand Wazoo played more than half a dozen dates, both
in Europe and in the United States, all very well received by both audience
and critics, playing a program consisting of both unreleased compositions
as well as some known numbers – with new arrangements, of course. The only
new composition in some way resembling the new Grand Wazoo that the audience
could in any way be familiar with was Big Swifty, a number which had appeared
on the (at the time) recently released (and really excellent) LP called
Waka/Jawaka; while the album that was to be named after this giant line-up
was still to be released, with other new material that had been performed
during that tour destined to remain unreleased for some time.
To
put it in a nutshell, the material which appeared on vinyl in 1972 combined
in an elegant and mature way (and since it’s Zappa we’re talking about,
it goes without saying there’s nothing "tentative" here) some
sounds and strategies that can only be filed under "jazz", and
melodic and rhythmic idiosyncrasies that are peculiar to Zappa’s highly
individual style. Sure, there had been some precedents in the Zappa canon
– for instance, King Kong, the wide post-Coltrane canvas which had filled
the whole Side Four of Uncle Meat, or the much-acclaimed album Hot Rats;
but the number of players featured here made for a totally different outcome.
It was impossible not to notice the effortless combination of Big Band
traits and post-free freedom of expression (and listen to the way a "classic-sounding" trombone
solo is placed on top of the quicksand of Aynsley Dunbar’s drum backing…).
We
have to recall that this amazing chapter in the Zappa story stems al least
in part from quite sad circumstances: the injuries sustained by Zappa after
his falling from the stage of the Rainbow Theatre in London (he was pushed)
on December, 10, 1971. Hence, hospitalization, wheelchair, cast, and the
split of the (so-called) "vaudeville band", starring Flo & Eddie.
Those
were obviously different times: while searching for reviews and the like,
I found about thirty pages of concert reviews that had appeared at the
time, of both The Grand Wazoo and The Petit Wazoo (what’s a Petit Wazoo,
you say? Just wait a minute, please). But let’s not look at life with pink-coloured
glasses, OK? Let’s read what Walter Becker had to say during a Steely Dan
interview by David Breskin which appeared in Musician magazine, # 31 –
March 1981 (Gaucho having just been released): "The concerts are for
the kids. The concert is where the party is. There’s where the kids go,
whoever may be playing. For instance, at one point we were opening for
Frank Zappa, and he had a band with like nine brass instruments that no
one knew the names of, a sarouzaphone soloist, a drummer reading the charts
– a very arcane thing – and it wasn’t worth it, but the point was:
everyone was there and the hall was filled because that’s where the party
was, and that’s where everybody went to do drugs." (Robert Fripp expressed
similar thoughts about the US concerts played by King Crimson in ’74.)
After
the end of the Grand Wazoo tour in September ’72, Zappa proceeded to halve
the line-up for another tour in the months of October, November and December
of the same year; the new tentet performed a quite varied repertory, with
some sung numbers, a very precise ensemble work, and many solos by all
performers. It appears that this "reduced" line-up performed
under various names, but never used the "Petit Wazoo" tag; but
it’s exactly this name that has become the one regularly used by all Zappa
fans.
The
only negative part of this glorious period is the fact that absolutely
no official documentation exists of those live dates. And even talking
about bootlegs, the only one I’ve heard about was said to feature part
of the first concert of the Grand Wazoo tour, September, 10, ’72, at the
Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In the course of an interview that took
place many years later, Zappa said that all Grand Wazoo concerts had been
recorded in a professional, but not quite hi-fi, way, so it was obvious
that when it came to deciding what material to release, it was definitely
other stuff which came first.
Readers
can imagine my surprise when – about a couple of months ago, while doing
a search (in vain) about possible reviews of the just-released CD of guitar
solos called Trance-Fusion – I casually got to know about the existence
of an officially released CD featuring Petit Wazoo material called Imaginary
Diseases, which had already been out… for a year! Sure, there are many
issues one could refer to here, the most significant being that, while
the first albums which had appeared after Zappa’s death (Civilization
Phaze III, The Lost Episodes, Everything Is Healing Nicely) had been of
a very high quality, and of potential interest to many, the same cannot
really be said of those albums that came later (FZ:OZ,
Halloween, Joe’s Corsage, QuAUDIOPHILIAc, Joe’s Domage, Joe’s XMASage);
here one can draw his/her own conclusions. Having a strong anti-ulcer product
at hand, one could formulate an auxiliary hypothesis: that this is nothing
but a consequence of the vastness of the Web, where all that can be considered
to fall in the "niche" dept. becomes totally invisible due to
the immense amount of information that’s available.
This was the Petit Wazoo line-up (which is obviously the same line-up
featured on Imaginary Diseases): Frank Zappa, conductor, guitar; Tony Duran,
slide guitar; Malcolm McNabb, trumpet; Gary Barone, trumpet, flügelhorn;
Tom Malone, trumpet, tuba, saxophone; Bruce Fowler, trombone; Glenn Ferris,
trombone; Earle Dumler, oboe, saxophones, contrabass sarrusophone; Dave
Parlato, bass; Jim Gordon, drums. At the time when The Grand Wazoo was
active, it was Jim Gordon’s presence that I found puzzling: being used
at listening to Aynsley Dunbar’s polyrhythmic approach, the more linear
– though obviously quite skilled – approach chosen by Gordon on albums
by groups such as Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs And Englishmen, Eric Clapton’s
Derek And The Dominoes and Traffic appeared to me as painfully inadequate
to the vastness of the work that had to be done – even if the gigantic
gap between Gordon’s and Jim Keltner’s performances on the Jack Bruce album
Out Of The Storm should have told me something. I’ll only say that Gordon’s
work on Imaginary Diseases is a joy.
So, where does all this material come from? The CD liner notes are
very clear: all tracks recorded live, no overdubs, all mixed and edited
by Zappa. Joe Travers has chosen and sequenced what we hear. There’s something
here that to me sounds as a bit too simple, but this is a line of reasoning
I’ll (maybe) pursue at another time. I’ll immediately say that the visual
part is a bit too much on the Spartan side: no group pictures or else,
with a punishing look, totally uninviting. Kudos for the intelligent choice
of the material: here we don’t have the umpteenth version (even if with
horns) of the same old stuff, Travers gives us for the most part unreleased
material, all first class. The sound quality is definitely on the acceptable
side.
The album starts with sounds fading in: voices, trumpets with mutes,
trombones with plungers, drums playing time, hands clapping, voices in
the audience going AAAAAHH alongside a trombone solo; the liner notes say
Oddients, but to me this tiny piece (just 1’13") sounds like an excerpt
from the quite longer Little Dots, here given a new title, in a moment
of
"audience participation time".
Abrupt transition, and we go to Rollo (3’21"). To me, it sounds
like an excerpt from a longer piece: in fact, the track is quite short,
and without any vocals – quite the opposite of what was typical during
that tour. It starts with a lyrical melody played (I think!) by Earl Dumler
on sarrusophone, with a Zappa-flavoured counterpoint from the other wind
instruments, the result being quite similar to some parts of 200 Motels.
Beautiful orchestration, and nice wind arpeggios backed by bass and drums.
Less ambitious, but no less beautiful for it, Been To Kansas City
In A Minor (10’15") is a slow blues: nice trumpet solo (Gary Barone?),
with the rhythm guitar plying a strong backing; nice guitar solo by Tony
Duran, playing more regular subdivisions than Zappa’s; a very good trombone
solo (by Glenn Ferris, I think), at first calm, then progressively more
agitated, with the other wind instruments doing a nice backing job; then
a solo by Zappa, with nice blues "bending" on the verge of feedback
and a masterful use of the wha-wha pedal.
When it comes to composing ambitions, variety, balancing of the
elements, and instrumental contributions from all those involved, the long
Farther O’Blivion (16’02") is without a doubt the high point of the
album. A complex theme played by the group, melodic phrases by Zappa, a
theme for winds, then a nice tuba solo by Tom Malone, who explores the
outer ranges of the instrument. Then we have the Be-Bop Tango theme, with
a dense orchestration and a nice trumpet performance by Michael McNabb,
also a very personal trombone solo by Bruce Fowler, backed by a "swing" rhythm
section and by winds which go up in intensity, in the end enveloping the
trombone. Very good drum solo by Gordon (maybe with a little help from
Zappa in the compositional dept.?), with a clear and dry drum timbre and
resonating cymbals. The theme from Cucamonga ends the piece.
D.C. Boogie (13’27") starts with a guitar arpeggio and a regular
backing, and then progressively becomes something in the vein of "raga
rock", with the notes played Zappa being legato via feedback. It’s
a concentrated guitar solo, with the whole which slowly becomes similar
to the Apostrophe’ jam, of which in some ways it can be said to be a precursor.
We have a typical audience "referendum" in order to choose the
way the piece will end: and the winner is… Boogie! A slide solo by Duran,
quite similar to the one he plays on The Grand Wazoo (the track), and a
guitar solo by Zappa.
Imaginary Diseases (9’45") has a wonderful and spicy funky
start, which is followed by a theme sounding halfway between the soundtrack
of a western movie and that of a police movie. Then we have a guitar solo
by Zappa, lively drums, counterpoint by the winds. The central part reminded
me a lot of Hot Rats, particularly of The Gumbo Variations: just listen
to the chord played by Duran on rhythm guitar, the solo by Zappa, the bass
lick by Parlato. Incandescent finale, theme, and out.
Montreal (9’11") is a superb guitar solo in medium-slow time
(that to me sounded quite a bit like a slower version of the guitar solo
on The Orange County Lumber Truck), with some bluesy licks and variable-intensity
picking overloading the tubes. In a way relaxed, with a hypnotic ride cymbal
by Gordon. Entrance by Duran, not sounding banal, then a counterpoint by
the winds, with trumpets playing staccato. The track closes with a joyous
fanfare in double time.
Beppe
Colli
©
Beppe Colli 2007
CloudsandClocks.net | Feb.
22, 2007