Frank Zappa
Waka/Jawaka
(Zappa Records)
I’m really happy I can say that the first two titles of the second
batch of the new, improved, remastered-from-the-original-analog-master-tapes
editions of the Zappa catalog, are really a triumph, the new remastering
here working in the service of the music, with no unpleasant side-effects
to speak of. Listeners will so be able to enjoy two albums that for once
really deserve the word "masterpiece".
In
a way, these albums could be considered as "twins", though they
do not really resemble each other a whole lot, more for circumstances pertaining
to their birth. These two albums are part of any "Best Rock Albums"
list, by the way – even if one could speculate that younger listeners nowadays
could have some trouble filing some of the music featured on Waka/Jawaka
and The Grand Wazoo under "rock", this will be just one surprising
factor for them, of many.
And
we could also argue that had the dramatic events of an extra musical nature
that hit Zappa not happened, maybe said albums would never been born –
and what a great loss that would be! A quick summary follows.
Even
if it preceded them when it comes to their release dates, Hot Rats (1969)
told us more about Zappa’s future than Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels
Ripped My Flesh. The new "rock" chapter was confirmed by Chunga’s
Revenge and by a long string of live concerts, with excerpts being released
on albums such as Fillmore East – June 1971 and Just Another Band From
L.A., with the movie, and the movie soundtrack, called 200 Motels, for
orchestra, choir, and rock group, sitting in the middle.
But
things don’t always go as planned. On December 4th, 1971, a fire at the
Casino de Montreux, Switzerland, destroyed the group’s instrumentation,
Don Preston’s Mini-Moog included (having been modified, the instrument
was one-of-a-kind). (Deep Purple sang about it on Smoke On The Water, whose
riff everybody have listened to at least once, with many attempting to
play it right.) One week after those events, while the group was performing
at the famed Rainbow Theatre, in London, using rented instruments, somebody
jumped onstage and pushed Zappa into the orchestra pit, Zappa suffering
injuries such as an head concussion, various fractures on his back and
legs, and a crushed larynx
Waka/Jawaka
(an onomatopoeic title if there ever was one) was the first of the two
albums that Frank Zappa recorded at Paramount Studios, in Los Angeles,
the skilled Kerry McNabb acting as the engineer. For the most part, the
musicians featured in the most recent line-up of The Mothers had parted
their ways, so – making good use of said circumstances – Zappa was free
to conceive a studio album featuring a variable line-up. A fact which could
explain – but maybe it was also Zappa’s intention to make the album appear
as being different from his most recent albums from that era? – the circumstance
of the new work being linked to Hot Rats, an album that both critics and
the general audience had appeared to like a lot more than it was customary
for those works released under the old Mothers Of Invention moniker. Hence,
an album cover that explicitly mentions "Rats" – just check the
sink -, and the album being released under Zappa’s name – no Mothers. It
has also to be noticed that in the original edition on vinyl the full title
that appeared on the album side and on the label was Waka/Jawaka – Hot
Rats.
In
truth, a few familiar faces appear. From the penultimate edition of the
Mothers, Zappa called keyboard player George Duke, and Don Preston is featured
on his brand-new Mini-Moog, with brilliant results. There’s a new name
appearing on slide guitar, Tony Duran. There’s a young, quite gifted trumpet
player, Sal Marquez, who’ll also play on The Grand Wazoo album and who’ll
be part, the following year, of the great line-up that went on tour, having
recorded the fine, communicative, album titled Over-Nite Sensation. And
what about the rhythm section? Zappa decided to keep extraordinary drummer
Aynsley Dunbar, who had first appeared on a Zappa album on Chunga’s Revenge.
On bass? Well…, Erroneous, a musician that today is said to be identified
as Alex Dmochowsky, a Dunbar regular collaborator (just check the album
by The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation titled To Mum, From Aynsley And The Boys,
from 1969), here going under this strange moniker for lack – it’s just
speculation on my part – of work permits. (I’m sure somebody out there
is quite familiar with the solid, inventive, performance given by Dmochowsky
on Peter Green’s once highly-celebrated first solo album titled The End
Of The Game.)
The
album’s sides are quite dissimilar, with a long instrumental piece filling
Side One and three shorter pieces – two songs, one instrumental – appearing
on Side Two. Zappa is not featured on vocals, this being probably due to
his larynx damages after the fall, but all vocals sound quite "familiar" in
style and interpretation, which tells of a precise, close-up direction.
At
more than seventeen minutes, the dark and somewhat sinister sonic painting
titled Big Swifty is a "one-of-a-kind" moment in the Zappa catalogue,
and one of the most beautiful pages in Rock Music. It opens with a fast-paced,
difficult-to-perform theme, featuring the fanfare of Sal Marquez’s multiple
layered trumpets. Tempo gets slower, and it’s time for George Duke to play
a solo on the electric piano – a Fender Rhodes, of course, whose sound
is made even more interesting and original by the use of an echoplex and
a ring modulator. Here the musical language is "jazz", but in
my opinion Zappa’s background in "rock/contemporary" makes the
whole a lot more interesting than comparable works of the same period that
looked at "rock" from
"jazz".
A
beautiful trumpet solo follows, then Sal Marquez is joined by Zappa’s guitar,
appearing in the opposite channel, the guitar having a dark, throaty timbre
(just my guess: the neck pick-up of a Gibson SG through a wha-wha pedal)
– a fact which makes paying attention to what’s played even more interesting
for the listener. Zappa’s intelligent arrangement couples his
"dark"-sounding guitar with the "clear" timbre of Tony
Duran’s Bluesy slide, the group joining the action. Dunbar’s drums give fine
backing and an assertive push, with great use of cymbals (Dunbar’s swing
is propulsive but "hard"-sounding, a very successful translation
of a jazz move into the rock idiom), with a very fine performance by… Erroneous.
A
dry snare shot signals the transition to the theme reprise, with many
"relaxed contraptions" (a nice oxymoron!), then it’s solo trumpet
again, then it’s time for Zappa’s percussion and Duke’s piano to take us
to the guitar strums that end the piece.
Intro
by the rhythm section, with vocals and guitar backed by winds, the ironic
Your Mouth is a light Blues that works as a fine opener for the album’s
second side.
Things
get quite a bit more complex with It Just Might Be A One-Shot Deal, which
features fine multi-timbral, layered, vocal parts; an intelligent division
of labour for four guitars; and a great, intelligent moment after a pedal
steel solo by "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow, who at the time was a first-call
session man when it came to "country-tinged" steel guitar.
Waka/Jawaka
says a lot in just eleven minutes. A fantastic wind section opens the piece,
sounding very much like a Big Band, though the theme sounds like pure Zappa.
There’s a fine solo by Sal Marquez, Zappa’s guitar tracing the chord progression
– a role it plays elsewhere on the album – with a fine contribution by
Dunbar on snare and hi-hat. Don Preston’s Mini-Moog solo opens quite dramatically,
it then makes intelligent use of different filter settings, all sounding
quite tense and "dark" (and listen to that
"Tarantella"-like passage, a rhythmic figure that Zappa greatly
favoured at the time). After the long, "held" note, with filter
modulation that closes Preston’s solo, Zappa’s entrance on guitar sounds
just like sunlight, the whole solo showing a complex, clear development that
still sounds amazing today. (It’s a quite dense solo, compositionally.) A "Big
Band" explosion follows, then it’s time for an original drum solo by
Dunbar, which gets progressively faster, and then lands on a slower wind
section. It’s a highly intelligent solution, which gives the winds and the
rhythm section a base from which to accelerate, those hits on the bass drum,
and the electric bass, bringing the theme to a mood that quite resembles
a Western soundtrack, those bells taking us to the fade-out, which brings
the track, and the album, to its close.
How
does it sound, you ask? Incredibly good. A thousand times better than the
Rykodisc edition. The new mastering, by Doug Sax and associates, brought
me back to my vinyl – the most recent copy in my possession being an original
LP on Bizarre/Reprise pressed forty years ago. They sound really similar,
but of course the new remaster is quite more clear-sounding when it comes
to the wind section, especially in the last track. Lotsa level, and – as
it’s to be expected nowadays – a bit too much bass for my taste, just a
minor complaint on my part.
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2012
CloudsandClocks.net | Oct. 8, 2012