Frank Vincent Zappa is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. A self-taught guitarist and composer, he was quoted as saying : “There are only two things to remember. Number one…Don’t Stop, and number two…Keep Going!"
That would explain the 62 albums Frank released during his lifetime. The Zappa Family Trust continuously release posthumous albums - Frank passed from cancer in 1993, just days before his 53rd birthday.
rollingstone.com : “a modernist Mozart who happened to be a rock star”
indiewire.com : “rock’s most unclassifiable genius”
loudersound.com : “(The album) Hot Rats was both a pinnacle of the jazz-rock fusion boom of the late 60s and one of the first albums to be dubbed (or cursed) progressive”
Our playlist is a soupçon of Frank’s instrumental music. To explore further, there are compilations to consider : “Strictly Commercial : The Best of Frank Zappa” and “Strictly Genteel : A Classical Introduction to Frank Zappa”. There is also “Zappatite : Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks”. Or grab any album and dig in!
There’s an interesting article that Frank wrote for Stereo Review in 1971 about the composer Edgard Varèse. In his early teens, Frank bought “The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse Volume I”. He was a staunch supporter of Varèse - “I love his music very much”. Varèse's spirit of breaking from conventions and finding your own voice can be heard in Frank’s music.
zappa.com - everything Frank!
afka.net - source for written material about Frank
afka.net/Articles/1971-06_Stereo_Review.htm - “Edgard Varèse: The Idol of My Youth”
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