Record Reviews

FRANK ZAPPA ~ CHICAGO `78 ZAPPA 20025 (Barcode: 824302002520) ~ USA ~ Jazz-Rock Fusion Recorded: 1978 Released: 2016 This is an archival album of live recordings by iconic American guitarist / composer / bandleader / visionary Frank ZappaFind albums by this artist, recorded on September 29, 1978 at Chicago Uptown Theater. The 2CD album includes all the music played during the second show that night, lasting together for almost two hours, all of which was previously unreleased. The album was released in 2016 as one of the series of complete live concerts, which also includes “FZ:OZFind albums with this title”, “BuffaloFind albums with this title”, “WazooFind albums with this title”, “Philly `76Find albums with this title”, “Hammersmith OdeonFind albums with this title” and “Carnegie HallFind albums with this title”. The music was compiled from several sources to reconstruct the show in its entirety. All the music was composed by Zappa. The lineup of the musicians playing in the band, which played this concert consists, in addition to Zappa on guitar and vocals of course, of guitarist Ike WillisFind albums by this artist, slide guitarist Denny WalleyFind albums by this artist, keyboardists Tommy MarsFind albums by this artist and Peter WolfFind albums by this artist, percussionist Ed MannFind albums by this artist, bassist Arthur BarrowFind albums by this artist and drummer Vinnie ColaiutaFind albums by this artist. The repertoire covers past favorites going as far back as “200 MotelsFind albums with this title” and of course current (at the time) repertoire, including material from the forthcoming “Joe`s GarageFind albums with this title” album. The music, as I have already stated repeatedly, is beyond categorization, being first and foremost the idiosyncratic creation of Zappa’s musical Genius. Of course every new piece of reissued vault material by Zappa expands the portrait of one of the paramount musical Geniuses of the 20th Century. I still label it as Jazz-Rock Fusion, as it embraces the wide perspective of these two genres. After all it is no less than two hours of the best music money can buy, brilliantly recorded and carefully put together for you listening pleasure. Overall, this a superb and highly detailed document of the way Zappa created his masterpieces, and of course a testimony to his musical out of the box thinking and creativity. As far as concert recordings, this is an extraordinary example of Zappa’s ability to run a tight ship, perhaps tighter than any other. Despite the complexity of the material, Swiss watchmakers are using this music to synchronize their watches by.

Updated: 28/01/2022Posted: 06/11/2021

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