Record Reviews

FRANK ZAPPA ~ PHILLY `76 VAULTERNATIVE 20091 (Barcode: 824302009123) ~ USA ~ Jazz-Rock Fusion Recorded: 1976 Released: 2009 This is an archival album of live recordings by iconic American guitarist / composer / bandleader / visionary Frank ZappaFind albums by this artist, recorded on October 29, 1976 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The 2CD album includes all the music played that night, lasting together for over two hours, all of which was previously unreleased. The album was released in 2009 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”, “Hammersmith OdeonFind albums with this title”, “Carnegie HallFind albums with this title” and “Chicago `78Find albums with this title”. All the music (except one song) was composed by Zappa. The lineup of the musicians playing in the band, which is rarely documented, consists, in addition to Zappa on guitar and vocals of course, of vocalist / keyboardist Bianca OdinFind albums by this artist (a.k.a. Lady BiancaFind albums by this artist), vocalist / rhythm guitarist Ray WhiteFind albums by this artist, violinist / keyboardist Eddie JobsonFind albums by this artist, bassist Patrick O`HearnFind albums by this artist and drummer Terry BozzioFind albums by this artist. The repertoire covers past favorites and of course current (at the time) repertoire, including material from the “Zoot AlluresFind albums with this title” album, as well as some rarities previously unreleased or rarely performed. 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: 23/03/2022Posted: 14/11/2021

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