frank zappa

June 6, 2023: ​Live For Live Music: John Lennon & Frank Zappa Jam At The Fillmore East, On This Day In 1971 [Watch]
On June 6th, 1971, an unlikely meeting of two musical legends occurred at the historic Fillmore East in New York, NY when Frank Zappa and John Lennon shared the stage.

Aug 28, 2013: Variety: Zappa’s ’200 Motels’ Is Readied for Its Close-up
The 1971 film version is a bizarre, hallucinatory slab of cult kitsch, while its double-LP soundtrack exists more as a kaleidoscopic curio than a full-fledged album statement.

Ray Collins, Original Mothers of Invention Singer, Dead of Heart Attack

12.18.12

Between now and December 28th, you can license a copy of Roxy by Proxy, a collection of 76 minutes of never-before-released Zappa master recordings from a pair of 1973 shows at the Roxy in Los Angeles. For a $1,000 licensing fee, fans can own a master duplication copy of the recording, which they can copy and sell for whatever price they'd like, with $1.20 per-CD mechanical royalty to be paid to Zappa Records. Along with the duplicate master – which features Zappa and the Mothers of Invention performing favorites favorites like "Inca Roads," "Penguin in Bondage" and "King Kong" – fans will get liner notes and packaging artwork that they can duplicate. Proceeds from the Roxy by Proxy project will be used to complete The Roxy Performances, an unfinished concert film partly released on Zappa's 1974 live record, Roxy and Elsewhere. (SOURCE: Rolling Stone )

Musician Magazine Feb 1994 No. 184

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, recording engineer, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern along with 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar.

He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often difficult to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz or classical. His lyrics—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship.

Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

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