Description
In digipack
During his last years, Frank Zappa concentrated on his serious music, trying to impose himself as a composer and relegating the rock personality to the closet. His last two completed projects topped everything he had done before in this particular field. The Yellow Shark, an album of orchestral music named after a plexiglas fish given to Zappa in 1998, was released only a few weeks before he succumbed to cancer. The project started back in 1991 when the Ensemble Modern contacted Zappa with an idea to perform an orchestral concert of his music for an upcoming festival in Frankfurt. Zappa showed little enthusiasm for this idea first. However Zappa teamed up with three members and they soon had a project running. The whole Ensemb le flew over to Zappas Joes Garage studio to rehears and then they rehearsed again in Frankfurt in 1992. The result was a 90 minute program to be performed in three German cities. The range of pieces goes from string quartets (None of the Above) to ensemble works, from very challenging contemporary classical to old Zappa favorites. The latter category includes a medley of Dog Breath Variations and Uncle Meat, Pound for a Brown, Be-Bop Tango, and the Synclavier compositions The Girl in the Magnesium Dress and G-Spot Tornado transcribed for orchestra. Being more familiar, these bring a lighter touch, but the real interest resides in the premiere recordings. Outrage at Valdez, the piano duet Ruth Is Sleeping, and Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992 are all the gripping works of a mature composer, strongly influenced by Varese and Stravinsky but overwhelmed by them. But the crowning achievement is Welcome to the United States, a more freeform piece based on the U.S. visa form. Zappa shined when ridiculing stupidity. The average fan of the man’s rock music will most probably feel lost in The Yellow Shark project, but for those with interests in his serious music it is an essential item, more so than the London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestral Favorites albums.
Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Overture
3. Dog / Meat
4. Outrage At Valdez
5. Times Beach II
6. III (revised 1992)
7. The Girl In The Magnesium Dress
8. Be Bop Tango
9. Food Gathering In Post-Industrial America 1992
10. Ruth Is Sleeping
11. Amnerica
12. None Of The Above I
13. Pentagon Afternoon
14. Times Beach III
15. Welcome To The United States
16. Pound For A Brown
17. Get Whitey
18. G-Spot Tornado