THE GRAND WAZOO

This album turned me into a Zappa freak, a jazz freak, and basically just a freak. It totally took my view of the possibilities a great artist can hit with cross over genre hopping music. As broadly gauged as Zappa was, the instrumentation on this album even a little unique in the Zappa catalog, with the band more of a semi-acoustic chamber jazz orchestra than a fusion rock band like on Hot Rats. The genius of Zappa is breath taking throughout the album. How did he compose such intricate stuff?

The music swings like Duke Ellington if Ellington played rock music. There's several pieces that build up to mind blowing crescendos that will leave you asking again, how did he compose such intricate stuff? Although it sounds jazzy, its largely composed music (thus the primary element of jazz ? improvisation ? isn't really there, making the music that much more unique). He truly was a genius. I have over 40 Zappa albums, and this one is his very best. Oddly, its also the only album where he really mined this semi-acoustic chamber jazz orchestra territory. A real shame he didn't do more music like this.