WAKA / JAWAKA

The beginning of a new era for Zappa after scrapping Flo & Eddie following the "wheelchair incident", Waka/Jawaka starts the what I call "Prog Big Band" era of his career. If some of you want to call this a sequel to Hot Rats, then this is Hot Rats with more improvisation, less structure and a bigger band. Aynsley is still there as well. Well, Big Swifty starts the album reaching 18 minutes of dissonant jazz-rock, completely free-form for the majority of it. It's pure chill freak-out music, and you'll hear something new each time you listen, pay attention to Frank's guitar, where he twists the Swifty melody sly-like. The 2 middle songs in the album are not really like Big Swifty, more conventional songs. They're not particularly memorable, they're the (dare I say) passable parts of the album. Heading into the title track you get something like Big Swifty again, and it's just as good if not better depending on what you like. Waka is a more big-band sounding song, summarizing the album and foreshadowing the likes of The Grand Wazoo. 8.6/10