IMAGINARY DISEASES

Along with Little Dots, Imaginary Diseases chronicles the Petit Wazoo tour that Zappa undertook in late 1972 (the Petit Wazoo being a 10-musician big band jazz group, slimmed down from the 20-strong Grand Wazoo lineup). It's a bit more focused on conventional compositions over improvisational stuff compared to Little Dots, though you get plenty of the latter too; on DC Boogie Frank actually polls the crowd to see how they'd like the current song to end and then conducts the group accordingly. With compelling instrumental work from all hands, this forms the missing link between the Grand Wazoo big band sound and the tightly polished approach of the mid-1970s incarnation of the Mothers.