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FRANK ZAPPA/ 2011
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Prints on paper: Portraits 2 | | Medium: | Giclée on Japanese matte paper | | Size (inches): | 16.5 x 11.7 (paper size) | | Size (mm): | 420 x 297 (paper size) | | Edition size: | 25 | | Catalog #: | PP_0196 | | Description: | From an edition of 25. Signed, titled, date, copyright, edition in pencil on the reverse / Aside from the numbered edition of 5 artist's proofs and 2 printer's proofs.
"Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."
- Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa -
Frank Vincent Zappa[1] (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, 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 percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 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 impossible 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 one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—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. Gail Zappa manages the businesses of her late husband under the name the Zappa Family Trust.
Early 1960s: Studio Z
Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of The Blackouts.[29] Financially more rewarding were Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965). The former score was commissioned by actor-producer Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records.[30] The latter soundtrack was recorded in 1963 after the film was completed, but it was commissioned by one of Zappa's former high school teachers in 1959 and Zappa may have worked on it before the film was shot.[31] Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous album The Lost Episodes (1996).
During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriter Ray Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by The Penguins, although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured.[32] Buff owned the small Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios had multi-track facilities; the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track.[33] Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him to stage a concert of his orchestral music in 1963 and to broadcast and record it.[34] He appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show the same year, in which he played a bicycle as a musical instrument.[35] With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of The Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records for having "no commercial potential", a verdict Zappa subsequently quoted on the sleeve of Freak Out![36]
In 1964, after his marriage started to break up, he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. This set a work pattern that endured for most of his life.[37] Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, who was now working with Art Laboe at Original Sound. It was renamed Studio Z.[38] Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood.[39] Zappa started performing as guitarist with a power trio, The Muthers, in local bars in order to support himself.[40]
An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films.[41] In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material.[41] The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day's The Daily Report wrote that "Vice Squad investigators stilled the tape recorders of a free-swinging, a-go-go film and recording studio here Friday and arrested a self-styled movie producer".[42] Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography".[43] This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended.[44] His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was key in the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance.[45] Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police only returned 30 out of 80 hours of tape seized.[46] Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted.[47] Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.[48]
Notes:
1. ^ a b Until discovering his birth certificate as an adult, Zappa believed he had been christened "Francis", and he is credited as Francis on some of his early albums. His legal name was always "Frank", however, never "Francis." Cf. Zappa with Occhiogrosso, 1989, The Real Frank Zappa Book, p. 15.
29. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 59.
30. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 63.
31. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 55.
32. ^ Gray, 1984, Mother!, p. 29.
33. ^ Zappa with Occhiogrosso, 1989, The Real Frank Zappa Book, p. 42.
34. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 74.
35. ^ Slaven, 1996, Electric Don Quixote, pp. 35–36.
36. ^ Watson, 1996, Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, p. 27.
37. ^ Zappa with Occhiogrosso, 1989, The Real Frank Zappa Book, p. 43.
38. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, pp. 80–81.
39. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa. pp. 82–83.
40. ^ Watson, 1996, Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play, p. 26.
41. ^ a b Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 85.
42. ^ Harp, Ted (March, 1965), "Vice Squad Raids Local Film Studio", The Daily Report (Ontario, California)
43. ^ Zappa with Occhiogrosso, 1989, The Real Frank Zappa Book, p. 57.
44. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, pp. 86–87.
45. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. XV.
46. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, p. 87.
47. ^ Slaven, 1996, Electric Don Quixote, p. 40.
48. ^ Miles, 2004, Frank Zappa, pp. 90–91.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa
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