Frank Zappa -The Grand Wazoo (Jazz/Fusion, 1972)

"A lot of people think that a new political movement, the ideal new political movement, is to bust it all up and start all over again with tribes and feathers in your hair and everybody loves everybody else. That's a lie. Those kids don't love each other; they're in that because it's like another club-it's like the modern-day equivalent of a street gang. It's clean pachucos, a little hairier perhaps. But it's not right. First of all, the idea of busting it all down and starting all over again is stupid. The best way to do it, and what I would like to see happen, what I'm working towards, is using the system against itself to purge itself, so that it can really work. I think politics is a valid concept, but what we have today is not really politics. It's the equivalent of the high school election. It's a popularity contest. It's got nothing to do with politics-what it is is mass merchandising."

Frank Zappa was one of the most accomplished composers of the rock era and a satirist whose reserves of scorn seemed bottomless and whose wicked sense of humor and absurdity have delighted his numerous fans, even when his lyrics crossed over the broadest bounds of taste. This 1972 album continues the mostly-instrumental, jazz-rock thread of Zappa's work, which began with Hot Rats and continued with Waka/Jawaka. It's a big-band setting this time, with lots of improvisation, with big brass, woodwind and percussion sections. Sal Marquez, in particular, shines on trumpet. Zappa-philes will also recognize names like Aynsley Dunbar, Don Preston and George Duke. An astonishing work of melodic inventiveness and orchestration, with each tunes leaving you breathless with its wealth of ideas and ironic genius. All in all, an amazing album which remains a stunning example of Zappa's uncompromising musical vision now as it did when it was recorded 37 years ago.



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