frank zappa Archive
25 Aug 2022
Five Live Albums Released in Spring ’72
Another quick take from my “Take 5” series… The era of the live album truly got underway with the blockbuster success of Frampton Comes Alive in 1976; in its wake, […]
29 Jul 2022
Music to Your Ears: Jim Fielder
You might not know Jim Fielder’s name, but it’s very likely you’ve heard him play. A key fixture of popular music beginning in the late 1960s, he lent his expert, […]
31 Mar 2022
March Through Time: Frank Zappa
Even before his untimely death in the 1990s, Frank Zappa’s body of work was staggeringly large. And it was certainly intimidating to the novitiate: Where to start, especially in light […]
03 Feb 2021
Album Review: The Ed Palermo Big Band — The Adventures of Zodd Zundgren
Frank Zappa’s body of work is massive. Even if one limits oneself to the music released during his lifetime, it’s a lot. Me, I have his first 45 or so […]
30 Dec 2019
Deliciousness: Frank Zappa’s ‘Hot Rats’ at 50
By the time of the release of Hot Rats, his second solo album, Frank Zappa was well established as an important force in pushing the boundaries of pop music. Not […]
27 Feb 2019
Frank is Sleeping: Zappa’s ‘The Yellow Shark’ at 25
By the time The Yellow Shark appeared on record store shelves in November 1993, fans knew that the end was very near for Frank Zappa. The iconoclastic composer-musician who often […]
18 Nov 2016
Outside Now: A Conversation with Dweezil Zappa, Part 2
Continued from Part One … While Dweezil Zappa‘s tour will include a few tracks from Via Zammata, most of each show will center around performances of Frank’s challenging material. And […]
17 Nov 2016
Outside Now: A Conversation with Dweezil Zappa, Part 1
Last month I interviewed Dweezil Zappa; I wrote three features based upon that interview: one each for papers in Chicago, Richmond and Pittsburgh. But even with that, a great deal […]
17 Mar 2016
DVD Review: Frank Zappa and the Mothers — The Lost Broadcast
For an artist who seemingly documented nearly every moment of his live and studio performance – and, not unlike John Lennon and Yoko Ono, considered the entirety of it as […]
25 Jan 2016
Hundred-word Reviews January 2016: Archival Live Albums
It’s time once again to take a stab at clearing out the massive backlog of worthy CDs clogging my inbox. Today, it’s quick reviews of five archival live albums, all […]
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