frank zappa Archive

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, […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]