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The back catalog of Frank Zappa<\/strong> is massive, and massively intimating. Never the most commercially-minded of artists, the virtuoso Zappa recorded and released more than fifty albums during his lifetime. (His estate has more than doubled his catalog, with all manner of posthumous releases; his so-called \u201c100th<\/sup> album\u201d is due out soon.) With albums that explored everything from doo-wop to fusion, from big band jazz to musique concr\u00e8te \u2013 not to mention a lot of scatological lyrical content \u2013 Zappa’s oeurve could easily scare off (or even repel) the casual listener.<\/p>\n None of which seemed to bother him in the least. Zappa was a restless innovator, and what that often meant in practical terms is that he’d make what could seem (especially at the time) as one musical left-turn after another. Just when you’ve gotten used to the early Mothers records, exemplified by We’re Only in it For the Money<\/em>, Zappa fires the entire band and makes a weird orchestral album (Lumpy Gravy<\/em>) and then a blues\/jazz LP (Hot Rats<\/em>).<\/p>\n To make dealing with his vast catalog a bit easier, fans, critics and the like have attempted to divide Zappa’s work \u2013 his so-called \u201cproject\/object\u201d \u2013 into eras. There’s certainly overlap between some of those era \u2013 his work doesn’t lend itself to neat classification \u2013 but it’s a worthy endeavor to break Zappa’s music into more easily-digestible pieces.<\/p>\n And the piece that remains most controversial among his fans is what one might call the Flo and Eddie years. From around 1970 until 1971, Zappa’s band was fronted by a pair of vocalists who \u2013 for contractual reasons \u2013 called themselves The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie<\/strong>. Better known as Mark Volman<\/strong><\/a> and Howard Kaylan<\/strong><\/a>, the duo had come to fame as the front men of The Turtles. The Turtles were always known for their sense of humor and lively stage personae, so on some level, they were a good fit for Zappa. Enlisting top-notch musicians who were able to play the increasingly complicated music that he was composing, Zappa brought Flo and Eddie on board to handle vocals, a task that was not among the strongest qualities of the original Mothers.<\/p>\n Taking a detailed and incisive look at this period requires backing up a bit to provide proper context. And that is why the new documentary Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers<\/em> covers the period 1969-1973. Beginning with a quick history of the Mothers up to the start of that era, the lengthy (more than two hours) documentary seeks to put the work of the Flo and Eddie period into its proper historical perspective.<\/p>\n