Customer Reviews

FZ:OZ

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An uncut Frank Zappa concert -- YAY! I want more of these in the near future!

Many Zappa fans have understandably wondered why the first Vaulternative release had to be a concert from THIS particular obscure Zappa tour (winter '76), rather than something like 1972's Petit Wazoo tour, or the Halloween '78 blowout in New York, for instance. Unlike those fans, I was happy to see that the concert was from the depths of Zappa obscurity. I really don't mind them going in after the most deeply buried dusty, forgotten bins first.

Despite the small band (Zappa, Bozzio, Brock, Estrada, and Lewis) I expected the concert to be very good, and I think the disc delivers a great show. The sound is a bit lackluster. It seems that there's not enough low end. Bozzio's drums sound kind of compressed or something. So, not the highest marks for sound fidelity. Also, the disc edits in a couple of bits of audience recordings when the "official" reel was being changed. It doesn't sound great when this happens, but I do appreciate the fact that they kept the entire recording intact from one, and only one, concert. Frank would never have done this...I'm pleased that his family is doing it.

Now for the show. Perhaps the strongest aspect of it is Frank's guitar playing, both lead and rhythm. He was in his ascent towards (actually beyond) guitar greatness at this time. On this tour, Frank used many different amp/effect settings with musically tasteful results. He plays what must be 30+ minutes of guitar solos on this disc...and they are for the most part, pretty inspired, not just noodling for the sake of it. High points include Flithy Habits, Advance Romance, and Zoot Allures.

The rest of the band is great too, possibly with the exception of Andre Lewis on keyboards. His playing is actually interesting at first, again with lots of creative 1970's effects use, but his style - especially in his long solos - gets boring. He tended to play what sounds like single-handed solos with little use of chords. And Frank gives him a few solos that go on and on and on... Anyway, I think Nappy does a swell job on vocals and sax. Terry's drums are not at their peak, but it is him, and that's a darn good thing. And the big surprise...Roy Estrada seems to groove really well on bass. He gels with Terry too. Zappa obviously employed him for his bass playing, and not for a gimmick.

The setlist is a nice mixed bag of new and old. For the most part, not only are the song choices good, but they are played as well by this band as they would be by most other bigger-better Zappa bands. Some will disagree, and just not get past the thinner sound of this ensemble. I think their enthusiasm makes up for most of the lacking texture.

I do like the rather upbeat version of The Torture Never Stops (with a guest Aussie harmonicist), although it's very different from the slow brooding studio version. The Freak Out and We're Only in it for the Money medlaye are both fabulous, especially the latter. There is also the previously unreleased Kaiser Rolls. It's no big deal, but it appears again at the end of the CD from a practice recording of the song, (Du Jour). This "Du Jour" practice version is MUCH better, as it's played at a brisker pace, and Frank's guitar playing throughout is real snappy and creative.

I welcome another uncut concert from the Zappa vaults. C'mon Dweezil, "Bring 'em on!"

Well, this is a cd you have to buy when you're a zappafan.
This '76 band rocks!!!! especially on disc 2. My absolute hero here is of course FZ but also napoleon murphy brock on lead vocals and tenorsax. Disc one has some nice tunes like dirty love and killers like Black Napkins and Advance Romance.
Disc two is the one!
I like the superb played reggae version of take your clothes off when you dance.Outstanding is the rocking, jazz, freak me out, Frank version of Chunga's revenge. But that's not all. What about the version of Keep it greasy with a terrific job of NMB on lead vocals and Roy Estrada on some tremendous basswork. The closer Muffin Man with some greasy sax and great guitarwork of FZ is the best closing for this outstanding concert.
Get this cd,now!!

I'll try not to repeat what was already written by others below. While not as essential as the 1974 Helsinki concert (YCDTOSA, Vol 2) - which is a MUST HAVE, Zappa fans will want to pick this up for a number of reasons:

- Like "Imaginary Diseases", this release showcases a band that was largely unrepresented in the catalog (incl. the YCDTOSA series).
- There is a previously unreleased (I think!) song, "Kaiser Rolls".
- Interesting "Conceptual Continuity Clues", including early versions of several tunes from "Zoot Allures" and a version of "Keep it Greasy" 3 years before "Joe's Garage" was released. "Canard Tujours" would later be renamed "Let's Move to Cleveland" in the 1980's.
- Of particular interest is the version of "The Torture Never Stops". This is a work-in-progress version that is sort of midway between the 1975 version with Captain Beefheart on vocals (on the YCDTOSA series), and it's final version on "Zoot Allures" and later live recordings. This one has a bluesier, less "Goth" feel. While not entirely successful, it's still quite good and it's an excelent illustration of Zappa's creative process. Many songs were played very differently by his various bands over the years, not to mention the orchestral and electronic versions.

I personally like Napoleon Murphy Brock a lot. He may be my favorite Zappa vocalist, and since he wasn't in the band long, I'm happy to have this release.

buy this cd immediately!!! frank's guitar sounds great and terry's playing is amazing...

This January 1976 Sydney concert album is one that I've come to enjoy more on repeated hearings. The usual objection concerns its texture: the five-musician band is notably thinner than a typical Zappa ensemble, and more closely approximates the makeup of a garden-variety rock band. Missing are Zappa's characteristic mallet instruments, or dense layers of multiple drummers or guitars. There's some ragged ensemble singing, and as others have noted, the sound quality is lackluster. But this is still a quality ensemble, one that two weeks later did an Osaka gig whose unauthorized recording (distributed as The Eyes of Osaka or Strange Habits) has become one of the most sought-after bootlegs among Zappa collectors. FZ:OZ features several extended instrumental jams, and there are enough memorable moments from this unusual lineup to place the album in the worthy tradition of Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series.

Among the high points on the first CD are the solos in Black Napkins, a perennial Zappa instrumental improv standard that's built on a simple alternation between tonic and Neapolitan chords (C# minor and Dmaj7). Basically the piece goes: tune, Andre Lewis synth solo, FZ guitar solo, tune reprise. This format doesn't suffer from the thinner texture. The synth solo has been criticized for its monophony, but aside from electric organs, must synthesizer keyboards of the period were in fact analog and monophonic. I prefer this kind of solo to the slick, commercial sounding keyboard jingles that often emerged from the 1984 and 1988 tour groups. Zappa's solo follows, and is a quintessential Zappa rock guitar solo. It uses its time well, though FZ does occasionally indulge in the rock guitarist's cliché of a rapidly repeated 3 or 4 note lick that seems to greatly impress non-guitarists. The singers in the band nail the backing vocals in the reprise.

As others have noted, the arrangement of The Torture Never Stops is unlike any you'll hear on other Zappa albums. Faster, though still at a ballad tempo, sounding almost jolly, in contrast with the slower, sinister and evocative renditions epitomized in Zoot Allures, Zappa in New York and so on. The intonation of the backing vocals at the start leave something to be desired. A cameo appearance by an Australian harmonica player follows. Although it starts promisingly, he repeatedly breaks off his solo in favor of verbal humor attempts.

The two most unfortunate trends in Zappa's music of the 1970s and 1980s are the drift toward commercialism and the unhealthy obsession with texts depicting sexual violence (usually against women). Both of these are in evidence in The Illinois Enema Bandit. Zappa would contend that this is more a comment on male stupidity, but this is belied by the glee with which he recounts the sodomizing of women, backed up by an all-male band and delivered to a predominantly male audience that has thus earned license to embrace this kind of humor without apology, and certainly without much in the way of ironic self-consciousness of the kind imputed to it by Zappa and his apologists.

The second CD includes what I believe are the only legal recordings of Kaiser Rolls (as of 2010). Chunga's Revenge is the album's longest tracks. Brock has an extended and rudimentary saxophone solo that casts him in an inferior light to, say, Ian Underwood, not to mention the best jazz saxophonists of the time. The keyboard solo that follows is much more rhythmically secure and harmonically extended. Again, Lewis must be using an analog synthesizer with a monophonic keyboard since the line is single-note and at times seems to exploit the effect of holding down a bass key while "flailing" with the right hand, producing a kind of violin-like lick where a single low note is rapidly alternated with different upper notes. FZ gets in his solo time, and the track ends with the most extended Bozzio drum solo of the set (which, typically, leaves behind all but the slightest trace of the base meter/tempo). Zoot Allures features another extended FZ guitar solo, this time over a freer electric bass accompaniment with electric organ chords. After a cadence, the solo continues with a sample-and-hold effect of the sort that Zappa would use into the 1980s (e.g., Let's Move to Cleveland from Does Humor Belong in Music?). The live tracks close with Muffin Man (one of the trademark Zappa set-closers from the period, though with a larger band he might have used Strictly Genteel instead).

As I write this in late 2010, FZ:OZ is hard to find new except through the ZFT Website, so only motivated Zappa fans/collectors are likely to find it. This is probably OK, since it's not in anyone's first tier of Zappa releases. And as the Winter 1976 tour group goes, I'd rather have had a professional recording of the aforementioned Osaka gig, since the band was especially "on" that night (with even Brock contributing some uncharacteristically creative and "outside" saxophone solos). Nevertheless, FZ:OZ is a commendable addition to the Zappa oeuvre, filling in some gaps in his official discography, revealing a few familiar tunes in unfamiliar guises, and definitely repaying a couple of listens if you're interested in the genre.

I never saw FZ live but I've been a fan since the early 80's. We didn't get too many opportunities in Sydney, Australia so this is a sentimental gem for me. Of the 50 odd Zappa units I have in my collection, this holds special significance. I have attended many concerts at the Horden Pavillion, an unspectacular little venue, but I can only dream of 1976 and being in the audience at this show. The sheer volume of the performance is amazing - the highs and lows that you seem to get with every live Zappa event. The highs make it all worthwhile - Stink Foot, Dirty Love, Enema Bandit, Gas Station, Torture, Carolina Hard Core, Dinah Moe, Camarillo & Muffin Man. The lows have always, for me, been about waiting for the next high spot - you know its coming and it'll be worth the wait. Some hometown references make FZ:OZ all the more special. As an FZ fanatic I can only say to other like minded souls - buy this, "you'll love it, it's a way of life".

Not wanting to get into all the technicalities about sound quality etc, afterall this is a live concert from 32 years ago and recorded on one reel to reel tape, consequently resulting in "gaps" when the tape had to be changed. The "gaps" were filled with bootleg recordings from the same tour, hence the differences in sound quality on some songs. However in saying that, most of the concert is preserved in it's entirety.

Frank is certainly in fine form, and I specially enjoyed "The Torture Never Stops" featuring the "little Aussie bleeder", Norman Gunston on harmonica and the spoken word.

If you want a blast from the past, especially if you were in the audience, this is a great album and a wonderful FZ keepsake.

For you Zappa woodshedders out there: This CD is wonderful to listen to for all the 70s stompboxes and foot pedal boards used. FZ does some serious noodling here, all live and all in your face. Of particular interest to me is his workings of solos where he incorporates flangers and chorus pedals, a tad of delay, some ping-ponging opulence, some overtones and other gems in a blender-sized malt shoppe of tasty sounds. Nappy is hooting and hollering on sax, too. Wonderful! Always known for his experimentation, FZ allows this small but tight band stretch out and wail on most of the songs. Pay particular attention to the 2nd disc; it is a real blast to hear stuff no one else was doing at the time this band was touring. Light-years ahead, true Zappa fans must have this in their collection. I would love to see Dweezil and the boys in ZPZ play the "Kaiser Roll" song. It is hilarious and with great spontaneity. Just go for it! Hats off to the Family for getting this one out for us fans!

FRANK'S GUITAR WORK IS GREAT AS ARE THE INSTRUMENTALS.THE UPDATED SONGS FROM THE ORIGINAL MOTHERS ALBUMS ARE COOL, BUT NAPOLEON'S MIKE AND THE BASS AMP SEEM TO BE TOO LOW ON SOME OF THEM AND THERE IS TOO MUCH NOODLING THROUGHOUT THE C D BY ANDRE LEWIS ON THE KEYS.NAPPY SINGING THE ILLINOIS ENEMA BANDIT IS A GREAT CONTRAST TO RAY WHITE BUT NOT BETTER.THE UNRELEASED SONG KAISER ROLLS IS CATCHY AND FUNNY BUT NOTHING SPECIAL.THE CLOSING GROUP OF SONGS INCLUDING DINAH-MOE HUMM, CAMARILLO BRILLO, AND MUFFIN MAN IS GOOD BUT THERE ARE MUCH BETTER VERSIONS OF THE SAME SONG ORDER FROM A SIMULCAST ON THE RADIO FROM I THINK '78 WITH ADRIAN BELEW IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT.I THINK IT WAS A HALLOWEEN PALLADIUM SHOW.I HAVEN'T HEARD THE HALLOWEEN DVD AUDIO YET.IF THIS IS THAT CONCERT, WHY NO CD? DWEEZIL PLEASE RELEASE THAT CONCERT ALONG WITH THE KCET TV L.A.'74 AND THE RITZ '81 SHOW.THOSE ARE THREE OF THE BEST OFFICIALLY UNRELEASED ZAPPA CONCERTS EVER TO BE RECORDED AS FAR AS BOTH RECORDING QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE TOGETHER.