Greggery Peccary and Other Persuasions: The Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa (Composer), Ensemble Modern (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Ensemble Modern
• Composer: Frank Zappa
• Audio CD (March 23, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B0001FFIXS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,599 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Moggio

2. What Will Rumi Do?

3. Night School

4. Revised Music For Low Budget Orchestra

5. The Beltway Bandits

6. A Pig With Wings

7. Put A Motor In Yourself

8. Peaches En Regalia

9. Naval Aviation In Art?

10. The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just as good, if not better than Yellow Shark, June 18, 2004

By 

stu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greggery Peccary and Other Persuasions: The Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa (Audio CD)

Thank Jebus for the Ensemble Modern. What an incredible group of musicians. I could not agree more with Gail Zappa when she exclaims in the liner notes, "The precision with which this is played is shocking and delicious." I am so grateful to this ensemble for realizing the music of one of my favorite composers so capably and lovingly. This recording took skill, determination, and dedication.

I, personally, think the arrangements are fantastic. It was a painstaking process to find as much of the original material as possible and then to transcribe the rest. The production is lush, balanced and precise. And, once again, the performances are inspired.

My one complaint is that "Peaches" feels a little rushed. Everything else is perfect. "Moggio," "A Pig with Wings," "Naval Aviation In Art?" and "The Adventures of Gregary Preccary" stand out as perhaps a litle more perfect than the rest.

I cannot recommend this disc highly enough to any fan of Zappa's music.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great homage, April 1, 2004

By 

Patrik Lemberg (Tammisaari Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greggery Peccary and Other Persuasions: The Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa (Audio CD)

I have grown to love "The Yellow Shark" and "Civilization Phaze III" more and more by and by, as the discs have spin in my player. I keenly awaited the release of this disc with high expectations, and realized--the first time I gave this disc a listen--that I could have had set the bar even higher! The sound engineering (purity there of, and stereophony) is very satisfying. To hear these songs, which I have liked and loved for a long time, performed by an ensemble this powerful and professional (and furthermore - big) is very pleasing.
Ali N. Askin (composer, EM's arranger, and FZ's assistant for the "Yellow Shark" project) has transcribed the original mid-70's recording of "Greggery Peckery", and orchestrated it for EM. It is quite mind-blowing how accurate this performance is to the original, and the added spices are very tasty - this goes for every single performance on the disc, btw. I can see how the hectic narration on "Greggery" could bother those who have grown accustomed to the original recording, but it doesn't much bother me, the professionalism of the musicians saves a lot. Three pieces from "Civilization Phaze III" are performed - this time around with only "real" instruments, of course, and they are all granted to warm the hearts of "C.P.III" lovers. Two nostalgic classics --"Peaches En Regalia" and "Revised Music for Low Budget Orchestra"-- are granted to give listeners satisfaction, especially to those who might think that Zappa's hey day was during the "Hot Rats" period. The performances of these tunes are rich, and give the compositions a certain royalty. An insane fact about this album, is that it is recorded in EIGHT DAYS, proving that this is a VERY talented and EXTREMELY professional ensemble, meaning also that it is worth listening to just for the quality of performance, even if you don't generally enjoy FZ's music.
...Oh, and there's an eleventh track on the disc - it's "hidden", but I'm not going to give anything away; find out what it is for yourselves by buying this album, thus supporting a group of GREAT musicians.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars let go of your pants and buy this CD, March 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Greggery Peccary and Other Persuasions: The Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa (Audio CD)

If you're a fan of The Yellow Shark, Everything Is Healing Nicely, Civilization Phaze III, Jazz From Hell, The Perfect Stranger, and perhaps LSO I&II, then you will want this recording. Also, if you're a fan of Stravinsky, Webern, Varese, or contemporary classical music of that genre, you should have no problem with this music. The Ensemble Modern are excellent... the performances seem flawless to me, and it seems there's a conviction to the work and the composer often lacking in other recordings or interpretations of Zappa's 'serious' music, like The London Symphony Orchestra Plays Zappa (LSO I&II) for instance. The memebers of EM also seem to have no problem playing Frank's Synclavier compositions either, and it's nice to here them played by real musicians instead of a machine, eventhough I love his Synclavier work too. Performed this way, pieces like "Night School", "Put A Motor In Yourself" and "A Pig With Wings" seem to have added depth and color. "Greggery Peccary" is awesome too... it does lack a little something, perhaps the absence of Frank's voice, but it's still a great version... definitely worth having, and the little surprise at the end from 200 Motels is great. It's a new arrangement from the "Stealing The Room" segment of the film. I think this is a must have recording for any true fan of Zappa's work. Kudos to Ali Askin for transcribing a lot of this music so well, and to Todd Yvega for creating a program to convert the Synclavier files to some workable format for Ali and the musicians. I realize that for the most part these are not Zappa arrangements per se, meaning they had to work from what was available to them (the liner notes go into more detail) but I think Zappa would have been more than pleased with the performances, and interpretations, etc.