Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American guitarist, composer, record producer and film director born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 21, 1940. Zappa joined his first band, ‘The Ramblers,’ at Mission Bay High School in San Diego. Zappa worked for a short period in advertising.
His break in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into how it works. Throughout his career, he took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, designing some of his album covers and directing his own films and videos. Zappa was involved in a band called; ‘The Mothers of Invention’ at the early stage of his career.
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The Mothers of Invention recorded the groundbreaking double album ‘Freak Out!’ (1966) with a live studio orchestra. It mixed R&B, doo-wop and experimental sound collages that captured the "freak" subculture of Los Angeles at that time. The album immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to, as Zappa called it, "The relentless consumer culture of America.”
Towards the end of the 1970s, Zappa launched his solo career into full swing with the albums ‘Sheik Yerbouti,’ which contained the Grammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached #45 on the Billboard charts, and his more renowned album, ‘Joe’s Garage,’ which contained one of Zappa’s most recognized guitar pieces, ‘Watermelon in Easter Hay'. In 1981, Zappa focused on his image as a instrumental guitar soloist with albums such as, ‘Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar,’ ‘Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar Some More’ and ‘The Return of Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar.’ Most of Zappa's projects came to a halt in 1990, when he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for ten years and was considered inoperable.
Zappa’s last musical project included his love for classical music and orchestration in the world-acclaimed Frankfurt Festival in 1992 with composers such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. It would become his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found elating. Frank Zappa died on Saturday, December 4th 1993 and on December 6th; his family publicly announced that Frank Zappa had left for his final tour just before 6:00pm on Saturday (the day after his funeral).
Mathew Jones
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