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Make a Jazz Noise Here

Frank Zappa - Make a Jazz Noise Here Audio CD

A fair review of the Frank Zappa "Make a Jazz Noise Here" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Frank Zappa reviews here, or go back to the Frank Zappa tabs.

Band: Frank Zappa
Title: Make a Jazz Noise Here
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-05-02
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Stinkfoot 2: When Yuppies Go to Hell 3: Fire and Chains 4: Let's Make the Water Turn Black 5: Harry, You're a Beast 6: Orange County Lumber Truck 7: Oh No 8: Theme from 'Lumpy Gravy' 9: Eat That Question 10: Black Napkins 11: Big Swifty 12: King Kong 13: Star Wars Won't Work 14: Black Page 15: T'Mershi Duween 16: Dupree's Paradise 17: City of Tiny Lites 18: Royal March from l'Histoire du Soldat 19: Theme from 'The Bartok Piano Concerto #3 20: Sinister Footwear, 2nd Movement 21: Stevie's Spanking 22: Alien Orifice 23: Cruisin' for Burgers 24: Romance Advance 25: Strictly Genteel

Classic
Sure, that is plauseable. There is a ridiculous urban legend that lingers to this day, even among smart music people: Zappa's best, or only good music, ended when the origional Mothers broke up in 1969. And there is a nice little man in my CD changer who rotates the discs when I play this double set.

True, the first Mother's were virtuosos, and Zappa did stoke the comady and sexual hijinks after this. But the dadaism never left the music. Hearing Make A Jazz Noise here should impress any open-minded person how strong all of Zappa's work was and how the musicians he used through the 70s and 80s got better and better.

This hefty live set features treatments of numbers from the earliest Zappa to compsitions he wrote for this tour. Cutting edge digital equiptment, sampling, and master players made this band some of the best interpraters of Zappa's entire catolouge.

Listen no further than the horn-driven version of "Stinkfoot" which opens the album--and where Zappa gives Jimmy Swaggart the verbal drive by this waste of DNA so royally deserved--and still does. The digital onslaught here, with heavy drums and horns, is so large, the Apostropie version sounds completely malnourished. "When Yuppies Go To Hell," I would submit, is one of Frank's last great compositions--with its samples and quicksilver parts, it is far more sophisticated than anything he had done in the alleged days of yore.

I could go track by track extending my argument, but you get the idea. Zappa's guitar work throughout the set is also taking on astonishing new demensions; yes, processing allowed him to be louder and have more ressonece. But the playing itself is evolving. Listen to "Star Wars Won't Work. " Zappa was never a player to rest during a solo, but here, he is using such wonderfully odd rythmic sculptures, his axe work seems to be taking on new, surreal shapes.

It is almost sad to listen to this given what was in store for Zappa. Had the master lived to a ripe old age, I think this album is a precurser to the digital brilance Zappa would have taken as his next major direction.

If only. But thankfully there is this. It is not enough, but is more than ample. .

One of the best albums ever recorded
My first copy was a double cassette tape and after almost a year of listening to it all the way through at least twice a day (with multiple rewinds) it was virtually worn out. I first bought this incredible live album back in 1992 at the age of 19 at a time when I was completely and utterly obsessed with the music of Frank Zappa. Over the next few years I bought it on CD three times - I've lost it, lent it out and never gotten it back etc - and I recently bought it again for old times sake. Not having listened to it for at least 15 years I was amazed to discover that I remembered the whole album in minute detail and could whistle almost every note. . . guitar solos, horn solos, bass lines, "mad bits," the whole lot. Indeed every last musical phrase has been burned into my mind forever, that's how good it is.

This live band is as tight as it's going to get, folks. The sheer mind boggling virtuosity of the musicians in this line up makes for a treat: some of Zappa's finest tunes articulated with a clarity which throws a bright light onto every nook and cranny of Zappa's insanely beautiful and impossibly complex musical mind. Every musician on that stage should be immensely proud of these performances - I know I would.

.

Close but no cigar

There are some shining moments though that make this worth owning. I'm going to be a voice of dissent and say that this album is only fair. Having grown up on Benny Goodman,Buddy Rich and Count Basie records,the horn arrangements seem rather tame here. For five horns,there is a surprising lack of harmony. My second beef is that this album never seems to hit a groove on any song for very long before frank decides to go into meltdown improvisation mode,with samples from the synclavier and squawking horn solos. These complaints aside,this band had a warm tone that the synth heavy'84 band lacked.
Highlights are a near perfect version of "cruisin for burgers" with a white hot solo by FZ and great use of the horns. Other gems include great versions of "Lumpy Gravy, Orange county lumber truck and Oh no". . New band member Mike Keneally perfectly plays the keyboard intro to an all too short "Eat that question" A Bartok,Stravinsky medley on disc 2 is worth the price of the discs. Oddly,instead of "Enchida's Arf" with a Chad solo,"Wash that thing" or "Village of the sun" from the roxy days, we get Stevies Spanking. Surely,Daniel Schorr singing Gershwin with the band would fit nicely here. (if rights could be obtained)Bassist Scott Thunes takes the instrument to another level,but drummer Chad Wackerman,whom I respect greatly and have seen blow the roof off a club with Allan Holdsworth,has a poor tone here and sounds reserved and afraid to swing. While this is a nice record to have,the real jazz noises came from the 1973-74 zappa line up, which may never be surpassed.

SIMPLY PUT
FROM HIS 1988 "BIG BAND' TOUR, THE MUSIC RUNS THE GAMUT FROM CLASSICAL COMPOSITIONS, JAZZ CLASSICS, POLITICAL SATIRE, OLD ZAPPA FAVORITES, BLUES, EXTENDED JAMS FROM THE SPECTACULAR BAND HE PUT TOGETHER (WHEN DIDN'T HE?), A VERY FAT HORN SECTION, AND SOME ABSOLUTELY BLISTERING GUITAR SOLOS FROM FZ. SIMPLY PUT, THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS THAT FRANK ZAPPA EVER PUT OUT. GREAT ALBUM. .

NOTHING COMPARES...
This is by far the most ambitious and amazing iconoclastic brilliance any and every living functional human and non-human could possibly ingest/digest. . or be lucky enough to have been exposed to. . . even the roots of trees have heard this masterpiece and have died in awe of such ridiculous mastery. Not a person on this planet with 3/4 of a brain (anything less could not fathom what on earth this is about) would/could possibly give this anything but 5 stars. Flawless in every respect/aspect, from Thunes' amazing deep thunder, to Wackerman's insatiable rhythm/chops, Ike Willis' genius. . . . . . . . . . . possibly the cure of cancer itself. . . .

You can see a complete list of all Frank Zappa discography, or go back to the Frank Zappa tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.