ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Album # 49 is Frank Zappa - Imaginary Diseases (Zappa Records).

This CD was released in January and it's all live tracks by Frank Zappa's Petit Wazoo 10 piece band. This band existed for a US and Canadian tour by the end of 1972 and included Jim Gordon, Tom Malone, Tony Duran and others...several horn players!
This band was a stripped down version of the Grand Wazoo orchestra for touring purposes only.

In the late 1980's Zappa told the fanzine Society pages that there were no recordings by this band that sounded good enough. But this CD sounds very good! Well, there are some mixing/balance problems. Probably since they didn't have enough tracks on the soundboard for the recording.

Nevertheless it's one of the most needed posthumus Zappa releases.
Therefore it's a mystery why Frank didn't use any of this material for the You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series. It seems more and more evident that he didn't really knew what goodies he had in the tape vault.

This is definitely interesting stuff. But they shouldn't have picked all those "boogies" for the CD. There were other more interesting pieces on the repertiore during this tour. Little Dots for instance.

Comments to the track list:
1. Oddients...Conducting the audience? A weak start!
2. Rollo...Now we're talking! But only the last three minutes of the song!
Why was 2/3 of it left out? Maybe the vocals sounded weak. This was one of the few tunes on this tour that included vocals (by Frank).
3. Been To Kansas City In A Minor...straightforward blues with lot of solos.
4. Farther O’Blivion...A long instrumental that was played during '72 and '73. Includes themes from Greggery Peccary, Be-bop Tango and Cucamonga. We would say that this track has "album quality"...but Jim Gordon's drum solo could have been left out.
5. D.C. Boogie...Jam piece recorded in Washington D.C.
6. Imaginary Diseases...highlight of the album along with Farther O'Blivion.
Instrumental uptempo tune with lots of energy. Was probably performed on this tour only and has remained unreleased...until now.
7. Montreal...the best of the "jam pieces" on this CD.

www.zappa.com tells that the tracks on Imaginary Diseases are "produced by Frank Zappa. Vaultmeistered by Joe Travers. Liner notes by Steve Vai."
Same address is recommended if you need this CD and have trouble finding it.

S.H.

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