Imaginary Diseases

Imaginary Diseases

This is a superb album. The band from Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, with it's heavy jazz emphasis, plays superbly arranged pieces from the Petit Wazoo tour of the early 70's. My personal favorite is Been To Kansas City In A Minor (be careful how you read this double entendre). I believe this is an essential CD for the Zappa lover. For those that admire the jazz of Miles Davis/John Coltrane, this is a chance to hear Zappa's version of "jazz-rock" at its finest from a live performance. Coming as it did at the time of Bitches Brew, I am left to wonder - after years of believing Miles Davis as the superior musician/composer/arranger - if Zappa did not in fact come close to being his equal or even his better. Such points are not worth quibbling over. This is a 5 star performance from a band playing the music of one of the musical geniuses of the 20th century. Zappa plays some wicked guitar as well, but the greatness is in the compositions and arrangements. This recording starts off with a couple of short typically abstract pieces, the kind of Zappa music I can't handle when I'm tired and stressed, and I worried for a moment... But like a thicket of brambles at the edge of a lovely magical forest these ditties serve to protect and discourage the unadventurous. The long improvisational jams and FZ solos within are amazing, varied and delightful. Been to Kansas City is a straight ahead blues number with great guitar work and horn arrangements (at first I thought FZ must be covering a blues standard). Farther O'blivion, in typical FZ form, is all over the place giving the jazzy Petite Wazoo band room to show their chops. D.C. Boogie is quickly becoming one of my favorite tunes (Zappa or otherwise), with FZ starting off in a spacey languid jam sounding at times like he's incorporating riffs from the Allman Brothers or Marshall Tucker Band, then ending it in an (audience voted) "Boogie" which sounds alot like a San Francisco Grateful Dead/Quicksivler Messanger Service kind of affair (except with killer horns) - a decidely unZappa-like sensiblity. Imaginary Diseases and Montreal continue the variety with encore performances jamming on an extended Apostrophe-like theme. I can't imagine anyone staying in their seats for these tunes.

Overall I'm pleased and a bit surprised by this release, and the hint of more to come. Vai opines that Zappa was perhaps the most prolific composer in history, and that we'll not likely see in our life times the release of it all. Meanwhile we have Dweezil promoting his father's works with authentic and respectful renditions, and various Big Bands starting to cover FZ's complex repertoire with suitable skill. This is all good news, to old and new fans.