It must have been maddening for Frank Zappa to work with rock musicians. His ambitious ideas were often impossible to perform. Sometimes, the body’s physical limitations just can’t keep up with the math. Which brings us to the story behind Zappa’s last release, Jazz from Hell.
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Some History
The Mothers of Invention formed in California in 1964. They were called the Soul Giants before Zappa joined. With Zappa as band leader, the group signed to Verve Records and released their debut album Freak Out! in 1966. The Mothers were famous in California’s underground music scene before a wider audience caught on.
The group cycled through multiple lineups in the ’70s, while Zappa focused on big-band and orchestral works. The Mothers’ final album was Bongo Fury, released in 1975. It’s a live album with studio elements and also features Captain Beefheart.
Zappa achieved his greatest commercial success with Apostrophe (’). He was a cranky cultural critic, and his sense of humor wasn’t for everyone. However, the juvenile “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” is one of Zappa’s most streamed songs.
Novelty Purveyor + Fascism Slayer
Accompanied by his then-14-year-old daughter, Moon, Zappa used “Valley Girl” to critique the California suburbs. It was Zappa’s only Top 40 single in the U.S. “Valley Girl” appeared on his 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. Though Zappa was airing grievances toward suburban triviality, a Streisand effect happened, and mainstream culture fell in love with the “Valley Girl” caricature.
He was a leading voice in the fight over censorship against the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Zappa appeared contentiously on Crossfire in 1986, arguing against the censors before setting his sights on Ronald Reagan and what he considered the impending “fascist theocracy” in America.
Turning to classical composition, Zappa began work with the London Symphony Orchestra. The sessions were fraught with stubborn and cynical musicians. The final 1983 recordings were pieced together from multiple edits.
A New Tool
On Jazz from Hell, the Synclavier provided Zappa a cure for musicians incompetent to reproduce his ideas. It’s an early digital synthesizer and sampling workstation. The Synclavier sounded cold and sterile compared to analog synthesizers like the Moog. But the textures on Jazz from Hell were shocking in 1986. In hindsight, they were a precursor to how today’s music is made with modern digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Pro Tools and Logic.
The rhythmic precision of a workstation is favored over “feel” and “groove.” The intention of changing time signatures and shape-shifting sounds is disorientation. Testing the limitations of technology at the time was part of Zappa’s compositional toolbox. Moments of recognition are fleeting. Most music has something familiar in it. Familiarity eases the connection between the artist and the audience. Jazz from Hell isn’t typical or easy.
Zappa was constantly forward-thinking. What’s interesting about Jazz from Hell is how ‘stock’ it sounds. He was experimenting with technology very few people had access to. The Synclavier was expensive, which put it out of reach for most musicians. The sounds on Zappa’s final studio album resemble factory presets. It sounds like what you might hear browsing the keyboard department at a local Guitar Center. Press a button, and you get the album opener “Night School.”
Facsimile Rock
He used the Synclavier on “While You Were Art II” to recreate an improvised guitar solo from “While You Were Out” from his 1981 album Shup Up ’N Play Yer Guitar. With this recreation, ephemeral human moments bubble to the surface, then quickly disappear inside a cacophony of notes. There are moments when the synthesizer sounds broken. It was like someone had entered the wrong math into a rhythm machine, making it impossible to locate the downbeat.
Finding drummers who could perform his arrangements was a challenge for Zappa. His composition, “The Black Page #1,” so-called for the number of notes written, is famously difficult to perform. Zappa’s longtime drummer, Terry Bozzio, learned it after two weeks of practice. “G-Spot Tornado” sounds like such a piece. Even in its complexity, it’s the closest thing to groove on Jazz from Hell.
A live version of “G-Spot Tornado” appears on the 1993 album The Yellow Shark. The ensemble of humans performing this supposedly impossible piece showcases Zappa’s compositional brilliance.
From Stiff to the Good Stuff
Critics accused Zappa of being a stiff or, worse, a sideshow. There’s little on Jazz from Hell to refute the charge until late in the album when Zappa returns to his love of improvisation.
“St. Etienne” features a guitar solo from a live version of “Drowning Witch.” It feels like a kind of mercy. “St. Etienne” is a reminder of Zappa’s virtuosity. It’s the penultimate track on Jazz from Hell, and it’s a welcome reward for making it this far into the album.
Not everyone bought into President Reagan’s rosy pronouncements. Zappa was an outspoken and well-known critic of the president. He referred to Reagan as “a president from hell” with a National Security Council “from hell.” Thus, the album had a name: Jazz from Hell.
Jazz from Hell won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1988. It’s a curious category to find the album. There isn’t anything resembling rock on Zappa’s farewell studio effort.
It’s a fitting note for Zappa to have ended on. The album is intricate and absurd. Like much of his work, it challenges the listener to tests of boundary and stamina. At its cold, digital heart, Jazz from Hell is an exercise in logic. Glimpsing back to the Crossfire episode from 1986, the crux of Zappa’s argument was logic. Like Jazz from Hell, your feelings don’t matter—only logic.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
(EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article did not clarify that Jazz From Hell was the last STUDIO album officially released before Frank’s passing. He of course worked on music up until his death that was released posthumously, and released non-studio records after Jazz From Hell and before his death. Thanks to reader Christian for the heads-up!)
