Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
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Free Music Notes for Hot Rats
Free Music Review: FZ Fournal #12
Hit: 5 Stars
Hot Rats is another bigtime favorite of mine. It's the natural predecessor to mostly instrumental album The Grand Wazoo. However, the feel of Hot Rats does not evoke such strong jazz leanings as the Wazoo. It most certainly has an improvised jazz influence, but the preponderance of straight-eighth note rock styles, harmony not usually associated with jazz, overdriven guitar, ostinato bass patterns, and entirely composed pieces give Hot Rats more of a rock-fusion texture, way before rock-fusion was really even invented.
Compared to his previous "solo" work, Lumpy Gravy, Hot Rats comes off as a more organic and accessible affair. The genius of Lumpy Gravy lied in its jarring juxtaposition of dialogue, tape experiments, orchestral music, and melodic rock. Hot Rats is propelled along by ingeniously composed works like "Peaches in Regalia" and "Little Umbrellas" and furiously improvised pieces like "Willie the Pimp" and "The Gumbo Variations". The overall energy of the recording is fueled by the energetic and passionate execution of Zappa and the musicians he assembled. There are few early recordings by Zappa that really capture the intensity of his solo chops as well as on Hot Rats, and even fewer where the musicians support him so effectively.
It is quite possible that this recording was monumental in many regards for Zappa. In one regard, it may have opened up his eyes to the possibility of what could be accomplished with musicians that could keep up with his vision. Although the original Mothers were key in Zappa's conceptual development, this may have been the recording that made him seriously contemplate life without them. After all, it was not long after this that the faces of the Mothers began to change. Perhaps he realized that he might not have to rely on tape experiments and expensive orchestral musicians to make a statement that was in line with his expanding vision. Zappa's later guitar compositions like "Zoot Allures" could be seen as an extension of the work on Hot Rats.
Another noticeable step is the unique palette of sounds that comprise the soundscape of Hot Rats. Buzzing synthesizers combine with soprano saxes and flutes, creating an consistent and identifiable atmosphere that pervades the album. Careful listening reveals a pretty stunning display of some of Zappa's unconventional doubling practices. In his A&E Biography (which every Zappa fan should write thier congressman to aquire), he attributes this expansion of sound to a prototypical 16-track recorder that took up an entire wall of the studio.
Hot Rats most certainly influenced the development of his subsequent instrumental recordings. Although I have not heard Waka/Jawaka or Studio Tan, it seems that The Grand Wazoo and possibly the Orchestral Favorites recordings would not have developed as successfully as they did if Hot Rats had not been recorded. His work as a composer and voice as a melodist are in full bloom, and as adventurous as Hot Rats is, it sets the foundation for even more adventurous works that eventually led to Jazz From Hell and the Yellow Shark.
I'd like to comment on his guitar playing, as well. Some people have trouble digesting Frank's soloing. In an improv class last summer, my jazz instructor advised me that to have a successful jazz solo, there has to be a certain amount of predictability. The audience has to feel like their expectations are met 50% of the time to keep interest. This can be done with melodic repetition, use of convention, varying of the melody, etc. Frank does none of these things. His train-of-thought soloing takes a certain amount of focus because he almost never repeats himself. He expresses himself through more with melodic variation by way of rhythmic displacement, texture, and timbre. Until the listener is willing to think in these terms, his solos may just seem like mindless noodling. However, his expressiveness is absolutely apparent, especially on Hot Rats, where he really just plays his booty off.
Free Music Review: Hot Rats
Hit: 5 Stars
Frank Zappa-Hot Rats *****
In early 1969 Frank Zappa decided to leave the original Mothers Of Invention behind and strike it out on his own. Hot Rats was Frank Zappa's very first solo album away from the great Mothers Of Invention, and it turned out being one of his greatest triumphs with or without The Mothers. This mostly instrumental album with the exception of 'Willie The Pimp.' A mixture of large soundscapes and jazz fusion and smooth jazz thrown angerly against a wall of rock n' roll is the best way to describe the sound of Hot Rats.
Frank Zappa and Ian Underwood are the only musicians to play on every piece of music. ''Piece of music'' you ask why? Well becuase it is just unfair to call the tracks on the album songs that is why. Zappa comes alive on this album proving that he is unofficialy the worlds most underrated and overlooked guitar player, as well as bass player but more so on guitar. Zappa also lends a hand to the percussion on the album. Underwood the multi musician he is lends his lips to almost all of the horns on the album and plays most of the piano. Hot Rats is also the album that first showed the world what a magnificient musical arranger that Frank Zappa was. His ear for notes and sounds, and his comprehension of complex time signatures shines brightly through this album like the tecnicolor dream coat.
'Peaches En Regalia' opens the album and this strange piece of music managed to become one of Zappas best known pieces. Heavy in acoustic guitar with an amazing classical guitar solo from Zappa, and loads of organ and horns from Underwood. Also one of the mans most beautiful recordings as well, arranged like a mini symphony 'Peaches En Regalia' is one of the best reasons why Zappa is loved by his fans so strongly.
The only vocal track on the album 'Willie The Pimp' contains vocals from the legendary Captain Beefheart. The track opens with incendiary violen playing from Sugar Cane Harris which really adds to the over all sound of the album making this one of the most original tracks Zappa had done up to this point. This is the very first song to show the world what a fantasticly talentedly vituiosic guitar player Zappa was. His solos over the track are insane and I dare anyone to say Zappa is not one of the worlds top ten guitar players after hearing it.
'Son Of Mr. Green Genes' is a more happy sounding piece with lots of keyboards and is very jazzy. Once again Zappa plays some pehnomonal guitar using his wah-wah pedal not as a wah-wah sound but to get a midrange alternate sound to his guitar. Playing in odd tunings and using unusual chords and changes the mans playing make this one of the more interesting tracks on the album.
'Little Umbrellas' is randomly short for this album, be careful you might miss it if your not paying attention. Lots of great piano work and incredible horns make this track short and sweet.
'The Gumbo Variations' might just be the very best thing that Frank Zappa ever recorded with anyone. It is nearly seventeen minutes long and is fantastic from start to finish with never a dull moment. Before when the album was released on vinyl the song was not able to be released in its full length because of the length but now you get the full piece. The guitar interplay with Zappa and Underwoods horns is outragious. The track is beyond phenomonal, A measterpiece if you will.
'It must Be A Camel' closes the album and does so effortlesly. The random time changes and signatures through out make this a non stop thrill ride. Incredible, it is as if Zappa wrote the piece to close the album on pupose so to perfectly seague out.
This album is the penicle of Frank Zappa. This is the quintessential Zappa album, the one that you must own to call yourself a fan, the one you must own even if your not a fan.
Free Music Review: Hot Mott's
Hit: 5 Stars
Basically just dropping the name `Mothers of Invention' and releasing this as his first solo album, Mr. Zappa showed, who had been boss all the time, and let the unsuspecting music world cop it in the teeth with this blast of basically instrumental work. Gone were the dropping off into the world of parody or spoken word humour, that had often enlivened, but more often marred `The Mothers' albums. A joke is only funny the first couple of times, but soon becomes annoying, especially after repeated playing in between bits of your favorite music.But here on `Hot Rats' Mr. Zappa surrounds himself with some of the finest musicians in the United States of America, who just happened to also be his best friends, and went from cult figure to International Superstar. In the high brow student world of 1970, if you didn't have the Hot Rats poster in your bed sit, you were considered very square. The album was an absolute `must have'. (Mind you it was also required to wear your hair down to your ankles, platform boots 2 foot tall, huge bell bottom trousers that hid them anyway, say things like "Cosmic" or "Groovy" a lot, and end every sentence with "Man". Eat your heart out Austin Powers, looking back it all seems terribly complicated now.)
But that was one thing that Mr. Zappa had mastered, although all of the playing on this album is intricate in the extreme, with great lolloping extended solos and each song has a terribly gripping hum able tune that makes your fingers twitch and your feet tap.
The first piece of music presented here for your edification (it would almost be an insult to label them down as just plain old songs) is the wonderfully monickered "Peaches En Regalia", where Mr. Zappa on guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood get to flex their musical muscles. These two musicians are the only two to appear on every track. "Peaches En Regalia" is certainly one of Mr. Zappa's most commercial and popular tracks and, almost certainly, one of his best. In an amazing way the album starts, leading us into a treasure trove of sound. Yes, this was what started what is called `Jazz/Rock', but at the time it was just a convenient label for journalists to put it under. Mr. Zappa should not take the responsibility for the driveling of some, who tried to follow in his footsteps.
Next up is the infamous "Willie The Pimp" the only vocal track on the album sung by the esteemed Don Van Vliet, better known as `Captain Beefheart', and what lyrics they were too!
"I'm a little pimp with my hair gassed back
Pair of khaki pants with my shoe shined black"
You can hear the gleam in the great Captain's eye, the guitar solo that follows will take the roof off your head every time you hear it. And remember, Steve Vai was an apprentice of Mr. Zappa's for many years and has never been able to step out of his shadow.
After "Son of Mr. Green Genes", and for this album the short "Little Umbrellas", you get the full version of "The Gumbo Variations". This had to be severely edited for the vinyl release due to time constraints, but now with the wonders off compact discs, you get the whole thing remastered from the original tapes, all but seventeen minutes (what's three seconds between friends), where the soloists, Mr. Zappa guitar, Ian Underwood everything, and Sugar Cane Harris on violin, all vie for the spotlight, holding your attention with every nuance of sound.
Then finally we get "It Must Be A Camel" (the title of which sounds like something J.K. would say out on the golf course after a bad night), where the legendry Jen Luc Ponty joins the fray to bring it all to a fitting climax.
A truly magnificent collection. If it's not in yours, make it so.
You may notice the artist referred to as Mr. Zappa through out this review commanded a fair amount of respect, did the Guvnor.
Mott the Dog.
Free Music Review: A unique gem in the Zappa discography.
Hit: 5 Stars
A great majority of Frank Zappa's albums, masterpieces though they often were, tended to focus more on lyrical subversion and off-the-wall comedy than on the man's musical abilities. Which is an incredible shame when one considers just how gifted a musician Zappa was; the guy had an incredible knack for crafting tight, smart, and original melodies that were still incredibly endearing and catchy, as well as some uncanny improvisational skills that allowed him to create some of the greatest guitar solos ever played. As a writer and performer of music, Zappa was eclectic and fiercly original, taking as many cues from jazz and 20th Century composition as he did from rock, R&B, and Doo-Wop (the latter had always been one of his greatest passions) and combining them into a unique and virtually uncatogorizable sound that'll probably be inspiring artists and listeners for years to come.
Which is where this album comes in. Temporarily stepping away from the social commentary and envelope-pushing found on many of his other records, Hot Rots is a collection of instrumentals (with the exception of one vocal number, which I'll get to in a little bit). As such, it reveals the incredible nature of Zappa's musical skill. The opening number, "Peaches En Regalia," is in many ways an ideal summation of FZ's appeal, with its playful melody, complex arrangement, and dazzling instrumentation. "Willie the Pimp," the album's only vocal number, is another absolute classic: It's a pounding, greasy blues-rock classic, with a searing violin line (courtesy of Don "Sugarcane" Harris) and an absolutely nasty vocal from Zappa's longtime buddy, Captain Beefheart. However, the song's finest asset is an epic guitar solo from the master of ceremonies himself- at over seven minutes in length, it's an absolute monster, a blistering, brutal assault on the senses that spits forth burst after burst of hyperactive melody while somehow channeling the best aspects of both heavy metal and funk. It is, in short, a stunner, and an undeniable testament to Frank Zappa's unparalelled powers as a musician. Equally (if not more) incredible is "The Gumbo Variations," a scorching jam that reaches nearly seventeen minutes in length. This one isn't even playful- it's greasy, mean, unforgiving, and explosive, a blues-soaked grinder that sees Zappa, Harris, and multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood playing some of the greatest solos ever. On saxophone, Underwood is an inspired madman, palying some brilliant combination of free jazz and barroom rock, while Zappa and Harris maintain the mood with stomach-churning finesse. The other three songs on the album, while they don't match the heart-stopping power of the ones I've already described, are still fantastic: "Son of Mr. Green Genes" is a shape shifter with some wonderfully all-over-the-place soloing from Zappa and a melody that steadily ascends toward a glorious climax, while "It Must Be A Camel" is a dreamy, spacy piece with some apealingly off-kilter rhythms and a lulling piano line. The horns on the latter song are among the album's jazziest touches. "Little Umbrellas" is a tense, hypnotic number that constantly threatens (but never quite manages) to slip into discord and dissonance.
In short, Hot Rats is one of Zappa's greatest albums, a musical masterpiece that really should be in the collection of any real fan of music (no matte what genre it is).
Free Music Review: hot music
Hit: 5 Stars
hot rats is a great album no doubt about it. it is even better than were in it for the nomey' but just, it also has a scarry photo of zappa(R.I.P) on the photo of the cover. there is six songs but they are all briliant, especially peaches, "willie the pimp' and gumbo varations, green genes is very good too but the other two aren't that good. The best song on the album is peachs on reglia because of the melody ad instrumention. It is also a nice tune. Frank does a couple of great guitar solos, willie the pimp is a huge monamental solo and gumbo varations a shorter solo but very efective too. there is also some very efective guitar notes on the other songs, especially son of green genes and the end bit of the camel song, a big long note like in oh no but even longer. however the camel song is quite an oddball arangement so its hard to like but its not as bad as everyone says. little umberelas is a nice tune and jazy with some flutes played by the great ian underwood who played loads of the instruments. others players on the album include sugercane harriss(R.I.P) the great violiner . he has a monster solo on gumbo varations but even thought it is good playing it is a bit self-indugent and overstays its welcome by a few minutes,a hassle because we have to wait for it to finish to hear the guitar solo. the base player is called max benett and he has his moment of glory on 'the gumbo varations' a punchy little solo before the tune ends. then we have captain beefhart on vocals on the song about willie the pimp. he sounds like howling wolf but he is white, he was a great friend of frank zappa and they worked on another album together in 1978 called 'bongo furey'. the lines he sings are very good, and 'hot rats' is one of the lines he sings on 'willy the pimp' and the album title. other trivia things to include are 1 it was recorded on 16 track , it was one of the earliest tracks to use this machine. 2 it is dedicated to dwezeel zappa who was born the day it was recorded. 3 it has john luke ponty on vilon too in an early apearance (another great album to check out is 'king kong john luke ponty plays frank zappa tunes' from 1969 including king kong and 20 small cigars and george duke on piano)4 it was zappas 1st real solo album without the mothers of invention. the only mother of invention to play on it is ian underwood who plays nearly everything else. 5 this album was a hit in holland. 6 lots of people who hate frank zappa love the album 'hot rats' because it is easy to listen too 7this is considred by many people as the best jazz-rock album in the history of all time 8 there were 2 more versions of peachs on reglia by frank zappa in different albums, fillmore 71 and tinsleton rebelion 1981 both live songs. (peaches III) 9.the same year frank zappa prodused captain beefhart and the magic band in the trout mask replica. this is a wierd album with 30 songs, but it is a briliant album too. Frank even does some vocals on 'the blimp' and you hear him laughing. legend has it that captain beefhart wrote every song in one day but this is feirsly contested by zappa and the band. but it is a great album some people say it is even better than hot rats its so good. 10. .....you should buy this album .thank you.