Frank Zappa - London Symphony Orchestra, Vols. I &II
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Free Music Notes for London Symphony Orchestra, Vols. I &II
Free Music Review: Too Zappa for some, genial to most?
Hit: 5 Stars
So, nobody reviews this one, hey? Well, that figures! And illustrates how much more versatile Zappa is than most of his listeners and fans. LSO is very Zappa, probably too much for those who thnk and write Zappa's world is the pop music business. LSO is a great viewpoint of Zappa's musical concepts, his influences, and relevance for our century's music.Free Music Review: Frank Zappa ,London Symphony Orchestra
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a must have for Frank Zappa fans.His style shows through the complex arrangments that were done on a tight schedule with very little rehersal.It must have been a challenge for the LSO.This recording is different from what most people think of as Zappa's music,a great work from a legend.Music is the best.Free Music Review: The most underrated of Zappa's orchestral albums....
Hit: 4 Stars
I recently upgraded this album to CD, and I like it a lot more than I did when I first bought it. Zappa himself had mixed feelings about it, calling it "high class demos of what actually resides in the scores" (from The Real Frank Zappa Book), but I think it's very good, and it's the most underrated of Zappa's orchestral recordings. It was originally released on 2 vinyl albums, one in 1983, and one in 1987 (even though both were recorded in 1983, more on that later). I remember reading a review of Vol. 1 of this album by Stereo Review's Mark Peel. I liked the fact that a rock star was doing orchestra work (Peel's review was mixed and had some factual errors. He called Zappa's orchestral work "funny and scary, but it has absolutely no warmth", which was wrong, and he also said the material from Vol. 1 had appeared elsewhere, in works like 200 Motels. For the record, NONE of the material from the first volume appeared originally from 200 Motels). I like the CD configuration better. It's sequenced differently than the original vinyl releases, compositions like Sad Jane and Bob in Dacron are split into their respective movements (on the vinyl release, they were released as one continuous track) and it's been remixed and sounds a lot better. It's still a little flat, resulting mainly from where they recorded it. Zappa said the orchestral hall they recorded at had "completely dead acoustics", and you can hear it here.
The first composition, Bob in Dacron, is very good and is actually funny (despite no narration or vocals). Sad Jane is one of the more beautiful pieces here, showing some warmth and depth. It's quite gentle at times, and shows Zappa did have some heart, so to speak. Mo and Herb's Vacation is a great epic, scary, funny, strange, and moving all at the same time. Envelopes is haunting and sad, and the LSO version is far superior to the rock version on Ship Arriving... Pedro's Dowry (which first appeared on Orchestral Favorites) is better here. It's longer, and there's a really good violin solo in the middle. Bogus Pomp is twice as long as the original version (the original was on Orchestral Favorites), adding more pomp to it.
The only real bad composition here is Strictly Genteel. It was recorded on the last hour of the last session of the last day, and the LSO does a very sloppy version of it. The trumpet section decided to go on a bit of a drinking binge before the recording, and they arrived 15 minutes late. Since it was the final night, there was no way Zappa could afford to pay the LSO overtime (Zappa funded this project out of his own money). So they recorded it anyway, and it has tons of out of tune notes. This is why there is a 4 year interim between the 2 original vinyl releases. Frank sat on the 2nd volume for 4 years, hoping that technology would allow him to hide the shoddy playing, but technology only allowed him a little tweaking, so he released the material anyway. It's really off key. If you want a good version of Strictly Genteel, buy 200 Motels or Orchestral Favorites. I prefer the instrumental version on Orchestral Favorites myself.
The LSO album is a very good album. It's not as good as The Yellow Shark (Zappa's greatest orchestral album), but it's still a lot better than its reputation suggests.
Free Music Review: mostly excellent
Hit: 4 Stars
Frank wrote some mean orchestral stuff in his time, some of it appears on this album.Disc1 is better, sad jane and bob in dacron are great, also the epic mo n herb's vacation, which is a 3 movement 27 minute work.It has some eerie bits, sinister like, a delightful first movement with clarinets etc. I'm not qualified to decribe the music, except that it's as good as any of his other orchestral stuff, although it would be interesting to hear other versions. Disc2 is new versions of previously done stuff. Envelopes from the drowning witch album doesn't sound too good to me. It kind of plods along, loses the energy that the 82 band gave it, and the cartoony, nancarrowy quality. It just sounds tired. Pedro's dowry is fine, a longer version than the one on orchestral favorites/lather, however i prefer the earlier version, it has more vitality. Bogus pomp is good, i haven't heard the orchestral fave version, but some people(eg Ben Watson) say that the shorter, 70s version is better. strictly genteel is a great tune, it's a decent enough version. Overall i would definitely recommend the album, there's some great music on it. Thank youFree Music Review: Too Complex for some (Andy Gill included!)
Hit: 4 Stars
If you do not like 'classical' music or you have the same tin ear that Andy Gill (who seems to review everything and know little) has, then this may not be your cup of joe but if you are adventurous, like something a little deeper than the music of the million or so 'Divas' that have popped up then buy it.
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