Frank Zappa - Trance-Fusion
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Free Music Notes for Trance-Fusion
Free Music Review: Best of the "Guitar" albums
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the third "Guitar" album set that Frank Zappa has put out. These are albums of guitar solos that were taken out of the middle of songs from different concerts.
The first set was the 3 LP set "Shut Up and Play Your Guitar". It was originally released through mail order, only,as 3 separate LP's over a period of time. It then could be bought as a complete set as a very expensive Japanese import (unless you were in Japan). Finally, it was released as a 3 CD set, although it could have almost been squeezed on to one CD. It was very good.
The second set was a 2 CD set called "Guitar". It was poorly executed. It was short snippets just yanked out of songs. The editing and splicing was poorly done. It was just annoying, short pieces and the album did not have any flow.
Trance-fusion was a project started and almost finished by Zappa before he died. It was resurrected, remastered and released 10 years later. It is 61 minutes long and the sound quality is excellent. You wouldn't know it was live, except for some light background audience cheering in a few spots.
One thing I like is that it was taken from a number of different time periods. The selections are long guitar solos that sound like complete pieces. The editing is pretty good so that everything flows.
Some of Zappa's guitar solos have a strange aura to them. With the solos pulled out of songs, and the song parts edited out, there sections of the CD that have an eerie atmosphere.
This is a great album. Imaginary Diseases, another recent Zappa release, is even better.
Free Music Review: Good rock blasting
Hit: 5 Stars
A collection of guitar solos from FZ's vault stockpile that he compiled from various live tour recordings just before his untimely passing. There are tracks from 1984, and a couple from the late 70s, but the majority of the tracks are from the 1988 tour. While his chops and technique weren't up to par during this period, nor did he have drummer Vinnie Colaiuta to fuel his fire as evidenced on the workouts found on the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar series, it didn't stop his fire. The cuts on this album are much shorter and more compact slices of inspired, frenzied, visceral energy, more in line with what's on the Guitar albums, and feature Zappa's idiosyncratic style of melody and rhythm and his hard hitting bluesy attack and interesting tones. Sonically speaking, it's kind-of funny because when he's playing you can actually hear every tick, scrape and squeak. The various rhythm sections on this disc provide excellent support, trying to deal with FZ's sometimes seemingly chaotic and unexpected turns. Not the greatest thing he's ever done, but a fun & energetic collection nonetheless with some really remarkable moments and tracks. Zappaheads will definitely want this one.Free Music Review: Amazing and Essential
Hit: 5 Stars
For a dead man, Frank Zappa can still put out some astonishing music. This latest effort from the Zappa Family Trust is a collection of smoking guitar solos from the master of the guitar himself. Mostly recorded with his legendary 1988 touring band, Trance-Fusion sports some riveting dramatic guitar work supported by rock-solid fusion rhythm work by a big band that is nothing short of spectacular. People like to dismiss Frank Zappa as a weirdo who sings smutty songs with bizarre musical changes, but the reality is different. His guitar playing is out of this world, unlike anything else being put to CD these days, and the sound of these live recordings is lush, bountiful, and extraordinary. You can feel Terry Bozio's kick drum pulsate through your body, and hear every player's work sizzle upward through the potent brew of notes, and everything fits nicely into a jazz rock fusion framework that soars above all the current musical competition. I know this review sounds overly effusive. But if you enjoy guitar music supported by outlandishly expert musicians, then Trance-Fusion needs to be a part of your collection. NOW.
Free Music Review: Excellent!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an absolutely excellent collection of guitar solos from the master himself.
This is one of my favorite releases since Zappa's death - the solos are wide in variety and, as expected, always excellent. Some are in Zappa's mad-cap impossibly difficult style, others are good old-style jams, and others are quite emotionally moving.
I am a long time Zappa fan - obsessive one might say, forcing Zappa on a great many people, as much and as often as I can - and I am LOVING this CD!
Listening to it reminds me, though, of how empty the world is without Frank still around with his incisive and brilliant political and social anthropological insights and, of course, his music. But as Frank's fave composer Edgar Varese said, "The modern day composer refuses to die". Given the incredible amount of unreleased material that is still in the Frank Zappa can, it will be a long time before he truly dies.
If you're a Zappa fan, especially a fan of his guitar work, I think you will love this album. I definitely do!
Free Music Review: It's about @&#?% time!
Hit: 5 Stars
This was one of the projects that Frank completed before his untimely death 13 years ago. Not to be ungrateful, but I'll never understand why it took the Zappa Family Trust so long to release. (And there are a couple other projects he finished that haven't come out yet!)
Most of this material comes from Zappa's last tour in 1988, which means that it's distinctly mellower that the previous collection of solos, Guitar, which focused on the early '80s. But it has a much better flow to it than Guitar, and a more manageable length, which makes it a more pleasant listen. It's got a wide variety of approaches and moods, and it's perfectly bookended by the two duets with Dweezil. (Dweezil's Van Halen-influenced shredding isn't usually my cup of tea, but there's no denying that Bavarian Sunset flat-out sounds glorious.) Frank's first solo collection, Shut Up 'N' Play Yer Guitar, will always be the best, but this is damn good.