Funky Nothingness

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Listen closely to these recordings, and you can hear the sound evolving before your very ears, going right from that Hot Rats fusiony vibe to the Chunga feel. Actually, if you listen really closely, you can also feel the embryonic compositional palette Zappa fine-tuned further when Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles (a.k.a. Flo & Eddie) joined the band some months later. Side one (presumably) ends with a lengthy workout of “I’m A Rollin’ Stone,” an old Lightnin’ Slim side. Over a slow, swampy groove, Zappa tears off some searing leads and jokes around: “Come in and make yourself comfortable… right over here by the Silvertone 45RPM imitation stereo record player,” his grin practically audible. The original material is similarly arresting. A hypnotic "Chunga's Revenge" recorded in the basement of Zappa's Laurel Canyon home and subsequent "Basement Jam" debut here; an edit of the recording was released in surround sound on the 2004 DVD-A release QuAUDIOPHILIAc. Indeed, much of the material here would make sense on an expanded edition of 1970's Chunga's Revenge. "Sharleena" closed that album. Former Turtles Flo and Eddie took the lead vocals, lending it their trademark pop sound. (That rendition was intended to be released on 45 RPM but the single never materialized.) The liner notes here reveal that Zappa described this Record Plant take as "the funky version." It's an apt tag as it leans more heavily into the blues than the released recording and features Sugarcane Harris' bluesy vocals. It's also nearly three times as long, featuring an extended improvisation with incendiary solos from Harris and Zappa before the proper song is restated. (This "Sharleena" was issued on 1996's The Lost Episodes in a remix; Funky Nothingness presents Zappa's original 1970 mix.) If you love Frank Zappa’s music and his work around the time of Hot Rats and Chunga’s Revenge, then Funky Nothingness is an absolutely essential spin for you. ’Nuff said. Funky Nothingness preserves a number of "Tommy and Vincent" jams between Zappa and Dunbar, skillfully playing off one another with an intuitive connection and matching high energy. The first two jams were mixed by FZ in 1970; the third, newly-mixed one is the full, unedited, 22-minute master on which Zappa starts off on bass and moves to guitar. Naturally, some moments feel meandering while other improvised themes beg to be expanded upon, a testament to both players' virtuosity.

Reed, Ryan (June 30, 2023). "Frank Zappa's Funky Nothingness Is Full of Meandering, Revelatory Jams". Spin. Bose Announces New QuietComfort Ultra Headphones And Earbuds With Bose Immersive Audio For The Most Realistic Sound Ever Zappa/Hot Rats ’70: Session Masters & Bonus Nothingness” spans the second and third discs. Among these outtakes, alternate edits, unreleased masters of songs from the period, and improvisational recordings is “Tommy/Vincent Duo III (Unedited Master),” which finds Zappa and Dunbar squaring off on nearly 22 minutes of guitar/drum improvisation. With this welcome offering of three and a half hours of unheard studio Zappa that follows one of his most celebrated albums, one can’t help but wonder what else might eventually escape from the Zappa vault. ( www.zappa.com) Offiziellecharts.de – Frank Zappa – Funky Nothingness" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved October 2, 2023.The title of Funky Nothingness is more than a bit misleading. While the music may be funky, it's certainly not nothing! In fact, it's quite something, but most especially for those familiar with this period of Zappa's music who will savor hearing the alternate and extended versions of "Chunga's Revenge," "Sharleena," "Transylvania Boogie," and "The Clap." One recommends a listen to both Hot Rats and Chunga's Revenge before digging into the gems here. Then...bring on the Funk with this latest vault expedition. The Clap" (CD3: Zappa/Hot Rats '70 More Session Masters & bonus Nothingness - Unedited Master - part I) Dutchcharts.nl – Frank Zappa – Funky Nothingness" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 2, 2023. Funky Nothingness includes numerous extended jams and workouts in the spirit of Hot Rats, but with a different production aesthetic and a feel leaning more towards vintage R&B at times. All that ultimately makes this Funky music lean more toward the underlying vibe that would emerge on Chunga’s Revenge.

Another awe-inspiring jam is “ Tommy/Vincent Duo II,” showcasing the magic between Zappa and Dunbar in their earliest days together. An unedited version, which stretches to nearly 22 minutes long, appears on Disc 3. Travers writes, “By 1970, Frank had worked with some great drummers between The Mothers and the L.A. studio scene…[but] Aynsley took things to another level. It’s easy to understand how Frank would be excited to see where their chemistry would take them musically. Here is audio proof.” National Music Centre to Present Panel of Indigenous Voices on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation While this set is bookended by 1967’s “Funky Nothingness,” a short piece of blues that was originally planned as the opening to an early version of the Chunga’s Revenge album, and ’67’s brief “Fast Funky Nothingness,” the rest of this material was recorded in February and March of 1970. With the Mothers having disbanded in 1969, Zappa brought together Mothers member Ian Underwood (keyboard, saxophone, rhythm guitar), violinist/vocalist Don “Sugarcane” Harris, and bassist Max Bennett, all of whom had played on Hot Rats, plus English drummer Aynsley Dunbar, who had recently relocated to Los Angeles with his invitation to join Zappa. a b "Frank Zappa's Incredibly Rare Recordings, Believed to Have Been Planned for a Potential Sequel to His Iconic Hot Rats Album, Have Been Unearthed from the Vault and Compiled as New Collection, Funky Nothingness". June 30, 2023 . Retrieved August 25, 2023. Let’s Go! – weekly SiriusXM show with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray – makes Season 3 debut on September 4

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At this point, even the Frank Zappa faithful have reason to be wary of another vault bonbon: There’s been a steady stream of historical and live-performance releases, many of them interesting primarily to collectors. Zappa was restless and impossibly prolific, and the sheer volume of material runs the risk of diluting his legacy. Because, let’s be real, not every posthumous title adds substantially to the understanding of an artist and his work.

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.) This song is also, in many ways, a template for a completely different song that came later on Chunga’s Revenge, “Road Ladies” — a ripping electric blues with some comical, sexually charged lyrics not all that far removed from Slim’s original as played here, when you stop to think about it.Finally, there’s a few weird odds and ends: “Halos and Arrows,” a fragment where Zappa overdubs himself with layers of guitars (it’s perhaps a cousin to “Nine Types of Industrial Pollution”), “Moldred” which is a slowed-down and overdubbed bit from “Tommy/Vincent,” and “Fast Funky Nothingness” which bookends the set with another bluesy guitar jam.

Posthumous releases of Zappa's music have been a mixed bag, ranging from band rehearsals with less than high fidelity sound, expanded reissues which include works in progress prior to overdubbing and editing, expanded versions of previously issued albums and CDs or CD sets of completely unreleased (or mostly so) music. This collection falls into the latter category and is a release which long-time Zappa fans have dreamed of being discovered. Setting realistic expectations, it is thus important to go into any Funky listening session not expecting it to sound like Return of the Son of Hot Rats. In fact, Funky Nothingness is its own thing betwixt and between, as Zappa was exploring new sounds for what would ultimately lead to the next incarnation of The Mothers of Invention. But for Zappa, things moved fast in those days. By May he’d thrown together a group with some of the Mothers and played a few shows in New York, then did a one-time performance with the LA Philharmonic at the end of the month. A month later, he’d hooked up with two-ed Turtles and was on a completely different path, one that’d lead to a movie and a near-death experience. This brief period in his career was maybe just a blip, but it’s nice to finally have more than just a few performances from it. | r milner Another awe-inspiring jam is Tommy/Vincent Duo II, showcasing the magic between Zappa and Dunbar in their earliest days together. An unedited version, which stretches to nearly 22 minutes long, appears on Disc 3. Travers writes, “By 1970, Frank had worked with some great drummers between The Mothers and the L.A. studio scene… (but) Aynsley took things to another level. It’s easy to understand how Frank would be excited to see where their chemistry would take them musically. Here is audio proof.” The more I consider the contents of Frank Zappa’s new 2LP set Funky Nothingness, the more I realize these once-buried archival recordings are not just the components of a lost album, but really are an insightful transitional link into Zappa’s compositional mindset. Made in the aftermath of FZ’s October 1969 landmark jazz fusion masterpiece Hot Rats, this new album also connects many musical dots from there to October 1970’s Chunga’s Revenge — and beyond.Disc Two includes a nearly 15-minute long unedited version of the full take of “Sharleena” which includes an alternate vocal part, additional overdubs and a longer guitar solo than the version first heard on The Lost Episodes collection! In a way this explores a technique Zappa dubbed “Xenocrony,” which according to the Wiki “is executed by extracting a guitar solo or other musical part from its original context and placing it into a completely different song, to create an unexpected but pleasing effect.” Music Superstar YOSHIKI Will Become First Japanese Artist to be Immortalized in Cement at the World-Famous TCL Chinese Theatre Hollywood Was the guitarist and composer’s aesthetic fully formed out of the gate, from those ribald first works with the Mothers of Invention? Or was there some sort of galvanizing moment a bit later on, as Zappa’s skills fell into alignment with his ambition, when his intentions clarified and his options multiplied?