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Orchestral Favorites
''Orchestral Favorites'' is an album by Frank Zappa first released in May 1979 on his own DiscReet Records label. The album is entirely instrumental and features music performed by the 37-piece Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra. It reached #168 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart in the United States. Recording sessions The recordings were sourced from performances recorded September 17–19, 1975 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus with conductor Michael Zearott. There were two nights of live concert performances and an additional day of recording sessions without the audience. ''Strictly Genteel'' was heard earlier as part of the '' 200 Motels'' film and soundtrack album in 1971. ''Bogus Pomp'' is also made up of themes that were used in ''200 Motels''. The album contains a new arrangement of ''Duke of Prunes'', originally on the 1967 album '' Absolutely Free''. There are no overdubs on the album other than Zappa's electric guitar solo, which he later added to this ...
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Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, Virtuoso, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and ''musique concrète'' works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classica ...
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Barry Miles
Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeared in leftist newspapers such as ''The Guardian''. In the 1960s, he was co-owner of the Indica Gallery and helped start the independent newspaper '' International Times''. Biography In the 1960s, Miles worked at Better Books, which was managed by Tony Godwin. Godwin was friends with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, with whom he would exchange Penguin books for City Lights publications. In 1965 Allen Ginsberg gave a reading at Better Books that led to the International Poetry Incarnation, a seminal event co-organised by Miles. In 1965, Miles and his wife, the former Susan Crane,Jonathon GreeObituary: Sue Miles ''The Guardian'' (website), 13 October 2010. introduced Paul McCartney to hash brownies by using a recipe for hash fudge that they had foun ...
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Bill Mays
William Allen Mays (born February 5, 1944), known professionally as Bill Mays, is an American jazz pianist from Sacramento, California. Biography Mays came from a musical family and at the age of 15 became interested in jazz at an Earl Hines concert. From 1969 to the early 1980s Mays worked as a studio session musician in Los Angeles. He has been an accompanist to singers Al Jarreau, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Dionne Warwick, and also worked with artists such as Don Ellis, Mel Lewis, Barry Manilow, Shelly Manne, Bob Mintzer, Red Mitchell, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Bud Shank, Bobby Shew, Sonny Stitt, Paul Winter, Phil Woods and Frank Zappa. In 1984, he moved to New York City and began to do more work as a bandleader, composer, and arranger. He has recorded over three dozen albums under his own name, and has been heard on hundreds more by others. Discography As leader * ''A Musical Cocktail: The Music of Cole Porter'' (MCR, 1976) * ''Two of a Mind' ...
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Ian Underwood
Ian Robertson Underwood (born May 22, 1939) is a woodwind and keyboards player, known for his work with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Biography Underwood graduated from The Choate School in 1957 and Yale University with a bachelor's degree in composition in 1961 and a master's degree in composition at UC Berkeley in 1966. He began his career by playing San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses and bars with his improvisational group, the Jazz Mice, in the mid-1960s before he became a member of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1967 for their third studio album, ''We're Only in It for the Money''. He speaks on ''Uncle Meat''; on the track "Ian Underwood Whips It Out" he relates how he first met Zappa and demonstrated his capabilities on the saxophone at Zappa's invitation. Underwood later worked with Frank Zappa on his solo recordings, including 1969's '' Hot Rats''. He married Ruth Komanoff (Underwood), marimbist/percussionist from the Mothers of Invention in Ma ...
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Rykodisc
Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first Compact Disc, CD-only independent record label in the United States, Rykodisc was founded in 1983 in music, 1983 in Salem, Massachusetts, by Arthur Mann, Rob Simonds, Doug Lexa and Don Rose. The name "Ryko," which the label claimed was a Japanese word meaning "sound from a flash of light," was chosen to reflect the company's CD-only policy. In the late 1980s, however, the label also began to issue high-quality Compact Cassette, cassette / Gramophone record, vinyl and MiniDisc versions of many releases under the name Ryko Analogue. Rykodisc had some notable successes in the CD-reissue industry, as artists such as Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Frank Zappa, the estate of Nick Drake, Nine Inch Nails, Sugar (American band), Sugar, Robert Wyatt, and Mission of Burma ...
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Barking Pumpkin
Barking Pumpkin Records, is an American record label founded by Frank Zappa in 1981. Zappa named the label after his wife's smoker's cough when she tried to quit the habit. Barking Pumpkin was initially distributed by CBS Records. History Zappa had founded the Zappa Records label in 1977, and formed a deal with Phonogram Inc., to distribute the label in the United States and Canada. Its first releases were the (mostly) live album ''Sheik Yerbouti'', followed by the dystopian rock opera ''Joe's Garage''. Phonogram refused to distribute the single ''I Don't Wanna Get Drafted'' in the US, though they did distribute it in Canada. The song's lyrics criticized president Jimmy Carter's reintroduction of the military draft. Zappa later released the single independently in the US in early 1980. After spending most of 1980 on the road, Zappa founded Barking Pumpkin and released the album ''Tinsel Town Rebellion'' in 1981.Lowe, 2006, ''The Words and Music of Frank Zappa'', p. 161. Also ...
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Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints ( hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day. Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century,Brunvand, Jan (editor). ''Ame ...
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Zappa Records
Zappa Records is an American record label based in Los Angeles which was founded by Frank Zappa in 1977. It was mostly inactive during the 1980s and 1990s, but was revived in 2006 by the Zappa Family Trust. History In May 1976, Zappa ended his relationship with manager and business partner Herb Cohen. The pair had co-owned DiscReet Records which was distributed by Warner Bros. Records. Zappa then left Warner and DiscReet following a series of disagreements and lawsuits in 1977. Around mid 1977, Zappa founded Zappa Records, and negotiated a deal with Phonogram Inc., to distribute the label's releases in the United States and Canada. Under this agreement Zappa planned to release a four-LP box set titled ''Läther'' (pronounced ''"Leather"''.) The album was scheduled for release on Halloween, October 31, 1977, but production was cancelled at the test pressing stage. Zappa and Phonogram were forced to shelve the package following a legal threat from Warner. The first release by Zapp ...
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Phonogram Inc
Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phonemes * Phonogram Inc., a music label holding company which was launched in 1971 * A phonogram, the sound recording element of a phonorecord See also * Phonograph, a device for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound * Phonograph record * Sound recording copyright symbol The sound recording copyright symbol or phonogram symbol, represented by the graphic symbol , is the copyright symbol used to provide notice of copyright in a sound recording (phonogram) embodied in a phonorecord ( LPs, audiotapes, cassette ta ...
— ℗ stands for ''phonogram'' {{Disambig ...
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Läther
''Läther'' (, or "''Leather''") is the sixty-fifth official album by Frank Zappa. It was released posthumously as a three-CD set on Rykodisc in 1996. The album's title is derived from bits of comic dialog that link the songs. Zappa also explained that the name is a joke, based on "common bastardized pronunciation of Germanic syllables by the Swiss." ''Läther'' integrates many aspects of Zappa's musical oeuvre — heavy rock, orchestral works, and complex jazz flavored instrumentals, along with Zappa's distinctive electric guitar solos and satirical lyrics, all edited together in a seemingly random way. The ''Läther'' album was intended for release in 1977 as a four-LP box set, but it never appeared officially in this format. A variety of bootleg recordings of this material were widely distributed. One of these was a four-LP box on the "Edison Record" label and appeared to be professionally packaged. Some may have believed this was authorized, despite the fact Zappa's nam ...
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Sleep Dirt
''Sleep Dirt'' is an album by Frank Zappa released in January 1979, on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #175 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart in the United States. Zappa's original title for the album was ''Hot Rats III''. As the original title implies, Zappa saw this as a sort of follow up to his earlier Jazz influenced Rock albums such as ''Hot Rats'' (1969) and '' Waka/Jawaka — Hot Rats'' (1972). Some of the songs on this album were originally written in 1972 for a Zappa stage musical called ''Hunchentoot''. A complete script exists, but the recordings for this project were never completed. Recording sessions The music was recorded at the Los Angeles Record Plant and at Caribou Ranch in Colorado during 1974 and 1976. The initial 1979 LP release of ''Sleep Dirt'' was entirely instrumental. In 1982, Zappa asked singer Thana Harris to add her vocals to three songs from this album: "Flambay", "Spider of Destiny", and "Time is Money". Harris sings the part o ...
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Studio Tan
''Studio Tan'' is the 24th album by American musician Frank Zappa, first released in September 1978 on his own DiscReet Records label. It reached #147 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart in the United States. Recording sessions The basic tracks for ''Let Me Take You to the Beach'' date from a 1969 session for the album '' Hot Rats''. The rest of the material was recorded between 1974 and 1976. Primary recording locations included the Record Plant in Los Angeles and Caribou Ranch in Colorado. History In April 1975 Zappa had a one sided demo acetate disc cut at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California. This unreleased disc contains "Revised Music for Guitar and Low-Budget Orchestra", a nearly 8 minute version of "200 Years Old" and "Regyptian Strut". In the notes to the June 1975 album ''One Size Fits All'' Zappa mentioned a planned studio album which never appeared. Many fans believe that this was to have included ''The Adventures of Greggery Peccary'', filling one side, and ...
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