to the people who think this is just random notes. after listening to the black page enough it becomes catchy. really. This version is more complex and has more added harmonics, but the melody is one of the greatest compositions zappa has made, listen to the real version and come back and you'll understand it better
Random notes? I can hum every single one. And as far as the real version, well it cant get more real than this one because Frank programmed into the Synclavier. No need to convince anyone; dont like what u hear? Go listen to Pink Floyd or something. Like Frank said …. Its the finest optional entertaiment.
Honestly though, the way the sequencing worked then, it wrote the notes exactly how you performed them. Nowadays, in order to get MIDI sequencing in modern DAW's to create nested tuplets or anything more complex than straight 16th's or 32nd notes, you have to disable quantizing and write them in manually. The average IQ of musicians has dropped so far, they assume you making "mistakes" and it "corrects" them.
@@autodidacticprofessor869 I'm not sure what software you're using, but turning off quantization while recording MIDI data from a keyboard will absolutely work, it will record exactly as you play -- no need to write anything in manually
Would for sure have smashed it against the wall real soon. Seems you haven't found out yet how important the sound is. Music is not just only sequence of notes. Perhaps thats why modern artists are so interchangeable. Complete lack of personality. 🚀🏴☠️🎸
@@autodidacticprofessor869 Plenty of DAWs have the ability to make arbitrary divisions of the beat. Reaper for example can do this very easily. You can take a group of notes and make it fit within any other group of notes by dragging and even set the division of the grid to 1/n if you want. Repeating these things you can get any amount of nesting. Additionally many pieces of notation software allow nesting, even musescore.
If Zappa had lived longer I think he would have used computers for every album, and only used a band live. (If he kept touring at all.) The different instruments in a Synclavier don't scream at each other and you don't have to pay them.
@@hackbod he would have been in his early 80's now, he already touring touring in his 40's and in the last 10 years off his life only toured twice, he also did not really write much for rock bands the last 10 years of his life, he was really starting to go in another direction which makes his death even sadder, the best was yet to come :-(
I have this on a keyboard magazine diskette. This is one of the must awesome version. The musical notation transcription is a master opus in itself. I'm still studying it, some 20+yrs after I first heard it.
@@Hehhnsbz2334 You are correct. I have this Keyboard Magazine Soundpage item somewhere in storage. Keyboard Magazine Feb 1987. It was/is an Evatone Soundsheet, A light flexible mini-sheet that played at 33 1/3. Placing or I should say taping a small coin to keep the light sheet close to the platter was suggested.
Well, the mainstream would never adopt it because, let's face it, it wouldn't make a profit. In the two and a half years that I've spent listening to Frank's music, only about two to three people knew who he was; They had no idea that he existed.
BetitoBass you aren’t hanging with the right people. Plus his concerts were humongous events that were very well attended. I think that it’s a mistake to consider Zappa outside the mainstream because he worked to make it so the mainstream really wasn’t all that important
If they make Frank Zappa biograph about his whole life and win many Academy's especially the actor and if Frank Zappa make huge references in Jojo Bizarre Adventures and if he or his musics made a references in indie games or inspired a video game ost so I believe he will become a mainstream again for the new generation.
This sounds really good to me. But I think the only reason it sounds good to me is because I have already absorbed the piece with real instruments. If I had heard this version and only this version. I probably would have glossed over this. Boy how fun it would have been if he had today's computing power at his fingertips. I bet this really would have jumped to life. I still like it though.
Zappa saw the future and possibilities of this, so he jumped as a pioneer of electro. "Jazz From Hell", and of course "Civilization Phaze III". He had best musicians, and pushed them over the limit of reality. But he had ideas that even they could not play. To whom am I saying, if people watch this video...
I do some stuff vaugely resembling this in MuseScore 3, which is the closest thing you can get for free or cheap to the composition technology in a Synclavier. I would recommend.
@tarantism I agree completely. I admit I was guilty of casting Black Page off as noise when I heard this 5 years ago. Then I listened again about a year ago and now this obscure atonal melody gets stuck in my head and no one I know can understand why, but it's so beautifully and discretely orchestrated. If you haven't already, you should watch the version from Barcelona 1988.
Love this stuff! I remember getting this as one of those plastic soundpages in Keyboard magazine in the '80s. They even included a lead sheet for this piece, which I used as music copying assignment for a music class in college. Great stuff and showing the then-unlimited potential of the synclavier and computer music. Then I heard Frank and his band play the piece and that kept me on track with what real human beings could do! Thanks for posting!
Jazz From Hell is a great record, overlooked by some perhaps. The Synclaviar was a Mississauga, Ontario product. yes, it was invented in Mississauga.. and Frank had to record it. im not sure how he learned about it. Maybe someone could chime in with that info. Oh yeah, Frank was the real deal musical genius. no doubt
It was invented, and prototyped at Dartmouth college in NH (hence New England Digital). They were pretty well know at the time, but carried a substantial price tag.
Proving that mathematics can be intellectually and emotionally beautiful. Frank didn't need a synclavier to accomplish that, but I would imagine it made the process (of getting his thoughts captured) a lot less laborious.
@namelessguy93 oh ok thanks for sharing! i just remembered him saying he composed a lot on his synclavier and this song seems like he would have. it's amazing that this was written on paper, it's no wonder that's how it got it's name. i think this is one of the greatest compositions ever ... the melodies and rhythm are just ... so good
I'm told that musicians and composers often hear lots of possible notes they could play or write down - but Frank really played and put down the really fucking interesting ones! I'm always amazed at how much he could re-invent and hear within his own compositions (eg While You Were Art/Out). The only other person who gets close to this for me is Ornette Coleman and friends....
What's insane to me is that my comment says 3 years ago... and when I saw your reply I almost felt that I had had my obsessive-Zappa-Video-Night like...last winter at max. *whoosh.... It's fucking insane being a person I tell you.
I remember hearing that towards the end of his life, Frank was creating instruments using the synclavier and his computer. Anybody know if any of the patches he created are around as midi files?
They wouldn't be compatible as MIDI, as the Synclavier played samples. The instrument sounds that Frank was creating (I seem to remember him calling them "spastic orchestras") were made by layering samples on top of each other and then blending, warping, or just generally mangling them.
The Synclavier II which I believe Zappa used was indeed MIDI compatible, it could save and play back arrangements as MIDI instructions using whatever samples you instructed it to use. Zappa described it as a "word processor for music" and he actually "performed" less than half of what's heard on Jazz From Hell, he simply programmed it
Love this version and i'm getting addicted to it, but the part that really calls for my attention is at 0:20, by how it fills the long silences of the original version.
@zarwarrior Holy frick, you have that?! Awesome! I'm quite jealous. I unfortunately wouldn't have anything to play the diskette on, so I guess it's better in your hands, haha.
@roncstelep I must confess I'm not as well versed in the Synclavier on an experiential level, but from what I understand the point was to make "lifeless" pieces in the sense that he was trying to obviate the drudgery of dealing with orchestras/performers/unions. Its in The Real Frank Zappa Book. He's also detailed how many thousands of dollars he's spent trying to get performers inline only to have them show up to shows drunk etc.
@pazzensutra That music still existed back then. You have just forgotten about it. Legends like zappa will be rememberd for a long time while the mainstream pop and dance bullshit will be forgotten in a few months.
@videocanone "The Black Page" has a lot of incarnations dating to 1976, i think. It was originally a drum solo. There is a great "new age version" on "Make a Jazz Noise Here", which was released after "Jazz from Hell."
Coleman's 'Complete Science Fiction Sessions' (which includes the Broken Shadows album) is unlike his other albums and very interesting...but ok, Frank is very standalone as a musical genius for his phenomenal output and the incredible diversity within it - er, not to mention the endless fascination of the pieces themselves. Maybe you don't compose but I have a feeling you sure can play... ;)
Part of this "lifelessness" as it's been described here I think is due largely to the fact that these early units didn't really have a lot of ways to humanize the finished product.. also quantizing, while making it tight, removes any remaining signs of life. I imagine for a composer like Zappa this was a great tool for proof of concept before presenting it to a band.
@jackdelawack Actually it is. Digital synthesis, but synthesis nonetheless. The more advanced Synclavs did offer sampling at an atrocious price. That is partly why the Fairlight did so well, they could underprice the Synclav since their system had it's own computer and operating system, whereas the Synclav required a DEC Vax minicomputer, which were amazingly expensive at the time.
What bootleg is this? I have all the albums, but not all the bootlegs... so I couldn't find this. Or is this an excerpt from one of the Jazz From Hell songs? Love it btw.
I was 17 when it came out, and my mind was blown, nothing else like it, I had been a Zappa fan since I was 14 but that release made me hardcore, it sounded unlike anything else I had heard at that time.
@timmo1782 You are 100% correct. Frank created what he wanted to hear. I f you like it to? Great. If not So What? See ya...! And that is the only attitude to have amongst so many human separations in taste. roncstelep doesn't know frank's catalog. Lots of basic simple things are included especially LIVE. But Frank got bored easily too. So to him, complexity was simple. He had years of personal writing experiments to get him to that point. He rehearsed incessantly to reach that level. WORK!
I generally have less than zero interest in electronica but in FZ's case, though, it's an entirely different animal. The synclavier in his hands is a tool to visualize the notes on the page. It's planned, literate, and disciplined. Note how this sounds by musicians who take it seriously, for example by Dweezil's "Zappa Plays Zappa" (youtube[DOT]com/watch?v=GDwRJK8bpb4&feature=related) and studied by students like thsi guy: youtubep[DOT]com/watch?v=m7BiUyTCQwA
His music makes me laugh, its funny but funny with no words, thats what i get out of it and its very complex and technical but really just funny i think because its sooooo silly i think, like he made this silly peice just to do it, i dunno , lol
@roncstelep Well I agree that is one form of music. However there are people who love Sun Ra..and for the life of me I can't wrap my head around it. Doesn't make it any less musical, it's up for interpretation by the listener just as some art lovers may feel Picasso or Pollock pieces weren't true art and others do. And lets remember this is like looking at someones rough sketch. He never said it was completed or released it for our scrutiny..(the white zone is for loading or unloading only...;)
well french my fry, ain't this something fine. kinda baroque modern sock-it-to-me composition for the merce cunningham dance company of military issue stimulants, maybe? I like it
@roncstelep Greatest musicians/composers of all time 1) Beethoven 2) Stravinsky 3) Zappa There was never or will there ever be another person such as Zappa who won grammys in Classical and Rock.Never been done in history.Doo-wop,Blues,heavymetal,jazz,jazz fusion,techno,classical,avent garde,contemporary. You're a fool-lost-opher!
@roncstelep Do you know why he started using the Synclavier? Imagine that you have all of these ideas in your head and limited time to get them down. Then you find out you have cancer and will most likely be dying in a few years. I think he said "Screw timbre, lets get this down." I agree that he is not the best electronic musician. But centuries from now, orchestra students will be practicing "Night on Bald Mountain", "Brandenburg Concerto #3 " And "The Black Page #2 " ... not "Autobahn".
@roncstelep You're just locked into a totall SUBJECTIVE way of feeling music. This is sad, very very very sad, especially when you have this maner to discuss opinions as you were in an OBJECTIVE mood. Dude, seriously, forget your musicologists, forget your teachers, forget your knowledge, and feel the music, feel the smartness, feel the efforts, feel the work. And finally, feel the originality and feel the master. He's as good as Bach and others.
@roncstelep What does it means "characterising the most possible global-things in existence"? Sorry but my translator dan't help me on this expression.
to the people who think this is just random notes. after listening to the black page enough it becomes catchy. really. This version is more complex and has more added harmonics, but the melody is one of the greatest compositions zappa has made, listen to the real version and come back and you'll understand it better
Random notes? I can hum every single one. And as far as the real version, well it cant get more real than this one because Frank programmed into the Synclavier. No need to convince anyone; dont like what u hear? Go listen to Pink Floyd or something. Like Frank said …. Its the finest optional entertaiment.
Попробуйте сложить ноты в такой удивительный порядок. Всё критики бездари
if everyone got it it wouldnt be so good wouldnt it
@@jcjc5702there is nothing unclear about this. Some people just don't like it.
Now imagine to give him laptop and mobile phone on tour.
It is really dangerous stuff.
Honestly though, the way the sequencing worked then, it wrote the notes exactly how you performed them. Nowadays, in order to get MIDI sequencing in modern DAW's to create nested tuplets or anything more complex than straight 16th's or 32nd notes, you have to disable quantizing and write them in manually. The average IQ of musicians has dropped so far, they assume you making "mistakes" and it "corrects" them.
@@autodidacticprofessor869 I'm not sure what software you're using, but turning off quantization while recording MIDI data from a keyboard will absolutely work, it will record exactly as you play -- no need to write anything in manually
Not as dangerous as his kitchen... ;-)
Would for sure have smashed it against the wall real soon. Seems you haven't found out yet how important the sound is. Music is not just only sequence of notes. Perhaps thats why modern artists are so interchangeable. Complete lack of personality. 🚀🏴☠️🎸
@@autodidacticprofessor869 Plenty of DAWs have the ability to make arbitrary divisions of the beat. Reaper for example can do this very easily. You can take a group of notes and make it fit within any other group of notes by dragging and even set the division of the grid to 1/n if you want. Repeating these things you can get any amount of nesting. Additionally many pieces of notation software allow nesting, even musescore.
Compositionally speaking,
Frank’s synclavier music was his best music. It’s still dazzling.
100% agree, I really hope they release more of it (we know of at least a CD worth that exists unreleased but heard that there is enough for a box set)
Agree.
If Zappa had lived longer I think he would have used computers for every album, and only used a band live. (If he kept touring at all.)
The different instruments in a Synclavier don't scream at each other and you don't have to pay them.
But neither does a Synclavier have carnal adventures on the road to inspire many songs! And the up-front cost is higher than hiring humans.
Weird Al Zappa might have been a thing.. ..
especially with what a DAW can do now compared to a synclavier.
It's all speculation, but I think he would have done both. He clearly loved the character and personality musicians brought to his music.
@@hackbod he would have been in his early 80's now, he already touring touring in his 40's and in the last 10 years off his life only toured twice, he also did not really write much for rock bands the last 10 years of his life, he was really starting to go in another direction which makes his death even sadder, the best was yet to come :-(
"You'll hurt your throat, stop that!"
I have this on a keyboard magazine diskette. This is one of the must awesome version. The musical notation transcription is a master opus in itself. I'm still studying it, some 20+yrs after I first heard it.
A flexi-disc. Probably an Eva-tone Soundsheet.
@@Hehhnsbz2334
You are correct. I have this Keyboard Magazine Soundpage item somewhere in storage. Keyboard Magazine Feb 1987. It was/is an Evatone Soundsheet, A light flexible mini-sheet that played at 33 1/3. Placing or I should say taping a small coin to keep the light sheet close to the platter was suggested.
Frank will always be considered by me, amoung others, as a unique talent, spiritually, musically, and by his benevolent philosophy...
Man, I wish the mainstream would adopt this kind of music. I love it.
Well, the mainstream would never adopt it because, let's face it, it wouldn't make a profit. In the two and a half years that I've spent listening to Frank's music, only about two to three people knew who he was; They had no idea that he existed.
BetitoBass you aren’t hanging with the right people. Plus his concerts were humongous events that were very well attended. I think that it’s a mistake to consider Zappa outside the mainstream because he worked to make it so the mainstream really wasn’t all that important
Utopic
BetitoBass. Frank would have no other way. He claimed to be uninterested in his legacy.
If they make Frank Zappa biograph about his whole life and win many Academy's especially the actor and if Frank Zappa make huge references in Jojo Bizarre Adventures and if he or his musics made a references in indie games or inspired a video game ost so I believe he will become a mainstream again for the new generation.
Amazing! One could only imagine what he would be creating if he were here with us today.
This sounds really good to me. But I think the only reason it sounds good to me is because I have already absorbed the piece with real instruments. If I had heard this version and only this version. I probably would have glossed over this. Boy how fun it would have been if he had today's computing power at his fingertips. I bet this really would have jumped to life. I still like it though.
Some amazing music we missed out on. ;-(
The stuff he left us with was amazing enough.
Albert Del Page somewhere in an alternate universe, Frank Zappa's alive and creating some of the sweetest digital shit in the world
Zappa saw the future and possibilities of this, so he jumped as a pioneer of electro. "Jazz From Hell", and of course "Civilization Phaze III". He had best musicians, and pushed them over the limit of reality. But he had ideas that even they could not play.
To whom am I saying, if people watch this video...
I do some stuff vaugely resembling this in MuseScore 3, which is the closest thing you can get for free or cheap to the composition technology in a Synclavier. I would recommend.
james ferraro
if memory serves well this version comes in a soundpage of Keyboard Magazine in 1987 I guess ,cuz I still got the mag .....
came as a plastic record in a guitar mag, just like sugar sugar did on the back of a cereal box. I lost my plastic record. GREAT POST! thanks!
I think it was on Feb 1987 Keyboard Magazine. Fairlight, Kurzweil, Overheim and Synclavier were the keyboards of the day.
The man knows! Zar, you are right!
@tarantism I agree completely. I admit I was guilty of casting Black Page off as noise when I heard this 5 years ago. Then I listened again about a year ago and now this obscure atonal melody gets stuck in my head and no one I know can understand why, but it's so beautifully and discretely orchestrated. If you haven't already, you should watch the version from Barcelona 1988.
Love this stuff! I remember getting this as one of those plastic soundpages in Keyboard magazine in the '80s. They even included a lead sheet for this piece, which I used as music copying assignment for a music class in college. Great stuff and showing the then-unlimited potential of the synclavier and computer music. Then I heard Frank and his band play the piece and that kept me on track with what real human beings could do! Thanks for posting!
Trivia: the Black Page "melody" was first written for violin! (for Eddie Jobson to play)
love hearing this masterpiece in how it was originally created ... i'm pretty sure he used his synclavier to compose
there was no such thing as a synclavier when he wrote this is 76
It was composed as a drum solo. For a drummer whose name is I believe Terry Bozzio.
@@Jack-vy6uoYeah, Zappa explained it on stage on his album In New York when introducing “The Black Page Part 2 (The Easy Teenage New York Version)”
Quite a lot of music added. This is the version I’d like to hear live.
FRANK ZAPPA IS THE BEST!!
Superb.
Oh my god....I haven´t heard this since I bought the magazine in, what, 1986 ?
Thanks for posting it !
O god this is kool, those extra harmonies under the main melody are so kool! and new synth timbres mmm yum
If I recall correctly, Peefeeyatko (a documentary) and some american news piece have footage of FZ demonstrating his Synclavier's abilities.
cool novelty. i remember those plastic vinyl inserts from the music mags. i used to collect them. thanks!
How did he ever keep track of all that madness?
Wow! Great finding!
Zappa the genius!
Jazz From Hell is a great record, overlooked by some perhaps. The Synclaviar was a Mississauga, Ontario product. yes, it was invented in Mississauga.. and Frank had to record it. im not sure how he learned about it. Maybe someone could chime in with that info. Oh yeah, Frank was the real deal musical genius. no doubt
Laurie Anderson was using one when they first came out, so it was a known tool at the time.
It was invented, and prototyped at Dartmouth college in NH (hence New England Digital). They were pretty well know at the time, but carried a substantial price tag.
Wow, this is great!
that is the best back handed complement I have ever witnessed!
Proving that mathematics can be intellectually and emotionally beautiful. Frank didn't need a synclavier to accomplish that, but I would imagine it made the process (of getting his thoughts captured) a lot less laborious.
wonderful,fantastic,true musical genius,etc. etc.
Frank was alone and light tears ahead
i swear i've listened to this 20 times in the last two days
I love this.
shaushage....take me to the shaushage
+tommy turner i'm almost two kilometers tallll...
+CH3MIS7RY I need a dozen towels so de boys can take a shaow'.
Dis girl must be prakitin ritchcraft.
That looks like that stuff Freckles lets out
Once a mumfth . . .
Whatsa matter, you got an upset stomach? I'll getcha some Pepto-Dizmol.
AMAZING MUSIC!
Excellent
@namelessguy93 oh ok thanks for sharing! i just remembered him saying he composed a lot on his synclavier and this song seems like he would have. it's amazing that this was written on paper, it's no wonder that's how it got it's name. i think this is one of the greatest compositions ever ... the melodies and rhythm are just ... so good
God! I miss Frank!!!! What a superb talent - now-gone.....
i for some reason like this i like this, reminds me of a old video game song :D
I'm told that musicians and composers often hear lots of possible notes they could play or write down - but Frank really played and put down the really fucking interesting ones! I'm always amazed at how much he could re-invent and hear within his own compositions (eg While You Were Art/Out). The only other person who gets close to this for me is Ornette Coleman and friends....
Wow..just wow
Frank Zappa is an avant gard musician. What he does doesn't have to make a shred of sense.
What's insane to me is that my comment says 3 years ago... and when I saw your reply I almost felt that I had had my obsessive-Zappa-Video-Night like...last winter at max. *whoosh.... It's fucking insane being a person I tell you.
So scary version!! :D
i love it!
Awesomme
I still have my copy from the what used to be Keyboard magazine. And it plays just fine too.
I remember hearing that towards the end of his life, Frank was creating instruments using the synclavier and his computer. Anybody know if any of the patches he created are around as midi files?
They wouldn't be compatible as MIDI, as the Synclavier played samples. The instrument sounds that Frank was creating (I seem to remember him calling them "spastic orchestras") were made by layering samples on top of each other and then blending, warping, or just generally mangling them.
The Synclavier II which I believe Zappa used was indeed MIDI compatible, it could save and play back arrangements as MIDI instructions using whatever samples you instructed it to use. Zappa described it as a "word processor for music" and he actually "performed" less than half of what's heard on Jazz From Hell, he simply programmed it
yeah man yeah
Nice one... Sorry it has taken so long but I just come across your message!
i always wanted a synclavier. haha! zappa was too cool. saw him live, once. like larwerence welk on acid.
The point is to have an opinion, period!
Love this version and i'm getting addicted to it, but the part that really calls for my attention is at 0:20, by how it fills the long silences of the original version.
So beautiful
I would still love the music of Frank Zappa if I was the only person on earth who could stomach it. But guess what, I'm not!
@zarwarrior Holy frick, you have that?! Awesome! I'm quite jealous. I unfortunately wouldn't have anything to play the diskette on, so I guess it's better in your hands, haha.
@roncstelep I must confess I'm not as well versed in the Synclavier on an experiential level, but from what I understand the point was to make "lifeless" pieces in the sense that he was trying to obviate the drudgery of dealing with orchestras/performers/unions. Its in The Real Frank Zappa Book. He's also detailed how many thousands of dollars he's spent trying to get performers inline only to have them show up to shows drunk etc.
OMFG - just fucking amazing.
Sounds very Conklin Nancorrow like.
Conlon i think
It's a floppy 45 rpm insert from Keyboard magazine, sometime around 1987 or so.
Its the best version
@roncstelep the black page is a dark chaotic sound
I give it a nine and the beat was perfect for dancing......
I bet if saw Garageband, his head would explode
💚
@pazzensutra That music still existed back then. You have just forgotten about it. Legends like zappa will be rememberd for a long time while the mainstream pop and dance bullshit will be forgotten in a few months.
@colinhutton2 Zappa used a tremendous amount of formula and structure in his compositions. He even composed serial music.
Insignificante!
Il recensore recensisce se stesso.
Indeed, get 'Jazz From Hell' & 'Civilization Phase III'... those two are primarily made through the machine... and are my personal favorites.
@videocanone "The Black Page" has a lot of incarnations dating to 1976, i think. It was originally a drum solo. There is a great "new age version" on "Make a Jazz Noise Here", which was released after "Jazz from Hell."
It was a 45 rpm magazine insert from A LONG TIME AGO.
Coleman's 'Complete Science Fiction Sessions' (which includes the Broken Shadows album) is unlike his other albums and very interesting...but ok, Frank is very standalone as a musical genius for his phenomenal output and the incredible diversity within it - er, not to mention the endless fascination of the pieces themselves. Maybe you don't compose but I have a feeling you sure can play... ;)
Part of this "lifelessness" as it's been described here I think is due largely to the fact that these early units didn't really have a lot of ways to humanize the finished product.. also quantizing, while making it tight, removes any remaining signs of life.
I imagine for a composer like Zappa this was a great tool for proof of concept before presenting it to a band.
Zappa used the synclavier in jazz from hell album
I have this recording on a floppy record from Keyboard Magazine. They had the score also. Lots of 5lets 7lets 13lets if I remember right.
@jackdelawack Actually it is. Digital synthesis, but synthesis nonetheless. The more advanced Synclavs did offer sampling at an atrocious price. That is partly why the Fairlight did so well, they could underprice the Synclav since their system had it's own computer and operating system, whereas the Synclav required a DEC Vax minicomputer, which were amazingly expensive at the time.
Great post, was this ever released?
I’m pretty sure this was a flexidisc that came with Keyboard magazine or something
@@milnerwords I think you are right there!
What bootleg is this? I have all the albums, but not all the bootlegs... so I couldn't find this. Or is this an excerpt from one of the Jazz From Hell songs?
Love it btw.
Would love to be go back in time and hear Jazz From Hell when it first came out. I would probably actually piss my pants.
I was 17 when it came out, and my mind was blown, nothing else like it, I had been a Zappa fan since I was 14 but that release made me hardcore, it sounded unlike anything else I had heard at that time.
@timmo1782 You are 100% correct. Frank created what he wanted to hear. I f you like it to? Great. If not So What? See ya...! And that is the only attitude to have amongst so many human separations in taste. roncstelep doesn't know frank's catalog. Lots of basic simple things are included especially LIVE. But Frank got bored easily too. So to him, complexity was simple. He had years of personal writing experiments to get him to that point. He rehearsed incessantly to reach that level. WORK!
I generally have less than zero interest in electronica but in FZ's case, though, it's an entirely different animal. The synclavier in his hands is a tool to visualize the notes on the page. It's planned, literate, and disciplined. Note how this sounds by musicians who take it seriously, for example by Dweezil's "Zappa Plays Zappa" (youtube[DOT]com/watch?v=GDwRJK8bpb4&feature=related) and studied by students like thsi guy: youtubep[DOT]com/watch?v=m7BiUyTCQwA
not getting much out of this; can't think what the music's trying to express.
Anybody got any veras?
His music makes me laugh, its funny but funny with no words, thats what i get out of it and its very complex and technical but really just funny i think because its sooooo silly i think, like he made this silly peice just to do it, i dunno , lol
@roncstelep you wish my dear don't forget.....it's not a synthesizer it's a synclavier.
Sounds like fractal music.
@roncstelep Well I agree that is one form of music. However there are people who love Sun Ra..and for the life of me I can't wrap my head around it. Doesn't make it any less musical, it's up for interpretation by the listener just as some art lovers may feel Picasso or Pollock pieces weren't true art and others do. And lets remember this is like looking at someones rough sketch. He never said it was completed or released it for our scrutiny..(the white zone is for loading or unloading only...;)
well french my fry, ain't this something fine. kinda baroque modern sock-it-to-me composition for the merce cunningham dance company of military issue stimulants, maybe?
I like it
@roncstelep Greatest musicians/composers of all time 1) Beethoven 2) Stravinsky 3) Zappa
There was never or will there ever be another person such as Zappa who won grammys in Classical and Rock.Never been done in history.Doo-wop,Blues,heavymetal,jazz,jazz fusion,techno,classical,avent garde,contemporary.
You're a fool-lost-opher!
@roncstelep how is it mindless and tasteless?
@roncstelep As Russell Crowe said 'You've got dead ears'
zappa was a true innovator....didn't he have an all synth lp back around 1986/1987? if so, i need to find it....
@JJStuffEngineering sure about that? when Vai made the audition this synth was not still in the hand of Zappa and other musichans, imho
@roncstelep Do you know why he started using the Synclavier? Imagine that you have all of these ideas in your head and limited time to get them down. Then you find out you have cancer and will most likely be dying in a few years.
I think he said "Screw timbre, lets get this down."
I agree that he is not the best electronic musician. But centuries from now, orchestra students will be practicing "Night on Bald Mountain", "Brandenburg Concerto #3 " And "The Black Page #2 " ... not "Autobahn".
you're right...technically brilliant but it's totally cerebral.
Where did you get this recording?
tasty
cheesh
he's a little fond of chiffon...
@roncstelep
You're just locked into a totall SUBJECTIVE way of feeling music.
This is sad, very very very sad, especially when you have this maner to discuss opinions as you were in an OBJECTIVE mood.
Dude, seriously, forget your musicologists, forget your teachers, forget your knowledge, and feel the music, feel the smartness, feel the efforts, feel the work. And finally, feel the originality and feel the master.
He's as good as Bach and others.
@roncstelep
What does it means "characterising the most possible global-things in existence"? Sorry but my translator dan't help me on this expression.
1:00 nice shirt