Label: Bizarre/Reprise // Zappa Records/Ume (50th anniversary reissue of the original album release)
Reissue date: December 16, 2022 (on the 50th anniversary of the album’s original release)
Original release date: July 5, 1972
Production: Frank Zappa
2022 mix: Ahmet Zappa & Joe Travers
Album length: 36:08 min
Genre: Jazz Rock Fusion / Progressive Rock
Rating: 10/10
In 1972, after a disastrous end to a tour and the breakup of his backing band The Mothers (originally The Mothers Of Invention), Frank Zappa, the brilliant composer, guitarist, director, satirist and whatever else you want to call him, started gathering fresh creative strength from his wheelchair (which took him next to no time compared to most other musicians) and for a while turned entirely to studio projects. That tour had ended with some deranged “fan” shoving Frank off the stage mid-show, supposedly because he’d cast a few too many cheeky glances at the guy’s girl. This kind of flirting with the female part of the audience was by no means some random exception in Frank’s live career, if that really was the reason and you can believe some neurotic dimwit who got himself into music history in such a lowly way. The end result of this unfortunate incident was a broken leg and forced immobility in a wheelchair. Frank temporarily gave up both live shows and working with a backing band. In the meantime he hired a personal bodyguard for gigs and pointed his musical attention back toward the jazz rock fusion that had made him famous on the masterpiece “Hot Rats” (1969), still considered by most to be his best album and the one that firmly placed him among the most brilliant composers of the 20th century. When it came to originality, stylistic blending and tearing down the genre borders between classical music, jazz, the avant-garde and rock, all of it at a technically astonishing level and with the obligatory dose of satire in individual compositions, Frank had no equal under the sun, and most likely never will.
“Waka/Jawaka” was Frank’s triumphant return to jazz rock fusion and a kind of continuation from where “Hot Rats” left off. The typically ironic cover backs that up: a sink, with the left tap labeled “hot” while the right one says not “cold” but “rats”. Clearly even Frank liked the idea of symbolically linking this album to his most successful one as its successor. The album’s name supposedly comes from a slang term for a particular rhythmic guitar sound that was popular at the time. For this project he once again gathered a proper little orchestra of top-notch, diverse musicians around him, most of whom he’d already worked with successfully. They included the excellent jazz keyboardist George Duke, the British drumming workaholic Aynsley Dunbar, and keyboardist Don Preston, the only member of the original The Mothers Of Invention he worked with on this album. Fresh blood came from guitarist Tony Duran, a master of slide guitar, the bass oddball Erroneous, and a superb horn section led by trumpeter Sal Marquez, saxophonists Mike Altschul and Joel Peskin, and trombonists Ken Shroyer and Bill Byers. The end result was an exceptionally eclectic blend of jazz rhythms with plenty of complex yet witty guitar passages and fabulous horn arrangements in the best tradition of Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew”-era bands. The core of the album is the opening and closing jazz rock fusion instrumentals, while squeezed between them are two vocal pieces, witty mixes of blues, funk and hard rock, with satirical, sexually tinged lyrics, of course.
The opening instrumental “Big Swifty” is, for me personally, easily one of the best pieces of Frank’s career and a masterpiece of avant-garde jazz rock fusion. Right at the start of the album we can marvel at Frank’s boundless composing genius, as he combines, with seemingly unbelievable ease, elements of traditional serious music with elements of popular music, long looked down on by classical or jazz purists, and reworks it with his trademark comic touches into a veritable theater of musical absurdity. Even the opening, wonderfully playful horn motif is reminiscent of some Montenegrin folk trumpeters at a village wedding. Sal Marquez supplies plenty of witty horns (mostly French horns) and bells here. The Erroneous/Dunbar rhythm line rattles along at the start with incredible precision and tightness. Meanwhile Frank weaves in some interesting guitar improvisations. The foundation is constantly laid down by Duke’s electric piano, which in places can hold its own against the mastery of the late Joe Zawinul (Weather Report). Gradually the course of the composition and the fiery mood calm down a little. The middle section puts the sound of the trumpets and Frank’s guitar solos front and center while the rhythmic motifs keep shifting. At one point Tony Duran joins Frank on slide guitar and adds a touch of blues. One of the best moments comes when the guitar solo and the trumpet solo intertwine and together create a lovely “cinematic” motif. What’s most exciting is that, despite its complexity, the composition keeps its melodic, playful nature and never for a moment strays from the sonic continuity set by the opening motif into overly self-indulgent improvisations. This brilliant piece alone, which I think is the best on the album, is enough to earn it the title of masterpiece and one of Frank’s finest albums, but what follows is no slouch either.
Two compositions follow, steered into somewhat more “down-to-earth” rock waters, and both the lyrics and the titles carry quite a few sexual allusions. On “Your Mouth”, an exceptionally witty mix of funk, jazz and blues, lead vocal duties go to Chris Peterson, who had a pretty funk-flavored voice. In the choruses he’s backed up wonderfully by female vocal harmonies and a powerful horn section. The lyrics are classic Frank bawdy satire on loosened-up relations between the sexes, in the spirit and nature of the classic “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes”. Although it doesn’t offer any artistic peaks from Frank, it’s a hugely entertaining and cheeky rock satire on the pathetic end of a relationship.
“It Might Just Be a One-Shot Deal”, driven by Frank’s acoustic-guitar country notes, has a lyrical theme similar to “Your Mouth”, only in a somewhat less sarcastic way. Three different vocalists trade off here (interestingly, as far as vocals go, Frank completely “abstained” on this album). In the intro they’re sung by “cowgirl” Janet Ferguson. Then she’s replaced by the grotesque, mocking voice of extra guitarist Tony Duran. Frank’s country passages deliberately sound out of tune, and so rather comical. Despite the initial country vibe, carried mostly by the acoustic guitar motifs, the nature of the composition then veers off into other waters. That’s when a fun “Hawaiian” section kicks in, with Jeff Simmons on Hawaiian guitar and vocals. Into this section also weaves an excellent pedal steel solo from the hands of “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow. The ending brings a rhythmic build-up and a return of the original country motif on acoustic guitar.
Right after comes the closing title instrumental “Waka/Jawaka”, the second of the album’s two jazz rock fusion peaks. If “Big Swifty” was rather theatrical, energetic and scattered in mood, this instrumental is its polar opposite, much more subtle, even slightly romantic. Its atmosphere even faintly recalls film music that would fit nicely in one of the early James Bonds or in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. This too is a masterful creation, with an even richer horn section and even more of Frank’s witty guitar solos, which he never skimped on. The opening motif alone, where the rich horn section flows together with unpredictable rhythmic shifts and Don Preston’s keyboard wizardry on piano and mini-moog, is brilliant and sheer manna for the ears. Preston’s mini-moog solo is bursting with wit and spontaneity. No need to wonder why he was always one of Frank’s favorite keyboardists and why he still has a band today that plays many Frank classics. Next comes a long guitar solo from Frank, artfully done, the kind Hendrix would have applauded, followed by a colorful horn section on saxophones, trombone, piccolo, clarinet and French horn. A short Dunbar drum solo isn’t missing either. In the closing section the wonderfully witty “cinematic” opening motif returns once more, with the horns, over the strikes of the bells, in perfect harmony with the rhythm section, delivering some of the best moments in the history of jazz fusion and, I’d say, progressive rock too. And so ends one of the most accomplished and splendid albums in Frank’s rich discography.
Some people simply call “Waka/Jawaka” “Hot Rats 2”, and there’s not much to argue with there, since it’s more than an excellent successor to that legendary album, and in some parts it even manages to surpass it, though never to overshadow it. Personally, I’d place this jazz rock fusion gem among Frank’s top ten, maybe even top five albums. For all of his extraordinarily rich and varied body of work, I keep coming back to his jazz rock fusion albums, which usually don’t carry as much lyrically twisted, avant-garde humor, but the very structures of the compositions are so brilliantly witty that they can easily make a listener laugh. In terms of compositional skill, the glow of the individual pieces and the way it’s all delivered, Frank could stand shoulder to shoulder with the best jazz fusion acts like Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return To Forever and so on. “Waka/Jawaka”, the first of the two jazz rock fusion masterpieces he recorded in this period, was a fine and eloquent proof of the saying that the toughest situations (like the injury during a show) lead to the creation of the greatest works of art.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
Side A:
1. Big Swifty (17:23)
Side B:
1. Your Mouth (3:12)
2. It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal (4:16)
3. Waka / Jawaka (11:18)
Lineup:
Frank Zappa – electric guitar, acoustic guitar on track 3, percussion on track 1, Fx & vocals on track 3
Guest musicians:
Chris Peterson – vocals (2,4)
Janet Ferguson – vocals (3)
Tony Duran – slide guitar (1-3), vocals (3)
Peter Kleinow / pedal steel guitar solo (3)
Jeff Simmons / Hawaiian guitar & vocals (3)
George Duke / electric piano (1), tack piano (2)
Don Preston / piano & MiniMoog (4)
Sal Marquez / trumpet, pipes (1,4), flugelhorn (4), vocals (2-4)
Joel Peskin / tenor saxophone (2)
Mike Altschul / bass flute (4), bass clarinet (4), ‘piccolo’ flute (2,4), baritone saxophone (2), tenor saxophone (4), saxophones
Kenny Shroyer – trombone (4), baritone horn (4)
Billy Byers – trombone (4), baritone horn (4)
Alex Dmochowski – bass guitar, ‘fuzz’ bass (4), vocals (3)
Aynsley Dunbar – drums, tambourine & washboard (3)
