Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Release: 1986
Running time: 34:26
Rating: 4.5/5
The year was 1986, and legendary composer, producer, guitarist, singer, social satirist and director Frank Zappa, fresh off his resounding victory over the American senators in the so-called music porn wars and sick of constantly battling slow-witted politicians and preachers, recorded an instrumental album called »Jazz From Hell«. With the exception of one composition recorded live with the band, he made the whole thing in the studio on the Synclavier DMS, a special electronic keyboard, basically a digital synthesizer, that let him simulate the rhythm and sound of an entire orchestra. He had already tinkered with it on some earlier albums, like »Meets the Mothers of Prevention« (1985) and »Francesco Zappa« (1984), which was also played entirely on the Synclavier, but on »Jazz From Hell« Frank reached an especially enviable level of witty improvisation with electronic-symphonic samples, one that will probably thrill every fan of avant-garde jazz today. These days it’s kind of hard to believe, especially given Frank’s reputation as the eternal rebel against conventional musical norms and the mighty music industry, but upon its release »Jazz From Hell« won him the prestigious Grammy Award for best instrumental album of the year, which was certainly a one-of-a-kind moment in the career of this musical genius, who otherwise always couldn’t care less about awards of any kind.
In fact, it was probably also a sort of symbolic lifetime achievement award from a music industry that wasn’t yet completely corrupt, which was the least this unforgettable, unparalleled artist-musician deserved in the last years of his life. Just three years later, at the end of the eighties, not long after the release of »Broadway The Hardway« (1988), Frank was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but mostly for philosophical reasons he refused any surgery right up to the end. With less and less time left for new musical adventures, he stayed as active and productive as he possibly could until the very end, without letting the creeping disease weigh on him.
In the final years of his life Frank’s music grew ever more sophisticated, and you can hear it on »Jazz From Hell« even when this universal musician and compositional genius surrenders to completely free improvisational forms where no ‘laws of physics’ apply. The Synclavier is known for electronic yet subtly soft sound samples, so even in the most chaotic moments, when every attempt at a composition with ‘head and tail’ is deliberately demolished and total polyphony, even total cacophony, takes over, the kind Frank’s great musical role model, the avant-garde composer Edgar Varese, would have been proud of, the pieces on »Jazz From Hell« sound downright fun. Of course, that’s again a matter of personal taste, and it’s only suitable for demanding listeners, which goes for the lion’s share of Frank’s creative output anyway.
The opening track »Night School«, which even got a video, has the most melodic substance of anything on the album, with its subtle orchestral arrangements and extremely complex rhythmic variations in unusual time signatures. The title probably comes from the evening TV show of the same name that aired on ABC in America, on which Frank appeared a few times. This time the trademark Zappa humor hides in the individual arrangements and rhythmic twists, as well as in the song titles. Only Zappa could come up with the title and the main arrangement of »The Beltway Bandits«, which sounds like the musical backdrop to some psychedelic-claustrophobic cartoon where, say, the Pink Panther is running from the butcher’s long-nosed son Franz with a giant knife.
»While You Were Art II« is packed with cacophonous rhythmic patterns that keep sneaking in between the arrangements and keep the composition wildly chaotic, and despite being instrumental, it says far more about the state of mind and psyche of the Western world than many a song with lyrics. Zappa reworked the central arrangement from a transcription of the piece »While You Were Out« from the album »Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar« (1981). The title track, with its enigmatic improvisations, scattered rhythms and a whole host of neighing bass samples, is a perfect ambient disconnect from reality and a veritable dive into the depths of hell, where devils play their own vision of jazz, so the title was very well chosen.
Frank couldn’t resist adding at least a pinch of his trademark schoolboy humor to the album, in both the title and the rhythmic structure of »G-Spot Tornado«, which with its chaotic nature and headlong cacophony really does evoke some kind of orgasmic tornado, complete with ‘bedroom sounds’. This is the piece Frank once declared impossible for people to ever physically play, but his accompanying orchestra Ensemble Modern later managed it anyway, as you can hear on the live album »The Yellow Shark« (1993).
»Damp Ankles«, marked by a somewhat gloomy ambience, is another triumph of cacophonous rhythmic production and psychedelic-tinged improvisation. »St. Etienne« is actually an ‘excerpt’ from the classic »Drowning Witch«, recorded live in 1982 during Frank’s band’s performance in the French city of Saint-Etienne, and it features a great guitar improvisation from the legendary composer while Steve Vai and Ray White keep him company on rhythm guitars. The wildest, goofiest piece on the album is undoubtedly the grand finale, »Massagio Galore«, where a flood of crazy effects takes over, and you can even catch Frank’s vocal grimaces among the digitally compressed electronic textures.
It’s very hard, really impossible, to pick the best instrumental album in Frank Zappa’s astonishingly varied and prolific career, but »Jazz From Hell« earned its cult status mainly because one single man played pieces that would give plenty of orchestras a serious headache. It was also his last album recorded in the studio, with the exception of »St. Etienne«, and made during his lifetime. And American (especially Republican) senators wouldn’t be who they are if they hadn’t branded »Jazz From Hell« pornographic, instrumental or not, and constantly obstructed its distribution across the whole of the USA.
Lineup
Frank Zappa – Synclavier, keyboards, guitar (on “St. Etienne”), production
Ed Mann – percussion on “St. Etienne”
Tommy Mars – keyboards on “St. Etienne”
Bobby Martin – keyboards, saxophone on “St. Etienne”
Scott Thunes – bass guitar, keyboards on “St. Etienne”
Steve Vai – rhythm guitar on “St. Etienne”
Chad Wackerman – drums on “St. Etienne”
Ray White – rhythm guitar on “St. Etienne”
Production
Frank Zappa
Track list
1. Night School
2. The Beltway Bandits
3. While You Were Art II
4. Jazz From Hell
5. G-Spot Tornado
6. Damp Ankles
7. St. Etienne
8. Massagio Galore
