1940–93 American composer, rock musician Zappa, the anti-establishment rock musician and founder of The Mothers of Invention, was inspired as a teenager by the music of Varèse, Stravinsky and Webern, and wrote fully notated avant-garde-style pieces while still at school. In 1970 he performed material from his forthcoming film 200 Motels with the Los Angeles Philharmonic ...
Renowned as the leader of avant-garde satirical group the Mothers Of Invention in the 1960s, Frank Zappa developed a singular guitar prowess that emerged in the 1970s as his band became increasingly adventurous, drawing on a wide variety of classical, jazz and rock forms while maintaining their razor-sharp wit. Zappa’s approach to playing influenced many guitarists, including ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1940–93) In 1964, Zappa formed The Mothers Of Invention, whose albums resembled pop-Dada aural junk-sculptures made from an eclectic heap that, laced with outright craziness, included 1950s pop, jazz, schmaltz and the pioneering tonalities of Stravinsky, Varèse and Webern. However, Zappa’s intense concern over social issues was never so ...
have been no Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, no Led Zeppelin or Nirvana, Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis, James Brown or Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd or Frank Zappa, Oasis or Blur … the list is endless. The blues emerged out of the hardships endured by generations of African American slaves during the late nineteenth and early twentieth ...
to play. After honing his skills, he joined a popular Nashville-area cover band called Sweetheart in 1975. Two years later, while on a Nashville tour stop, Frank Zappa caught a show and immediately recruited Belew to join his own band, which he did. As Zappa’s 1978 world tour was winding down, David Bowie saw Belew’s performance ...
(Vocals, b. 1948) Although over time the name Alice Cooper came to attach itself to singer Vincent Furnier, it originally applied to the rock band that he fronted, the classic line-up of which comprised Cooper, Glen Buxton (guitar), Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums). After recording two albums for Frank Zappa’s Straight label ...
, Pithoprakta, Eonta, Yuji Takahashi, Orchestre National de l’ORTF (cond) Maurice Le Roux, Konstantin Simonovic (Chant du Monde) Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | Frank Zappa | Contemporary | Classical ...
Alt-rock guitarist John Frusciante (b. 1970) was born into a musical family in Queens, New York. While living in Los Angeles after his parents’ divorce, Frusciante became involved with the city’s punk-rock scene. Frusciante was particularly inspired by The Germs, teaching himself to play the songs on their first album before taking guitar lessons. He studied Jeff Beck ...
, 1935–96) The self-proclaimed ‘Gangster Of Love’, Watson learned piano from his father in Houston, Texas but became known for his terse, stinging guitar, which influenced Frank Zappa and has been sampled by rappers. Etta James patterned her early singing after Watson’s declarative vocals, best immortalized along with his wicked instrumental prowess on King and Federal singles ...
(Vocal group, 1971–present) Renowned for their eclectic blend of styles, incorporating rhythm and blues, country, rock’n’roll and jazz rock, Little Feat was founded by two ex-members of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, guitarist and singer Lowell George and bassist Roy Estrada. They were joined by Richard Hayward (drums) and Bill Payne (keyboards, vocals). After ...
, tuned like a guitar. Essential Recordings 1970 Solo: After The Gold Rush 1972 Solo: Harvest 1979 with Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps 1992 Solo: Harvest Moon Personalities | Frank Zappa | Father of Harmony | Guitar Heroes ...
and heavy metal albums of all time. The album was to be recorded at a casino in Montreux, Switzerland, but the night before recording, during a Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention show, an audience member fired a flare gun inside the casino, igniting a fire that would burn the place to the ground. This ...
(Guitar, b. 1960) After learning many of his chops from Joe Satriani, New Yorker Vai became Frank Zappa’s ‘stunt guitarist’ on his albums between 1981 and 1986. He was also a hired axe for John Lydon’s PiL, Dave Lee Roth and Whitesnake. His own work shows a compositional maturity. Rather than just ‘shredding’ on Passion And Warfare (1990), ...
Schooled by Joe Satriani, trained by Frank Zappa and turned into a guitar hero by David Lee Roth, Steve Vai (b. 1960) has combined an energetic technique with a distinctive and often unusual sense of tone. Born and raised in North Hempstead, New York, Vai began taking guitar lessons from his schoolmate Satriani when he was 14. ...
(Vocal group, 1964–70) With vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman at the helm, this Californian outfit boarded a 1965 bandwagon that carried a mixed cargo of British beat and folk protest, and gained a US Top 10 breakthrough with Bob Dylan’s ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’. The Turtles also had a jokey side – as instanced by Volman’s buffoonery ...
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