Waka/Wazoo

Product Information

Rehearsals started for the album recording sessions sometime in late March/early April and once the material was honed to his satisfaction, Zappa and crew decamped to Paramount Studios where recording began on April 10, 1972. By the end of the month, Zappa, who handled production, guitar and conducting duties, had recorded the bulk of two albums, the jazz-influenced Waka/Jawaka (intended by Zappa as a sequel to Hot Rats), recorded with a lineup of six to nine musicians, and the epic and ambitious jazz-fusion masterwork, The Grand Wazoo, recorded with a larger ensemble ranging from eight to as many as 20 musicians.

Rehearsals started for the album recording sessions sometime in late March/early April, and once the material was honed to his satisfaction, Zappa and crew decamped to Paramount Studios where recording began on April 10, 1972. By the end of the month, Zappa, who handled production, guitar, and conducting duties, had recorded the bulk of two albums, the jazz-influenced Waka/Jawaka (intended by Zappa as a sequel to Hot Rats), recorded with a lineup of six to nine musicians, and the epic and ambitious jazz-fusion masterwork, The Grand Wazoo, recorded with a larger ensemble ranging from eight to as many as 20 musicians. Tony Duran - slide guitar ( "Your Mouth", "Big Swifty", "Think It Over (The Grand Wazoo)", "For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)", "It Just Might Be A One-Shot Deal"), vocals ( "It Just Might Be A One-Shot Deal"), rhythm guitar ( "Blessed Relief") Rehearsals started for the album recording sessions sometime in late March/early April and once the material was honed to his satisfaction, Zappa and crew decamped to Paramount Studios, where recording began on April 10, 1972. By the end of the month, Zappa, who handled production, guitar and conducting duties, had recorded the bulk of two albums, the jazz-influenced Waka/Jawaka (intended as a sequel to Hot Rats), recorded with a lineup of six to nine musicians, and the epic and ambitious jazz-fusion masterwork, The Grand Wazoo, recorded with a larger ensemble ranging from eight to as many as 20 musicians. Zappa created Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo under extenuating circumstances. After being pushed offstage by a fan during a concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, he spent months recovering at his Los Angeles home. The wheelchair-bound Zappa assembled a 20-piece group of musicians known as the Electric Orchestra for recording sessions and an eight-city tour. He later scaled down to a 10-piece Petite Wazoo orchestra and launched another nearly two-month tour with the group.

In this review, I’m not covering the four compact discs, which fans like yourself can take the time to explore on their own. Of course, releases from Frank Zappa must be unusual, and Waka/Wazoo follows this path. For years I have not understood why a label would duplicate content made available on a high-resolution format by making it available on a CD in the same box set. Finally this has become reality with this box set chalk full of bonus material across the CD’s! Thus, the Blu-ray contains the two albums in their entirety in various hi-res codecs, while the CDs contain the following bonus material without any duplication - CD1 and CD2: Paramount Studios Recording Session Alternates and Outtakes, CD3: George Duke Demos (The Master Versions) + George Duke Session Outtakes, the end of CD4 + all of CD5: 10 Piece / Petite Wazoo (Live) Matrix / Runout (Disc 3): 4859463 [2 x Universal Logo] AM83837-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH The April 11 take of "Blessed Relief" is one of this collection's most glistening highlights. The soft, languid piece in waltz time lives up to its name, showcasing some particularly lovely playing from Marquez, burbling keys from Duke, and a slow-burning groove. The song would end up as a subtle respite on The Grand Wazoo. It's contrasted here by the freer jazz of "For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers)." This April 13 version has been cobbled together from remaining outtake source material, with its different sections not yet melded into a final form. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the comprehensive 4CD + Blu-Ray Audio set boasts unreleased alternate takes of almost every composition recorded during the album sessions, Vault mix session outtakes and oddities, and also includes the full final show of the 10-piece tour, recorded at the famous Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on December 15, 1972. Waka/Wazoo” is a Comprehensive 4-CD + Blu-ray Audio box set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mothers Of Invention/Hot Rats/Grand Wazoo experience from 1972.

Ultimately, he contracted a 20-piece group for recording sessions and an eight-city tour. Shortly thereafter, a scaled down 10-piece configuration, now popularly known as the “Petite Wazoo” toured for almost two months. In celebration of half a century of this pioneering phase of Zappa’s peerless career, Zappa Records/UMe will be releasing Waka/Wazoo, a five-disc multi-format box set that features a complete historical rundown of the entire project, on December 16 th, just ahead of what would have been the Maestro’s 82 nd birthday. Finally, during the album recording sessions at Paramount Studios, FZ worked with George Duke on some of Duke’s solo material. These demos were produced by Zappa, who also played guitar.

Release

The Waka/Wazoo Box Set features a complete historical run-down of the entire project, featuring alternate takes of almost every composition recorded during the album sessions, along with Vault mix session outtakes and oddities. Additionally, the collection includes a set of demos for George Duke’s solo material that Zappa produced and played guitar on during the album recording sessions at Paramount Studios. Although Duke would go on to re-record the compositions for his own albums, the versions with Zappa have never been officially issued until now. The TrueHD 5.1 surround mix is impressive, with good use of the rear channels and discrete placement of instruments taking full advantage of the enhanced soundscape. The mix places the listener in the center of the band for an up-close, intimate experience. With expansive orchestration, these albums are most uniquely suited within the Zappa discography for the surround sound treatment, and those who prefer surround on the more aggressive end of the spectrum should be more than satisfied with the immersive audio here. Note, however, that The Grand Wazoo is at a much lower volume than Waka/Jawaka for reasons unknown. (TSD isn't currently equipped to play the Atmos mix.) Waka/Jawaka is previewed with an alternate take of The Grand Wazoo favorite “Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus” from Disc 2 that showcases the complexity of these compositions and the stunning musicianship.