| ✎ | Frank Vincent Zappa |
| ☆ | 12/21/1942 |
| † | 12/04/1993 |
| ∞ | American musician, composer and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band The Mothers Of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians in the history of music. Zappa’s output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed “Project/Object”, with numerous musical phrases, ideas and characters reappearing across his albums. His lyrics reflected his views of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a firm critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation. Zappa was an independent artist, but mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. In 1995 Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 |
| ♫ | The Mothers Of Invention: Freak Out! Absolutely Free We’re Only In It For The Money Cruising With Ruben & the Jets Mothermania Uncle Meat Burnt Weeny Sandwich Weasels Ripped My Flesh Fillmore East – June 1971 200 Motels Just Another Band From L.A. The Grand Wazoo Over-Nite Sensation Roxy & Elsewhere One Size Fits All Bongo Fury (with Captain Beefheart) Playground Psychotics Ahead Of Their Time Solo: |
