Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark - 320 CBR

The Yellow Shark was a fitting epitaph to the music of Frank Zappa. Old pieces and new performed by the 'Ensemble Modern': and a superb job they made of it too. Favourites like 'Dog Breath', 'Uncle Meat' and 'The Be-Bop Tango' are given new life in their orchestral guise. Of the new songs 'Outrage At Valdez' is my favourite. A very sombre piece of music, but a beautiful theme, played with such feeling. Of course there is always room for a little bit of silliness, and 'Food Gathering...' and 'Welcome To The United States' offer a little light relief from the 'Serious' compositions. It's also great to hear 'Exercise 4' here. An unreleased gem from 1973, it's very short, but adds a great end to another old classic 'A Pound For A Brown'. The very best is left until last. Notably 'G-Spot Tornado'. An almost impossibly fast synclavier song reworked for the orchestra: it is a mind blowing rendition, and brings a great album to a superlative end. An Excellent album.

This is "THE" farewell record; he recorded it a few months before he died. Being this a postumous record, it shows the gradiosity of a man that crossed almost every boundary from rock, jazz, fusion, prog, punk, avant-garde and modern classic, to contemporary music. Being such a master derives into a greatest position in music, it doesn't matter what people say about him... just take a look at his tablatures and you find out the complexity of his compositions and arragenments. This record has been featured into the classical realm and has joined several sceptics into prog rock and viceseversa. The music is just fantastic. a collection of past gems and new compositions, but the main event, is when Frank Zappa himself (ill, and tired because of the cancer) conducts the "food gathering in post industrial america" and "welcome to the united states" pieces, a magnificent performance of jokes, theater and music, along a protest to the inmmigration system in the USA. A masterpiece to the hard listener, hey, is not an "easy listening" record, it may take at least 3 times to achive it, but worth the risk.

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