Oh No! Just Another Frank Zappa Memorial Barbecue!

Artist: Le Bocal
Label: Le Chant Du Monde
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 794881723621
EAN: 0794881723621
ASIN: B0000TZMBS

Release Date: 2004-03-09

Related Categories:

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band

| Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Zappa Without Frank Zappa
Zappa Tributes

Tracks:

Oh No! (Instrumental Version)
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
King Kong
The Idiot Bastard Son
Little Umbrellas
The Air
The Grand Wazoo
The Duke Of Prunes
Blessed Relief
Mr. Green Genes
Oh No! (Vocal Version)

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Take Your Clothes off When You Dance
Frank Zappas Hot Licks & Funny Smells: Live at Moers Festival 2004
Ensemble Modern Plays Frank Zappa: Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions
Ensemble Ambrosius: The Zappa Album
So Yuh Don't Like Modern Art

Customer Reviews:

Zappa Swings!.......2007-02-11

OK, you're here to find out about another cover of Zappa tunes.
You're probably not a person who only knows of FZ's genius through
"Don't Eat The Yellow Snow"or because you have the soundtrack from
"The Ice Storm." Personally, I find that
college students smoking a bong while listening to "I'm The Slime" is offensive.
Frank hated drugs and was known to fire people if they showed up stoned for
a session.

No, you're reading this because you want to know if this is as good as Ensemble
Modern's "Greggory Peckary" or fun as George Thorogood's version of "Trouble Coming
Everyday." And, it's that good and better. Le Bocal does for Frank what the
Swingle Singers did for Mozart: they make it swing.

Their version of "Little Umbrellas" is great and the 2 versions of "Oh, No!", one with
vocals and one sans vocal is wonderful. The other songs don't just cover
Zappa, but rearrange, tear down, and make the music fun. It's not a
ponderous tribute
nor a badly played miss of what the music means to us who are
called "hardcore." We want to remember Frank, even if he didn't care.

If it's a choice between the recently released "MOFO, 40th Aniversary of Freak Out!"
and this which is about 4 years old, I'd go for this. The former is 4 discs
which are 50% redundant. If I want to do Zappa at a karioke, the second
disc of MOFO is good as it's rehearsal grade stuff without the vocals. Plus, the
vinyl CDC cover is so tight on the discs, you risk breaking them when you
try to play them. But if you want to hear FZ fresh and alive, get the Barbecue. Le Bocal really shows
how good the music is and as FZ said "Music is the Best!"

And, please Gale, don't sue me for using that motto without paying a royalty.
You've got enough to handle trying to keep "Project/Object" from using that term
as the name of their band. Maybe if you took more time for the music,
instead of trying to get every penny you can out of your late husband's
Trust, you might have better product coming out.

Taylor Martin

frankly zappa.......2005-10-17

from my own experience theres frank and then theres zappa i never enjoyed his kiddie stuff like yellow snow but i had been floored by hot rats grand wazoo and chungas revenge now as an elder statesman i find myself going back to these sides over and over besides what else is out there now that comes close? this barbecue cooks just listen to this verison of grand wazoo and tell me the guy wasnt a genius.if you aint got the above mentioned albums {cds} youre missing out.

Done with its own taste and precission.......2005-07-15

I like it. I agree that contents meets description on the cover. Sound and performance is very precise, giving me very clear view of composition and arrangement. Of course You can like it or not, but You should not deprecate it. All was done by professionals. Guitar solos are definitely not imitations. Personally I felt a bit of lack of FZ soloing style, what can be worked out too, but well.. Taking all in all I like the approach. Zappa's compositions refreshed in a bit diffeent manner, but tasty.

LeBocal Doing Their Thing.......2005-02-10

Having read many reviews of this album here and elsewhere I just have to redress the balance. All but a few of these reviews are sadly mistaken in my not so humble opinion.

One person who claims to be a die hard Zappa fan complains that they have played King Kong in 4/4, but if you are a real fan and are familiar with Lumpy Gravy then there it is, 7' 36" into the second section, a slow 4/4 version of King Kong arranged and produced by the man himself.

Then there's the person who is put off by the vocal tracks. Again, Zappa and vocals? ... how many different voices of people other than Zappa, and how many plain or electronically or otherwise modified versions of Zappa's own voice appear throughout his own productions? Zappa himself confronted the question "Does humour belong in music?" with a compilation of his own live material. Ernie Odoom's voice is somewhere between Ray Collins and Bob Martin. LeBocal are world class musicians - they weren't about to add some crummy singing over the top of their instrumental brilliance. The four numbers that have singing (not three - someone can't even count) are sung with skill and the appropriate dose of humour. Ask yourself this - is there a Frank Zappa best of, of his own compilation, that has no singing, in fact, is there a Zappa album of his own production that has no singing aside from his various orchestral albums?

Then there's the comment that this album could only be of interest to generic jazz fans. I think I know what this means but that doesn't prevent me from being insulted. Outside of Zappa's family and friends, nobody misses him more than me. His music and social commentary have accompanied a significant chunk of my life and although I have many other musical influences his is the greatest. But he's gone now and if we want more of what he offered us then people who aren't Frank Zappa will have to do it. Many fans felt betrayed when he ditched the original Mothers but Frank himself moved on and so now should we.

This offering by LeBocal is brave in the sense that anyone who produces Zappa's music is bound to attract criticism and they have gone ahead and done it in their own way. What is the point of making it sound exactly like Frank's output - that's already been done and I already own most of those albums. And not only that, there are other considerations. When I listen to Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance on We're Only in it for the Money I can't help but hear the struggle with the medium he was forced to work with at the time, sounding possibly a bit dated and then I hear that theme liberated by LeBocal and there it is alive and well in the 21st Century.

Consider Oh No. How many different versions are there of that material? On Lumpy Gravy it's orchestrated a la elevator music, on Weasels Ripped My Flesh it's kind of junk art rock and then on Roxy And Elsewhere it's elevated to one of the greatest pieces I've ever heard - a beautiful song followed by a very moving guitar solo and topped off by some big band wonderment segueing into a big band rendition of More Trouble Every Day which has evolved well beyond the original on Freak Out. So, pick any Zappa theme, then tell me which is the definitive arrangement or performance that anyone else who is trying to keep his music alive should use. I don't think so. In Zappa's own words "Anything Anytime Anyplace For No Reason At All".

Anyway, in my opinion "Oh No ... Just Another Frank Zappa Memorial Barbecue" is everything the cover notes claims it to be and more. I listened to it over and over again which is more than I can say for many of the official offerings from Zappa's own vault that were released after his death, which may be interesting from a documentary point of view but if your main reason for listening to Zappa is having your socks rocked off then we need brave and talented musicians doing completely new productions. This album by LeBocal is a brave new album.

Vive LeBocal.

Brilliant tunes, rendered with love, adventure and talent.......2004-05-18

"Oh No! ... Just another Frank Zappa memorial barbecue" arrived today, and I'm loving it, a lot. I have perhaps a half dozen big-band Zappa cover albums (what can I say...), and this one's on a par with the best of the genre -- Fassi, Palermo, IMO. The arrangements are among the most adventurous I've heard -- taking what are already delightful and inventive compositions a step or two further. A samba-esque "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance"?!? A slow funky rumbling "King Kong," replete with wacky wailing guitar soli?!? That and more, played by top-drawer musicians.

The only reservation I have to giving this two thumbs and two big toes straight up is the addition of vocals on three (of eleven) tunes. They're not horrible, but they do compromise the experience for me, if only a little.

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