1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 167. Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (1969)

 

Going (sort of) solo from The Mothers, Zappa’s first venture is an almost entirely instrumental jazz-rock fusion. This may sound like a horrific prospect, but it isn’t, the tracks manage to be different without becoming the unlistenable kind of experimental.

Actually, from a jazz perspective, they’re not especially novel, sounding more like an early Miles Davis, or maybe John Coltrane. And although much of the soloing is done on wah-wah guitar (I suspect played through a Leslie speaker rather than a Crybaby pedal), or with some fabulous electric violin from Don “Sugarcane” Harris in Willie The Pimp, there’s also a bit of hard-bop saxophone too, to make a jazz fan feel safe.

This sax, the clarinet soloing, and the lush supporting horn section are all one man – Ian Underwood, made possible by Zappa using a (at the time) novel 16-track recording, allowing many more simultaneous overdubs than possible before.

The tracks do what jazz does – start with a phrase, go off on a wander, come back to it at the end, but do so with modern sounds. Works for me.