Zolar Czakl and Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague

The Mothers of Invention: Frank Zappa (low vocals, electric guitar, percussion), Ray Collins (high-pitched vocals), Ian Underwood (alto and baritone saxes, flute, clarinet, piano, electronic organ, harpsichord, celeste), Bunk Gardner (alto, tenor and soprano saxes, flute, piccolo, clarinet and bass clarinet, bassoon), Don Preston (electric piano), Roy Estrada (electric bass), Jimmy Carl Black (drums) and Art Tripp (drums, timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, wood blocks, bells, small chimes). From the album Uncle Meat (1969).

Frank Zappa was an American singer, guitarist, composer, record producer and film director born in Baltimore. Iconic image of pop culture, a hairy guy with moustache, his work was distinguished by improvisation, nonconformism, musical virtuosity, sound experiments and satire of American culture. His poisoned words opened up controversial cracks. In a career that lasted from the 1960s to the 1990s, Zappa composed blues, jazz, doo-woop, avant-garde, concrete music, classical music, pop, rock, jazz fusion and electronic music, and produced more than 60 albums published with his group Mothers of Invention and as a soloist.

Zappa also directed feature films and musical clips, and designed album covers. As if his music wasn’t daring enough, he accompanied it with satirical and humorous lyrics and titles of songs inspired by Beat poets, and he didn’t like hippies or drug use. He was a popular musician, but his albums didn’t get significant sales. However, he was able to record and publish his work with his own record companies and travel internationally thanks to his success in Europe and his unconditional fans and other musicians.

He also had a unique ability to promote himself in the media through extensive interviews employing his creativity in the same way than in his music. The Mothers of Invention, the group he led in the 1960s, offered a parody of popular music and counterculture. Zappa was a proponent of the free expression of ideas and was a much more ambitious songwriter than any other rock musicians of his time or most classical music composers.