Jean-Luc Ponty - Individual Choice (83)

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1 Computer Incantations for World Peace
2 Far from the Beaten Paths
3 In Spiritual Love
4 Eulogy to Oscar Romero
5 Nostalgia
6 Individual Choice
7 In Spite of All


Here is Ponty's radical break with his past, one that further tightened his control over his craft while ironically liberating his muse.

In laying out his attractive new music on synthesizers and sequencers, emphasizing revolving ostinato patterns, Ponty rejuvenated his melodic gift, and as a result, even in this controlled setting, his violin solos take on a new freshness and exuberance.

Except for two tracks, Ponty does without a formal rhythm section — and on two other tracks, he goes it completely alone. Indeed, he does best of all when he has no one but himself to play with on "Computer Incantations for World Peace" and the lovely mood piece "Eulogy to Oscar Romero."

Guest interloper George Duke (a fellow refugee from Frank Zappa's band) contributes a Minimoog solo to ""In Spiritual Love," where Ponty provides his own percussive backing on rhythm computer. Even if one grumbles on principle about the reduction of spontaneity in Ponty's music over the Atlantic years, the musical end here absolutely justifies the means.

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Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (69)

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1 Peaches en Regalia
2 Willie the Pimp
3 Son of Mr. Green Genes
4 Little Umbrellas
5 The Gumbo Variations
6 It Must Be a Camel

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Aside from the experimental side project Lumpy Gravy, Hot Rats was the first album Frank Zappa recorded as a solo artist sans the Mothers, though he continued to employ previous musical collaborators, most notably multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood.

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Other than another side project — the doo wop tribute Cruising With Ruben and the Jets — Hot Rats was also the first time Zappa focused his efforts in one general area, namely jazz-rock.

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The result is a classic of the genre.

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Hot Rats' genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock's down-and-dirty attitude — there's a real looseness and grit to the three lengthy jams, and a surprising, wry elegance to the three shorter, tightly arranged numbers (particularly the sumptuous "Peaches en Regalia").

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Perhaps the biggest revelation isn't the straightforward presentation, or the intricately shifting instrumental voices in Zappa's arrangements — it's his own virtuosity on the electric guitar, recorded during extended improvisational workouts for the first time here.

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His wonderfully scuzzy, distorted tone is an especially good fit on "Willie the Pimp," with its greasy blues riffs and guest vocalist Captain Beefheart's Howlin' Wolf theatrics.

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Elsewhere, his skill as a melodist was in full flower, whether dominating an entire piece or providing a memorable theme as a jumping-off point.

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In addition to Underwood, the backing band featured contributions from Jean-Luc Ponty, Lowell George, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, among others; still, Zappa is unquestionably the star of the show.

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Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy.

Frank Zappa – Cucamonga (04)

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1 Dear Jeepers
2 Memories of El Monte
3 How's Your Bird?
4 World's Greatest Sinner
5 Every Time I See You
6 Cradle Rock
7 Slow Bird
8 Blind Man's Buff
9 Tijuana Surf
10 Grunion Run
11 Mr. Clean
12 Jessie Lee
13 Cathy My Angel
14 'Til September
15 Heavies
16 The Cruncher
17 Letter from Jeepers

Before forming the Mothers of Invention, Zappa made numerous recordings at small studios. Several tracks that he had a hand in, as producer, instrumentalist, or writer, were issued on extremely rare singles in the early and mid-'60s.

This collects 14 such numbers that found their way to the L.A. Del-Fi label, including items by Paul Buff, the Rotations, the Pauls, Mr. Clean, the Heartbreakers, and Baby Ray & the Ferns, the last of which featured future Mother Ray Collins on vocals.

It's largely eccentric — but not that eccentric — doo wop and R&B with a humorous/novelty bent, though there's also a surf single by the Rotations.

You can hear the seeds of the production techniques of the Mothers albums occasionally, particularly on Bob Guy's weird horror rock ditties "Dear Jeepers" and "Letter from Jeepers"; a snippet of the Rotations' "Heavies" even showed up on the Mothers' We're Only in It for the Money.

Yet this stuff wasn't outrageously funny enough to be novelty hits, or original or hooky enough to be straight pop or R&B successes.

Put another way, in hindsight they show elements of Zappa's later work, but at the time no one could have guessed that he would develop into a major force in experimental rock.

About half of this has shown up on reissues before, but the rest can't be found elsewhere on CD, so it's useful to Zappa collectors.

The 2004 Rhino expanded edition also collects more of his pre-Mothers releases, including the Penguins' "Memories of El Monte" (which he co-wrote with Ray Collins), the Hollywood Persuaders' "Tijuana Surf".