Frank Zappa delved deeper into jazz to find blessed relief during his extended recovery from two near death experiences. In December of 1971, during a performance at the Casino de Montreux in Switzerland a fan shot off a flare and set fire to the venue, burning it down and destroying the band's equipment. Deep Purple wrote 'Smoke on the Water' about the event. A week later, at a show at the Rainbow Theatre in London, Zappa was pushed off the stage by someone in the audience and onto the concrete floor of the orchestra pit. He was nearly killed, receiving injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, serious fractures, and head trauma.
Zappa would recount: "I was a month in the Haley Street Clinic, and then I had about another three months in Los Angeles pretty much incapacitated, and I then gradually started improving from there. I've had this brace on my leg for about two months, and before that I had a cast on, sitting in a wheelchair. The leg's not healing very fast, but it is healing now at last. I had a whole assortment of injuries, and it bugged me a little bit to see the way it was handled in the press, a kind of semi-humorous treatment, here and also in the States, yeah. Yo ho ho, he fell in the orchestra pit...I was feeling a little crazy and over sensitive in that hospital. I had a broken rib, I got a broken shin tibia, I had a giant hole in the back of my head, the side of my face got mashed in, and for the first two-and-a-half or three weeks in the hospital I couldn't move my hands, and I didn't know whether I had any brain damage or what. I couldn't even hold a guitar up by the time I left the place, it was too heavy for me...I wrote a whole bunch of stuff as soon as I was able to sit at a table."
The sessions for both 'Waka/Jawaka' and 'The Grand Wazoo' took place during April and May of 1972 while Zappa was confined to a wheelchair. Zappa produced both albums at Paramount Studios in Hollywood with many of the same musicians taking part on both albums: Mike Altschul on woodwind, baritone saxophone, piccolo, bass flute, bass clarinet, and tenor sax; Bill Byers on trombone and baritone horn; George Duke on ring-modulated & echoplexed electric piano, tack piano, keyboards, and vocals; Aynsley Dunbar on drums, washboard, and tambourine; Tony Duran – guitar, bottleneck guitar, slide guitar, and vocals; Erroneous (Alex Dmochowski) on bass, electric bass, vocals, and fuzz bass; Sal Marquez on bass, trumpet, vocals, brass, flugelhorn, and chimes; Joel Peskin on saxophone and woodwind; Don Preston on guitar and Mini Moog; Ken Shroyer on trombone, baritone horn, brass, contractor, and spiritual guidance; Gerry Sack on phantom tambourine and muted maracas; Janet Neville-Ferguson on vocals; and Frank Zappa on guitar, percussion, and vocals. For 'The Grand Wazoo' the lineup was expanded to include Joanne Caldwell McNabb on vocals, brass, and woodwind; Malcolm McNabb on trombone, horn, and trumpet in D; Ernie Tack on brass; Ernie Watts – tenor saxophone, C Melody Saxophone, woodwinds; Lee Clement, Alan Estes, and Robert Zimmitti on percussion; Johnny Rotella, Tony Ortega, Fred Jackson, Jr., and Earl Dumler on woodwind; and "Chunky" (Lauren Wood) on vocals.
'Waka/Jawaka' was released in July of 1972 and Zappa began touring again in September. Zappa called the new touring ensemble "The Mothers of Invention Hot Rats Grand Wazoo or Grand Wazoo for short. It's a 20-piece electric orchestra, and the group is only going to be together for a total of eight concerts. The Hollywood Bowl, the Oval, the Hague, Berlin, two days in New York, Boston, and back home."
'The Grand Wazoo' would come out five months later in December of 1972. Zappa explained: "I've got so much stuff all ready to release now that I can't put out, because you've got to wait three or four months between albums because the company who's distributing your stuff say they don't get a chance to recoup their money if you do it in less."
'Waka/Jawaka' charted at one hundred and fifty-two in the US and 'The Grand Wazoo' didn't chart at all. 'The Grand Wazoo' was the last release on Zappa's Bizzare Records label.
http://www.zappa.com/
'The Grand Wazoo'
full album:
00:00 The Grand Wazoo -- 13:17
13:17 For Calvin (And His Next Two Hitch-Hikers) -- 6:04
19:21 Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus -- 2:57
22:17 Eat That Question -- 6:42
28:57 Blessed Relief -- 7:59
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