Frank Zappa - The Old Masters, Box III
- Waka/Jawaka
- The Grand Wazoo
- Over-Nite Sensation
- Apostrophe (')
- Roxy and Elsewhere [2-LP]
- One Size Fits All
- Bongo Fury
- Zoot Allures
What a legendary era of FZ (and George Duke!), kicking off with Waka/Jawaka's "Big Swifty," a monster tune with one of the most idiosyncratic FZ melodies ever put to tape, and finishing up on Zoot Allures with Terry Bozzio and a song about Disco doody. Sums up the mid-70's, I guess. FZ was still mostly punching upward with his politically lyric savagery, and growing by leaps and bounds as a guitarist, mile after mile from Blessed Relief to Black Napkins. And but also, there's Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe, two of Zappa's most enduring albums, Roxy, his most legendary live recording (which is saying a lot for a guy who recorded everything), and One Size Fits All, the greatest album ever recorded by a Greek-Arab Sicilian-American guitar player from Baltimore. It's true!
Eight stunning albums in just 4 short years (1972-76), featuring some of the most remarkable talent to record with FZ: Duke, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sal Marquez, Jeff Simmons, Jack Bruce, Tony Duran and "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, Chester Thompson, Ruth Underwood!, Bruce and Tom Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Denny Walley, Aynsley Dunbar, Don Preston, Ricky Lancelotti, the freaking Ikettes, and Captain Beefheart. All digitally remastered for the first time on wax by FZ in 1987.
Now, the eons are closing on the three FZ Old Masters box sets. There's still the Old Masters Sampler, which I'll post soon. You should certainly check out the current crop of 2012 Zappa remasters, especially the all-analog 180g vinyl editions. They are spectacular. Then you should compare them to these and the other two boxes I've posted because Music is The Best.
24/96 LP transfer, V0 mp3 download
FZ-OldMastersBox3[RPM2020].zip 648.64 MB
24/96 LP transfer, 24/96 FLAC download
FZ-OldMastersBox3[RPM2020][FLAC].zip 6.48 GB
