Customer Reviews

Studio Tan

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" is a musical masterpiece; one of Zappa's most coherent, yet polygonal and well performed pieces considering its length (20+ minutes). The studio sound of the whole album is clear, and the stereophony is sharp - it is quite amazing that this material was recorded 1974-1976. Something I find exceptionally impressive is the variation and accuracy of sound-effects on "Greggery". Ensemble Modern has recently recorded a (very well performed) version of this piece, but the version on "Studio Tan" is certainly what will stay closer to heart of dedicated Z-fans. On both "Greggery" and "Low-Budget Orchestra" five musicians perform; Zappa, George Duke, Chester Thompson, and Bruce and Tom Fowler, so especially on "Greggery" a lot of overdubs have been recorded, but it's not noticeable, the piece doesn't contain even one note too many, everything makes perfect sense, hence "musical masterpiece". "Low-Budget Orchestra" and "RDNZL" aren't far from masterpieces, either. Influences from Stravinsky clearly predominate "Low-Budget Orchestra", and the speeded-up percussion (played by Zappa) towards the end of the piece reminds a lot of the percussion from the "Uncle Meat" days, which was actually when this piece was written. "Lemme Take You to the Beach" cracks me up - it's a very fun, short, and uplifting piece, needed to reveal even further aspects of Zappa's compositional vocabulary. Without this track the album wouldn't be the same. It's the only song where Chester Thompson and George Duke aren't featured; they're replaced by Paul Humphrey and Eddie Jobson (Davey Moire sings, Max Bennett plays the bass, and Don Brewer plays the bongos). "RDNZL" is simply amazing - very much so from a compositional point of view. James Youman is featured on bass, and Ruth Underwood on percussion. "Studio Tan" is one of the discs you will need to some day be able to fully appreciate all sides of Frank Zappa, The Composer.

I'm ambivalent about much of Zappa's work from the mid-70's onwards but this album contains one of his most amazing creations: "The Adventures of Greggary Peccary". Never mind all that arid orchestral nonsense Zappa was inclined to puke up every now again to prove his avant-garde credentials, this track blows that stuff out of the water in terms of ingenuity, creativity and risk-taking. Probably more than any other track in Zappa's oeuvre, this track is as much influenced by Carl Stalling (a great 20th Century American composer) as Stravinsky. Not only that, but lyrically it is both amusing and intriguing (though it runs out of steam towards the end) being both a parody on "trend-mongers" and a philosophical treatise (well, sort of) on the nature of time. The rest of the album does little for me, I confess to finding "Let Me Take You to the Beach" especially irritating.

'The Adventures of Greggerry Peccery' is probably Zappa's most mind blowing excursion into musical theatre. It is an endlessly creative panorama of soundscapes satirizing certain kinds of 'business tycoons.' In case you're wondering, all this stuff was composed and written down; this isn't some kind of off the cuff improvisation. It can be performed by any ensemble of musicians able to play it (though no one can replace Zappa's personality which is the main feature). Zappa's band is probably his greatest ever, featuring George Duke, Chester Thompson (later of Weather Report and Genesis), Eddie Jobson (of Roxy Music and U.K.) and Ruth Underwood among others.

The second 'side' features two of Zappa's most brilliant rock 'n' roll instrumentals and one of his most hilarious song parodies. There isn't anything self-indulgent in the solos Zappa takes here; everything is economically constructed and magnificent.

To call Zappa's music orchestral jazz is innacurate and misleading.The music on Studio Tan is much closer to Western 20th centuryclassical music than jazz. I would venture to call it post-jazz classical music (informed by jazz, while continuing to push the limits of classical music). The Adventures of Greggery Peccary is one of Zappa's greatest achievments. Although Greggery Peccary is often abstract, dissonant, and disjunct, it is quite pallatable. Studio tan is overflowing with the rhythmic energy and melodic inventiveness that Zappa is famous for. The melodies are a prime example of Zappa's post-atonal melodic style. Although only vaguely tonal (closer to the atonal side of the tonality continuum), the melodies sound catchy and somehow intuitively right (a description which calls to mind the melodic style of Thelonius Monk). ...For every famous band, there are 1,000 bands just as good playing in a garage somewhere that you will never hear ("product of the media" famous bands are obviously not chosen for musical talent, but for "more marketable" features such as sex appeal). There was, however, only 1 Frank Zappa. One more thing, the version of RDNZL on this release is OK, but I prefer the live versions of this one (such as can be heard on You Can't Do That On Stage [Vol. IV?]).

the song RDNZL is worth the price of admission. Totally mind blowing long song that goes all over the map. Lemme take you to the beach is a hilarious beach boy spin off lampoon, that really makes me laugh as I attempt to sing along. Another milestone recording as far as I am concerned.. also, chester thompson is on drums, and he is incredible... george duke also graces the keys.

Writing about Zappa is almost defying, because of the deep knowledge which shows his fans.
Greggery Peccary may be considered as a really innovative opera: it's a fable about a little pig caught into high business, sex and maffia affaires. The contrast between the 45 rpm. voice of the character and the possible lowest one of Frank, couldn't hide the same personality behind both of them. The music follows perfectly the dramatic evolution of the argument, so you can easily imagine you're watching a cartoon on TV (and the cover resembles it showing kindergarten and bizarre images). There are no opera voices here: just this strange pig drawned into a society like ours; the scene is hilarious, but the very serious goal is the social critic. So, when Greggery invents the calendar, people "who simply did not wish to know" turns his life into a nightmare. The music style is mostly progressive rock with some touches of contemporary and jazz: talent brights through every note; the direction and the interpretations are perfect.
Follows Let me Take you to the beach, which is the relaxing piece into the tremendous work that represents the other ones. There's a great strange main voice overdubbed and remarkable synth job: much more than just fun.
In Revised Music for Guitar and Low Budget Orchestra, the melodical guitar solo is almost arranged with unison, harmonizing or counterpointed trombones, synths and drums: the solo is the base over which the other instrumental lines were composed. Besides of the title, first violin reach a great importance in the development of the "story".
RDNZL begins as a pompous waltz with a 2.40 minutes guitar solo in the middle (extremely large, but often joining the piano counterpoints) but the level recovers towards the end, when an excelent 1 minute piano solo takes place and the rythm and synth complexity reappears to close gloriously (despite of a final "sound-joke") the best LP Zappa recorded ever.
The old album cover doesn't show any information about the musicians who contribute to this pinnacle of progressive rock.
A must have if you enjoy creative and dense music.

The music on this album is seriously underrated because of the silly cover and the legal disputes Zappa was involved in around the time of this release (well documented on the Lather album whis encompasses tis album, Orchestral Favorites, Sleep dirt and Zappa in New York BUT NOT QUITE).

First buy Leather and if you like it enough (and you should) you may want the other versions as well.

One of Zappa's best - incredible writing and performing. But beware - the remix for CD has dramatically changed the balance of instruments, particularly in "Greggary Peccary." If you grew up on the vinyl version as I did, you may find yourself missing the old mix. On the plus side, there is an additional half minute of material at the end of "Greggary Peccary" which brings it to a great conclusion, rather than the abrupt fadeout on the original mix. Still, I miss my vinyl & my early CD edition!

I have loved this record ever since 1977. On the old vinyl version, "Gregory Peccary was the whole first side, which I ignored after the first listen. Ahhhh but side two... Even the silliness of "let me take you to the beach" can be inspiring in the right circumstance, but then, then, Music for guitar and Low Budget Orchestra, what an incredible piece! listened to it over and over love and know every note, mellow but charged. then the hyper Redunzl - a great piece also, great playing. In other words, after the first 23 minutes, this is an all time great album. Frank was a genius and a cool spirit, may he rest in peace and always rip in memory.

I completely disagree Andy Gills comments about Studio Tan not being humurous, I think it's one of Zappa's funniest. The Adventours of Greggary Peccary is my absolute favourite zappa song of all time.

But..... All of theese songs appear almost identically on the Lather album so if your willing to fork out a bit more get that instead.