Customer Reviews

Wazoo

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Wazoo and Imaginary Diseases were BOTH performed during the Petite Wazoo band's brief tour in late '72.

The albums are however significantly different in that

(1) Wazoo has more familiar album pieces whereas Imaginary Diseases is by-and-large previously unheard material
(2) Wazoo focuses more on horns, trumpets, sax with Frank's guitar not highlighted whereas Imaginary Diseases jazz-fusion highlights FZ's wizardry on the guitar.

This is another Vaulternative double-CD concert release following up on "Oz" (2002) and "Buffalo" (2007) (those albums aren't available on Amazon but can be ordered from the zappa.com website). My only complaint about Wazoo is that it only times out at 95 minutes (51 minutes 1st disc, 44 minutes 2nd disc) whereas the other 2 double CDs mentioned above each clock in at around 150 minutes. However, I can forgive this lack of quantity owing to the supreme quality of the material on Wazoo.

Wazoo is a must for any FZ enthusiast and even the casual fan with a love of jazz.

Those into the jazzy side of Zappa(Hot Rats, Waka Jawaka, and Grand Wazoo) would appreciate Wazoo. Every single musician on this album is worthy of playng on it and Zappa himself makes sure that the band is properly introduced in the first track. The highlight of this double disc album has to be The Adventures of Greggery Pecary, though be aware that Zappa's band performs this only as an instrumental and altered to some degree. However, the music is still met with the same precision as it's heard off the studio cut. I think the song titled Penis Dimension will delightfully surprise some, as it possesses some very nice hooks. All in all the entire album is entertaining with Zappa's complex arrangements and the accuracy of the virtuosos thereon.