Frank Zappa Yellow Shark CD

The 26-member Ensemble Modern performs FZ's 'most-humanly-impossible-to-play' compositions. Piano duets, string quintets & small ballets. Simply exquisite, with a 60-page booklet to explain it all. Originally released in 1993, it stayed on the classical chart for most of `94. Includes the tracks 'Outrage At Valdez,' 'None Of The Above,' & 'Welcome To The United States', plus arrangements of some of the most fiendishly difficult pieces from FZ's back catalogue & even a 'greatest hit' or two (some would pick this as the definitive version of 'Dog Breath Variations'). Sadly, this was the last album released by FZ during his lifetime. The didipak and the booklet are housed in a slipcase. Rykodisc.

THE YELLOW SHARK consists of Frank Zappa compositions commissioned by the German orchestra Modern Ensemble in September 1992. The tracks included here are Zappa's reconstructions of these pieces, as well as early tracks and more recent songs.
Personnel: Frank Zappa (spoken vocals, conductor).
Ensemble Modern includes: Peter Rundel (conductor, violin); Hilary Stuart (spoken vocals, viola); Herman Kretzschmar (spoken vocals, piano, harpsichord, celeste); Jurgen Ruck (guitar, banjo); Claudia Sack (violin); Friedemann Dahn (violincello); Ueli Wiget (harp, piano, harpsichord, celeste); Wolfgang Stryi (bass & contrabass clarinets, tenor saxophone); Catherine Milliken (oboe, English horn, didgeridoo); William Formann, Michael Gross (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, cornet); Michael Svoboda (trombone, euphonium, didgeridoo, alphorn); Uwe Dierksen (trombone, soprano trombone); Stefan Dohr (horn); Thomas Fichter (acoustic & electric basses); Rumi Ogawa-Helferich (cymbalom, percussion); Andreas Bottger (percussion).
Includes liner notes by Rip Rense, Frank Zappa and Peter Rundel.
Personnel: Jürgen Ruck (guitar, banjo); Ueli Wiget (harp, cello, piano, harpsichord); Ellen Wegner (harp); Detlef Tewes (mandolin); Peter Rundel, Mathias Tacke, Claudia Sack, Hilary Sturt (violin); Friedemann Dahn (cello); Dietmar Wiesner (flute); Michael Svoboda (didjeridu, trombone, euphonium, alphorn); Wolfgang Stryi (clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, contrabass trombone); Veit Scholz (bassoon, contrabassoon); William Formann, Michael Gross (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn); Uwe Dierksen (trombone); Daryl Smith (tuba); Franck Ollu (horns); Herman Kretzschmar (piano, celesta, harpsichord); Rumi Ogawa-Helferich, Andreas Bottger (percussion).
Audio Mixer: Spencer Chrislu.
Liner Note Author: Rip Rense.
Photographers: Henning Lobner; Fritz Brinckmann; Hans Jörg Michel.
Unknown Contributor Role: Todd Yvega.
Arranger: Ali N. Askin.
During his last years, Frank Zappa concentrated on his "serious music," trying to impose himself as a composer and relegating the rock personality to the closet. His last two completed projects topped everything he had done before in this particular field. The Yellow Shark, an album of orchestral music, was released only a few weeks before he succumbed to cancer (the computer music/sound collage album Civilization Phaze III was released 14 months later). This CD, named for a plexiglas fish given to Zappa in 1988, culls live recordings from the Ensemble Modern's 1992 program of the composer's music. The range of pieces goes from string quartets ("None of the Above") to ensemble works, from very challenging contemporary classical to old Zappa favorites. The latter category includes a medley of "Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat," "Pound for a Brown," "Be-Bop Tango," and the Synclavier compositions "The Girl in the Magnesium Dress" and "G-Spot Tornado" transcribed for orchestra. Being more familiar, these bring a lighter touch, but the real interest of the CD resides in the premiere recordings. "Outrage at Valdez," the piano duet "Ruth Is Sleeping," and "Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992" are all the gripping works of a mature composer, strongly influenced by Varèse a