Frank Zappa Threesome No. 2 CD

THREESOME NO. 2 is a boxset containing; HOT RATS (1969), WAKA/JAWAKA (1972) and THE GRAND WAZOO (1972).
Personnel includes: Frank Zappa (vocals, guitar); Captain Beefheart (vocals); Shuggie Otis.
Personnel: Frank Zappa (vocals, guitar, bass guitar, percussion); George Duke (vocals, keyboards); Captain Beefheart (vocals); Tony Duran (slide guitar); Don "Sugarcane" Harris (violin); Ian Underwood (flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano, organ); Mike Altschul (saxophone); Shuggie Otis, Erroneous (bass guitar); Jean-Luc Ponty, John Guerin, Max Bennett, Paul Humphrey , Ron Selico, Aynsley Dunbar (drums).
Since it appears that Rykodisc and the Zappa Family Trust cannot reach an agreement about releasing material from Frank's vault, Rykodisc has resorted to repackaging the music they do have access to in order to keep Zappa on the retail radar. Ultimately, these efforts won't appeal to fans (except obsessive completists), because they already have everything, but instead they are aimed at ensnaring the curious consumer. To this end, the Threesome collections are well-thought-out: Take three albums that bear some sort of thematic resemblance and offer them at a midline price with newly created box artwork by the legendary Cal Schenkel. Threesome, Vol. 2 is also well-thought-out, but groups two of Frank's more overlooked albums (Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo) with Hot Rats, his jazz-rock tour de force. Hot Rats showed Zappa to be one of the finest guitar players around, while showcasing his writing and arranging skills. Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo (except for two short tracks on Waka/Jawaka) were Zappa's short-lived experiments with big-band jazz. Performed with a large ensemble made up of some of L.A.'s finest studio hired guns, these albums take the energy and drive of the Hot Rats material and wed them to incredible horn arrangements (Zappa never got enough credit as a dynamite arranger). This box set shows Frank Zappa at his absolute jazziest (great for non-purist jazz fans), as well as proving that there's way more to his talent than satire and dirty lyrics. [Note: This rating is based on the lack of new material. It does not reflect the quality of the albums themselves.] ~ Sean Westergaard
This three-disc set and its companion volume THREESOME NO. 1 distill Frank Zappa's enormous catalog to some of its most essential titles. Nicely packaged in a slipcase, the three albums appearing here in their entirety are HOT RATS, WAKA/JAWAKA, and THE GRAND WAZOO. They mark the dazzling emergence of Frank Zappa's primarily instrumental jazz-fusion direction during the years 1969-1972. Drawing on a range of largely Los Angeles-based players, the music is by turns formal, loose, serious, comical, brash, subtle, and confident.
These compositions draw upon Zappa's previous work with the Mothers Of Invention and point the way towards his future excursions. The compositions and arrangements make full use of the large ensembles he utilizes. The extended pieces never bog down, and the few vocal numbers vary the proceedings nicely, often adding a bit of humor. These are career peaks for Zappa and, consequently, essential albums.

3-CD;Hot Rats,Waka/Jawaka & Grand Wazoo;Slipcover,New Art

Uncut (8/02, p.108) - 4 out of 5 - "...The jazz-rock albums that make up THREESOME NO 2 are breathtaking..."