Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark (1994)

Although guitarist/composer Frank Zappa's tragic death robbed the world of an artistic giant, we have thankfully been left an enormous and varied catalog of Zappa recordings by which to remember him. Rumours abound of a number of forthcoming post-humous Zappa releases, the product of a prolific creator who seems to have recorded most everything he recently wrote and performed. It is, curiously enough, a Frank Zappa album on which the talented musician never plays a note which serves as his swan-song.

The Yellow Shark, named after a gift from a creative fan (sorry – you'll just have to see the CD booklet for the complete story) is actually a collection of Zappa compositions commissioned by Germany's Ensemble Modern. The material presented here was culled from a series of performances in the fall of 1992 in Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna by Ensemble Modern of The Yellow Shark and includes snatches of 25 years of Zappa's work.

A mutant hybrid of rock, jazz and random cacophony rendered as classical compositions, The Yellow Shark not only serves as an excellent showcase for the talents of the Ensemble Modern (easily the equals of better-known outfits such as the Kronos Quartet), but also champions Zappa's compositional skills in creating it. Mostly instrumental, the few lyrical pieces presented here – especially "Welcome To The United States" and "Food Gathering In Post-Industrial America, 1992" – remind us of Zappa's vicious sense of satire and his disrespect for any sort of authority. Not surprisingly, even mesmerizing instrumental passages such as those found in "Outrage At Valdez" or "Times Beach II" manage, through tone and texture, to make a significant social commentary without a single word. Such was Zappa's genius, and The Yellow Shark, the final project he worked on before his death, is a fitting monument to the artist's passing. (Barking Pumpkin Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Yellow Shark from Amazon.com)