Track Listing

1. Big Swifty
2. Your Mouth
3. It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal
4. Waka/Jawaka

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24917 in Music
• Released on: 1995-05-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Japanese exclusive reissue of 1972 album, packaged in a miniature LP sleeve.

Amazon.com
One of two sets recorded with a mini-big band in the early seventies, Waka/Jawaka is one of the most eclectic releases of Frank Zappa's hyper-eclectic career. The album's dual showpieces, the opening "Big Swifty" and the title track, combine dynamic horn arrangements and free-form improvisational experimentation (Think Miles Davis circa 1973), and the album's other two tracks, "Your Mouth" and "It Just Might Be A One-Shot Deal" blend elements of electric blues and country music. Perhaps the cover image of a sink refers to the kitchen variety. Recorded whileZappa was confined to a wheel chair following an onstage attack, this stew of diverse musical elements is best for the diehard fan and anyone with a taste for the unusual. --Andrew Boscardin

From the Label
Originally released in 1972, this might be considered the middle installment of a mostly-instrumental jazz-rock trilogy, with HOT RATS and THE GRAND WAZOO. Having temporarily retired the Mothers of Invention name, Zappa was also toning down the satire and flexing his compositional muscles; though this album also has a couple of yuks on "Your Mouth" and "It Just Might be a One-Shot Deal" (the latter featuring a rare Zappa appearance of pedal steel wizard Sneaky Pete Kleinow, then of the Flying Burrito Brothers). But the real standouts here are a pair of extended instrumental pieces, the title track and "Big Swifty," both featuring plenty of great horn work, most notably from Sal Marquez on trumpet.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
I am listening to this CD as I write this review. I bought this CD when it first came out. I have lost count how many times I have played it. I never get tired of hearing this brilliant album. I have almost all of Zappa's CD's and this one together with "Hot Rats" and "Grand Wazoo" are my absolute favourites because he has allowed himself to concentrate on producing serious progressive music rather than his more comic and bizzare CD's. Don't get me wrong - I like almost all of Zappa's music - it is just that the above mentioned CD's really show us the genious that was Zappa. Like most of the other reviewers I agree with them that "Big Swifty" and "Waka Jawaka" are the most incredible tracks on the CD. I wont bother describing these tracks because words fail me. Let me say though, that I have lost count of the number of times on a Sunday afternoons I have cranked up the volume in my lounge room and have imitated all the instruments in the songs going from guitar to horn to trumpet and back again. I loose myself in his music. If you are a fan of creative, progressive, jazzy music then buy this CD - now!

All That Brass!
Although I had heard "Freak Out," "We're Only in it for the Money," "Just Another Band From L.A." and several other Mothers albums, this - along with "Hot Rats" - was the first Zappa album I ever purchased. I was a trumpet player and this recording had a lot of horns, played primarily by Sal Marquez, so, for a 16 year old looking for cool music for horns, this was the album. "Big Swifty" takes the entire Side One of the album, something I hadn't heard in rock music up to that time. On the other hand, this recording was so far beyond the "progressive" rock bands of the day; others began to play catch up with Zappa.

Listen to the guitar solo in "Big Swifty" with Sal Marquez's muted counterpoint scratching just beneath the guitar, and it is really apparent Zappa was the preeminent composer of the day. The rhythm section of Erroneous on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and George Duke on electric piano keep the piece on a single track without becoming monotonous metronomes; indeed, as others have stated, Dunbar gives a clinic in polyrhythmic percussion. Back in the day, people were talking about Bill Bruford and Ginger Baker - both great percussionists - but Dunbar was the real cutting edge of the drum kit.

The next three songs need to be listened to in succession, from "Your Mouth" to "It Just Might Be a One Shot Deal" to the title track, "Waka Jawaka," which, after 34 years, still stands as my all time favorite Zappa recording. All that brass! The pedal steel guitar solo (Sneaky Pete Kleinow) in "It Just Might Be a One Shot Deal" is one of the more awesome moments in Zappa music, not just for the solo, but the backing music as well. But once you get to "Waka Jawaka," you're taken on a totally different trip, yet, it seems like the logical extension of the preceding song. All that brass - and a Don Preston Moog solo to boot.

Most of the other reviewers speak of this and "Grand Wazoo" in the same vein, which is stylistically accurate, but when I listen to this, I almost always listen to "Sleep Dirt," "Orchestral Favorites" or "Studio Tan" as well, three later albums that have Zappa dipping deep into his instrumental bag, but in a very different direction.

Truly, one of Zappa's greatest recordings. Buy this one.

Contains the greatest synthesizer solo of all time
As a synthesist, I realize I could probably count the number of people who will appreciate this review on one hand. Nevertheless, all synthesists should hear Don Preston's great work on Waka/Jawaka. I have been playing synthesizer for almost thirty years and consider Jan Hammer the best player of all time. However, Don's solo here has got to be heard to be believed. In thirty years, I have yet to hear a more expansive, boundless, breathtaking solo, and of course it is monophonic. It is also played over what is arguably Aynsley Dunbar's greatest contribution to Zappa's catalog (Aynsley was one of Zappa's favorite drummers of all time largely because of the loose, creative style of polyrhythmic playing exemplified here). Waka/Jawaka is a beautiful composition with classical development of multiple motifs, and features classic solos by Sal Marquez and Zappa.

While Big Swifty is avant garde electric jazz, the rest of the record is simply excellent rock/blues, with eccentric instrumentation such as electric bed springs.