Frank Zappa’s Waka/Wazoo compilation arrived today via Zappa Records/UMe. The collection arrived just days before what would have been Frank’s 82nd birthday on December 21.
Waka/Wazoo traces FZ’s fraught but fertile Electric Orchestra period which in 1972 saw The Maestro putting together a 20-piece ensemble for touring and recording sessions producing two albums, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, even as he recuperated from horrendous injuries suffered when a deranged fan pushed him off the stage in London in late 1971.
The band featured longtime Mothers keyboardists George Duke and Don Preston, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist Alex “Erroneous” Dmochowski, guitarist Tony Duran, percussionists Alan Estes and Bob Zimmitti as well as a horn and woodwind section including Sal Marquez, Malcolm McNab, Kenny Shroyer, Earle Dumler and Tony “Bat Man” Ortega among others.
The Zappa camp announced the multi-format box set Waka/Wazoo — the third FZ boxset and fourth archival release of 2022 — in October and previewed the collection with an alternate early take of “Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus” as well as the very first take of the Electric Orchestra era, “Your Mouth.” The compilation also boasts live cuts from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom.
Stream the digital version of Waka/Wazoo below:
