Born in Baltimore, Frank Zappa (1940—93) grew up in California. In 1964, he joined a Los Angeles band called the Soul Giants; a year later he had transformed them into the Mothers of Invention, and a year after that, he recorded his first album, Freak Out. This introduces Zappa's humorous pastiche of popular genres, with avant-garde experimentalism supporting savagely humorous lyrics. The opening track, "Hungry Freaks," starts with raunchy electric riffs, and has a sneering, fuzzy guitar solo in a bluesy style. "Who Are the Brain Police?" buzzes with free-form passages, feedback and sonic guitar noise. He uses blues-rock playing for parody and social commentary on "Trouble Every Day" and strums humorous pop chords to offset "I'm Not Satisfied" and "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm here."

On subsequent albums, the material does not always rely on guitar; instead Zappa uses tape manipulation and edits. We're only In It for the Money (1968) is made up of wonderfully absurd juxtaposition, with scores of episodes that shift in content and style, but only tantalizing glimpses of guitar.

INSTRUMENTAL DEVELOPMENT

From the beginning, Zappa started to expand his vocabulary and develop his own type of original modern classical- and jazz-influenced harmony, combining odd time signatures, exotic instrumentation, and studio techniques, including the use of speeded-up tapes. His compositional flair is evident on Uncle Meat (1969): he plays a long, jazzy solo on "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution"; uses acoustic guitar to introduce the haunting beauty of the theme for "Dog Breath Variations"; and submerges the innocuous strummed guitar on "Project X" beneath other instruments, which seem disconnected. The album ends with a number of versions of the captivating linear number "King Kong," supported by jazzy guitar chord playing.

On the predominantly instrumental album Burnt Weenie Sandwich (1969), "Overture to a Holiday in Berlin" mixes steel-string guitar with other instruments playing the theme, and a similar texture is created for "Aybe Sea" which sees steel-string guitar playing lines with harpsichord and electric wah-wah guitar in certain parts of the background. "The Little House I Used to Live In" has an astonishing range of wah-wah guitar passages, including themes with mixed acoustic and electric guitars, a short calling-repeating motif, muted, raked melodic chords and a solo break with wah-wah inflections.

Zappa developed a way of playing long, directional solos with wah-wah that unfold inventively as rhythmic and melodic ideas expand. This can be heard on "Theme from Burnt Weenie Sandwich" and "Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown."

GUITAR STYLE

Frank Zappa played drums at an early stage and this undoubtedly affected his guitar playing, which often incorporates unusual, inventive rhythmic passages. He uses both pentatonic and modal approaches seamlessly, and his melodic phrasing contains compositional ideas and unusual intervals. His legato phrasing has affinities with the articulation associated with the saxophone and violin, and, with hammering, pull-offs, bending, slides, grace notes, trills and a technique of tapping upper notes with a pick, Zappa's playing is full of detail.

Some of his solos are laid over straightforward modal vamps, repeating bass figures and pedal notes underpinned by electric bass and keyboard layering. Polyrhythmic drums, tuned percussion, and interjections from brass and woodwind are used as added backdrops. With his imagination and intelligence, his complex ideas, and his inimitable guitar playing, Zappa has created highly innovative material that has great depth and quality.

HOT RATS

On the album Hot Rats recorded in August and September 1969, Zappa composes extensive instrumental passages of music bursting with ideas and emerges as a fully fledged guitar soloist. This music is jazz-rock fusion with classical ideas ahead of anything emerging from the jazz community at the time. Opening with the wonderfully exuberant "Peaches En Regalia," the guitar plays lines with keyboards and a passage that mixes wah-wah acoustic guitar with flute. Zappa's guitar cuts into "Willie The Pimp" with a tearing rock tone and plays around the vocals (courtesy of Captain Beefheart) using wah-wah that sounds like the human voice, before taking an intense, lyrical solo featuring his characteristic slow trilling effects, double stopping and rhythmic vamps.

The outstanding "Son of Mr. Green Genes" is a cleverly written sectionalized piece shot through with a commanding guitar solo and with theme-and-variations development. Zappa plays with the ensemble but emerges explosively at various points to play liquid guitar breaks, using overdrive and varying levels of wah-wah, and displaying his melodic and rhythmic intelligence through both open and written sections. The lines move from sharply defined rhythmic phrases to lyrical expressiveness. At the end, Zappa's guitar plays a dramatic downward glissando on which every fret can be heard. On "Gumbo Variations," the guitar bubbles away beneath the violin in the mix, playing funky chords before gradually taking over with an overdriven, reedy sound played with driving incisiveness over the pulsating groove.