This album came to my attention courtesy of Down Beat magazine, which reviewed a lot of rock albums in the late 1960s as the popularity of jazz declined. The reviewer claimed that the orchestral harmonies on "Little Umbrellas" were on a par with those of Duke Ellington. Really? I had to hear what led the reviewer to that incredulous conclusion.
So I bought the record and played it a lot. I accepted the comparison to Ellington, noting that Zappa had a few hundred more albums to release before getting close to the Duke. But I also fell in love with the whole album, which I would consider to be a hybrid of jazz and avant-garde rock. I didn't realize that a completely new genre of music was in my hands - Zappa!
Aside from "Little Umbrellas," I also get a kick out of "Willie the Pimp," growled by Captain Beefheart; "The Gumbo Variations;" and the opener "Peaches en Regalia." Of the supporting guest musicians, violinist Sugar Cane Harris makes the greatest impression on "Willie" and "Gumbo." I can't imagine these songs without him.
Another violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty, makes a guest appearance on "It Must Be a Camel." Ponty later recorded an entire album of Zappa compositions, released as King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (1970) on the mainstream World Pacific Jazz label. In 1972, Zappa also released two albums featuring jazz-like compositions: Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. Despite Zappa's jazz credentials, he would not pay his full dues in the jazz world but rather moved on to explore almost anything he wanted to within the Zappa genre.
Steve:
Although I consider myself just shy of being a Zappa fanatic (the real fanatics leave me in the dust), and although Hot Rats is the first Zappa album I ever heard (thanks to Dan), I've never rated it as highly as most, and it's one of the last Zappa albums I bought for my near-complete collection. Two things it lacks are the sense of daring lunacy from the early Mothers albums, and the full-bodied band sound of his early 70s jazzy bands. Even so, it's hard to dispute the incredible quality of the playing and the compositions, and I would still recommend it to the average person who's curious about Zappa and wants to see what all the fuss is about.
As his first solo release after the breakup of the original Mothers of Invention, Hot Rats confirmed what was already obvious to those paying attention: that Zappa had the compositional and organizational talent to create quality music in whatever setting he chose. These recordings were created with a plethora of different session musicians on each track, and Zappa showed he had the knack and know-how to coax just the right performance from the pros he hired. In addition, Hot Rats featured Zappa's excellent guitar soloing more prominently than on any previous album, and his improvising skills themselves put him in an elite class of musicians. "Willie the Pimp" consists largely of a single guitar solo over a single chord, that continues to evolve and find new things to say for close to eight minutes.
My first impressions of Hot Rats include memories of the needle dropping on side 2 and hearing "Little Umbrellas" - I seem to recall Dan playing that track more than any other. It's a sneaky little tune, barely over three minutes in length, and using a weird combination of instruments to produce an exotic sound playing a Middle-Eastern chromatic melody over some jazz chords. I also remember opening the gatefold and seeing the lyrics to "Willie the Pimp" (the only track with vocals) and the name of Captain Beefheart - my first time encountering that name.
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