Important Information

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer, and film director.
In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works.
He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers.
Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.
While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern along with 1950s rhythm and blues music.
He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar.Zappa was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often difficult to categorize.
His 1966 debut album with The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages.
His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz or classical.
His lyrics—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements.
He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship.He was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim.
He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and worked as an independent artist for most of his career.
He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers.
Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
Zappa was married to Kathryn J.
"Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964.
In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993.
They had four children: Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.
71 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and in 2011 at No.
22 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".Acclaim and honorsZappa earned widespread critical acclaim in his lifetime and after his death.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) writes: "Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music—and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable." Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen establishing a coherent and personal expression.
In 1971, biographer David Walley noted that "The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite".
On commenting on Zappa's music, politics and philosophy, Barry Miles noted in 2004 that they cannot be separated: "It was all one; all part of his 'conceptual continuity'."Guitar Player devoted a special issue to Zappa in 1992, and asked on the cover "Is FZ America's Best Kept Musical Secret?" Editor Don Menn remarked that the issue was about "The most important composer to come out of modern popular music".
Among those contributing to the issue was composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works of Ives and Varèse in the 1930s.
He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s, and said, "I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium.
He does beautiful, beautiful work ...
It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music." Conductor Kent Nagano remarked in the same issue that "Frank is a genius.
That's a word I don't use often ...
In Frank's case it is not too strong ...
He is extremely literate musically.
I'm not sure if the general public knows that." Pierre Boulez stated in Musician magazine's posthumous Zappa tribute article that Zappa "was an exceptional figure because he was part of the worlds of rock and classical music and that both types of his work would survive."In 1994, jazz magazine Down Beat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame.
Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
There, it was written that "Frank Zappa was rock and roll's sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic.
He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres—rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music—with masterful ease".
He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
In 2005, the U.S.
National Recording Preservation Board included We're Only in It for the Money in the National Recording Registry as "Frank Zappa's inventive and iconoclastic album presents a unique political stance, both anti-conservative and anti-counterculture, and features a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it".
The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2011, he was ranked at No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the same magazine.Artists influenced by ZappaA number of notable musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Frank Zappa's music.
Rock artists like Alice Cooper, Primus, Fee Waybill of The Tubes all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive rock artists like Henry Cow, Trey Anastasio of Phish, and John Frusciante.
Paul McCartney regarded Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as The Beatles' Freak Out! Heavy rock and metal acts like Black Sabbath, Mike Portnoy, Warren DeMartini, Steve Vai, Strapping Young Lad, System of a Down, Clawfinger, and Devin Townsend acknowledge Zappa's inspiration.
On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ensemble Ambrosius and the Fireworks Ensemble regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence.
Contemporary jazz musicians and composers Bill Frisell and John Zorn are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend George Clinton.
Other artists whose work is affected by Zappa include new age pianist George Winston, electronic composer Bob Gluck, parodist and novelty composer "Weird Al" Yankovic, industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge, and noise music artist Masami Akita of Merzbow.