Trance-Fusion

November 7th 2006

Tracks

Chunga's Revenge
Bowling On Charen
Good Lobna
A Cold Dark Matter
Butter Or Cannons
Ask Dr. Stupid
Scratch & Sniff
Trance-Fusion
Gorgo
Diplodocus
Soul Polka
For Giuseppe Franco
After Dinner Smoker
Light Is All That Matters
Finding Higgs’ Boson
Bavarian Sunset

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Official Release #79
Catalog Number: ZR 20002
Produced by Frank Zappa

Musicians:

Frank Zappa Guitar, All Tracks

Dweezil Zappa Guitar, Tracks 1, 16

Tracks 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16:

Mike Keneally Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards

Bobby Martin Keyboards

Ed Mann Vibes, Marimba, Electronic Percussion

Walt Fowler Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Keyboards

Bruce Fowler Trombone

Paul Carmen Alto, Soprano, Baritone Saxes

Albert Wing Tenor Sax

Kurt McGettrick Baritone, Bass Saxes, Contrabass Clarinet

Scott Thunes Bass, Mini-Moog

Chad Wackerman Drums, Electronic Percussion

Tracks 3, 5, 10, 12, 14:

Ray White Rhythm Guitar

Ike Willis Rhythm Guitar

Bobby Martin Keyboards

Allan Zavod Keyboards

Scott Thunes Bass

Chad Wackerman Drums

Track 6:

Warren Cuccurullo Rhythm Guitar

Denny Walley Slide Guitar

Tommy Mars Keyboard

Peter Wolf Keyboard

Ed Mann Percussion

Arthur Barrow Bass

Vinnie Colaiuta Drums

Track 2:

Adrian Belew Rhythm Guitar

Tommy Mars Keyboards

Peter Wolf Keyboards

Ed Mann Percussion

Patrick O’Hearn Bass

Terry Bozzio Drums

Recording Engineers:

1977- Kerry McNabb

1979- Mick Glossop

1984- Mark Pinske

1988- Bob Stone

1993- UMRK

Remix Engineer: Spence Chrislu

Mastered 23 May 2005 by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering & DVD, Portland, ME (over by the other side of Canada)

Produced/Composed/Arranged/Recorded & Performances by Frank Zappa

Gail Zappa Cover Concept, Text & Art Direction

Keith Lawler Layout, Design, Typography & Field Day

Michael Mesker This just in

eric white Cover Collage

Sherry Spencer Undercover Digital Extravagance

Steve Schapiro FZ Portrait Photos

Bruce Hilliard FZ Onstage Photo

David M. Schrader Dolphin Photos

Melanie Starks Contemplative Production Management

Diva, Ahmet, Dweezil, Moon & Mathilda, Zola, Ceylon, Halo Motivation, Perspective, Humor, Magic

"The present day composer refuses to die." Edgard Varèse

Special thanks to Bob Ludwig & to Dweezil for the suggestion to take this to Bob. Thanks also & always to Joe Travers. And Melanie. Very Special Thanks to Giuseppe Franco & Gorgo for love and kindness to FZ beyond duty. Thanks to James Lance at Corbis (cover images) & Mike Mesker. Thanks to CERN for Z Particle Diagram.

Thanks again to Bob Ludwig & for writing these kind words:

" It was a thrill for me to work on Maestro Zappa’s music again. I last worked with Frank in early 1979 cutting the original vinyl & cassette release of Sheik Yerbouti and this memory was with me the entire time I was mastering Trance-Fusion. I had to work with a previously assembled and “pre-mastered” version of this recording because it was all that existed. With no possibility of remixing, it was fun to deal with all the mix problems in the mastering stage. Tom-tom fills would suddenly leap out of the mix taking over everything around them! Occasionally some really interesting music was very clouded sounding and needed a lot of work to bring out the details. I worked hard to bring out all the musicality that was inherent in the stereo masters. I hope you enjoy this collection of some of the most staggering guitar playing the world has ever heard as much as I did working on it."

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Notes from the edge

I’m not certain when this record was known to FZ as an actual project. He might have easily been collecting/collating candidates and building a reel of sorts for a few years. But once he knew his eon was closing this quickly emerged as one among the few projects that he chose to complete. Curiously, the date on the disc from Bob Ludwig is 23 May 2005 and the date on the Master Tape check sheet is 23 May 1993. Other coincidental and tangential collisions have occurred throughout every Zappa project and Trance-Fusion is no exception – check out the gypsy mutant vacuum cleaner swirling in castanets and the glow of the Chunga’s Revenge studio campfire album art. This piece had long been an FZ standard when the existence of a certain famous (sic) flamenco dancer, La Chunga, was brought to our attention.

The last time I heard this record with FZ was Thanksgiving, 1993. Among those present were one or two members of Gorky Park, our friend Beverly D’Angelo, my brother Midget (tech to FZ), Joe Travers (then Drummer for Z), Diva and Dweezil. I might have been the only one considering the gathering gloom of the end of the lease on time. I might have been. And the very something that is the way this album closes and opens with the soon-to-be other Mr. Zappa on Guitar. Once, later and much beyond these last times, I remarked on this very thing. Dweezil said in a measured tone, “It’s just a guitar record,” and of course it is. But also, in the same way that predicting Higgs’ Boson is just another theory. Of Dark Matters and the cold heart of gravity. Surrounded by Music what I miss is the running commentary on the view from the window beyond lightspeed by my favorite Guide to this Universe. And speaking of Science, one little anecdote about his powers of observation, dexterity, and thoughtspeed: Frank was amused by the sport he invented of finding as many possible ways to spell the name of a certain hotelier and lifestyler – with as many effs, pees and aitches in as many combinations thereof as possible, prompted no doubt by the majesty of the pose struck in the wallsized framed photograph of the owner, just opposite the elevators, just off in general and specifically, the lobby of the Hotel in question, where FZ often stayed when performing in Chicago. While advancing on the elevator and in one seamless economic motion, Frank articulated his comment, well comet actually, thoroughly undetected by several others traveling through the same arc towards the same elevator. Well do I remember being boxed in at full capacity load, with the elevator doors slowly closing on the sight before us all – the glistening globulent lobbed lugey oozing in ominous silence down the image from face central. And there was just the most fleeting moment of acknowledgement between us.

My hero.