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40th Anniversary Reissue of Frank Zappa's Orchestral Favorites

Jul. 15, 2019

40th Anniversary Reissue of Frank Zappa's <em>Orchestral Favorites</em>

A special edition of Frank Zappa's "Orchestral Favorites" will be made available via Zappa Records/UMe on August 30. This three-disc deluxe edition will include the original album remastered from master tapes, a recording of a previously unreleased two-hour concert, extensive liner notes and newly created cover art. 

On September 1975, Zappa scheduled an event at UCLA's Royce Hall. Using his own funds, he hired a roughly 37-piece orchestra of studio and live musicians, conducted by Michael Zearott, in order to have his orchestral music played. The repertoire consisted of orchestral pieces from all time frames of Zappa's career, such as Strictly Genteel and Pedro's Dowry. Zappa and the orchestra rehearsed for several days, held an afternoon recording session without an audience and performed two public concerts.

The afternoon recording session was originally released in 1979 in order to fulfill Zappa's contract with his former label, but it was released without Zappa's permission or quality control. Zappa publicly renounced the album, which did not include liner notes, and whose audio quality was not up to Zappa's standards. 

The new release, brought together by the Zappa Family Trust, was remastered using the original master tone reel from Zappa's vault and hi-res transfers from the original tapes, resulting in superior sound quality. Along with the remastered recording session, it will be the first release of the orchestra's live performance from September 18, 1975. In addition, Zappa's classic compilation album "Mothermania" was reissued on vinyl on July 17, to mark its 50th anniversary.

Frank Zappa on his orchestral music:

Listen to the recordings from that same project here:

For more information about Frank Zappa, visit: zappa.com and schott-music.com


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