Coming soon from from Chrome Dreams/Sexy Intellectual:
Frank Zappa - The Freak-Out List
When
an artist, regardless of his significance, lists his favourite musicians and
performers it is usually met with little fanfare, as over time the names
mentioned are almost certainly going to change. But when Frank Zappa did
likewise, and actually published a record of his most important influences on
the inside cover of his debut album, it became a road map to the music he was
to make over the following forty years. Even in the early 1990s, when asked
about his most-loved composers, musicians and artists, he would repeat names from
this, by then legendary, index.
This film explores the musical roots of
Frank Zappa by putting The Freak Out List
under the microscope and tracing the lineage from the most pivotal names thereon
to the recordings and performances of the man himself. Featuring rare footage
of Zappa and the Mothers plus archive film of Freak Out List artists, exclusive interviews with The Mothers Of
Invention’s Ian Underwood, Don Preston and George Duke, 1950s Doo Wop legends,
The Cadillacs, contributions from Zappa biographers Ben Watson and Greg Russo, Edgard Varèse biographer Alan Clayson,
experimental modern music historian Professor David Nicholls, soul
and R’n’B expert Robert Pruter,
and many others.
Also features numerous seldom seen photographs, news
archive, radio spots and a host of other features which all together make for a
fascinating, unique and hugely watchable programme.
Extra features include: extended interviews;
featurette ‘Frank Zappa’s Record Collection’; illustrated contributor
biographies; and more...