sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) (06/17/91)
"Make a Jazz Noise Here" are the fourth and fifths CDs culled from Zappa's "Broadway the Hard Way" tour in 1988. An outside observer would of course question the sanity of releasing - and buying - over five hours of music from the same tour. But we who follow Zappa know that it is worthwhile. The 1988 was musically a very successful tour and the band had something like a 100 numbers on their repetoire, and each night saw a different show from the night before. There still are numbers which they played which are not on disc yet. Most noticeable are the Beatles covers. "Make a Jazz Noise Here" focuses on the instrumental parts and particulary on the brass section, even if some vocals numbers are thrown in. "Make a Jazz Noise Here" is a good album. Much better than "The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life" which came in April and which focused on the vocal numbers. The albums opens with "Stinkfoot" with band introduction and some Swaggert chat. Then follows a new number "When Yuppies Go to Hell" which is composed from four(!) different performances. It starts with a theme of some sort, and there is a good trombone solo from Bruce Fowler, but most of it is more improvisational in nature with a lot of synclavier playing. Some of the voices from "Porn Wars" reappear. It is no doubt fun, but it leaves room for my main gripe of this album: there are too many "bail-out" sections, and some are even repeated within the album. In "Yuppies..." they shout "go to hell" and this reappears in "King Kong". "Fire and Chains", which is mainly a guitar solo, follows. "Let's Make the Water Turn Black", "Harry You're a Beast" and "The Orange Counter Lumber Truck" compose an instrumental medley, which obviously is an old idea. You find a recording from 1968 on Stage 1 with the same songs. Decent, but the songs are better in their original version. Particular the tempo is a little too high here. "Oh No" follows in a more re-worked version and attached to it is a theme from "Lumpy Gravy", nicely displayed. One of the very highlights on this album is the short version of "Eat That Question". They played this one on the of the shows I saw. Was it really that short? Or did Zappa cut it? And in that case, why? In place of a full-length version, we get "Black Napkins" which never have been my favourite, but this version is cute: FZ has moved the melody adn the solo from the guitar to the brass. The disc closes with "Big Swifty", "King Kong" and "Star Wars Won't Work". There's some good passages, but it's a little too much bailing out here for my taste. Disc 2 opens with a rework if "The Black Page", followed by the short, but intense "T'Mershi Duween" which is an old song, but which didn't appear on disc until Stage 2. "Dupree's Paradise" is also very good, except that there is a short "bail-out" section where something (Star Wars?) reappears. The version of "City of Tiny Lights" intrigues me. I recognize the rhythm riff in its reworked form. They played the song on of the shows I saw, but do I really remember it three years later? Or have I heard it elsewhere? "City..." is followed by arrangements (by Scott Thunes) of pieces by Stravinsky and Bartok which does not really come of as hot as they could. "Sinister Footwear" appears, better than on "Them Or Us", but does not match the Orchestra version. Also, again I have this feeling that they're playing it too fast. "Stevie's Spanking" is possible questionable, particulary since it appears on the simultaneously released Stage 4 too, but let's take it. "Alien Orifice" is more of a surprise, and does not at all sound like the original which was set more for synthetic instruments. "Cruisin' For Burgers" is special to me, since this version is taken from the show I saw in Lund. This is a very good version of a song which originally clocked just 50 seconds, but here is 8.28. "Advance Romance" is more of a filler here, decent but not not upsetting, and then "Strictly Genteel" closes in an nice version. As always with Zappa the problem with this album is the quantity. Even this is good music, it's a little too much at the same time. He could have left out several numbers or passages and the album would have been better. Oh well, I guess I should get one of these fancy programmable CD players. :-) -- Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se