The Vortex Of Zappa’s Maximalism

You didn’t think I could write a title like that, eh? Well actually I didn’t. It’s a term taken from Michel Delville & Andrew Norris, both living in Brussels, who have written a book on Zappa, Cpt. Beefheart and Californian freakdom entitled “Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and the Secret History of Maximalism”. Keep your dictionaries at the ready as I present you with a quote:

The vortex of Zappa’s maximalism is a toilet, and here we see him seizing on a creative détournement of the human body: the penis becomes a heart, a conflation of two organs of love — the literal and the symbolic are fused together in an anthropomorphic leap of imagination curiously prophetic of Van Vliet’s later pictorial style with its Wellsian miscegenations.

I love the smell of Watsonian prose in the morning!

8 thoughts on “The Vortex Of Zappa’s Maximalism”

  1. Url has been replaced by :[LINK]

    He’s not a Belgian ” just an intellectual / egghead”. Good & inventive / active band leader and guitar player as well.

    In october last year they playes with – amongst others- Elton Dean ( ex Soft Machine, dada in music in the 60-70 ies, remember their gigs with Jimi Hendrix). Gigs on october 2005:
    Monday October 10: Jazzpower, Eindhoven, 20h30
    **Tuesday October 11: L’An Vert, Liège, 20h précises
    **Wednesday October 12: PP Café, Brussels, 21h
    *Tuesday October 18: Glaz’Art, Paris, 20h30
    **Friday October 27: L’Aquilone, Liège (Bd Saucy, 25), feat. Harry Beckett, 20h30
    **Friday October 28: The Wrong Object feat. Harry Beckett, Jazzzolder, Mechelen, 21h

    E mail Michel Delville [mailto:wrongobject@hotmail.com]

  2. There’s no doubting Mr Delville’s credentials as a Zappaphile – but any old fool with a thesaurus can write this twaddle. The clever part is persuading someone to publish it and pay you for it!

  3. Varèse. Facing dead my guess is that FZ wanted to pay a tribute to his mastermind, cal it his mentor.

    Ever listened to Varèse’s Ionisations? Just do it. Far ahead of its time. Nobody – OK just one wierdo living 236 kilometers from your home- would be ready to call that music.

    My guess is that FZ ( on the condition that he & his family were really financially safe ) would have continued composing, further building on Varèse. Qiute a lot of organisations / associations ( not the least in Europe, especially Germany) would indeed have been ready to foresee the necessary financial means.

  4. I bought Zubin Mehta conducting Varèse with the LA Phil on vinyl a while ago. I listened to Ionisation first–I call it music. I listened to it as unbiased as possible, and loved it. Intégrales? Amazing! Arcana? Stunning! It’s a shame he only kept less than 20 of his compositions.

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