PROJECTS/OBJECTS

Our guide to the everexpanding and wholly immersive audio world of the late, great Frank Zappa, courtesy of longtime FZ Vaultmeister Joe Travers and remix engineer Craig Parker Adams.

- MIKE METTLER

FRANK ZAPPA heard music differently from the rest of us. Though Zappa was only here on our planet physically for 52 years-he sadly passed away from prostate cancer in 1993-he left behind a recorded legacy practically unmatched by most other career artists who came of age in the rock era. In fact, Zappa recorded so much material during his lifetime that an official Vaultmeister had to be appointed in 1995 to properly catalog everything he had done, preserve it all carefully for aural posterity, and begin determining what could be subsequently and thoughtfully released to the public at large following years of certainly wellintended but somewhat scattershot issuances.

That's where Joe Travers comes into the frame. He's the above-noted Vaultmeiser, approved by the Zappa Family Trust. Ever since the family entered into a catalog release agreement with Universal in 2015 (ultimately selling Zappa's entire catalog and vault content outright to UMG in 2022), Travers had his work cut out for him-but we Zappa fans and archival audio lovers alike are the ultimate beneficiaries. The result being, the FZ catalog has consistently seen multiple releases, year after year, with 2022 seeing four multidisc archival and live collections alone. (At least that many are already on the books for 2023.)

The most recent of these fine FZ releases, the box set known as Waka/Wazoo (Zappa Records/UMe), is a 50th anniversary 4CD/1BD collection that includes 30 tracks of alternate versions and outtakes culled from those recording and mixing sessions, demos, an unreleased complete of-era concert, plus the nine songs inclusive from both titular albums proper-four from July 1972's Waka/Jawaka, five from November 1972's The Grand Wazooon Blu-ray in 24-bit/48kHz Dolby Atmos, 24/48 Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1, and 24/96 PCM Stereo options.