GUITAR - TRANCE-FUSION: SOLO TYPES

In 1987 Zappa released a second guitar solo collection, named "Guitar". It differs a bit in climate compared to the first "Shut up 'n play yer guitar" box of 1981. This 1981 collection shows more unity. The majority of the solo's were recorded during a shorter timespan (1979-1980), the sound of the guitar in the various solos is more alike and the Lydian mode with a I and II chord alternation is often used.
Then in "Guitar" there's more variety. The pedal note and vamp solos prevail. This is part of the reason why "Guitar" is a more demanding guitar album to listen to. With the chord alternations, when you drop out following what the guitar wants, you at least have the certainty that you can follow the chord change every one or two bars. It's sort of a comfortable basis. The other part is that Zappa in his search for rhythmic and melodic variation here repeatedly turns to sections that are less fluid, sometimes to the extent of being aggressive (I noted that some Zappa fans don't appreciate the album, finding it too much and all "sounding alike"; personally it took me a while to get accustomed to the CD, but after I did I enjoy it a lot). The C Lydian chord alternation here returns once in a 1979 solo, called "System of edges", as a reminiscance of "Shut up 'n play yer guitar".

In this section we'll look some more at the different accompanying types Zappa is using in his solos. They can be divided into four categories. The subject already has come by in the previous sections. The following is a summary of the guitar solo bars in this study, subdivided this way, with some new ones from "Guitar" and "Trance-fusion".

1) Solos over a chord progression.

This is the most common way of doing a solo in rock music. Mostly there's an instrumental in a song where the accompanyment keeps following the main chord progression and someone is doing a solo over it. Because you already know the chords the solo sounds as a logical in between without surprises. In other instances the soloist is filling in the chords of the accompaniment that are agreed upon in advance. Zappa rarely does solos this way. The most exceptional ones are the "Zoot allures" and the "Five-five-FIVE" solo openings, that are chord progressions by themselves. Another one is the title track from "Sleep dirt" where the accompanyment is doing broken chords. It ends with joking about the repetativeness of these broken chords: "Damn! What? Your fingers got stuck?". Solos of this kind in this study are:

- "Lost in a whirlpool": playing over the blues scheme in 1958 (Zappa's teens section).
- "Call any vegetable" solo from a 1971 bootleg (Beat the boots section). Here the keyboard is basically doing a vamp, the same one as on the original version on "Absolutely free", but in the transcribed bars it's making a movement.
- "For Giuseppe Franco". A pedal note solo with a section with a chord progression in it, that is transcribed in this study.
- "Zoot allures", as mentioned.
- "Sleep dirt", as mentioned.
- "Five-five-FIVE", idem.

Zappa kept playing the blues throughout his career. "Suicide chump" and "In France" are two of his eighties blues pieces. "Guitar" opens friendly with Zappa playing over the blues scheme in "Sexual harrasment in the garage". Blues is a highly standardized style, there's little more possible than to play around the scheme (see also the Bongo fury section). Here Zappa is adding in extra chords in C sharp minor. The I of the blues I-IV-I-IV-V progression is augmented as I 7th followed by V and the IV becomes IV 7th plus I. Then of course there is the solo itself.

Sexual harassment in the workplace, intro (midi file)

Sexual harassment in the workplace, intro (transcription).

2) Solos over two alternating chords.

- "Orange county" solo from "Roxy and elsewhere".
- "Yo' mama" fragment.
- "Pink napkins" opening.
- "RDNZL" fragment.
- "Return of the son of Shut up 'n play yer guitar" section.

3) Solos over pedal notes.

- "Brixton still life" section.
- "Mo' mama" section.
- "Baked bean boogie" opening.
- "Why Johnny can't read" opening.

With the second solo on "Guitar", "Which one is it?", we get to one of the many solos where Zappa is playing over a pedal note. With the leaving of the familiar blues scheme the tension immediately rises. "Which one is it?" is in G Dorian. The next solo, "Republicans", is in 4/4 with a steady beat all through. This piece has a shifting pedal note and the soloing moves on chromatically. The pedal notes start with E at 0:00, subsequently B Flat at 2:19, D sharp at 3:17 and then back to E at 4:29. "Canadian customs" on disc II starts off as a pedal note solo on F sharp, but after a minute the bass player has worked towards a riff, that will keep vamping for the remainder of the solo. The example below is from the beginning.

Republicans, opening (midi file)
Canadian customs, opening (midi file)

Republicans, opening (transcription).
Canadian customs, opening (transcription).

4) Solos that are using a vamp.

- "Filthy habits" solo fragment.
- Guitar solo bars from "Duke of prunes" (1975).
- "Watermelon in eastern hay" theme and coda.
- Three bars from the "Imaginary diseases" solo (the vamp starts in the third bar).
- "Heavy duty judy (1988)" solo opening.
- "Muffin man" solo opening.
- "Mondo Hollywood", opening.
- "The grand wazoo" solo section.
- "Conehead" (1978) solo fragment (Beat the boots section).

"Sunrise redeemer" at the end of disc one is one of the solos on this album that are using a vamp. It's a E Mixolydian vamp of two bars.

Sunrise redeemer, opening (midi file)

Sunrise redeemer, opening (transcription).

The omens for another guitar album from the 1988 tour were unfavourable. Since the previous 1984 tour Zappa was composing on the synclavier and he wasn't that eager to start playing again. It was also said that tensions within the band around bass player Scott Thunes prevented Zappa from playing the normal amount of solos. So when the existence of "Trance-fusion" got confirmed by the ZFT I felt surprised. The almost permanent delay of its release also suggested that their was something dubious about this collection.

Trance-fusion, opening (midi file)
Soul polka, section (midi file)

Trance-fusion, opening (transcription).
Soul polka, section (transcription).

But this is not the case. It's once more Zappa selecting the best solos at the same level as before. Scott Thunes may have been a pain in the ass to some, but his bass part in the examples in this section is fine. Here he keeps varying the vamps, so that it doesn't become a mechanic repetition. Regarding style "Trance-fusion" offers more of the same. Normally that would be a negative qualification, except when the same means excellence. The above example is the title track. Most solos are in 4/4, but this one has a vamp alternating two odd meters, 9/8 and 12/8. He had done such things before as in "Outside now" and "Watermelon in easter hay", but this division is more complicated. "Soul polka" in C sharp Dorian has a reggae type vamp in 5/8 (it's not related to the dance the polka). Reggae is normally in 4/4. Here Zappa is using a different meter for playing reggae, as he also did in the "Let's move to Cleveland" example. The latter is in 3/4. The example also shows some held notes in between the faster notes. Most guitar players tend to accentuate such notes and make faces as if they are in great emotional distress enforcing these tones from the strings. Zappa wouldn't do that. See "For Giuseppe Franco" in the "Does humor belong in music" section for a third solo from "Trance-fusion".

Above: part of the FZ photo by Bruce Hilliard, Trance-fusion CD sheet.