Can't really make my mind up about Zappa, some of his material is good but some is just downright awful. He's a very unconventional guitarist as well. Steve Vai was in his band as a youngster and transcribed his music.
Aye, even as a massive FZ fan I must say he put out some cak. But he has 60+ albums, so that's understandable. Absolutely changed my life, though, tbh. His guitar playing is like no one else's, really. He could do the bluesy traditional stuff, but often went for this very dense, slightly-confusing style which used a lot of strange phrasing, timing and tonality. However, for a more traditional solo I would recommend 'Sexual Harrasment in the Workplace', 'Watermelon in Easter Hay' and 'What's New In Baltimore' for starters.
I've hardly heard any of FZ, just Hot Rats (Pretty damn good, think Peaches En Regalia is excellent), Apostrophe (Super), Sheik Yerbouti (A really stupid record imo, not in a good way), and The Grand Wazoo briefly. What would you reccomend to listen to from him?
I will say that having been drawn to his music by friends saying, 'this is really funny check it out', it did open my ears to more varied sounds and I started digging sounds that I had previously found dissonant. Definately a bridge for me to when I started listening to jazz; I went from Zappa to Jeff Beck's stuff with Jan Hammer (Mashivinu Orchestra lite) to Charles Mingus.
