Z

Lester Greenhalgh - Drums, Percussion
Rob Harrison - Saxophone, Flute
Gareth Piper - Guitar
Kristian Rees - Bass
Owen Rosser - Guitar

This is not a ‘retro’ style album, but stylistically, I think that one definitely could consider it a modern take on the early 70s Vertigo bands that featured saxophones.

“Z Machine is a 5 piece instrumental band that leans heavily on saxophonist Rob Harrison to drive their songs. I’ve heard early King Crimson mentioned to describe.
Label  

Z Quartett are a string quartet who perform music by a large number of contempory and jazz composers I recognize (Bud Powell, Astor Piazzolla, Darol Anger, Oliver Nelson, Chris Whitely, Chick Corea) and a few I don't (V. Courtois, Z. Kronberger, J. Barthelemy).
While this is definitely a CD that is of interest only to a relatively few of you, if you like the sound of string quartets, and like the idea of them mixing up composers from contemporary composition, jazz and beyond, this is extremely great!
Label  Le Triton

“It's hard to quarrel with an album devoted to the music of Wayne Shorter, and Rachel Z certainly has the pedigree to pursue such a project. Having co-created Shorter's masterful High Life with him, she is well qualified to interpret and expand on his lengthy catalog of high-quality jazz compositions. Interestingly, for those familiar with her primarily through her synthesized electronics on that album, here she plays only acoustic piano, and quite well. This trio sounds bigger than it is, and that's...
Label  Tone Center

"It's hard to quarrel with an album devoted to the music of Wayne Shorter, and Rachel Z certainly has the pedigree to pursue such a project. Having co-created Shorter's masterful High Life with him, she is well qualified to interpret and expand on his lengthy catalog of high-quality jazz compositions.

Interestingly, for those familiar with her primarily through her synthesized electronics on that album, here she plays only acoustic piano, and quite well. This trio sounds bigger than it is, and...
Label  Tone Center
UPC  026245401129

Really nice instrumental album that lies somewhere between Ghost Rhythms / Forgas Band Phenomena-style jazz/rock and symphonic rock. Recommended.

“Ten years after his second studio work, Agostino Macor's ZAAL project returns (La Maschera di Cera, Finisterre, Blunepal, Rohmer, Ombra della Sera, the Chanfrughen….) Creating an instrumental disc that enriches the "chamber" jazz-rock of the first two works with new - unexpected - World atmospheres alongside electric, ambient, downtempo and acoustic...
Label  Lizard

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Thierry played bass and cello for Art Zoyd, which he also co-led, from 1971-1997. He left to concentrate on writing for dance, theater, multimedia events, movies as well as for his own projects and performances.
There are a few recordings here that you undoubtably know, but a lot of stuff that I certainly didn’t.

“A selection of 43 compositions (solo, with Art Zoyd, Zaboitzeff & Crew, Aria Primitiva...), some remastered, others reinterpreted or revisited...
Label  Monstre Sonore

"As every RIO fan knows, Thierry Zaboitzeff had been active for playing upon hundreds of stages or releasing twelve albums in a vanguard of the RIO movement ART ZOYD in collaboration with a composer / violininst Gérard Hourbette from 1971 till 1997.
After leaving Art Zoyd and opening his own studio, Thierry, in cooperation with several renowned directors, started many different projects, which had made attendances at lots of events all over Europe; Thierry has been pretty active for compositions...
Label  Atonal
UPC  18750640123

"As every RIO fan knows, Thierry Zaboitzeff had been active for playing upon hundreds of stages or releasing twelve albums in a vanguard of the RIO movement ART ZOYD in collaboration with a composer / violininst Gérard Hourbette from 1971 till 1997.
After leaving Art Zoyd and opening his own studio, Thierry, in cooperation with several renowned directors, started many different projects, which had made attendances at lots of events all over Europe; Thierry has been pretty active for compositions...
Label  Atonal

"The music of Thierry Zaboitzeff cannot be neatly fitted into any existing musical category. On and off one might be tempted by a few bars which indicate a category but soon enough such certainty is shattered.
If Zaboitzeff is in the mood to sound like a child immersed in games, he will. But if he wishes to create a monster through his music, he can and will do so just as well. His music ranges from light and airy to deep and heavy, it is as diverse as life itself. The music accommodates the...
Label  Booster

new music for violin
Label  

"The music of Zakarya is an exciting blend of klezmer, new music and heavy metal guitars. Based in France, their first two CDs for Tzadik have established them as one of the leading bands of Radical Jewish Culture and have received raves worldwide from...
Label  Tzadik

"Founded in 1999 and based in France, Zarkaya is an avant-klezmer quartet that performs exciting and original New Jewish Music. Taking its inspiration from the tradition their music reaches into rock, classical and improvised music to create a rich and...
Label  Tzadik

Another brilliant recording by Yves Weyh's virtuosic avant-klezmer ensemble Zakarya. Their second CD for Tzadik Jewish Series is a dynamic journey through Eastern Europe via witty waltzes, thrash accordion, Balkan rock and moody doinas. Combining a cha...
Label  

"Based in France, Zakarya is one of the most exciting and cutting edge bands working in the ever-growing community of Radical Jewish Culture. Always thought provoking, their fourth CD for Tzadik presents an imaginary film score about the life and...
Label  Tzadik

''Based in Paris, Zakarya is the latest band project from the Jewish music master Yves Weyh. Exploring aspects of Jewish history, humor, rhythms, scales and sensibilities, Zakarya pushes the boundaries of Jewish culture in unexpected and exhilarating w...
Label  

"Daniel Zamir, whose first three CDs for Tzadik contain some of the most passionate and sophisticated blending of Jewish Music and Jazz ever recorded returns to Tzadik after a five-year hiatus in Israel to present his complex musical vision with a...
Label  Tzadik

"Returning to Tzadik with a powerful Israeli quartet, super star Daniel Zamir plays his brilliant blend of JewishJazz with a deep spiritual power. Performing on alto and soprano saxophone, his solos burn with a white hot intensity. Joined here by some of his strongest musical associates, including Mark Guiliana and Shai Maestro, this is far and away his best CD to date. Scorching and fluid saxophone fireworks over shimmering harmonies and odd time signatures from one of the guiding lights of the Israeli...
Label  Tzadik
UPC  702397401322

The incredible musicianship of Daniel Zamir has never more apparent than on this spectacular recording of Israeli folk songs arranged for his telepathic trio Satlah and a horn section of five saxophones. Featuring breathtaking solos over odd time signa...

Simone Zanchini: accordion
Frankfurt Radio Big Band
David Grottschreiber: conductor
All titles composed by Nino Rota
All arrangements by Jörg Achim Keller

"’I'm a musician who plays accordion, not an accordionist who plays jazz," says Simone Zanchini, proud of a distinction that is proven by Nino - his 25th album in the 20 years since his recording debut. Using vast resources drawn from the range of music he's studied, discovered, invented and developed for his too-often ...
Label  In And Out

Bobby Zankel - alto saxophone
Jaleel Shaw - alto saxophone
Robin Eubanks - trombone
Diane Monroe - violin
Ruth Naomi Floyd - voice
Sumi Tonooka - piano
Lee Smith - bass
Pheeroan AkLaff - drums & percussion

“Most of the music on this recording I originally conceived and composed between 2009-2011, as the score for a dance project, “Spirits Break to Freedom” that was a collaboration with dancer/ choreographer Germaine Ingram, and visual artist John Dowell...
Label  Mahakala

Gro Austgulen violin
Didrik Ingvaldsen trumpet
Simen Kiil Halvorsen trumpet
Elisabeth Lid Trøen saxes
Heidi Kvelvane saxes
Kjetil Møster saxes and clarinets
Kristoffer Alberts saxes
Jørgen Træen modular synth
Thomas T. Dahl guitar
Børge Fjordheim drums
Øyvind Skarbø drums
Per Zanussi double bass

"Li" is a neo-Confucian term for patterns in nature. Fixed and dynamic patterns, patterns in time and space. Simultaneously cyclic, asymmetric and organised. Clouds.
Label  Clean Feed

Recorded live in Coimbra, Portugal, during the 2013 edition of the Jazz ao Centro festival, this is how the quintet led by Per Zanussi sounds on stage. Energetic and lyrical, combining free improvisation and melodic structures, “Live in Coimbra”...
Label  Clean Feed
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Flavio Zanuttini trumpet, compositions
Piero Bittolo Bon alto sax
Marco D'Orlando drums

"A trumpet (by Flavio Zanuttini himself, the mastermind behind “Born Baby Born”), an alto sax (Piero Bittolo Bon) and a drumset (Marco D’Orlando). Nothing more: no bass to deepen the rhythm and no harmonic instrument, be it a piano or a guitar. Just “meat and potatoes”, as Eugene Chadbourne states on his liner notes, dismissing in this meal the possible contributions of a fried egg, some buttered peas...
Label  Clean Feed

"On the evening of October 23, 2013, Walt Disney Concert Hall was the place to be in Los Angeles, as Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in a spectacular, sold-out orchestral performance of Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (The Suites). The acclaimed, one-night-only 13-suite performance of Zappa's 1971 masterwork was recorded and is released here!

This 2CD release's expertly recorded audio brings the listener back to Walt Disney Concert Hall to...
Label  Zappa

"With the success of his Apostrophe and Roxy & Elsewhere albums, 1974 saw Frank Zappa at his commercial peak. Evidently feeling a surfeit of goodwill towards his fans, at the close of the year he prepared a personally mixed reel of live performances...
Label  Keyhole
UPC  5291012905420

“On March 19, 1979 the band performed at the Parc de Penfeld, in Brest, France, for a show that was recorded for live FM Radio Broadcast, transmitted across continental Europe and synched too on many US stations.
Featuring a line-up which included, Ike Willis and Warren Cuccurullo on guitars, Tommy Mars and Peter Wolf on keyboards, Ed Mann on percussion, Arthur Barrow on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, the musicianship was, as always, second-to-none, and the gig a roaring success with many...
Label  Leftfield

"Buffalo is a two-hour-and-20-minute, two-CD set chronicling Zappa's appearance at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York, on October 25, 1980. At that time, the 39-year-old composer/guitarist/singer had assembled a particularly adept band including "stunt" guitarist Steve Vai and virtuoso drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and, freed from record company restrictions, was preparing a lot of new material for his new Barking Pumpkin Records label."-AllMusic

"Buffalo is a live album by Frank Zappa...
Label  Zappa

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Patrick O'Hearn (bass)
Tommy Mars (keys)
Ike Willis (guitar, vocal)
Denny Walley (guitar, vocal)
Peter Wolf (keys)
Ed Mann (percussion)

“Both overall sound quality and performance are excellent - worth it for me just for the version of 'Black Napkins'.
The issue for me is the crude editing and sound drop outs, (probably due to radio station adverts), which do blight it slightly.
Label  TimeLine

“This Vaulternative Records concert release finds Zappa and band at the Uptown Theater, Chicago, Ill - September 29, 1978. Of the two shows played that evening, the late show is captured here in its entirety. As you would expect, the concert delivers with a good blend of fan favorites, blistering guitar solos, audience participation, on-the-spot improvisations and stellar playing from a talented band line-up.”
Label  Zappa

"Analog transfer by Joe Travers 2012. Re-mastered by Bob Ludwig Gateway Mastering 2012."

"This 1970 release finds Zappa and band at the apex of their improvisational powers. Chunga's Revenge largely eschews both high concept and satire in order...
Label  Zappa

Amazing! This is three CDs of nearly all never-before released or heard music by the lost ‘Hot Rats Band’ that Frank formed at the end of 1969 and even played some shows with, before the band cross-faded into the band with Volman & Kaylan.
The only things from these CDs that has seen release before, to the best of my knowledge, was the couple of tracks on ‘Chunga’s Revenge’ that don’t feature Flo and Eddie.
And what a crazy line-up:
Frank Zappa – guitar, vocals
Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris..
Label  Zappa

"FZ:OZ (pronounced "eff-zee oh-zee"; in imitation of "Aussie") is a live album by Frank Zappa, released in 2002 as a two-CD set and is the first release on the Vaulternative Records label from the Zappa Family Trust. It contains almost all of a January 20, 1976 concert at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia.
Only one reel-to-reel tape machine was available to record the concert, however, resulting in gaps in some songs as the tape needed to be changed. These gaps have been filled in with...
Label  Zappa

“If you collect Frank you will want this. But be warned....it’s standard bootleg quality mixed with a bit of soundboard.”

“His live band including at this juncture Ray White on rhythm guitar and vocals, Steve Vai on guitars, Tommy Mars on keyboards, Bobby Martin on keyboards, sax and vocals, Ed Mann on percussion, Scott Thunes on bass and Chad Wackerman on drums, toured extensively in Europe during the early summer of 82….
One of the finest shows of the tour took place in Vienna on 28th...
Label  Left Field Media

Live PROFESSIONAL recordings of the Roxy & Elsewhere band 10/31/73, never before heard!

“Two shows recorded at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago 10/31/73 featuring a classic Zappa band line-up along with liner notes by Ruth Underwood and Ralph Humphrey, who played in the shows, and pictures of the event from The Vault! The single disc contains highlights from the whole show. Happy Halloween! Don't take candy from strangers!”...
Label  Zappa

"Halloween was Frank Zappa's favorite holiday and by 1977 his Halloween shows were legendary. Recorded live at The Palladium in NYC, Zappa performed six shows 28-31 October. Four shows were filmed and resulted in Zappa's movie Baby Snakes. The Halloween 77 three CD version includes the Halloween night show in it's entirety, mixed in 2016 from original Vault masters, plus select tracks from the other five shows."
Label  Zappa

This is a 1977 broadcast of the first of Zappa's annual Halloween shows at the NYC Palladium on October 21, 1977.

"Performed while promoting his Zoot Allures album, Frank had taken to the road with a band that can only be regarded as an all-star line up. Guitarist Adrian Belew would join Talking Heads, King Crimson, and eventually launch a successful solo career. Bassist Patrick O'Hearn and drummer Terry Bozzio would later spearhead the alternative act, Missing Persons, with Bozzio's wife Dale...
Label  Sutra
UPC  823564649221

The ZFT has happily seen fit to make generally available (that means, available to us) a lot of items that were previously available by mail only from the ZFT.
This is reasonable, but rough quality rehearsal recordings. The material is fascinating, but this is one of the 'roughest' ZFT releases, so keep that in mind, although the price is now very reasonable for this!

"Joe's Domage, the second entry from the 'Corsaga' series gives you an insight into how Frank worked. The recording from this..
Label  Zappa
UPC  824302004227

"You never could be sure just what sort of a band Frank Zappa would show up with. Figure on a quartet, an orchestra would arrive. Bet on a jazz septet, and a rock n roll combo appears. In fact, the only things you could count on were that the band would be super-tight, that they would be incredible live performers, and that the show would be unlike any you had ever seen.
Zappa’s appearance in Detroit in November 1976 was only a few weeks into a gruelling tour, which would eventually stretch across...
Label  Time Line

"On October 1, 1975, the CBC-FM radio station broadcast live the show that Frank Zappa held that evening at the War Memorial in Vancouver during his first solo tour: this unofficial double CD digipack with gatefold cover, enriched with photos vintage notes and interview excerpts reproduces a performance as usual marked by caustic humor and crossed by numerous flashes of musical genius, in which classics such as "Apostrophe", "The Illinois Enema Bandit", "Chunga's Revenge" (Part One & Two) and "Zoot...
Label  Time Line

“Frank Zappa,live at the War Memorial gym, Vancouver on October 1st 1975. Frank Zappa embarked on his first solo tour in the autumn of 1975. This excellent show finds him in superb form, performing a range of material spanning old classics and songs he barely performed again (such as the otherwise unrecorded "Swallow My Pride").
As caustic and musically literate as ever, the show broadcast on CBC-FM, is presented in full here, together with background notes and images.“
Label  Keyhole

“A CD that includes two concerts divided into 4 CDs from 1984, excellent quality recordings, I would say high quality..”

As Zappa planned his twentieth anniversary world tour in '83/'84 no one knew it would be his last with a small group. At the time he was, as always, busy, releasing Man From Utopia (1983), London Symphony Orchestra, Vol 1. (1983), The Perfect Stranger (1983), Them Or Us (1984) and the criminally overlooked Thing Fish (1984). The early '80s had seen some great and unique...
Label  Timeline

"When Frank Zappa teamed up with renowned conductor Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra for three days in January 1983, he was expecting to walk away with a set of stellar performances of some of his most challenging contemporary classical...
Label  Zappa

"Originally released in '91, the third title culled from the 1988 tour. A double live CD, this one includes such classic Zappa compositions as "King Kong," "The Black Page," "Dupree's Paradise" and "Strictly Genteel," as well as pieces from Bartok and...
Label  Zappa

ALL PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STUDIO AND LIVE!

“The Mothers 1970 encapsulates the band’s brief but productive span, which included two visits to the studio – resulting in the fantastic 1970 album, Chunga’s Revenge – and tours across the U.S., Canada and Europe. Divided into four parts, the collection is anchored by top notch studio recordings recorded at the famed London-based Trident Studios on June 21-22. An unreleased early mix by Baker of the Chunga’s Revenge track, “Sharleena,” is just one of...
Label  Zappa

“The Mothers 1971 Super Deluxe 8CD Box Set - Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Mothers Of Invention's '71 line-ups, the complete Fillmore tapes are showcased with every note played over 4 shows, including the John Lennon/Yoko Ono encore.
The majority of tracks are newly mixed. Additionally, the full concert from the Rainbow Theatre in London where FZ was infamously pushed off the stage is newly mixed by Eddie Kramer.
The box also features a bonus hybrid concert from Harrisburg & Scranton..
Label  Zappa

"Between 1985 and 1987, Frank Zappa released a pair of mail-order vinyl box sets called Old Masters that contained remastered and restored versions of all of his albums between Freak Out! and Zoot Allures. Each box contained an album of previously unreleased material called a "mystery disc."
Although he eventually reworked and remixed a handful of these cuts for subsequent releases, the majority of these recordings were never again released in any form.
As part of their exhaustive reissue of...
Label  Zappa

"Analog transfer by Joe Travers 2012. Source: Original 1975 analog master. Mastered by Bob Ludwig, Gateway Mastering, 2012."

There are lots and lots of highlights on this album, but any album with "Inca Roads" has gotta be GREAT.
Label  Zappa

This is pretty much a must-have for all FZ fans, as it contains for the very first time ever, the legendary Royce Hall 1975 recordings in their entirety!

“Commemorating its eventual release in 1979, Orchestral Favorites 40th Anniversary Edition celebrates Frank Zappa's 1975 engagement at Royce Hall at UCLA Los Angeles.
The original album is remastered by Bob Ludwig from the 1976 master tape and bonus content contains the evening concert performance from September 18th, remixed in 2019 by...
Label  Zappa


Official album #17 and one of his most popular albums. I saw FZ for the first time in 1973 before this album was released, but featuring this amazing band. Still one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen, and I have seen plenty.
FZ: guitar & vocals
Ralph Humphrey: drums
Sal Marquez: trumpet & vocals
George Duke: keyboards & synthesizer
Tom Fowler: bass
Bruce Fowler: trombone
Ruth Underwood: marimba, vibes & percussion
Ian Underwood: flute, clarinet, alto & tenor sax
Label  Zappa