November 1975, Frank Zappa and his group make a round trip to Europe in the middle of a tour in the United States – the carbon footprint was not on the agenda. Having arrived from Chicago for Frankfurt a day earlier, here they are, on November 21, at the Sportska Dvorana in Zagreb and the next day at the Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana. Return to the country on the 23rd.
These will be the only concerts of the American guitarist, singer and songwriter, who died on December 4, 1993, in what was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led by Marshal Tito (1892-1980). Taken from the archives managed by the Zappa family, the best of these two concerts have been brought together in a double CD Zappa’75 Zagreb/Ljubljana, which has just been marketed.
Military in the halls
The public, for whom, at the time, concerts and records of rock groups from the West were rare commodities, will also have heard and seen an ephemeral formation then formed by Zappa. Since saxophonist and singer Norma Bell, who stayed a little over a month in November until the beginning of December with Zappa, saxophonist and singer Napoleon Murphy Brock, keyboardist Andre Lewis, bassist and singer Roy Estrada and the drummer Terry Bozzio.
In the booklet, sound engineer Davy Moire and Terry Bozzio share some memories. The soldiers present in the rooms. That of Ljubljana, an ice rink where only part of the ice has been covered. The various names given, in the hotels that accommodate Zappa and his comrades, to the same veal stew. The sight of barely stocked shops, of an old woman pulling a cart on the road between Zagreb and Ljubljana.
Beyond that, there is above all the enthusiasm, through loud applause, cries of joy, from the public, which will push the group to do it honor, even when cold, tired by the jet lag. Whether in interpretations of short songs from the 1960s (How Could I Be Such a Fool ?, I’m Not Satisfied…) or more recent (San Ber’dino, epic), instrumentals that are not yet on an album (Black Napkins, Zoot Allures, Filthy Habits), the long solo deployments of Chunga’s Revenge. The sound recording is sometimes a little fluctuating (echo of rooms, volume swings), but no matter, these two hours and twenty-five minutes are historic and musically intense.
Zappa’75 Zagreb/Ljubljana, de Frank Zappa, 2 CD Zappa Records/Universal Music.