Frank Zappa - Live... New York 1984 (2023)

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 players leave his band but the man with the moustache had developed a knack for replacing the irreplaceable. Bassist Scott Thunes and drummer Chad Wackerman were a match for their predecessors; Ike Willis and Ray White were arguably the finest vocalists he ever employed; Bobby Martin was blessed with operatic tonsils, great tenor sax chops and virtuoso keyboard skills and Allan Zavod was a jazz-fusion pianist from hell (well, Australia). The energy radiating from the stage is undeniable, the band is as tight as a duck's poop chute and Frank's guitar explorations are the nasty, ugly, obscene solos he had been working towards for years. Early and late shows performed on 3rd November 1984, Stony Brook, New York and broadcast by WLIR-FM. Presented here with informative liner notes and archival imagery.