Customer Reviews
Brilliant jazz - By: PygmyTwylyte, 02 Mar 2010 
By early 1972,FZ wasin a wheelchair,recovering from being thrown into the orchestra pit of the Rainbowin London by a deranged fan.The Flo+Eddie version of the MOI was no more.Could it get any worse?
FZ's response was this & "Waka/Jawaka",which can be seen as a double album,except the band on "Grand Wazoo" is bigger.The music is fantastic,from the title track,with it's driving theme & great solos,to the quirky pop of "Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus" & the gentle tones of "Blessed Relief".
As this & "Waka/Jawaka" are sandwiched between the "200 Motels" film,the Flo+Eddie MOI & MOI Mk.3(kicking off with "Overnite Sensation"),and it sounds radically different to any of those albums & films,these two CDs are often unfairly overlooked,even by Zappaphiles.
If you like this,try "Wazoo",this band's last US show from Bostonin 1972,or "Imaginary Diseases",which is a smaller scale version of this band, sometimes called The Petit Wazoo,livein the US & Canadain late 1972.
Absolutely Brilliant. - By: micro man, 24 Feb 2010 This album is so good, jazz rock funk type of fusion thing donein the way that only Zappa could do. If you like anything he has done then get this, 10 out of 10.
5 tracks... 5 stars - By: , 05 Oct 2005 My favourite zappa album for quite some time,Frank's previous release 'Waka/jawaka'is excellent, but it doesn't flow throughout as well as this album.
A very big band, with musicians such as Sal Marquez shining outin particular. There's no better introduction than the title track, as it smoothly moves onto the next track 'For calvin'. It goes through many changes & never manages to bore the listener.
Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus is a comedy jazz song,with many of the 'amusing' voices Frank used on many of his albums, instead of thein your face parody of 'sheik yerbouti', Frank rather 'created' as opposed to mocking some politician.
Mentioning Marquez above, I think that George duke for his exquisite key solo on eat that question.
The finishing track is Blessed relief, which is wonderful for taking stress away, particularly after a rough day. Amongst the best moments on the FZ catalogue all together.
I find it annoying that almost none of the grand wazoo got performed by his later bands, other than a brief version of eat that question on 'make a jazz noise here'. FZ covered a wide spectrum of genres during his career (as you most probably know),considering him to be a 'rock' musician however is quite unfair,if all you've heard about him is Apostrophe than this sweet album should make you look at himin a different way.
You NEED this album! - By: M. J. O. Callaghan, 14 Sep 2005 Frank Zappa once said of this & the previous "Waka/Jawaka" album (of which Grand Wazoo is really a continuation on a theme) something along the lines of "they sold a few copiesin Scandanavia". This is a great shame. The Grand Wazoo is a masterpiece, & really deserved to be remembered along with the other classics of the 70's.
This is as close to conventional jazz as Zappa got, & by God it sounds great! While you have the expected "far out" workings on most of the tracks, "Blessed Relief" really has to be heard to be believed, & shows that he COULD follow conventional forms if he chose to & create a "pretty" song.
Waka/Jawaka, though it has its merits, is a minor work. This is not. Buy it.
Rivals Hot Rats - By: Film and music appreciator, 06 Aug 2001 I bought this album (and Waka/Jawaka) a few days ago having heard it would be a worthy companion to his earlier hot Rats album. Like Hot Rats, The Grand Wazoo is primarily instrumental. I was pleased that this album delivered what had been promised. It is a continuation of what had come on Hot Rats with a greater leaning on Jazz & hornsin addition to the superb (as always) guitar of Frank Zappa.
The album was cut during the same sessions as the other mainly instrumental album, Waka/Jawaka at Paramount studios featuring dozens of crack musicians making what is no doubt one of his best ever bands. This albumin my opinion is better than Waka/Jawaka though anyone who bought & liked the much praised Hot Rats album needs to investin this comparatively underrated albumin addition to Waka/Jawaka.
