Although Frank Zappa had just disbanded his
Mothers Of Invention, 1970 was a great year for Zappa fans. By the end of 1969, Zappa's unsurpassed solo album
Hot Rats had been released. In 1970, two more albums by The Mothers were released with full-length leftover material (
Burnt Weeny Sandwich and
Weasels Ripped My Flesh), followed by
Chunga's Revenge featuring the first steps of a new band centered
… around singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. Funky Nothingness contains tryouts with a band that never got off the ground, recorded in February and March 1970. Notable member is singer and jazz violinist Sugar Cane Harris, who also held prominent roles on Hot Rats and Burnt Weeny Sandwich. The music is somewhere between the drawn-out jazz rock of Hot Rats and the mawkish, doowop-infused rock of Chunga's Revenge and beyond. There is much jamming, on such tracks as the Sharleena, later presented as a concise song, in which Zappa and Harris solo extensively. That freedom, where Zappa lets go of his composer's aspirations for a moment and gives improvisation room, is the strength of Funky Nothingness. Rarely did we hear the master rock so untethered as in, say, the blues number I'm A Rollin' Stone. (MR)more
