Composer, guitarist, singer Zappa for 10 years has been the tutelar deity who, utilizing talent, spirit and his peculiar nature, has created extraordinarily powerful music with his instrumental ensemble called the Mothers of Invention.

Spending a few minutes in conversation with Zappa is like selecting food from an overstocked cafeteria assortment. He has thoughtful comments on all subjects, musical and otherwise, is often dogmatic and usually iconoclastic. (read more)

Zappa played with a quintet, not a sextet. His lighting, though most effective, displayed little of the originality he projected in words. The sound system was abominable, both out of focus and mix and usually frightfully balanced. (read more)

WHEN THE Chamber Symphony of San Francisco performs its fifth series of concerts tonight and Saturday, the music of Gabriele, Mozart, Ibert and Schubert may have to do more than roll over to accommodate the American premiere of “Dupree’s Paradise” by American composer Frank Zappa. (read more)

AS I WAITED to enter Zellerbach Hall, a young man stepped up to me and asked: "Do you know where I can check my monster?" His right arm was occupied by a 2-foot-long Gila monster, with reddish eyes and a busily flickering tongue. He was on his way to the same concert I was there to cover, which would feature a suite of works by Frank Zappa. Somehow, it didn't seem a bit surprising that a patron at such an event would show up bearing a live monster. (read more)

FOR THE LAST 10 years of his life, Frank Zappa worked intermittently on "Civilization, Phaze III," a sprawling, 113-minute epic marked by the most complex and ambitious musical experimenting of his career. (read more)