Source: Andrzej Rogowski

Automatic translation:
[ ... ] So I went to L.A. and for the first four months I played around different clubs: jazz and fusion. I played with the Fowler brothers, who used to be in Frank Zappa's group Mothers of Invention. It so happened that Frank was looking for a new rhythm section. I went for an audition and stayed in his band for two and a half years.

JF: What kind of music did you play with Zappa?
VC: A very difficult one. It was a mixture of everything. It was comedy music. We would play, for example, some rock'n'roll number, then bebop, for the next few minutes someone would tell some jokes, then we would play heavy metal, reggae and suddenly in the middle of some rock song we would completely unexpectedly perform a composition that sounded like Edgar Varèse or something like that. It was a piece written exactly in notes, with the strangest polyrhythmic divisions. That's not all - it happened that we played two concerts every night, and each show lasted at least two and a half hours not counting encores. So, we're talking about performances that lasted five or six hours, and on top of that there was at least an hour-long soundcheck. Not only that - every day we traveled from place to place. That requires a tremendous amount of effort.

JF: Did you also record albums?
VC: At one point Frank took a portable studio with a two-track tape recorder with him on tour and recorded every concert. He now keeps those tapes at home and releases new records every so often.
I recorded "Joe's Garage," which was originally supposed to be a single, but ended up as a double album. I participated in the recording of several other albums, but I completely forget how many. [ ... ]

Source: www.polishjazzarch.com

Source: slime.oofytv.set

Source: www.polishjazzarch.com

Automatic translation:
[ ... ] He [Dick Bock] was ahead of his time. We are now talking about "world music," and this was the 1960s! He wanted to push me into new territory, and I wasn't ready for that. At that time I was still at the stage of bebop and Coltrane. But Bock showed me a lot of pop records from that period - the Doors, the Fifth Dimension. He wanted me to record an album outside the jazz mainstream. Until finally he mentioned Zappa's name. And he said: "Oh, that would be interesting!". Zappa was not a jazz musician, but I knew he was experimenting with instrumental music. He was not interested in commercial music. I agreed. Bock called Zappa and we arranged a meeting. The meeting took place at his house at 1 a.m. at night. It was a real hippie secna - there were his children running around the house naked. Dick took with him a tape of me and George Duke recording from a club in Los Angeles. Zappa listened to it and says: "Why did you want to see me? What do you want? These guys are too good for me. They play fantastic!". And Dick Bock said: "I have an idea for you to be the producer of Jean-Luc's album." "O.K." - Frank agreed. Two weeks later he already had all the music written. These were compositions that he had not used before. That's how the album "King Kong" was created - my solo album with his music. It was played by Ernie Watts on saxophone, George Duke and a couple of musicians from Zappa. Everything went perfectly, but I was still living in France. I spent a few months in California and returned home. The album was made in 1969.

Four years later, I played in his band The Mothers of Invention for over six months. He wanted an instrumental band with good jazz musicians - that was his idea. But Frank Zappa was a slave to his own image. He started to lose his audience - and so he had to go back to rock and roll. After a while, I didn't feel like I belonged in that band.

JF: But you still had the opportunity to improvise....
JLP: Less and less. In the beginning - yes. There was a lot of rhythmic music. His band was something like a classical orchestra. To tell you the truth, Zappa wanted to become a composer of classical music - that was his dream, which he realized later.

JF: However, knowing him intimately you can say that he was a kind of genius?
JLP: But of course. Absolutely! But at the end of his life he hated jazz and jazz musicians. He couldn't stand the whole scene. He hated it when me and George Duke started improvising. Me and George had a similar musical background, we grew up on jazz and classical music. When I started a solo, all the musicians followed me, as if it were my band - a jazz band. And Zappa couldn't play, couldn't follow me. But after all, he was the star! He simply could not improvise on harmonic functions.

It's funny, there are, for example, such musicians as Allan Holdsworth. He doesn't know a single note either! He plays only by ear, but the way he plays is incredible - like Coltrane on the guitar! So there are different kinds of talents and intelligence in music. Zappa's genius manifested itself more in his compositions. We began to feel a little strange, as if it was no longer his band but ours - mine and Duke's. Zappa began to cut our solos, until finally I was performing two small solos and playing in the background for the rest of the time. And I started to like it less and less.

JF: You did manage to record a few albums with him, though.
JLP: When we toured, Zappa recorded every concert. He released several records. But I don't even know how many there are, but I have them at home. I remember one - "Overnite Sensation," which we recorded in a studio in Los Angeles. But I know that after I left, several more were released.  [ ... ]

Source: www.polishjazzarch.com