Cool thread.

Having just acquired and watched the excellent 'Classic Albums: 'Apostrophe'/'Overnite Sensation' DVD, I sense I am entering a new phase of Zappa listening. His music is amazing in some any ways. For me, his music is head and shoulders above all the '60-'70s jazz-rock/progressive stuff that it may superficially sound like at times, and he is my favourate lead guitarist alongside Hendrix.

As a composer, he covers so much ground, with influences ranging from Varese to Johnny Guitar Watson, Duke Ellington to Spike Jones, but you always know Frank when you hear him.

I am constantly amazed by the organisational skills the man must have possessed in order to compose, arrange, record and perform live such complex, unique music, while am also puzzled as to why his estate are releasing his apparently large vault of unreleased material in such occassional and imo sometimes unsatisfactory quantities and ways. His musical mastery needs to be even better known than it is imo.

His barbed wit and social/ political satire is much missed in these recent years.