The 26-member Ensemble Modern performs FZ's 'most-humanly-impossible-to-play' compositions. Piano duets, string quintets & small ballets. Simply exquisite, with a 60-page booklet to explain it all. Originally released in 1993, it stayed on the classical chart for most of `94. Includes the tracks 'Outrage At Valdez,' 'None Of The Above,' & 'Welcome To The United States', plus arrangements of some of the most fiendishly difficult pieces from FZ's back catalogue & even a 'greatest hit' or two (some would pick this as the definitive version of 'Dog Breath Variations'). Sadly, this was the last album released by FZ during his lifetime. The didipak and the booklet are housed in a slipcase. Rykodisc.Released shortly after his death in 1993, The Yellow Shark represents one of the only accurate performances of Frank Zappa's "serious" orchestral music--at least as far as the composer was concerned. Assembled from a series of sold-out performances in Germany by the Ensemble Moderne, the set includes re-workings of old favorites like "The Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat," live arrangements of some of his hairiest computer music like "The Girl in the Magnesium Dress" and "G-Spot Tornado" and new works by Zappa composed specifically for the event. The performances are astonishing and the music? Pure Zappa. --Andrew Boscardin
