Frank Vincent Zappa Biography

Frank Zappa was a versatile musician who wore many hats—he was a guitarist, singer and composer whose works have covered a variety of musical genres like rock, jazz and orchestral symphonies. Regarded a pioneer in the field of music, Zappa found his inspiration from avant-garde musical composers and developed an unconventional and unique approach to creating music. He loved music from a young age and began composing classical music while in high school. He also played drums and guitar in rhythm and blues bands. He was largely a self-taught musician known to combine different musical genres while composing music, thereby making it difficult to precisely classify his style. What further added to his appeal was that along with creating hybrid music, he also wrote lyrics that were satirical, humourous and abstract. Zappa was asked to take over a band called The Soul Giants which he renamed as The Mothers of Invention and released his debut album, ‘Freak Out!’, considered to be rock music’s first concept album. He valued his artistic freedom more than commercial success and preferred to work as an independent artist for most of his long and productive career spanning over three decades. Unlike many other musicians who were into drugs, Zappa was a passionate anti-drug crusader.