Kevin Courrier: Dangerous Kitchen – The Subversive World of Zappa

For nearly 30 years, Frank Zappa was one of the most influential, innovative, and controversial musicians in rock, despite minimal radio airplay. This biography goes beyond the myths that surround this musical satirist to explore the life, career, and influences of an outrageously gifted composer. Both with his early band, the Mothers of Invention, and in his subsequent solo work, Zappa poked fun at middle-class conformity, hippies, disco, and the Reagan era while breaking musical ground with his combination of jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, social and political parody, and rock and roll. This book traces Zappa’s cultural and musical roots to Erik Satie, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, and Zappa’s true hero, avant-garde composer Edgard Varese.