For our anniversary, my beloved girlfriend bought this set for me. I've never received a better gift. Zappa released too many masterpieces to have a single one consigned as "his best work". But, for the bean-counters, Shut Up is among his top 5. Most rock guitarists spend their careers (if they're lucky enough to have one) recycling Stones & Zeppelin riffs (my god, why?) and running up & down pentatonic scales & tremelo picking three notes furiously for guitar solos. Why settle for that boring excrement? Frank Zappa had more nuance & versatility in his playing than all of those classic-rock radio cretins combined.

Nearly all of these solos are electric, but there is a bouzouki duet with Jean-Luc Ponty (Canard du Jour) that may be the best performance on the set. Zappa's ultra-eclectic technique veers from fusion to metal to eccentic blues so deftly that I, as a semi-guitarist, am filled with self-loathing. Although they are worlds apart in technique and style, Zappa reminds me of Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson and George Harrison in that all of their guitar solos can actually be considered compositions in their own right, rather than a supplemental solo tacked on during a lull from a vocalist. Zappa was/is rock music's most versatile genius. Please go buy this.

I had to write this review because I found it alarming that the average was only 4 out of 5 stars. There's no need to be a guitar player to appreciate this album, although it certainly doesn't hurt in one's appreciation of just how unorthodox FZ's style was. But the whole point of this set is NOT to showcase how good a guitar player Zappa was, but of how good a musical mind he had. One of Frank's favorite things to do was improvising solos; it was an interesting challenge to him, to spontaneously come up with musical events worth listening to. Lest you think this set is self-indulgent, be aware that Zappa was very critical of his abilities. He considered most of the solos he played to be failures; what you hear on these discs is a collection of the ones which he thought were worth sharing with the world. In fact this was originally a mail-order release and was eventually licensed to CBS for sale in stores due to overwhelming demand. It seems even Frank didn't know how good he was. So how to approach an album like this? We know we're not listening for guitar gonzo show-offy pyrotechnics. We're listening for musical ideas. It's improvised and there is sensitive interplay between FZ and his rhythm sections, but it isn't jazz. It's sort of weird avant-rock, in a very unique style. Nothing else sounds quite like it. It's like beautiful electric improvisations from Mars.

Little-heralded progressive masterwork from a visionary who straddled many genres and transcended them all. Even if you were one of those folks who didn't care for Zappa's smirking cynicism and unorthodox (to say the least) arrangements - he didn't go out of his way to be popular - nobody questioned the man's god-like chops. This 3 CD set of absolutely flabbergasting guitar solos is one of Zappa's amazing 'xenocrony' productions (the liner notes describe this process in detail; typically for Zappa, it's backbreakingly painstaking and requires innate musical ingenuity). All 20 selections collected flow more or less continuously, generally seperated by spoken-word snippets or a short burst of static. To the non-initiated who are dipping a toe into the water and ripe to dive in, let me assure you this blows the doors off every Satriani/Malmsteen-type shredfest combined, and will stun, delight and enthrall ANYBODY with a CD player and a brain, both in working order. Essential as oxygen.

I am a professional guitarist. I teach and play for a living - it's one of the one things I know anything about. So, I feel pretty confident when I say that Frank Zappa was not a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. He proclaimed this truth himself on many occasions. First and foremost, Zappa was a brilliant composer. As a guitar player, Zappa had a sporadic, idiosyncratic style that was exciting and fresh. He might not nail every note, but he flutters and bubbles his way through the line and the result is pure exuberance.

Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar is a collection of extended solos that serves as a great introduction to, and general representation of, Zappa's eccentric guitar playing. The magic lies in the phrasing, not necessarily in virtuosic skill. These are mostly modal jams. There is a familiar b7 to 1 progression (from "Inca Roads" and others) that rucurs throughout. Zappa was mostly a modal improviser. He was partial to blues scales, major and minor pentatonic scales, mixolydian scales, lydian scales, dorian scales and the occasional whole-tone or diminished scale. But the melodic ideas that he wove together with these colors are jubilant. He was a great improviser and a great rock guitar player. He was my favorite guitar player. He was no virtuoso. He was no Joe Pass or John Mclaughlin or Andre Segovia or even Steve Vai. But I would rather listen to Zappa than any of these guys.

Zappa's a cool guy to get into, because he produced a ton of music and a lot of it is great. I go through Zappa phases, with increasing down-time in between. As time passes, what I've noticed, is that the humor is sounding more and more dated, but the music sounds better than ever. The goofy songs, with their doo-wop "yeahs" and early 1960's-style vulgarity, are kind of corny by today's standards. Listening to some of it reminds me of getting trapped in the corner of a family event, humoring a clueless old uncle who is riffing the same halitosis-flavored puns that weren't funny when I was ten. I feel bad saying that because I'm not trying to knock Zappa. My point is that his music is still worth listening to, but it is especially worth listening to because of the musicianship.

For anyone who takes their music seriously, the "Shut up and play yer guitar" series should be a staple of your collection.

Can I talk about something unrelated for a second? This morning, at my daughter's elementary school, they had a little performance for kids who got there early. A fourth-grader was standing in the front of the auditorium tuning a violin, and the teacher announced she was going to play Paganini's first violin concerto. I assumed she was either mistaken, or Paganini wrote some beginner's music I hadn't heard about. But it was the most incredible thing. The piano accompaniment lead, and then she started in with the violin part and I was blown away. She didn't just play it, she played it flawlessly. She played dynamically and with intensity. It would have been a good performance from a musician of any age. Even the kindergarten kids were captivated. When the piece ended I jumped up, with tears streaming down my face, and gave her a standing ovation. I didn't want to embarrass my daughter; I tried to regain composure. I said my eyes were tearing because of allergies. But every time I've tried to tell someone about this, the waterworks start again and I'm sobbing like baby. And here it goes again. I don't know what's wrong with me.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and check out these CDs if you haven't already.