Frank Zappa Documentary From Alex Winter in the Pipeline

Filmmaker Alex Winter (co-star of 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) has taken to Kickstarter with the goal of funding the definitive documentary on the life and music of prodigious performer Frank Zappa.

Having been granted unprecedented access to Zappa's archives, the director hopes to document the idiosyncratic icon for future generations.

Winter's plan is not only to create the ultimate film about the treasured tunesmith, but also to digitize and store the vast volumes of audio, video and writing he left behind. As Mr. Winter relates on the Kickstarter page, there are voluminous amounts of Zappa material remaining to be archived and auscultated:

"Frank Zappa was one of the most prolific artists of our time, and rows upon rows of floor-to-ceiling stacks of tape, video clips, film footage, and more, have been locked away under the historic Zappa house in the Hollywood Hills since Frank's death in 1993."

Frank Zappa's music career spanned 30 years and multiple genres. The entertainer released 62 albums in his lifetime. Whether with his band the Mothers of Invention or as a solo performer, Zappa's ingenuity in composition and performance led him through such contradictory classifications as experimental rock, jazz, classical, pop and more. Ever the reactionary, Zappa outlined his perception of classical music's more conventional approaches in 1983:

"I'll tell you what classical music is, for those of you who don't know. Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it's formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age."

While Zappa's above quote may have been careless or tongue-in-cheek, it certainly appears the artist grew to have a deep appreciation for the classical genre. Here at Classicalite, some of our favorite Zappa moments are when his compositions are being expertly executed by the London Symphony Orchestra, as heard on his albums London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I (1983) and London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II (1987).

From the former, take a listen to "Sad Jane (First Movement)" directly below, as composed by Frank Zappa and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Let us know what you think of it in the comments section, we'd love to hear from you.