Funky Nothingness is an album by Frank Zappa, released on June 30, 2023. It is a 3CD set that primarily contains unreleased songs written and recorded in 1970, shortly after sessions concluded for the album Hot Rats.[1][2]
After the first incarnation of the Mothers of Invention disbanded, Frank Zappa embarked on a solo career and created the predominantly instrumental and jazz oriented Hot Rats, which would become one of his most acclaimed works. The album, rather than having a core group of musicians, utilized various session players from track to track. From these sessions, Zappa assembled a core group to record new material in February and March of 1970. The group consisted of Ian Underwood, Max Bennett and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, as well as newcomer Aynsley Dunbar, who had recently relocated to Los Angeles and moved in with Zappa.[1]
Much of the tracks on Funky Nothingness were recorded by the five-piece group at the newly opened Record Plant studio, some of which appearing in edited forms on other Zappa albums produced around the same time. A longer version of "Chunga's Revenge (Basement Version)" was released on the DVD-Audio album Quaudiophiliac (2004), under the title "Chunga's Basement". Much shorter edits of "Transylvania Boogie" and "The Clap" appeared as the first and eighth tracks on Chunga's Revenge (1970). "Sharleena (1970 Record Plant Mix)" appeared on the posthumous compilation The Lost Episodes (1996). The title track originates from 1967, at the end of a recording session for Uncle Meat. It features the original Mothers' bassist, and James "Motorhead" Sherwood on rhythm guitar.[3]
