Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, musician, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa established himself as a prolific and distinctive composer, electric guitar player and band leader. He worked in various musical genres and wrote music for rock bands, jazz ensembles, synthesizers, symphony orchestra and created musique concrète works. In addition to his music he created short and feature-length films, music videos, and album covers.

Zappa's productive career has encompassed composing, recording, touring, producing and merchandising his own and others' music, although major commercial successes, especially within his native United States, were few. He produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. He received multiple Grammy nominations and won the Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1988 for the album Jazz from Hell. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In 2005, his album with the Mothers of Invention, We're Only in It for the Money, was included in the National Recording Registry of the United States National Recording Preservation Board. The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 71st in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2007 Baltimore, his birthplace, declared August 9 official "Frank Zappa Day" in his honor.