Frank Zappa Estate Revives Vaulternative Label for 1966 Studio Session

Frank Zappa’s estate has revived their archival Vaulternative Records for the first time in nearly a decade to showcase a Mothers of Invention session from 1966.

Zappa ’66: Vol. 1 – Live at TTG Studios, out May 15, unearths Zappa’s October 1966 recordings with his band in the months after they released their landmark debut album Freak Out! and before they began recording 1967’s Absolutely Free.

The album marks the first Vaulternative Records — a direct-to-fan label established by Zappa’s late widow Gail and “Vaultmeister” Joe Travers in 2002 — release since 2016’s Chicago ’78, and the first release in a year-long plan to celebrate the 60th anniversary of 1966’s Freak Out.

“We’re very pleased to announce the relaunch of Vaulternative Records, which creates a direct line from The Vault to fans,” Travers said in a statement. “Frank’s AAAFNRAA philosophy — Anything Anytime Anyplace for No Reason At All — really applies here, because the material can take so many forms. It might be an interview, a raw live recording, something Frank worked on that was never released, or a fully realized concert. The goal is to uncover and share the things we know fans will appreciate most.

All Vaulternative Records releases will be exclusively available via Zappa.com, uDiscover Music, and Sound of Vinyl.

Ahead of Zappa ’66: Vol. 1 – Live at TTG Studios’ release, Vaulternative Records has shared the unreleased instrumental “Move On”:

“I decided to take advantage of the 60th anniversary and compile the best edit I could to represent what happened that day in early October 1966 when The Mothers were hired to supposedly show the world what they were responsible for,” Travers added. “The Mothers were unlike any other, and Frank Zappa, 25 years old and still within his first year of being a signed artist, was in the middle of making a large impact.”

Zappa ’66: Vol. 1 – Live at TTG Studios, available to preorder now, also features segments taken from a rare 1966 radio session, as well as liner notes from Travers and rare photographs by Earl Leaf and Barry Feinstein.

Zappa ’66: Vol. 1 – Live at TTG Studios Track List 

1. “Hello There”
2. “Freak Chouflee’”
3. “Move On”
4. “The United Mutations”
5. “Tommy Come Back!”
6. “FZ Directs the Freaks”
7. “Pomp and Circumstance Sequence” 
8. “Legalize Abortion”
9. “Twistin’ Again”
10. “The Electric Banana”
11. “I Could Be a Slave Story Untold”
12. “We Keep Changing Personnel Though”
13. “A2 Jam”
14. “Khaki Sack”
15. “Duke Of Prunes” (Edited)
16. “Victory Through Vegetables “
17. “We’re Havin’ a Freak Out!”