Stream Frank Zappa’s ‘The Hot Rats Sessions’

Coinciding with the recent 50th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s landmark solo album Hot Rats, is the release today of the massive six-disc box set, The Hot Rats Sessions. The archival collection from Zappa Records/UMe features the complete sessions held in July 1969 that produced Hot Rats.

Production of The Hot Rats Sessions was overseen by the Zappa Trust and produced by Ahmet Zappa and Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers. The original 1969 sessions included Zappa (who died in 1993), along with Ian Underwood, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Jean Luc Ponty, Max Bennett, Jon Guerin, Paul Humphrey, Ron Selico, Johnny Otis, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and a 15-year-old Shuggie Otis. The CD version of The Hot Rats Sessions comes with a 28-page booklet comprised of never-before-seen photos from the sessions, photos of master tapes and tape boxes, outtakes from the cover art shoot and essays by Underwood and Zappa fan and The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. The physical edition also includes a “Zappa Land” board game.

Stream Frank Zappa’s The Hot Rats Sessions below: