Speaking of Frank Zappa, are any of you fans of his? I've never really heard too much of his music, but I happened upon a radio show about him the other day. They were interviewing musicians who were in his band, and they were positively reverent about him. One woman (a vibraphone player) was describing his system of hand signals. Apparently he had a very complex system that he used to control the music in real time. She said that they'd be playing something, and she'd be really getting into it, and all of a sudden he'd make the gesture that meant that she had to launch into a particular musical phrase from a different song at top speed. She had to do this on command, whether or not it fit the current piece of music, which everybody else kept playing. He had dozens of these signals - some for individual musicians and some for the whole band. She was playing bits and pieces while she talked - really complex stuff. One piece had a time signature change in every bar. But it was not cacaphonic - despite the seemingly random way he called for these substitutions, it all fit together nicely. These musicians described him as a kind of a sonic sculpter. As I heard some of the snippets they played, I had the same reaction that I often have to jazz - I was impressed by the virtuosity, but it's only academic to me. Somehow it doesn't engage me on an emotional level.