During the 1960s Zappa worked as a producer at an underground music studio called Studio Z. After it was broken up by the Vice Squad, Zappa was asked to lend his guitar talents to a local R&B band called The Soul Giants. Zappa quickly assumed leadership of the group, whom he persuaded to play his own music in hopes of scoring a record contract. The band, which renamed themselves The Mothers of Invention, gave the world its first taste of Zappa's experimental and often abrasive approach to music.
1970s and Fusion
After disbanding the Mothers of Invention in 1969, Zappa embarked on a solo career that explored the nascent genre of jazzalbum'>Chunga's Revenge. During a concert in 1971 he fell off a stage and spent several years recovering from numerous severe injuries, including a crushed larynx.
1980s and the Synclavier
After waging several successful lawsuits over Warner Brothers unauthorized release of his albums, Zappa entered the 1980s stronger than ever. This decade saw him embrace the Synclavier, an early synthesizer and sampler, as a major compositional and performance tool. In 1985 he became a political icon when he testified against the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) for their attempts to place warning labels on albums deemed "Inappropriate". His last world tour, in 1988, was captured on the albums Make a Jazz Noise Here (1991).
