King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (or simply King Kong) is an album by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 artist Jean-Luc Ponty

Jean-Luc Ponty

Jean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...

 first released in 1970 on Liberty Records

Liberty Records

Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...

' World Pacific Records subsidiary label. The album contains numerous selections Zappa had previously recorded either with the Mothers of Invention

The Mothers of Invention

The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...

 or under his own name, including:

• "King Kong," originally included on Zappa's 1969 album Uncle Meat
  Uncle Meat
  Uncle Meat is the fifth studio album by the Mothers of Invention, released in 1969. It is billed as a supposed "soundtrack" to a film by The Mothers of Invention which was, in the end, never made. The front cover, designed by Cal Schenkel, included the words ""...
  
  
• "Idiot Bastard Son," from the Mothers' 1968 album We're Only in It for the Money
  We're Only in It for the Money
  We're Only in It For the Money is the third studio album by The Mothers of Invention, released in March 1968. The album peaked at number thirty on the Billboard 200...
  
  
• "Twenty Small Cigars," from Zappa's 1970 album Chunga's Revenge
  Chunga's Revenge
  Chunga's Revenge is an album by Frank Zappa, released on October 23, 1970. Zappa's first effort of the 1970s marks the first appearance of former Turtles members Flo & Eddie on a Zappa record, and signals the dawn of a controversial epoch in Zappa's history...
  
  
• "America Drinks and Goes Home," from the Mothers' 1967 album Absolutely Free
  Absolutely Free
  Absolutely Free is the second album by The Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. Absolutely Free is, again, a display of complex musical composition with political and social satire. The band had been augmented since Freak Out! by the addition of saxophone player Bunk Gardner, keyboardist Don...
  
  

George Duke

George Duke

George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

, who would eventually join Zappa and Ponty in the Mothers, is featured on piano on all tracks. Ernie Watts

Ernie Watts

Ernest James "Ernie" Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist...

 is featured on alto and tenor saxophone on all tracks except for "Music for Violin and Low Budget Orchestra". Zappa himself plays guitar on one selection, and Mothers members Ian Underwood

Ian Underwood

Ian Robertson Underwood is a woodwind and keyboards player. He began his career by playing San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses and bars with his improvisational group the Jazz Mice in the mid 1960s before he became a member of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1967 for their third studio...

 (tenor sax) and Art Tripp

Art Tripp

Arthur Dyer Tripp III is a chiropractor and former musician best known for his work as a percussionist with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.-Early career:Tripp grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started playing drums in...

 (drums) contribute to the album as well.

Side One

1. "King Kong" – 4:54
2. "Idiot Bastard Son" – 4:00
3. "Twenty Small Cigars" – 5:35
4. "How Would You Like to Have a Head Like That" (Jean-Luc Ponty) – 7:14

Side Two

1. "Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Orchestra" – 19:20
2. "America Drinks and Goes Home" – 2:39

Personnel

• Jean-Luc Ponty – electric violin, baritone violectra
• Frank Zappa
  Frank Zappa
  Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
  
   – guitar
• George Duke
  George Duke
  George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
  
   – piano, electric piano
• Ernie Watts
  Ernie Watts
  Ernest James "Ernie" Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist...
  
   – alto and tenor sax
• Ian Underwood
  Ian Underwood
  Ian Robertson Underwood is a woodwind and keyboards player. He began his career by playing San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses and bars with his improvisational group the Jazz Mice in the mid 1960s before he became a member of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1967 for their third studio...
  
   – tenor sax
• Buell Neidlinger
  Buell Neidlinger
  Buell Neidlinger is an American cellist and double bassist.Neidlinger was born in Westport, Connecticut. After Yale University, he moved to New York City and began playing in various jazz settings...
  
   – bass
• Wilton Felder – Fender bass
• Gene Estes – vibraphone, percussion
• John Guerin
  John Guerin
  John Payne Guerin worked as a drummer, percussionist, and recording artist worldwide.Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer he began performing with Buddy DeFranco in 1960...
  
   – drums
• Art Tripp
  Art Tripp
  Arthur Dyer Tripp III is a chiropractor and former musician best known for his work as a percussionist with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.-Early career:Tripp grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and started playing drums in...
  
  – drums
• Donald Christlieb – bassoon
• Gene Cipriano – oboe, English horn
• Vincent DeRosa – French horn, descant
• Arthur Maebe – French horn, tuben
• Jonathan Meyer – flute
• Harold Bemko – cello
• Milton Thomas – viola

Production notes

• Richard Bock – producer
• Frank Zappa – arranger, composer, conductor
• Gerald Wilson – conductor
• Ian Underwood – conductor
• Leonard Feather – liner notes