Frank Zappa's 'last word'

Travers works closely with Gail, submitting ideas for releases. Ultimately, she has the final word. "I kind of look at the progression of the releases, like if we've released a record from a band in 1976, I don't want to stay in that realm. I want to jump around and try to cover different areas. . . . I try to prioritize a lot of things that Frank didn't," Travers says. "There is an album. . . called 'Wazzoo,' which is a 20-piece band that Frank only did eight shows with but never released anything from. But we just did."

The Zappa label is dedicated to work wholly produced by Frank Zappa, while Vaulternative highlights old sessions, rehearsals, sonic threads long stored away. The Zappa Family Trust has about 40 projects in the works, Gail says.

"We could easily put out five to eight projects a year and can do that for the next few years." That would make Zappa almost as prolific as he was when he was living.

"Years ago my husband said, 'Sell everything and get out of this horrible business.' Did I listen? No. I tried. I really tried. But I realized early on that I have to defend his right to have been here in the first place," Gail says.

So all of this, every choice, weighs heavy. "The best thing that I can hope is to . . . keep windows open to be able to discover the music. If [people] get to the original recordings, and even Zappa Plays Zappa and other groups that respect the intent of the composer then that music is going to be with them for the rest of their lives.

"It is not a causal relationship," she says. "So that's the reason, the whole motivation for what I do what I do. Because I owe it to Frank and what I feel about his music. When it's said and done, I still work for that guy."

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lynell.george@latimes.com

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Displaying his Frankophilia

Back IN the '70s, Pat Towne was one of those boys who was out there listening -- listening for something out of the ordinary, something with substance. "I was the kind of kid who didn't dance in lock step to the disco beat, because it looked like everybody was marching in step and becoming mindless," Towne says.

As a prog-rock guy into Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes, Towne was fascinated by Frank Zappa's abstract expressionist musical canvas. But there was something else, an anti-conformist message, that he found intriguing: "His music attacked those kinds of people and that kind of thinking. It instantly appealed to me. As well as it being great music."