News from the darkest corners...

The Zappa Family Trust will kick off a comprehensive campaign to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the late Frank Zappa‘s albums next month. “Lumpy Money,” a three-CD “audio documentary” due out Nov. 25, is the first offering in the series — and, according to Zappa’s widow Gail, the most unique.

“These two records happen to be Frank’s masterworks,” Zappa tells Billboard, “so this is the most ambitious of all the (40th anniversary) projects. The challenge is how to educate the audience to understand what ‘Lumpy Gravy‘ and ‘We’re Only in It for the Money‘ are, and what they’re part of.

“So in this particular case we have to be more about the process than the outtakes. You’re going to be listening to how Frank worked, all the little developments of these pieces as opposed to just an outtake or another performance of that particular piece. You’re going to hear how he got there from here.”

The “Lumpy Money” package will feature two separate mixes of each album, done by Frank himself. It will include feature the first official release of the instrumental, Igor Stravinsky-influenced orchestral “ballet” version of “Lumpy Gravy” that Zappa recorded in 1967 for Capitol Records but decided to revamp, adding rock musicians and eventually releasing it on MGM/Verve four months after “We’re Only in it For the Money” in 1968. Gail Zappa says a “sister” project will be released shortly after “Lumpy Money” that will contain more music from those sessions.

Other releases in the series will be treated “more as individual albums,” drawing material from the Sequin Mines vault underneath the Zappa family home. A new version of “Cruising with Ruben and the Jets,” Frank Zappa’s third 1968 release, is also being prepared, while the Zappa Family Trust is working on other projects such as a vintage live album from the Roxy in Los Angeles and a set of Zappa’s renditions of the compositions French composer Edgar Varese.

“With the 40th anniversary projects, it’s not as much about ‘Can we make a date?’ as ‘Can we make it? Do we have vault material we can put together for these?’” Gail Zappa explains. “That’s something we have to do if these are going to be worth anything to people.”

Neal Hefti, a former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer who worked with Count Basie and Woody Herman and later composed the memorable themes for the movie “The Odd Couple” and the campy hit TV series “Batman,” has died. He was 85.

Described as “one of the most influential big band arrangers of the 1940s and ’50s” in “The Encyclopedia of Popular Music,” Hefti turned his attention to composing for film and television in the 1960s.

Among his credits as a film composer are “Sex and the Single Girl,” “Harlow” (one of his most famous tunes, Girl Talk, came out of the score), “How to Murder Your Wife,” “Boeing Boeing,” “Duel at Diablo,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “A New Leaf,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and The Odd Couple, whose theme he reprised for the 1970s TV series.

Hefti also gained wide notice for composing the energetic title theme for Batman, the over-the-top 1966-68 superhero series that became an overnight sensation.

It was, Hefti later said, the hardest piece of music he ever wrote.

Hefti’s “Batman” tune became a Top 40 hit — for both the Hefti and the Marketts’ versions — and won a 1966 Grammy Award for best instrumental theme.

The son of a traveling salesman, Hefti was born Oct. 29, 1922, in Hastings, Neb. He began playing the trumpet at age 11.

His family was poor, and in high school he started playing in local bands during summer vacation to help his family financially. Hefti began writing arrangements in high school for local bands, and some of his arrangements also were used by the Earl Hines band.

In 1941, two days before his high school graduation, Hefti was asked to tour with the Dick Barry band, which had lost some of its musicians to the military.

The short-lived job ended in New Jersey. But other band jobs followed, including playing with the Bob Astor, Charlie Barnet, Bobby Byrne, Horace Heidt and Charlie Spivak bands.

Hefti, who was classified 4-F during World War II after being hit by a car in New York and breaking his pelvis, joined Woody Herman’s band in 1944.

He did the arrangements for many of the Herman band’s popular recordings, including composing and arranging “The Good Earth” and “Wild Root.” He also co-arranged, with Ralph Burns, “Caldonia.”

Hefti formed his own band in 1951, with his wife as lead vocalist. But after two years of touring, he returned to arranging and studio work. As a composer and arranger for Basie in the 1950s, Hefti composed numerous tunes that were featured on various Basie albums.

That included the Grammy Award-winning album “Basie,” which Hefti produced. Known as “Atomic Basie” because of the atomic explosion pictured on the cover, the album featured 11 songs composed and arranged by Hefti, including “Splanky,” “Kid from Red Bank” and “Lil’ Darlin,” which Hefti wrote for his daughter.

As head of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Reprise in the early ’60s, Hefti arranged and conducted “Sinatra and Basie: A Historical Musical First” and “Sinatra and Swingin’ Brass.”

Hefti retired in 1976.