American musician, Frank Zappa, died of prostate cancer in 1993 at 52.
Before his passing, he asked his wife to sell his master recordings and get out of the music business.
Following Zappa’s death, his widow Gail created the Zappa Family Trust, which owns the rights to Zappa’s music and some other creative output: more than 60 albums were released during Zappa’s lifetime and 40 posthumously.
Upon Gail’s death in October 2015, the Zappa children received shares of the trust; Ahmet and Diva received 30% each, Moon and Dweezil received 20% each.
His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of American culture.
In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral, and musique concrète works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.
Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.