Reviews Archiv 248

He was a genius and a madman same time. Whereby madness is maybe a bit too much. I'd rather say excentric, that's what this extraordinary musician had been. During his carriere he released more then 60 albums. Sometimes they went beyond the average taste of music, so unique so brilliant and so crazy. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure to see Frank Zappa playing live on stage. Therefore I've seen his son Dweezil performing, who started out in music when he was very young under the eyes of his dad. He has released sis albums until now. 'Go With What You Know' is the newest one from 2006.
My first meeting and interview including the show at the Marquee with Dweezil and Ahmed Zappa I had in 1991. And I still remember it very well.

The Zappa Family Trust does look after the musical heritage of Frank Zappa, who died aged 53 in 1993 much too early. What a great loss for the world of music. But Dweezil, who does look like his father, and plays the guitar almost like his father, - maybe he ain't that excentric, at least he doesn't seem so, - has decided to let the music of Frank live up again. Not so easy I presume, because Zappas music is probably as difficult as a chinese geometric formula. And only somebody who is an extraordinary musician himself can put up with that. Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa, or better Dweezil has been passed on that talent from his dad. That's for sure. For about one year, the now 38 year old is touring round the globe with the Zappa Plays Zappa project. And yeeeesssss, he's made it. The music of his dad is more alive than ever, and because of this and the visual similarity between father and son, we do get a de ja vu into the past. Very interesting is the fact, that there are always some well known guestmusicians on the trail. Im the US it was Steve Vai or Terry Bozzio, the former Zappa Drummer. Not so in Germany now. But therefore we've got Ray White, who takes most of of the vocals over at he set. He did work with Frank on albums like "Tinsel Town Rebellion" und "Zappa in New York". Apart from him there is: Joe Travers (Drums), Billy Hulting (Percussion), Scheila Gonzalez (Keyboards, Saxophone, Voc.), Aaron Arntz (Keyboards, Trumpet), Peter Griffin (Bass), Jaime Kime (Rhythm Git) - all of them are great musicians, who present their part to this show to make it so special.

I don have so much respect for my father and his work, and I want, that more people get to know him. I think, the best way to discover his music, is at a live gig, were it get's to your bones". That's what Dweezil said in the beginning of the whole Zappa Plays Zappa production. But the intention to present the music to a young audiance does not really work, at least not here in munich. Because the audiance here consist mainly of oldies beyond their mid fourties and older, who remember Frank very well and even had seem him playing live in the past when he was still alive. By the way, Frank is featured in the show. He appears at the big screen in the back of the stage, singing and playing posthum . And the band is accompanying him live here tonight. This action is so technical perfectly done, that you really get the impression, Frank has just popped in for a quick stint from cloud 7.
Yeah of course Zappa Music is not everybody's cup of tea. But he was, like mentioned before, a genius, thanks to these special harmonies, the abstract break of styles. And Dweezil does so well to transfer this music and this feeling with his special charming selfconfidence and how he leads his band. During the duet with his dad, he looks at the screen with so much respect and a special sparkle in his eyes.
You can't consume Zappa music within the normal 90 minutes set. It needs so much more. And to get it straight, in the end we got here a 3 hours epos, which is so colourful and rich of different angles and improvisations, that you don't even realize the time it takes. Oh by the way, what's up to improvising... Ray White pays a hommage to our Octoberfest and invents some new lyrics to the music - saying: '“I shouldn’t have had that last beer tonight“. One to zero for you Ray, and people luv it. Apart from that, it's all those songs from the setlist with only one eception but with lots of improvisations.
Well done Dweezil. That was an absolute perfect performance with a lot of entertainment and even more memory of Frank. And most of all it has ensured us, that the music of your dad will survive.
However, this concert definately belongs to the top 5 highlights of over 90 gigs I've seen this year so far.

http://www.zappaplayszappa.com/ http://www.dweezilzappa.com/ http://www.zappa.com/

PS: but as if 3 hours performance wouldn't be enought, Dweezil comes out again to give one autograph. But he ends up signing pics, tickets and covers for over 60 minutes. And yes, he does remember that very night at the London Marquee Club back in 1991.....