Here’s a little audio/visual taste of what we can expect from Zappa Plays Zappa, as recorded at the Jammy Awards last April 20. From the looks of it, the Dweez may be somewhat lacking in showmanship but by golly, he’s got the chops! I can’t wait to see these guys live in Brussels.
9 thoughts on “NYC ZPZ Video”
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Jake Cinninger’s chops ain’t so shoddy, either. In fact, his band Umphrey’s McGee is arguably the hottest little rock combo in the United States right not. Download a podcast from their Web site and hear for your own selves. They be the children of Zappa, Phish, and electric Miles.
http://www.umphreys.com/
What a self-indulgent mess. About 1 million miles away from Zappa senior.
Uh, just one question (that is, until I come up with another)…who is minding the “vault” while all these shenanigans are taking place?
Tell me this is all part of the ZFT Master Plan (capital letters) for drumming up/increasing interest and commercial potential for all things Frank…or is this just a further diversion from what they have, so far, been unable to deliver?
Not that it makes a heckuva lotta difference to ya!
Sure they are fast, technical accomplished players.
BUT
When I was in my teens I loved that kind of guitar playing (I went to Yngwie Malmsteen concerts fer crying out loud), but since I started to love the FZ thing, I’ve begun to appreciate the RIGHT NOTES, the quality of notes, over the brutal quantity of them.
In this short piece I can hear a lot of notes, but not a single phrase to appreciate.
I’ll hold my judgement to the Amsterdam concert, to hear the notes in context, but this snippet is a big disappointment.
I think this sounds OK – it’s not like Frank, but that is an unfair expectation to have. Dweezil does have a great tone.
It is odd, however, that, toward the end, with that repetitive lick, he screws up his counting a couple times and comes in early. I guess stuff happens, but…that lick is not that hard! Maybe it’s because it’s slow! Slow down, bowee!
I also think that they are technically excellent. But, as jeroen already wrote: They sound like Malmsteen / Van Halen lookalikes. My personal taste has been somewhat spoiled by FZ’s approach to guitar soloing: What makes his solos unique is that each note is part of an instant composition that he dared to execute live on stage without caring to whizz through scales as fast as possible. (Well, not that his playing was slow, though…)
I think i rather go back listening to “While you were art” on SUNPYG and its later companion “While you were art II” on Jazz From Hell, a combo that shows what i mean with “instant composition” above.
To soften my nitpicking about Dweez’s errors:
I read the RELIX articles yesterday (the one by the guy named ‘McGonigal’ is a perfect illustration of what Frank meant by the song ‘Packard Goose’ – can there ever be quite enough irony in the world? I think we know the answer to that one). Anyway, in his interview, Dweezil said that he got pretty emotional playing some of this music, and I can understand that – so maybe that’s it. Imagine being Frank’s SON, using that tone and playing that music! I’d get pretty damned emotional too!
jonny: my sentiments exactly. I mean really, let’s cut these guys some slack. The mere audacity of putting together a tour such as this one, knowing that their audience will consist of mostly sceptic die-hard FZ fans keeping their sharpened knives at the ready. I, for one, would shiver at the mere thought. We tend to poke fun at the Dweez and the ZFT goings on, but this tour, to me, looks like a labour of love. No more, no less.
I know I will go see them if they come to Chicago. They can’t be Frank/Mothers, so we shouldn’t expect that. I think it really is a sincere tribute. Kudos to ’em.