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Guitar Rig Notes
Every guitarist strives to create a tone that is synonymous with their playing style.
My guitar sound and style of playing have evolved over a long period of time. I have used many different sonic tools to make music since I first started playing.
The earliest sounds I made were on a Fender Music Master that was given to me by my dad at age 6. I plugged it into one of his spare Pignose amps.
As I improved I got a Fender Stratocaster and a Kramer Flying V that can be seen on the cover sleeve of "My Mother Is A Space Cadet." I started playing through Franks Acoustic amps that he used on stage in the early 80's. That is what I used on the recording sessions for the single "My Mother Is A Space Cadet"
Next I got my Green Charvel and played through Carvin X100B amps, also from what Frank was using on stage in the early 80's. I used that amp and an Ibanez UE 405 for the "Havin' A Bad Day" album. I remember that the delay in the Ibanez was main thing I used and it was mainly for the song "Electric Hoedown". I used this set up in mono.
After that I started collecting a few more guitars. I had some more Charvels and Fenders mainly. Even though I really liked them I didn't play Gibsons at all in those days.
Towards the end of 1986 I switched to Mesa Boogie amps and used those with a variety of rack effects like the Yamaha SPX 90, and TC Electronic 2290, and Eventide H3000 in a stereo set up. A little later I also used a Roland GP-8. Slightly off topic, my Dad liked the sound of many of my presets on the GP-8 so I went to Guitar Center and bought him one. I copied all of my presets into it and he used it extensively on his 1988 tour. The clean sound that you hear him soloing with is him playing his blonde Performance Guitar through the GP-8.
I had some other pedals as well at that time but it was nothing out of the ordinary, some phasers, flangers and fuzz tones. The usual suspects. Actually I did have a stereo guitar from Steve Ripley that had a dedicated two rack space brain and an 18 pin cable to operate the guitar. Only 2 were ever made. I had one and Ry Cooder had the other. Ry recently borrowed mine since his broke. I should see if he's done with it...
Anyway, that is what I used when I made the 1988 "MY Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama" Album. The stereo guitar can be heard on the intro and outro to "Your Money Or Your Life" and the solo on "Before I get Old."
The next phase of guitars and gear came around during the sessions for "Confessions..." I was still using Mesa Boogie amps and some rack effects in stereo with a Bradshaw switching system. By this time I was using a Steinberger guitar with a trans-trem as my main guitar. It's all over that album. The Madonna signed Charvel was used a lot as well as a sea foam green Fender Strat. The mixed record is a lot brighter than my actual sounds were in the room.
Next came "Shampoohorn." Around that time my rig changed a lot. I started using Peavey 5150s and Classic 100s. At one stage the rig consisted of three 4X12s powered by 3 different amps, creating a stereo outside, dry center array. I even had Fender Bassman as a center channel at one point. I used a lot of the same rack effects and a few pedals too including an old 60s Octavia and Fuzz Face. The main guitar I played at that time was a Purple Ernie Ball Van Halen model guitar. I also played a champagne colored Fender Strat and a turquoise Fender Strat that later went through a transmogrification and became the vintage cream colored one seen in the 2006 Zappa Plays Zappa DVD. I also played my chartreuse sparkle Baritone guitar on that album on a few tunes, most notable "Did I Mention It Was Huge?".
Around that time I started recording the basic tracks for the majority of the project that is still in progress called "What The Hell Was I Thinking?" I also wrote and recorded the theme music for the EMMY winning FOX TV series "The Ben Stiller Show."
Subsequent touring for the "Shampoohorn" record saw me using an original mid 80's Kramer that was painted green but later was covered in faux cow hide material by Performance Guitar. That guitar had a sustainer in it. It became my main touring guitar for a while. I did use it on "Shamppohorn" and many other studio projects to follow. I also used a custom made Moser fretless guitar with a Les Paul junior body and a Fender strat style fretless neck.
The amp and effects rig went back to stereo for a while but my taste in guitars changed a bit. I started playing a cream colored 60s SG and I also played an old sunburst Fender Telecaster that has a signature from Albert Lee on the back. It was already there when I bought it. (An interesting connection to him comes later.)
Those two guitars were used the most on "Music For Pets" but I did also utilize both of my blue and orange custom designed Performance Guitar DZ models. The orange one had a 3 band parametric in it which was later removed and put into the Performance Guitar Jumbo Foot pedal I've been using on stage since 2010. Another guitar I used a lot at that time was my gold sparkle Ibanez Iceman. It was given to me by a friend who found it in the closet of a house he had recently moved into. Originally black, I had it painted gold sparkle by Dan Lawrence. That guitar is most notably featured on the song "Badass." Dan did a lot of the art on my guitars going back to Charvel days. The watermelon guitar and the Madonna guitar. While at Moser he painted The Dr. Seuss and Where The Wild Things Are guitars as well as the "Sheik Yer Bouti Guitar" I played on Zappa's Universe DVD.
After "Music For Pets" I designed an amp with Peavey called "Wiggy." This became my main amp for a while. It was solid state with an interesting low mid frequency graphic eq circuit. Tonally it was very reminiscent of the Acoustic amp Frank used in the mid 70's alongside his Marshall. The Wiggy is what I used when I recorded with Lisa Loeb on "Cake And Pie." At that time my main guitar became an Ernie Ball Albert Lee model. I didn't realize the subliminal effect of his signature on my tele until the time I started playing his signature model EB! He also played a very memorable solo on "What The Hell Was I Thinking?"
I did many recordings for film and television with my "Wiggy" rig. At that time I began to take a serious interest in recording and engineering. Certain types of amps and effects were being developed as smaller alternatives to big amps. There was a system by Lexicon called MPXG2 which had a 6 watt rack mounted amp along with a multi effects processor. I used this for a lot of sessions including the Britney Spears cover song "Hit Me Baby One More Time." I liked the idea of such a compact guitar rig option. At the time it was not a complete solution for every kind of tone though.
I also used it and my Wiggy amps for the album "Automatic." The song Automatic featured an effect in a TC electronics G-Force box. The first time played with the effect I started recording the song. There's also a cool wide stereo effect from a short delay made by an old ADA multi efx 4. I've added that into different versions of rigs since then specifically for that doubling effect. It was in the 2009 ZPZ rig and the 2011 ZPZ rig.
The guitar orchestration for "The Grinch" and "Hawaii 5-O" is all done with the Lexicon and some crafty eq from an Orban Parametric Equalizer.
Next I started experimenting and recording more stuff in the studio without amps. I made some strange sounding recordings for textures on "What The Hell Was I Thinking?" by running into different distortion boxes and then directly into channel strips on the console. I used Native Instruments Guitar Rig for several projects and many overdubs on my "Go with What You Know" CD. At that time I was also in development for a tube version of the Wiggy amp with Peavey. They never went to market with it but I used the prototype on "Go With What You Know." The Tube Wiggy is most notably heard on Noitpure and the solo in Fighty Bitey.
"Go With What You Know" featured a hint at the next project that was to come. All Roads Lead To Inca was inspired by the work I had been putting into learning my dad's music and the total technical transformation of my guitar playing. On that track I was using a combination of 2 special amps, a Blankenship 16 watt Leeds head and a Blankenship modified black face Fender Bassman head. It had some modulation effects added in the mix.
At that time I also started using some Cornford amps. They made a special 3 channel head for me that I used on the entire 2006 Zappa Plays Zappa tour.
That rig included 2 Cornford heads and a Blankenship Leeds head going into 2 Cornford 4X12s. The effects were TC 2290, Eventide Orville and a variety of stomp boxes. The one I used the most was a Tech 21 XXL. It provided a slightly softer Fuzz Face style sound and attack and it's most notably heard on the 2nd half of the solo in Inca Roads from the ZPZ DVD. That rig morphed throughout 2006 and 2007 and eventually included a Fender Cybertwin along with the Cornfords and the Blankenship. I was still chasing after the best recreation of my dad's classic tones. Up until that point I had not been using any of his actual gear to recreate the sounds.
By 2008 I made more radical changes to my set up. I started using the FUCHS triple overdrive supreme heads along with FUCHS 4X12 cabs and a traditional Fender Twin in the center. There were 2 giant racks that I called the Twin Towers. In them I housed some vintage and modern effects. The most modern were the Digitech GSP1101s. I had 3 of them. They had amp modeling and great effects in them. For an analog rig I had some ridiculous routing flexibility in the towers. I was using a Switchblade to route effects. Many different pedals including some Butler Tube overdrives, some Fuchs boost pedals and a variety of other boutique items. The available tones multiplied exponentially.
There were 3 main effects that I used that my father used to use to get some amazing signature tones. First, the MicMix Dynaflangers (Shut Up An Play Yer Guitar tone), 2nd, Oberheim VCF (for Ship Ahoy and envelope), and 3rd, the Systech Harmonic Energizer (Pojama People.) Those effects and many more pedals were available so I could blend amps and morph effects. This rig was by far the most expensive rig I ever had built and most complex of any I had ever put together. It sounded great but it was not very reliable. Over time it did not travel well and was very expensive to ship around the world.
View Full Size 2008 Diagram(PDF)
By 2009 I had decided to downsize out of fiscal necessity but I did not want to give up flexibility of tone or more importantly, authenticity. I started to use the Fractal Axe Effects and this became a revelation. Not only did the rig get smaller and more easily transportable, it became more flexible. The core tones and FZ tones I could recreate became more reliable and more detailed. I made a rig utilizing 2 Fractal Ultras and multiple effects pedals. I included the FZ effects like the Dyna Flanger and the Oberheim VCF and Systech. This rig had a larger pedal board than previous rigs but took up far less backline stage real estate.
View Full Size 2010 Diagram(PDF)
Back to the guitars again, the main guitar since forming Zappa Plays Zappa has been my walnut Gibson SG. I've played it at every single Zappa Plays Zappa concert I've performed. It is the workhorse and I absolutely love that guitar. It is the one guitar that helped me transform my playing the most and I would hate to part with it. It has been slightly modified since the 2006 tour to include push pull tone knobs. The bottom tone splits the coil of the brigde pick up and the top tone knock the neck and bridge pickups out of phase. It's very close to how Frank had his Roxy SG set up. It was recently set up at the Gibson custom shop in Nashville and it plays better than ever. They put it on a machine called a Plek which analyzes fret height and shaves offending frets. It made a huge difference to the playability and intonation of the instrument.
I have played a few other guitars on ZPZ tours. A Fender Strat that started it's life as a cream colored Jeff Beck model but later became a lipstick pickup sparkle factory. It was featured in some tour ads campaigns and I used it on "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" and "Suzy Creamcheese" in 2009. I've played a few Eric Johnson model Fenders as well over the years. A white one, a tobacco burst one and an ice blue one. The latter guitars have 22 fret necks and Eric Johnson was kind enough to give Fender permission to add the extra frets for me since they are not part of the specs of his signature model. I have also played a custom made Fender Stratocaster that has an embossed image of my dad layered into the tobacco burst finish and a custom shaped strat pickguard inspired by Jeff Beck.
View Full Size 2011 Diagram(PDF)
I've played my 58 re-issue Gibson Les Paul and a few Hagstrom Vikings, including an original 1969 Viking that was recently given to me as a gift during the 2011 Dweezilla music bootcamp by Ago Totaro.
I also played my Dweezil Zappa signature model Paul Reed Smith guitar and will continue to do so at future shows. The one I have is beautifully made and truly inspiring to play.
As our touring continued the worldwide shipping costs increased too. The upside is that the capabilities of the Fractal rig increased as well. With each new firmware upgrade it could do more and more. Over time I was able to remove a few items that I was carrying in the rig that I could now duplicate within the Fractal itself. Knowing that it was possible to do that made me excited for the future. I wondered if it would it be possible to one day just use one Fractal and a small pedal board without sacrificing any of my tonal requirements?
That day has arrived. I am currently set to tour the UK in November 2011 with my newest and smallest rig ever. It is filled with some of the most inspiring sounds I've ever had a chance to play.
View Full Size 2011(Baby Rig) Diagram(PDF)
The future is now and I'm inspired to make music. I have plans to record a CD of my own very soon. I'll keep you posted on what I use for that and when it will be available.
DZ
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Dweezil Zappa Bio
Dweezil Zappa was born on September 5, 1969 in Los Angeles—the son of Frank and Gail Zappa, it was inevitable that from the moment of his birth his life would be filled wall-to wall with music (his father having listed his religion as “musician” on Dweezil’s birth certificate). Dweezil’s early years were spent largely away from the spotlight—something of a rarity for the child of a celebrity, but perfect for cultivating a close relationship with his family.
Having watched his father perform concerts from the side of the stage since he was in diapers it was no surprise that he began to show an interest in music early on. At 6 years old he received his first guitar, a Fender Music Master from his dad.
This is what Dweezil's guitar looked like originally. It looks very different now. It endured serious modifications including lower horn amputation, severe burns and a Larry Flynt for President sticker. It's in a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere.
He would occasionally make noises with the guitar by plugging it in to a little Pignose amplifier.
It wasn't until he was 12 that he began to show a serious interest in manipulating the instrument to make music.
Having primarily heard the music his father was working on or listening to at home while growing up, Dweezil soon found himself exposed to some new sounds on the radio. Besides his father's music he began listening to the Beatles, Queen, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Like many aspiring guitarists of his generation, Dweezil ‘s ear was caught in a stranglehold by the trailblazing guitar styles of Edward Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. He listened to their records for hours on end trying to figure out a way to translate what he was hearing in his head to his fingers at the other end of the guitar. Along the way, he had opportunities to ask his dad for some help. "I remember asking Frank to help me figure out the song 'Revelation/Mother Earth' from Blizzard Of Oz. I really didn't know anything about chords and in that song Randy Rhoads was using classical music elements that were really new to rock guitar at the time. Frank helped me learn the finger picking intro." To gain more fundamental knowledge of technique and scales Dweezil was fortunate to have some assistance from one of the musicians in his father's band at that time, Steve Vai. Dweezil became remarkably proficient in a very short amount of time due to his intense practicing sessions.
"Steve made a notebook, which I still have, of scales and exercises and I practiced the stuff from that book at least 5 hours a day." In 1982, at the age of 12 he made his first onstage appearance with his father’s band at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. "That was a great experience. I was so excited to have been asked to play but I was incredibly nervous. Since I could only really play lead in the key of A, Frank devised a hand signal for the band to modulate the song 'Stevie's Spanking' down to A from it's original key of B. After I finished my solo he gave the cue for the band to modulate back up. It was so cool how he had so much control over the music, it almost seemed like a magic trick to me. It made a big impression on me and has stuck with me my whole life."
Later that year he recorded his first single, “My Mother Is A Space Cadet”, released on Frank Zappa’s Barking Pumpkin label. The amazing story behind that recording is that it was produced by Edward Van Halen. (On the sleeve it is credited as being produced by De Vards in order to avoid any contractual issues for Van Halen.)
(for the story of meeting Edward Van Halen for the first time click here: http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/articles/15-van-halen-star-guitar )
"There are no words to describe how inspirational it was for me to be able to work with Edward on that recording. I was 12, a novice player and in complete awe of his super human accomplishments. I had a terrible sense of rhythm and he tried really hard to help me with that. I had only been playing for around 9 months and I had never practiced with a metronome. He was funny in the studio. We were all so young, just 12 and 13 and Edward joked that it was time for us kids to have a milk and cookie break. When I played the solo on "Space Cadet" Edward worked on getting the right guitar sound. That was one of my favorite parts of the session. We were using one of Frank's brown Acoustic combo amps.
He had 5 or 6 of them that he was using on tour and Edward played through all of them to see which one sounded best. At one point he was teaching me about doing punch in over dubs, he explained that I had to play along with the parts that were already recorded so that it would seamlessly blend with the new part I was about to record. I remember it being very difficult to do since the stuff I played for the solo was not worked out ahead of time. I did the whole solo with all of the finger tapping stuff and vibrato bar dives. Edward made up a cool part that he showed me for after the solo that lead back to the vocal but I couldn't bend the unison notes in tune since my hands weren't strong enough. So he ended up playing the unison bend melody after the solo. The slide guitar intro came about around then as well. I couldn't play that in tune either since I had never played slide before and it's a specialized technique that takes a long time to master. He played that intro as well. Watching him do that stuff was so impressive. I did all of the other guitar stuff that you hear on the record"
In 1984, Dweezil contributed guitar solos to both “Stevie’s Spanking” and “Sharleena” on Frank’s album Them Or Us.
In 1986, Dweezil made his debut in Hollywood as an actor with his role in the classic 80s film “Pretty In Pink." 1987 saw Dweezil raise his profile further with another film role alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mick Fleetwood in "The Running Man."
In television he worked as a guest MTV VJ. During that same period he recorded and released his first full length album, Havin’ A Bad Day. This album contained the single “Let’s Talk About It” which featured Moon Zappa on vocals and found itself on regular rotation on MTV. The video featured cameo appearances from Frank Zappa, Robert Wagner and Jane Fonda as well.
Around this same time, Dweezil made his own cameo appearances on records for a variety of diverse artists. He played a solo on the Fat Boys "Baby You're A Rich Man"(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipzj_FvHgT8), as well as on the Grammy Nominated cover of "Wipeout" with Herbie Hancock and Terry Bozzio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INdKbZB1mBA) from the "Back To The Beach" film soundtrack. He was asked to join Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt in contributing guitar performances to Miami Vice star Don Johnson's solo album. While Dweezil actually played on the song "The Last Sound Love Makes" it was his appearance in the video for Don Johnson’s single “Heartbeat" that would most notably link him to the project.
1988 saw Dweezil sign a deal with Chrysalis Records, releasing his second album My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama. - add link - The title track and video, a cover of the Frank Zappa single, found it's way into the MTV rotation. More TV work followed in 1990 Dweezil and Moon Zappa starred with Laverne And Shirley legend Cindy Williams in a sitcom for CBS titled Normal Life.
With the release of his third album Confessions in 1991, Dweezil began to branch out musically, blending his heavy rock approach with touches of his father’s distinct compositional insignia. Guest appearances on this album pointed the way toward the future for Dweezil, including contributions from Nuno Bettencourt , Gary Cherone and Pat Badger of Extreme and legendary guitarists Warren DeMartini, Steve Lukather and Zakk Wylde as well as Frank Zappa sidemen Mike Keneally and Scott Thunes. Both Moon and Ahmet Zappa also added vocals to the album.
There were a handful of live shows played to support the Confessions album. That tour saw the band develop a unique set of skills and usher in the birth of a remarkable non stop medley that grew to contain 200 songs performed in 20 minutes.
After completing the Confessions tour Dweezil formed a new band and project with Ahmet called Z. The band was primed to make a new album. Just as the band started to solidify the drummer Josh Freese exited.
Armed with a mountain of material and no permanent drummer the band entered the family owned rehearsal space called Joe's Garage and rehearsed with several different drummers who ended up playing on tracks for the new album. Those drummers included Terry Bozzio, Mark Craney, Toss Panos, and Tal Bergman. Rather than move to a studio they set up for recording rehearsals. The band recorded over 3 dozen tracks at Joe's Garage. The "Shampoohorn" album was completed in 1992 but awaited it's release over a year later. It was eventually released with 2 different track listings.
The band featured Mike Keneally and Scott Thunes and initiated it's new permanent drummer, Berklee School Of Music-trained drummerpar excellence Joe Travers before departing for a world tour. Thunes departed later in 1994 and was replaced by Bryan Beller who had attended classes at Berklee alongside Joe Travers. The band toured the US and Europe, and in 1996 released a follow-up album, Music For Pets, which had been pieced together over the previous three years. By the time of the album’s release, both Beller and Keneally had left the band and Z gradually ceased to exist. Dweezil stayed in the public eye however with several projects including composing the theme music for the Emmy Award winning Fox television show "The Ben Stiller Show" and on camera TV appearances including taking the role of Ajax in the Klasky Csupo animated series Duckman and a TV series for the USA network called Happy Hourwhich he starred in alongside Ahmet.
2000 saw Dweezil issue his first solo album since 1991’sConfessions with the release of Automatic. By this time, Dweezil’s musicianship had come full-circle as he showed off his guitar virtuosity with eclectic all guitar orchestrations of "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" and "Hawaii 5-0."
In 2003 More television work came about as Dweezil formed a band for the WB unconventional improvisational comedy "On The Spot" and performed live in each episode.http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/videos/36
He also composed the theme music for the WB series "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" and composed dozens of tracks for the music library Extreme Music. Many of these track are heard on various television shows around the world.
The next several years saw Dweezil preparing to take on an extremely difficult challenge—bringing his father’s legendary music back to the concert stage. In 2006, some indication of what could be expected surfaced with Dweezil’s next solo album Go With What You Know. The album featured Dweezil’s most creative, advanced guitar work to date and he was aided by the propulsive brilliance of Joe Travers as well as keyboardist Aaron Arntz and bassist Pete Griffin, who would soon become mainstays in the live band Dweezil was putting together.
Finally, in the spring of 2006, Dweezil’s new live band Zappa Plays Zappa hit the road for their first, tour. Playing a long, ambitious set of Frank Zappa favorites and obscure gems to big audiences of crazed Zappa fans, Dweezil proved that he could reach his goal to form a core band of previously unknown expert musicians capable of respectfully executing his father's music. He was uniquely qualified to bring these compositions back to life with complete authenticity from the page to the stage. Helping to deliver the goods was his absolutely stellar band of first-rate musicians including Joe Travers, Pete Griffin, Aaron Arntz, brass/woodwinds/keyboards/obvious fan favorite Scheila Gonzales, percussionist Billy Hulting and guitarist Jamie Kime.
Without a "cosmik crystal ball" it was impossible to see to how far into the future this project would last. Bearing that in mind Dweezil decided to add some extra frosting to the cake and invite some former FZ band members to join him on the inaugural tour. The earliest ZPZ tour included band alumni Steve Vai on guitar, Napoleon Murphy Brock on tenor sax and lead vocals and Terry Bozzio on drums.
This lineup was captured in the group’s first Zappa Plays Zappa release on CD and DVD in 2008. This project netted Dweezil his first Grammy Award win for Best Instrumental Performance for its version of the Frank Zappa classic “Peaches En Regalia”.
In 2007, the tour continued and new elements were introduced. Ray White joined the tour on vocals. This lineup of the band recorded their next live outing Return Of The Son Of… which was issued under Dweezil’s name in 2010. Once again Dweezil found himself up for Grammy contention when the version of Frank’s guitar solo vehicle “The Deathless Horsie” was nominated for Best Instrumental Performance.
2009 saw ZPZ undergo its first major personnel changes. Both Aaron Arntz and Ray White left the band and were replaced by keyboardist Chris Norton and Ben Thomas on lead vocals and trumpet. The band continued their run of successful worldwide tours, playing to devoted fans and showcasing a constantly-changing selection of Frank Zappa compositional gems. In October 2009 the band started to become known as Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa, and in 2010 they embarked on a US tour during which the band played one of Frank’s best-loved albums, Apostrophe (‘), in its entirety.
Constantly learning and evolving his guitar art, Dweezil Zappa is both the modern face of Zappa music and the person who can bring it fully-formed into the future.
His own music has been sidelined for a while but is currently experiencing a resurgence. 2012 will see the debut of new releases of Dweezil's own music and the continuation of his music boot camp Dweezilla.
Dweezil’s proudest accomplishments are as father to his two daughters Zola Frank Zappa (born 2006) and Ceylon Indira Zappa (born 2008). He lives in Los Angeles.
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RTF ZPZ Review from Buffalo 8-9-11
Updated: August 9, 2011, 8:31 AM
There have been many fantastic concerts in Western New York, and there will be more still in the coming weeks. But the highlight of the summer concert season from the perspective of musicianship took place on Monday inside UB's Center for the Arts, as jazz-prog legends Return to Forever joined with Frank Zappa repertory ensemble Zappa Plays Zappa. Everyone else can sit down now. Your band may rock. Your tunes might be memorable and fun to hear live and loud. But you can't play like these guys. Forget it.
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Return To Forever, Zappa Plays Zappa
UB Center for the Arts
Monday
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Of course, that isn't the point. The best jazz and progressive music is never about showing off for its own sake. It's about employing skill and virtuosity as a springboard to take musicians and listeners alike to some place ... out there. And that's what happened with both ensembles on Monday. The packed and enthused Center for the Arts crowd was wowed by first-rate musicians performing wonderfully, an often irreverently composed, tunes.
Led by the late composer Frank's son Dweezil, Zappa Plays Zappa -- guitarist Dweezil, second guitarist Jamie Kime, sax/flute/keyboard player and singer Schiela Gonzalez, drummer Joe Travers, bassist Pete Griffin, percussionist Billy Hulting and singer/trumpeter Ben Thomas -- offered a set that pulled liberally from several eras of the late Zappa's career, though it did concentrate on '70s material. That wasn't a problem. This band has been the finest, most versatile and consistently reliable repertory ensemble -- "tribute band," if you must -- in the country for several years now.
Monday's show posed no threat to that well-earned title, as the group arrived with an inspired reading of "Heavy Duty Judy," made a concession to Zappa's "hits" -- parenthetical, yes, because he never really had any -- with a hilarious but incredibly tight "Dancin' Fool," and then reminded everyone in attendance why Zappa's legacy as a composer of incredibly complex but oddly beautiful music will endure with a jaw-dropping run-through of "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?"
Dweezil took one of several "Frank"-esque solos during "Pojamma People," but part of what has made this band's development so awesome to behold has been the manner in which the players have made the music their own while simultaneously treating it with both respect and reverence. The "Big Swifty" interplay drove this point home. By this point, each song was being sent on its way with a standing ovation from the crowd, and the players themselves appeared to be deeply moved by the reception. So an encore of a pair of tunes from Frank's "Hot Rats" album -- "Willie the Pimp" and "Peaches En Regalia" -- came as our reward.
An outstanding set, and a tough act to follow, even for legends like Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Jean Luc Ponty, Lenny White and Frank Gambale. No worries, though -- RTF simply slayed us all with a lengthy set drawing from the earliest days and including material from the most recent effort, "Forever" -- a mostly trio-based record featuring beautiful new compositions performed by the trio of Corea, Clarke and White.
Return to Forever is a band generally considered to be peers with the likes of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather report, and this makes sense, considering that the musicians in these bands all came from serious jazz backgrounds, and were eager to bring some of the urgency and energy of rock to their audiences. But make no mistake -- Corea and company play jazz. Serious chord changes took place, incredible improvised solos, and some daring real-time interplay marked the set from top to bottom.
The expansive "Medieval Overture," a playful but powerful "Senor Mouse," and a mind-melting blend of funk, jazz and prog in the form of "After the Cosmic Rain" comprised the majority of the first hour of the show, and all were played with considerable fire. Corea in particular appeared animated and way into it, leading the band with his facial gestures, his body movement, and his harmonic hints and cadences.
Interestingly, it was the band's take on Ponty's solo piece "Renaissance" that pulled the most searing and torrid improvisation out of the band members. Ponty and Clarke traded searing 16th note figures, while guitarist Gambale offered a layer of legato, acoustic lines behind them. Drummer White played with a painterly air, adding color or taking it away at will, depending on the demands of the piece.
Above and throughout it all, Corea played with mastery, majesty and soul. He remains one of the best of the best.
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Upcoming tours and projects 2012
2012 is panning out to be a very busy year, where I am taking ZPZ out on the road as well as pushing ahead with a number of interesting solo initiatives.
We’ve already done a run of shows in California and western states. We were joined by Scott Thunes for these shows and played with Allan Holdsworth twice too, which was a thrill for me. We did a fairly unusual setlist with a lot of MOI era content and influences. We had a great time and the shows went really well.
I’ve just announced the onsale of my new album – F.O.H. which is another release by the U.K. label Fantom Records. They were behind the Live – In The Moment album and are pushing hard to get a DVD project finalised for release this year too.
On the solo side, I am using whatever time I can grab to advance some of my own compositions – spanning both classical and rock genres. I have already written some classical material and I am looking forward to performing that later this year, possibly with a small orchestra. Details have yet to be finalised, but I will keep you posted.
I am about to embark on the Hendrix Experience tour and I have really enjoyed learning some of Jimi’s work. I’ve been asked if I can perform with the Hendrix/Zappa Stratocaster and regret that I can’t get affordable insurance to cover the risk of the guitar being stolen or damaged. I am going to use the guitar for some of my project work, though….
I will be off to Israel late springtime, to do a couple of performances there in collaboration with another artist (details to be announced soon) and will be running a masterclass clinic while I am there.
The ZPZ tour down to Australia is well advanced and we will be playing three shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle as well as the Byron Bay Bluesfest. We are all looking forward to getting back to Australia, where Frank and ZPZ have a great following.
We’re juggling with the opportunity to play four shows down in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in the early summer and then we’ve got a big run planned for the U.S. in the summer, as well as Dweezilla. That will see us performing 26 shows in what will be an incredibly busy period!
If the winds are favourable, we may be heading to Italy in mid August! I recently went to Sicily to visit Partenico, where Frank’s family originally came from. There’s a project brewing for 4 shows in Italy in mid/late August and - as always – it depends on the financial viability of the offers we get. But, I am really keen to return to Sicily as there’s some strong Zappa ties and it would be great to do.
In November and December we are planning a ZPZ run in the UK and Europe, as well as a show in Israel. The UK Roundhouse is working on a show as part of a broader Zappa related event (all very hush hush at the moment!) and we are putting together a run of shows in the UK following the Roundhouse, (8 or 9 shows) Europe (9 or 10 shows) and Israel.
Finally, we would like to squeeze in time to see our friends and fans in the North East and Canada, so we’re looking at options there.
That’s a snapshot of what we’re planning. These things are always fluid, but we are hard at work! Thanks for all your support!
Dweezil.
1st March 2012
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Dweezil Zappa - Live "In The Moment"
Dweezil Zappa - Live "In The Moment"
FALL 2011
Dweezil Zappa - LIve "In The Moment" is available to order NOW!
U.S. buyers can buy the album through my new online webstore. I will be adding a number of other items to my store in the future.
UK and rest of world buyers may order from Fantom Records
Thanks again for your support! I hope you enjoy the CD.
What is it? It's a double CD compendium of excerpted guitar solos culled from the last 3 years on tour with Zappa Plays Zappa.
The mixes are from Front Of House References (FOH). **
- Disc One:
- 1. Flim Flam
- 2. Guitarlos Mantana
- 3. That's Heavy
- 4. Curly Toed Shoes
- 5. You Can't Get There From Here
- 6. That's Right
- 7. Stink Patrol
- 8. The Stink Eye
- 9. They're Attracted To The Light Mama
- 10. Neapolitan Sunset
- 11. First Day With The New Brain
- 12. Follow Me
- 13. Your Slime Is On Fire
Disc 2:- 1. Just A Trim
- 2. Phase McNugget
- 3. Southern Gravy
- 4. Canadian Jazzercise
- 5. Scratch
- 6. Hair Club For Ponies (Greasey)
- 7. Where Everyone Still Looks The Same
- 8. I Promise Not To Mess Up Your Hair
- 9. A Chick Walks On To The Stage...
- 10. Bat Sandwich
- 11. What Did You Mean By That?
- 12. A Night Out In Tel Aviv
- 13. Midrange Exploitation
- 14. Is This Safe?
- 15. What Kind Of Muffin Is This?
- 16. Deathless Horsie Rides Again
Dweezil Zappa - "Return Of The Son Of..." Double CD live album
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This is a double CD set with live performances from 2008 - 09. It's available in North America right now!
http://www.musicspace.com/redir.aspx?ciid=47730&url=/product.aspx%3Fproductcode=MS3102%26ciid=47730
It will be available in stores worldwide in July. For a quick listen to all of the tracks on the CDs please visit : http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/songs/category/return-of-the-son-of -
Me Likey This #3
An inspirational quote from a fine Italian
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Van Halen Star Guitar
This guitar comes with a great story. Picture this if you will. It's 1982 and the biggest rock band in the world is VAN HALEN. I was 12 years old and had only been playing guitar for 9 months. Eruption and the Mean Streets intro were on a constant loop in my head. I was signed up to play at my school talent show. It was coming up in a week. I was going to play "Running With The Devil" with my little teenage rocking combo.
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Me Likey This
This area will soon be inhabited by things I like. Quotes, links to stuff etc.
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