Review: Zappa Plays Zappa

"Jazz is not dead," Frank Zappa once declared.  "It just smells funny."

A sickly-sweet scent of nostalgia intermingled with a strong waft of pride Sunday at Crossroads KC as Dweezil Zappa led an eight-piece ensemble in a rewarding recital of his late father's music.

Photo by Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

Much like the collectives that bear the names of Count Basie and Glenn Miller, Zappa Plays Zappa is a ghost band.  Technical proficiency and reverence, consequently, have supplanted creativity and innovation as the band's priorities.  Zappa did a fine job of keeping his father's music fresh with what he characterized as "an entirely new set" of material.

"So many good ones to choose from," Zappa mused as fans shouted requests.  "Over eighty albums." 

Zappa admitted that he's "trying to expand the audience" for his father's eccentric work.  It's a daunting task.  Even at the height of a career informed by absurdist humor and an unlikely fusion of classical, jazz and rock, Zappa's difficult and iconoclastic music was wholly unique.  His accomplishments have become even further removed from music's mainstream since his death in 1993.

While the scatological and profane elements of Zappa's repertoire were in evidence, the emphasis Sunday was on masterful recreations of his intricate compositions. 

"When we play it," Zappa said of one complex selection, "We play it with the right notes." 

Jazz represented just a portion of the evening's two-and-a-half hour concert, but the style best showcased the band's stupendous level of playing.  Astoundingly agile ensemble work during "Blessed Relief" supported an imaginative flute solo by Scheila Gonzalez and a lustrous vibraphone outing from Billy Hulting.  Blues material including "Advance Romance" also displayed soulful nuance and leisurely confidence.

The band's rock forays were a mixed bag.  A thunderous rendition of "I'm the Slime" was stunning.  The vast array of time signatures heard on "Pick Me, I'm Clean" dazzled.   A few selections, however, were marred by bombastic solos.  Zappa is a technically marvelous guitarist, but he's occasionally guilty of tedious grandstanding.  The subtle solos from second guitarist Jamie Kime were more incisive. 

His precise playing was complemented by a wonderfully crisp sound field.  Unfortunately, a distressing number of the audience of approximately 900 took advantage of the reasonable volume level by chattering incessantly.  Perhaps they were challenged by the unfamiliar selections.  Hits like "Peaches en Regalia" and "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" were relegated to a brief medley during the encore.  The partial audience indifference was one of the evening's few flaws. 

A series of live Frank Zappa recordings is titled "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore."  His son proved otherwise Sunday.

| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

Comments

[Vandelay]

I'll never understand why people will pay a considerable amount of money for concert tickets, and then they'll proceed to chat incessantly during the performance. So frustrating.

[Bewlay]

I agree on the chatter. I think the only show I've been to that didn't have BS gabbing was Starlight.
I'm not an expert on either Zappa, I'm more of a Captain Beefheart fan. Why can't Dweezil do his own music?

[gsp]

Sounded like locusts at the Black Keys show.

[Venkman]

They were handing free Zappa tickets out to people leaving the venue after Friday night's Black Keys show. Maybe those freeloaders returned, uninterested in the music, but to continue their respective conversations from Friday night. Every event is nothing more than a social status star to pin on the chest anymore. It's sad.

[pellboy]

Except it's to pin on Facebook or their iPhones, Venkman.

[gases]

Several studies have indicated that the gases released from gerbil chips (when crushed by hard shoes) cause a reaction in the frontal postierial minor lobe of the human brain .....to put it simply .... activates the human impulse to talk way too much.

There is a simple solution to the problem.....

[kmoon]

Fabulous show! Myself, I didn't mind DZ's "tedious grandstanding" one bit - hellova guitarist! Of course Dweezil could do his own music, but the reason he's doing this is that so many of Frank's all genres/fusion compositions are so much more awesome than anything else ever written!

[kmoon]

oh, and yes, gerbil gas probably was the problem...

[yellowsnow]

i love catholic girls, with sandblasted zits and titanic t*ts

[Earney]

This was a boring show. The humor was lame and the jumping time signatures are just silly nonsense. Just because something is technical does not mean it's good.

[kmoon]

"Bobby, I'm sorry you've got a head like a potato."