BARRYMORE THEATER
MADISON, WI
SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
DWEEZIL ZAPPA: Guitar, Vocals
with
RYAN BROWN: Drums, Vocals
SCHEILA GONZALEZ: Vocals, Saxophone, Flute, Keyboards, Percussion
KURT MORGAN: Bass Guitar, Vocals
CHRIS NORTON: Keyboards, Synthesizers, Vocals
BEN THOMAS: Vocals, Guitar, Trombone, Trumpet, Percussion, Harmonica
On February 17, 2014, I experienced the live performance of Guitarist Dweezil Zappa and his exemplary touring ensemble Zappa Plays Zappa for the very first time, as they arrived in my city for their then latest stop on their tour, which celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the album "Roxy And Elsewhere" (released September 10, 1974) as originally composed, arranged, produced and performed by Dweezil's Father, the iconic and individualistic Frank Zappa.
Over the course of two sets and three hours, the band delivered a phenomenal performance (easily one of the finest that I have ever seen), expertly re-creating the inimitable musical wonderland of Frank Zappa with a jaw dropping ability and dexterity, that often left me laughing out loud to myself as I simply could not believe that these six people on stage were even able to play music so complicated, so demanding, so gleefully unfiltered and defiantly rebellious to the boundaries that exist between all musical genres with sheer flawlessness and seemingly with effortless ease.
What made this performance especially impressive is that on this day of the show, the Midwest received what had been yet another ferocious blast of winter weather, filled with all manner of ice, snow and slush, a blast that found the band's tour bus broken down and in need of repair. Assured by the Barrymore theater that the performance would still be presented as planned, it was an arduous day and night for all, including the fans (like myself) who stood in the frigid cold waiting for the band to arrive, which we witnessed first hand as the bus drove directly past us. And after all of the hardships of the day, it astounded me that Dweezil Zappa and the band provided everything that was promised and then some. From his Master Class for guitar players (for an extra fee), to the lobby "Meet And Greet" after the concert (for free) and the aforementioned two set/three hour performance itself, the Zappa Plays Zappa band completely ingratiated themselves with their fans in ways I felt they seriously would have well been within their rights to truncate, considering the extremity of the circumstances.
But that was then.
After that first concert, I knew without question should Zappa Plays Zappa return to Madison, I would have to attend. Knowing that the band's latest arrival would occur during their current tour celebrating the 40th Anniversary of "One Size Fits All" (released June 25, 1975), and incidentally my number 1 favorite Frank Zappa album, it was a veritable no-brainer that this would be a performance not to be missed. Considering that the weather was not a factor whatsoever, especially as this was a beautiful early autumn evening, I had a feeling that the stars would find themselves in alignment. I just had no idea of how strongly they would be, and for me, they were unprecedented.
Just as I have been wont to do over the last few years, I knew immediately that I wanted to stake out a spot directly at the foot of the stage. Yet, unlike the show I attended last year, this year's event was to be a seated show, so very quickly, I grabbed a seat stage left in the second row, which was a pebble's throw from a mammoth set of speakers.
As I waited for the show to begin, I found myself engaging in a few brief conversations with other audience members about Frank Zappa in general and the album "One Size Fits All" in particular, an album that everyone I spoke with claimed happened to also be their personal favorite release in Zappa's deep and extensive discography. "It just has everything!" said a Dad who sat next to me with his wife and 14 year old son. And to that statement, I would have to agree.
While the album itself runs a hair over 42 minutes, what it ultimately contains is a universe of music that runs the gamut from rock, jazz, fusion, blues, soul, pop, orchestral, comical, interstellar, ribald, vulgar, streetwise, cosmic and everything in between with a joyous dive into the wellspring of inspiration that I like to think depicted Frank Zappa at his most gleeful. As with the entirety of his musical oeuvre, "One Size Fits All" is a fiercely demanding collection of songs, but somehow, they feel so accessible, so open, so bright and shiny, and therefore, so much like the album's title itself, this was possibly Zappa at his most inclusive while also remaining as uncompromising as ever. And now, on this night, we were all about to witness how Dweezil Zappa and his musical co-horts would translate this particular work 40 years after its release into the world, but still so ahead of the curve, that the music again served as what Dweezil Zappa reflected as "music from the future."
The house lights went down, the band entered the stage and the show began--just as the album--with the epic flying saucer odyssey, the iconic "Inca Roads." Within this very first song of the night, it already felt as if something extra special was in the air. To begin, was Dweezil Zappa's first guitar solo of the evening, occurring within the song's mid point and running over three minutes in length, a slow burn that seeks, searches and eventually finds its way into the skies. It is a solo that always feels as if it is about the journey contained in the song as well as a journey within the musician holding the guitar: first Frank and now, Dweezil, who performed with the same Zen-like calmness that I had witnessed a year ago. By the time the solo concluded, signalling to the band to return in full force, complete with heavenly group vocals all reaching skyward, the audience burst into applause. It was happening. Really happening!
And even then, I was wondering to myself, "Can they really do it?" You see, the next section of "Inca Roads" has arguably been considered to be one of Frank Zappa's most complicated compositions with hairpin changes of time signatures and accelerated paces that verge on the Olympian. The moment of truth arrived at the keyboard solo, originated by the late George Duke, and performed on this night by keyboardist Chris Norton. Norton was in my line of sight for the whole evening, as was the monstrous drummer Ryan Brown, and when the solo made its official appearance, I stopped cold. Not only did the band and these two men specifically just nail this unbelievably difficult section of the song, I stared in amazement at Brown, whose face was rock solid stone yet his wrists and drumsticks flew at the speed of light. It was just a level of performance that I had never witnessed in my life. I was seeing it first hand and I still could not believe it.
The remainder of the "One Size Fits All" section of the show only continued at this remarkably high level with every song performed with brilliance and unconscionable dexterity. In a sequence that was essentially a nearly 60 minute highlight, Dweezil Zappa's guitar solos (especially during the monumental extended ending to "Florentine Pogen" which stretched from the album's 5 minute length to nearly 10 minutes) just defied all expectations that I had possibly housed. While it had only been a year since I had seen him perform last, I had this odd sensation that I was witnessing the birth or full arrival of a new level of playing and inspiration, and in turn, the full band followed suit. For a team that already operates at an extremely high level, they had somehow raised their own game. Essentially, the band that I was watching in 2015 had just blown the band from 2014 out of the water and that band was sensational.
By the time the humorously yet majestically symphonic and German inflected "Sofa #2" concluded and the band exited the stage for a brief 15 minute intermission, the audience was entirely and justifiably gobsmacked. It hadn't been just me who felt whatever was in the room that night. People were lifted off of the ground due to the performance we had all just witnessed and shared and I just wished that the band members could have been privy to the conversations occurring within the audience as they took their well deserved break. If there is one word that I could use to describe the feeling that permeated the room at that point it would be "astonished."
And there was even still more...much more to come.
Before I go any further, I feel the need to provide some sense of set-up in order to convey the remainder of the experience I had at this year's Zappa Plays Zappa concert. I turn to the motion picture "The Soloist" (2010) from Director Joe Wright and the brief yet stunning abstract sequence that not only perfectly describes what I experience when I listen to music but also gave this blogsite its name.
It is a scene in which Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) takes the homeless Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx), a cello prodigy/Beethoven enthusiast now suffering from schizophrenia, to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to hear a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3. What occurs for Ayers once the music begins is his blissful, all encompassing experience with synesthesia, which builds and rises to a crescendo along with the music itself and concluding at its most orgiastic height with a transfixed and transformed Ayers exclaiming to himself, "Beethoven is here!"
.
I mention this film, and that sequence in particular, because once the band returned to the stage and began what was essentially a two hour time warp marathon through Frank Zappa's discography, from the likes of "Son Of Suzy Creamcheese," "Outside Now," "Zomby Woof," "Dancin' Fool" and others, the quality and intensity of the performances made an impression upon me, the likes of which I have never experienced at a concert before and at such a fever pitch. This is very difficult to describe, but while I had felt certain twinges during the "One Size Fits All" section of the show, it was during portions of "The Grand Wazoo," and especially the unbelievable instrumental "Sinister Footwear" and an extraordinary "Montana" where I felt that Dweezil Zappa as a guitarist, as well as the entire band itself, had somehow tapped into something purely ephemeral, again raising their own game and therefore, creating a musical experience that was feeling transformative.
I am not able to stress enough (although I sincerely hope that the weight of my words will make it clear) what an achievement Dweezil Zappa has accomplished for himself with the Zappa Plays Zappa band. This is no mere "cover band," so to speak. Zappa Plays Zappa is a travelling orchestra, albeit one with six people, who are somehow able to take the works of this most fearlessly idiosyncratic composer and translate the works as written, and therefore, originated by a host of seasoned musicians, and have somehow claimed the works for themselves in the process. On this night, these six individuals stood on the shoulders of giants and became giants themselves.
While she was not presented as much of a focal point as she was in 2014, Zappa Plays Zappa co-founder/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Scheila Gonzalez remained an essential force throughout the entire show, from her pristine vocals to her dynamic saxophone solo during "The Grand Wazoo" which led to rapturous applause.
Keyboardist Chris Norton and Drummer Ryan Brown, after their tour de force during "Inca Roads," only gained in power throughout the evening. Brown, in particular, delivered a performance of staggering complexity and the physical agility of a champion athlete, thus throwing him directly to the head of the drumming class. The Smashing Pumpkins' mighty Jimmy Chamberlin needs to begin looking over his shoulders and if Rush's Neil Peart feels like laying down his sticks and passing the baton, then look no further than Ryan Brown.
Ben Thomas, without question, was the night's MVP!! He was flat out astounding to behold as a singer as he somehow replicated the classic vocals as sung by the likes of George Duke, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Ike Willis and Frank Zappa himself while simultaneously making every line his own. And then, he somehow found the ability to play trombone, trumpet, rhythm guitar, percussion, harmonica and he even beatboxed as well! Emerging as almost a completely different performer than he was just one year ago, Thomas owned the evening through his triumphant, multi-faceted display of his vocal and instrumental prowess, taking songs he performed just last year (like "Cosmik Debris") and making them even stronger showcases.
All of these performers and performances contributed to a certain alchemy that was inexplicable to me. At some point (most likely during the spectacular "Sinister Footwear"), I found myself ceasing to bob my head and body along with the music and I just sat, feeling my heart rate somehow slow and quicken and my mouth was permanently agape. I was in a state of awe. As with some people who find themselves in tears during operas or orchestral performances, I was shocked to find my eyes watering during one of Dweezil Zappa's solos--a sensation that has NEVER happened with me during a concert.
When the band launched into the volcanic instrumental "Apostrophe'" I spontaneously leapt to my feet, something else that I have NEVER done at concert. Coming back to myself, I sat back down and was enraptured by the musical molten lava flowing from the stage, my own synesthesia in wondrous overdrive. Bassist Kurt Morgan was so fluid and thunderous, Dweezil Zappa, so lyrical and rampaging that the original recorded track featuring Frank Zappa and the late, great bassist Jack Bruce felt to be nearly eclipsed. I don't mean to sound overly hyperbolic or even metaphysical, but it was indeed at this point where it truly felt to me that there was just...something else in the room. Something the band had tapped into. Something extremely powerful.
To me, Frank Zappa was here!
All of these emotions now bring me to Dweezil Zappa himself, who held the stage, directed the band and performed one astonishing solo after another and another with nothing more than a small smile and a bemused serenity that seemed to illustrate how intrinsically connected he was to the music and therefore, to his Father's legacy. The breadth, depth and scope of his playing was just this close to being indescribable but I can say that I have NEVER, EVER seen this man play guitar like how I saw him play on this night. Whatever journey he may have been on personally when he decided to begin this project years ago felt as if he had exceeded any goals he had set for himself due to the heights he scaled.
Once the band made their final curtain call and announced that they would be in the lobby for another "Meet And Greet" in a short while, I just knew that this time I would stay at the Barrymore and try to express all that I had felt. After purchasing a CD from the merchandise table, I ventured into the biding line of fans and very soon, I found myself standing directly in front of Dweezil Zappa, who was seated at a small table alongside the rest of the band minus Ben Thomas, who was off taking a well deserved shower.
While Dweezil did not say terribly much, he was extremely approachable, smiled often and easily and offered a very firm handshake. I mentioned to him that I had seen his show the previous winter when their bus broke down (to which he rolled his eyes and laughed at the memory), how deeply impressed and moved I was by this night's show and how I felt that he had reached a new plateau as a guitarist for never had I seen him play so freely before. He seemed to be touched by my statement, he asked my name, signed my CD and shook my hand firmly once more before I moved down the table to speak with the rest of the band, all of whom were open, gracious, conversational and also each signed my CD as well.
My conversation with Ryan Brown was especially enjoyable as I mentioned how Jimmy Chamberlin ain't got nuthin' on him, to which he nearly gushed and expressed how much of a Smashing Pumpkins fan he is himself. Regarding his incredible drumming on "Inca Roads," he expressed to me, "Do you know what I am thinking during that part of the song? I'm telling myself to BREATHE! To keep breathing! Because this is the fastest piece of music in the entire night and it's the very first song!!"
Before leaving for the night, I mentioned to both Brown and Chris Norton that I felt unsure if I should have said it to Dweezil or not because I wasn't sure if it would've been seen as weird or inappropriate but I felt that his Father would have been so proud if he were able to have seen what they all accomplished on this night. They expressed the same thoughts in return, hoping that they were always doing right by Frank Zappa's legacy. As far as I am concerned, they are and exceedingly well.
The music of Frank Zappa, I concede is not designed for all listeners. In fact, not all of it is even designed for me! But the Zappa Plays Zappa concerts are ones where I feel that everyone should see at least once, just so people had the exposure of knowing who Frank Zappa was and how unique his specialized brand of music remains. And besides, what you will receive is musicianship at its most superior and completely without any of the superfluous flash or gaudiness that would only distract from the actual music and these six people who just maybe six of the best musicians on the planet. Should they arrive in your city, do make time to experience this band and this music, for there is nothing else in the world that even comes close to existing within the same realm.
It is a musical universe unto itself and it is inconceivable to think of any better hands worthy of holding it, than Dweezil Zappa and the ZPZ band!
No comments:
Post a Comment