I don’t often walk the stretch of Lothian Road between the Usher Hall and St John’s, but for a reason I can’t remember, that’s what I was doing one morning in May, and if a higher power was responsible for this circumstance I’d just like to thank him or her or it.
For that was how I came to see out of the corner of my eye that unmistakeable symbol, “ZAPPA”, on a poster amongst other posters clustered around a door. I jerked to a halt and exclaimed out loud, “Jesus!” The door turned out to be that of the HMV Picture House – which I didn’t even know existed – and the poster was advertising the upcoming tour date – which I didn’t even know was happening.
Zappa Plays Zappa: Tour de Frank came to Scotland on June 18th, and I am overjoyed to be able to say I was there. I have been a fan of Frank Zappa since my teenage years, when I got my hands on my Dad’s cassette of the album Apostrophe. I feel like his music infuses me, and that both his compositions and his guitar improvisation have influenced how I play the saxophone and how I listen to all music. I cannot overestimate what Zappa means to me, and I say this not as a fan blinded by devotional infatuation, but just as a man acknowledging a huge and inescapable presence in his life.
Frank Zappa died in 1993, and this tour, which has been going on for a few years (off and on), is organized by his son Dweezil, who is a guitarist too, and leader of the band. It seems that he decided to dedicate himself to keeping his father’s music alive. One might question whether the music depends on such efforts for its survival, but I’m certainly not complaining. Perhaps it is true that Zappa’s music, while brilliant, was never very influential in either rock or classical music, because it awkwardly bestrode the two. He was dismissive and contemptuous of both musical worlds, an attitude born of his frustration in dealing with people in the business who never had music as their top priority. Partly because of this, he was always an outsider.
But judging from the reception Dweezil and his band received last month here in Scotland, his music continues to move and excite new generations. The crowd were raucous and loud and radiated pure joy. That’s certainly how I felt, never having been able to see Frank in concert, now hearing those songs rendered wonderfully by a band bursting with stupidly talented musicians.
Zappa made around sixty albums, and I love all of the twenty-five or so that I have, from all the eras of his career. But I am particularly fond of the version of the Mothers of Invention band he had in the early to mid 70s – which included George Duke, Ruth Underwood, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson, and Bruce and Tom Fowler – producing albums like Roxy & Elsewhere, One Size Fits All and Apostrophe.
The band had a warmth in sound and personality that is probably unmatched in Zappa’s output. It was one of those magic synergistic combinations of musicians: when you listen to those albums they seem capable of anything, and you love them. At that stage there was still a luxurious and fuzzy jazziness in his music, and the way they play those intricate pieces with relaxed discipline and a sense of humour is quite special.
The great thing about this concert, then, was that it was dominated by that stuff, and the general sound and personality of the band was very similar. Contributing most to this were percussionist Billy Hulting, who was very prominent on vibes and marimba, and insane multi-tasker Scheila Gonzalez, who did an amazing job on keyboards, sax and vocals, sometimes uncannily replicating the soaring sax and vocal lines of Napoleon Murphy Brock.
Here’s the set list:
Black Napkins
Magic Fingers
Wind Up Working In A Gas Station
Montana
Village of the Sun
Echidna’s Arf
Inca Roads
Pygmy Twylite
King Kong
Bamboozled By Love
Outside Now
Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow / St Alfonso’s Pancake Breakfast /
Father O’Blivion
Zomby Woof
Encores:
Peaches En Regalia
Bobby Brown Goes Down
Willie The Pimp
(thanks to Rob at Eine Kleine Nichtmusik)
This music is hard to play, so all of the musicians were top class. Each one was stunning in his or her own right. I have to mention lead singer Ben Thomas, who has a remarkable voice that doesn’t seem to quite fit his body; Pete Griffin on bass, somehow charmingly self-absorbed; Jamie Kime on guitar, who was inevitably eclipsed by Dweezil but when given the spotlight was revealed to be a beautiful player; Joe Travers on drums, whose power and stamina were awesome to behold; and of course Dweezil, who has become a great guitarist and graceful front-man.
Thanks to Paul, my companion at the gig and another long-time Zappa fan.