Dweezil Zappa discusses the legacy of his father Frank Zappa in an interview with The Daily Times:
As I’m learning this stuff, I find more and more details about what made Frank use certain types of sounds and compositional tools, but the thing about it is, there is no really predictable formula in any of it, and that’s what’s so amazing,” Dweezil Zappa told The Daily Times during a recent interview. “Over 80-plus albums, he was never repeating ideas, he was constantly evolving and growing, and if he was putting things in that were similar, it was some purposeful, thematic coherence type of thing. He looked at all of his work as being connected, and I’m constantly amazed at the depth and variety of his music. That’s something to be inspired by and to aspire to.
On performing with Zappa Plays Zappa:
Most people became familiar or got some casual exposure to my dad’s music through what did make it to the radio, and the stuff that made it to the radio wasn’t the majority of the stuff his music was made out of,” he said. “It’s easy to get the wrong impression if all they ever heard is stuff on the radio. Our goal is not to emphasize that material or what they think they know, but to present them stuff they should know more about. I wanted to focus more on the compositional elements that I think made my dad’s music unique.
In building the show, I’m trying to fortify a setlist with instrumentals and things that display what made him different as a composer. What people don’t know is that he really was a classical composer. As a teen, he went to the library to learn how to be a classical composer, and he taught himself everything he knew about music by going to the library. He treated his rock band projects as an orchestra with a repertory ensemble, and that’s a tradition we uphold.
Zappa Plays Zappa will be on tour in North America and Europe throughout this year:
North American tour:- 04/09 State Theatre, Portland, ME
- 04/10 Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield, CT
- 04/11 Keswick Theatre, Glenside, PA
- 04/12 Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA
- 04/14 Birchmere, Alexandria, VA
- 04/15 Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
- 04/16 Iron City, Birmingham, AL
- 04/17 Wanee Music Fest, Live Oak, FL
- 04/18 Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
- 04/20 The Ready Room, St Louis, MO
- 04/21 Concord Music Hall, Chicago, IL
- 04/23 Colorado Symphony, Denver, CO
- 04/24 The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
- 04/25 Brooklyn Bowl Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
- 04/26 Rialto Theatre, Tucson, AZ
- 04/28 ACM @ UCO Performance Lab, Oklahoma City, OK
- 04/29 House Of Blues, Dallas, TX
- 04/30 Aztec Theatre, San Antonio, TX
- 05/01 Emo's, Austin, TX
- 05/02 Tipitinas, New Orleans, LA
- 05/03 House of Blues, Houston, TX
- 05/05 Duling Hall, Jackson, MS
- 05/06 Georgia Theatre, Athens, GA
- 05/07 Marathon, Nashville, TN
- 05/08 Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte, NC
- 05/09 The National, Richmond, VA
- 05/10 Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, MD
- 07/20 Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Halifax, Canada
- 07/21 Capitol Theatre, Moncton, Canada
- 07/23 Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, Hampton, NH
- 07/24 The Paramount, Huntington, NY
- 07/25 Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
- 07/26 Sherman Theater, Stroudsburg, PA
- 07/29 Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, NY
- 07/30 Whitaker Center, Harrisburg, PA
- 07/31 Paramount Theatre, Rutland, VT
- 08/01 Saranac Brewery, Utica, NY
- 10/18 Royal Festival Hall, London, United Kingdom
- 10/20 Le Trianon, Paris, France
- 10/21 De Roma, Borgerhout, Belgium
- 10/22 Metropool, Hengelo, Netherlands
- 10/23 TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
- 10/24 Melkweg The Max, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 10/26 Amager Bio, Copenhagen South, Denmark
- 10/27 Slagthuset, Malmö, Sweden
- 10/28 Train, Århus C, Denmark
- 10/31 Konsert & Kongress, Uppsala, Sweden
- 11/01 Konserthuset, Lorensberg, Sweden
- 11/02 Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway
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