Jazz Articles about Frank Zappa

About Frank Zappa

Multiple Reviews

Sono passati 27 anni da quando Frank Zappa ci ha prematuramente lasciato, ma la sua figura di musicista è ben lontana dall'essere dimenticata, o anche semplicemente messa da parte. Questo sicuramente anche grazie all'attività dei figli Dweezil e Ahmet, il primo con i tour mondiali della sua band Zappa plays Zappa dedicata alla musica del padre, il secondo curando la pubblicazione negli ultimi anni di vasto materiale inedito proveniente dagli sterminati archivi, dopo essere subentrato alla madre Gail recentemente scomparsa. ...

Film Review

Il documentario "Zappa"

by Mario Calvitti
December 31, 2020

Alex Winter Zappa Magnolia Pictures 2020 Fortemente voluto dal suo autore, l'attore e regista Alex Winter, dopo una lavorazione che lo ha impegnato per alcuni anni, arriva finalmente sugli schermi (almeno quelli virtuali, dato che la situazione pandemica mondiale ha portato alla cancellazione della quasi totalità delle presentazioni a vari festival già programmate da tempo) il tanto atteso film documentario sulla figura di Frank Zappa. Dal 27 Novembre il documentario è disponibile come Video ...

Highly Opinionated

Zappa and the burning strings

by Mick Raubenheimer
December 13, 2020

Zappa. A glimpse. The composition was entering its fifth mood, a diabolical, gleeful, lurching rhythm, led by deep-plowed violin. The song was “Revised Music for Violin and Low Budget Orchestra," it was written for Jean-Luc Ponty by Frank Zappa. A new instrument dawned into my framework as that composition wheezed and moaned and ranted and spun—that classic, demure, genteel pansy of an instrument had been plucked from its staid Old European stand and forged into a complex, eloquent ...

Film Review

Zappa

by Ian Patterson
November 27, 2020

Alex Winter Zappa Magnolia Pictures 2020 Composer, guitarist and iconoclast nonpareil, Frank Zappa was never an easy artist to pin down, as Alex Winter's perceptive and entertaining documentary makes abundantly clear. If an artist's music should speak for itself, what are we to make of Zappa's freakish '60s collage of doo-wop, Stravinsky, rock and burlesque humor, his jazz-rock leanings in the first half of the 1970s, the coarse satire, his musique concrète and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Zappity-Doo-Dah

by Patrick Burnette
October 4, 2019

To be perfectly Frank, the boys don't know all that much about rock and roll's prickliest, most demanding composer/conceptualist/guitarist/ideologue, so they look at a couple of recordings by the maestro himself and a couple by other musicians paying homage to the man with a mustache. Burt Bacharach meets Hal Wilner's tribute to Thelonious Monk in a prize-winningly eclectic pop matters sequence. (No actual prizes were awarded). Playlist Discussion of Frank Zappa's album Roxy and Elsewhere (DiscReet Records) ...

Live Review

The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa Tour at The Paramount

by Mike Perciaccante
May 2, 2019

The Bizarre World of Frank Zappa Tour The Paramount Huntington, NY April 24, 2019 Frank Zappa was one of the most eclectic and influential musicians for the 20th Century. The musician, composer, activist and filmmaker's work and career exemplifies nonconformity, improvisational musical themes, sound experiments and technical musical virtuosity. Satire of the American experience and culture played a huge part in Zappa's oeuvre. Zappa's career was lengthy, lasting over 30 years. He composed and released ...

Radio & Podcasts

I Sing the Lineup Eclectic

by Patrick Burnette
April 4, 2019

Cool organ, hot tenor, acapella movie theme and third-stream oboe musings—this episode has everything but a theme. While the albums discussed span the era from 1972 to 2014 the insights are timeless-probably. After that wide-ranging exploration of jazz and jazz adjacent fun, pop matters explores Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden as well as releases by Frank Zappa and Pulp. Playlist Discussion of Oregon's album Music of Another Present Era (Vanguard) 2:48 Discussion of Bennie Wallace's album The Free ...