Sunday, July 29, 2007

Dweezil Zappa speaks

Dweezil Zappa

Modern Guitars Magazine interviews Dweezil Zappa. He has some strong opinions. Yeah, just like his dad.

A lot of his instrumental music was written out, the parts written by him on paper. But there were often elements that were allowed to exist in the extemporaneous world, so soloists of other nature, keyboard, bass, or horns, were allowed to do their thing in context to the music. Part of the live experience was seeing people being able to improvise at a very high level of creativity. The people who played with Frank were tremendous players.
That’s one of the things nowadays that’s really missing from the live experience. You don’t often see bands with great players who can improvise well. I’m talking about on the popular music circuit, where you have big audiences of several thousand people or more. There are great musicians who get a chance to play in smaller venues, but back in the day there was the occasion that more people were informed about this kind of event and had interest in it. You were lucky that you got a chance to see that stuff at that time.

» More
» dweezilzappa.com

posted @ 5:57 PM | Feedback (1)

Frank Zappa: the street, the fans, the widow and the drummer/piano player

Frank Zappa

Uh oh. The Frank Zappa Straße in Berlin is doomed or so it seems. Kill Ugly Radio and Glide Magazine report about the squabbles between widow Gail Zappa and German fanclub ARF. Former Zappa sideman Ed Mann, "drummer and piano dabbler since childhood", speaks up. Confusion reigns and a bad time is had by all.

» Glide Magazine
» Kill Ugly Radio

posted @ 7:31 AM | Feedback (1)

Brandon Pfeiffer: Nothing Short of Now

Brandon Pfeiffer

Can six tracks convince a cynic music blogger? Brandon Pfeiffer takes a change and, well, he makes the cut. Nothing Short of Now is a nice collection of indie pop songs that won't sell like hot cakes, but it makes a nice addition to that huge stack of singer/songwriters CDS that you carry around to impress your less-in-the know friends. Listen to this, you say, and they will. After all -- if you dig it, they will have too, or be uncool forever.

Nothing Short of Now is released on Little America Records.

Brandon Pfeiffer: Nothing Short of Now Tracks:
  1. Woven Wood
  2. Missing You
  3. Get Inspired
  4. Out to See
  5. Be the First to Die
  6. Wearing Me Out

MP3: Brandon Pfeiffer - Wearing Me Out

» myspace.com/brandonpfeiffer

posted @ 12:03 AM | Feedback (1)