Zappa the Musician

While I cannot say I have come anywhere close to listening to the entire Zappa discography, I feel that I have gone through a decent enough chunk of it to have an idea of the character of Zappa as a musical performer. I have to say that while he is unquestionably a man of unique and complex musical ideas, I don't find his guitar playing to be to my taste. I find that his performances lack a soul and passion that is present in some of the music of his peers. That is not to say that I think he is without talent, but I just don't dig his style.

I listened to some of the performances from his later guitar-centric albums like "Trance-fusion" and "Guitar", and while they are technically very skilled I just don't find that the connect with me emotionally. This is obviously not the case for everyone, as indicated in the comment sections of the youtube links that I viewed.

I once again see a very direct connection between the style and approach Frank takes towards music, and the style and approach taken by modern day "progressive rock" bands like Dream Theater. Technically, the music is very advanced, but I think it comes at the expense of the emotive power that can be achieved by simple, raw music. Sometimes all it takes is a few chords... I think that music does not have to be complex to be powerful. But again, this is a matter of taste and opinion.

Where I find Zappa more interesting is not in his skill as a solo guitarist, but in his capacity as a composer and as a band leader/conductor. While watching the Baby Snakes video, as well as the footage from his performances on Saturday Night Live, you can see the guy playing large groups of people with gestures and physical symbols. I do not find it surprising that Zappa eventually moved on to digital music... I feel like the types of gestures he extracts from his players are quite similar to much of what I do in my music, although I use much simpler means to extract them.

Zappa's Break From The MOI

A review of a book on Zappa by Pauline Butcher: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Zappa+biography+contrasts+freaky+prim/6327663/story.html

Near the end of the article comes this quote:

"Hovering over a later part of the book is Zappa's decision to fire the Mothers, because he feels his music has become too complicated for them to play well. He tells Pauline this long before he breaks the news to the band members, who haven't found the fortune or fame (he forbids them from doing interviews) he promised at the outset. And after he lets them go, he then has the nerve to ask them to be interviewed, without pay, for his documentary Uncle Meat. When they protest, he tries to placate them by offering to forgive a $10,000 debt they've supposedly incurred through various equipment and travel expenses!"

I am hesitant to believe any biography written from the point of view of another person, because it is difficult to discern how much of what is said is hearsay/opinion versus first hand experience. I will have to try to track this book down to get a better picture.

If this account is true however, it does not go very far to improve my image of Zappa. Seems like a pretty scheisty move which belies a deep seated self interest and calculating approach to relationships.

Zappa the Entrepeneur

Zappa's role as an entrepeneur is of particular interest to me, because I am in the process of entering the world of the music industry myself right now. I think I will attempt to do some more in depth research on this topic as a central focus point for my final paper... For this post I am going to talk about Zappa's attempts at running his own music label.

It seems obvious to me that Zappa did not like the major labels. From his "Warner Brothers Sucks" campaign to the censorship he received on some albums (Punky's Whips, We're Only In It For the Money) Zappa obviously struggled with being locked into dealings with the larger corporate complex. However they were a necessary evil, distribution without them being next to impossible.

Without the distribution networks established with retailers by major labels, Zappa could never have placed his records onto store shelves. Even though he eventually was able to establish an independent mail-order method of distribution for some of his later material, the initial surge to get his music out there required the infrastructure of a major label.

I'm interested in what can be learned from Zappa's struggles by someone with similarly non-mainstream artistic values operating in today's digital realm. I'm curious how Zappa would have proceeded in this era of digital distribution. What would he have done with a world wide network where the cost of distribution is practically nothing, and accessible to anyone with a broadband internet connection? I wonder if he still would have utilized major labels as a source of financial backing and marketing clout for his ventures, or if he would have perhaps been able to realize his vision of a truly independent artistic outlet.

Flo and Eddie

True friends? Or fall guys taking the flack for Zappa's crude humour? Were these guys willing participants in the jokes or were they just doing it for lack of any better opportunities? They seem to have split pretty quickly once Zappa was injured.

Did Zappa have respect for these guys... or did he just exploit them, laughing "at" rather than "with"?

Baby Snakes

Out of a desire to see some genuine Zappa-in-action, I tracked down the film "Baby Snakes", which is a document that sits half way between "200 Motels"-ish art film and live concert video. Most of the art film part of it takes the form of claymation videos created by Bruce Bickford. The rest of the movie is footage from a New York performance, heavily spliced with backstage antics and general wierdness.

The first thing that struck me with this movie was the intro where we see Frank rehearsing with his band. The amount of control he has over his band members is extraordinary... Having seen many amateur band rehearsals which are characterized by constant diplomatic debate over the next step in a song or the subjective quality of a certain element of a performance, Zappa's conducting of his band was awe-inspiring. This is the first time I have really felt impressed by Zappa's skill as a composer. Watching this sequence gives me the sensation that every single nuance of each performance is directly, intentionally thought out and executed precisely to his specifications. This guy is IN CONTROL.

One thing that also arises from this opening scene is that it is very much HIS band. HE is in full control, and there is no question about it. I wonder if perhaps there is a conceptual link to be drawn to the facist characters in 200 Motels? Perhaps there is an intended reflection of the dictatorial approach Frank takes to conducting his band. It seems as though there is no diplomacy, and no debate. Frank is in charge and that's all there is to it.

His very dominant personality also comes out in the scenes where he is interacting with his animator, Bruce Bickford. It seems that Frank is always giving instruction, even if it is subtle things, like telling the animator where to sit. It does not seem hostile neccessarily, but just very dominant.

His onstage persona...whew. This guy is definitely a character. His stage presence is reminiscent of a less crude Andrew Dice Clay. He seems to be trying to project a macho persona, but he maintains a kind of politeness amidst his sex jokes. His audience interactions are very direct, he really seems to feel at home with this audience. I found the fact that people were walking up and giving him gifts to be kind of wierd... there is a direct kind of rock star worship going on.

I found it interesting that in the opening titles of the film, he calls out and criticizes the preachers and fake chapels that draw checks from the moronic masses, but yet he seems to have built a cult of celebrity around himself that would rival some of those preachers. Like the mind-washing preachers, Zappa no doubt relies on these masses for his financial sustenance. however to be fair I don't think Zappa is trying to twist the minds of the people quite as much as the televangelists he critiques in the credits.

Musically, the concert footage is really interesting. I definitely feel like Frank's live band is where it is at as far as "the real Zappa". The kind of intense improvisational jamming that happens in this film definitely seems worthy of the establishment of legendary status. I find this stuff much more revealing than his early album work, which to me feel more like abstract dadaist art collages than real demonstrations of musical feats of great interest. Then again, this impression may also be due to the differences between his early and later band memberships. The band on display in Baby Snakes is clearly one that has their musical chops down to a science.

However, while I find their musical skill incredibly impressive and there are moments that arise that are really genuinely interesting, I find that they often veer into a territory that I am mostly familiar with through the work of bands like Dream Theater. Musically very advanced, but in terms of the actual emotional or aesthetic impact, I find a lot of it to be pretty cheesy. I've always valued a good vibe or a soulful riff over a display of technical virtuosity, and this duality comes into play quite often when listening to Zappa's band perform.

The final scenes with the extended use of claymation and extremely abstract musical passages were the most interesting to me. It fel like an extended dive into the most fucked-up, twisted kind of creative psychic purging possible. Every step forward taken was into entirely new constantly shifting realms of the bizarre. At time it was very intense, almost overwhelming. The best part about it however was that despite its constant shifts and hairpin turns into the next "other", there was a cohesive flow throughout it. It never felt random or stochastic, but rather like a tunneling into and through somebody's subconscious mind.

There was also an interesting use of xenochrony for the freakout/disco section of the performance. There is a moment when the audio fades from the live performance to a recording of the band rehearsing, and the scene quickly jumps to actual video footage of the band in rehearsal (it appears to be in the same space that the band was rehearsing at the beginning of the film). The change is so smooth that I didn't even notice it the first time around. I just suddenly realized that the band was no longer on stage. I had to rewind the film to find the point when the transition occurred.

Disclaimer

Okay, first things first. I dislike the blog format as a medium. I feel that it encourages an overly conversational format, which leads to lots of talk with a lack of structure or real content. This is something that I am particularly susceptible to, so for me to engage in writing a Blog focused on general pontification on music and society is probably going to result in a lot of blah blah blah. Daily writing is good for the mind, however I don't neccessarily think that the type of writing I do in a journal for my own personal reflection and consumption is fit for public dissemination. Ah well...

I have written a fair bit so far in terms of my general ideas and impressions about Zappa and his work, however I have hesitated to publish any of it because it feels way too unfinished. I like to be careful about what I say publicly, and when I do make public statements they are usually built to purpose with a specific goal or idea that they are trying to communicate. I usually try to refine what I say down to the essential components, in the same vein as a soundbite or newspaper headline. I try to make small compact chunks which can reduplicate and disseminate quickly to a wider populous, my motivation being to communicate as effectively and efficiently as possible.

By contrast, I feel that the blog medium lends itself to verbosity and a very conversational style... talking for the sake of talking and filling up the page. Or just publishing personal reflection without any refinement. There seems to be a lack of the typical filter or quality control that is present in traditional publishing. However this is based more on presumption than experience... so perhaps I am completely wrong.

All this said, I am going to give it a shot because this is after all a course requirement. I will make a conscious effort to try and dive into a more stream of consciousness, "whatever pops into my head" type of writing. Maybe I will find that I enjoy this style? We shall see.

The next post will be a summary of the mess of notes I have accumulated thus far, but have neglected publishing due to my own shyness or self-consciousness over their lack of polish and focus... the third post will be my first post in the style I am commiting myself to now. Editing will be minimal... I'm just going to go for content, to get something up here already.

-Z-

Initial Thoughts

As a way to inaugurate this blog, I'm going to give my initial, as-of-yet not completely formed impressions. I'm certain these will change over the course of the semester...

Zappa the composer: what have you discovered about Zappa’s creative contribution to music, i.e. the compositions he wrote and the recordings he made?

Compositionally, Zappa seems to favour the abstract and challenging over the musical or the aesthetically pleasing. I'm seeing this in his fondness for peculiar time signatures, abrupt rhythmic changes, and his tendency to mar or "disfigure" any trace of a melodic, hummable tune.

It is definitely evident that he laid much of the foundations of what would grow into the style of "progressive rock". This seems to be one of the major contributions he made culturally to the history or rock music.

He seems to be one of the first people (I may be totally wrong about this) who consciously and directly tried to bring classical influences into the realm of rock. He was certainly cued in to a lot of what was happening in the fringes of avant-garde/experimental academic music.

There is also a potential argument for his contribution to musical concepts like rapping or sampling. I find these more difficult to support however, and I don't think I would feel comfortable pointing to Zappa as a primary figure in the establishment of these musical trends. For rapping I would see there being much more connection with folk music forms and the tradition of storytelling taking the central role in a piece of music. I don't think that Zappa's conversational delivery in was the first.

Zappa the musician-performer: as a guitarist, band leader and stage performer, what did Zappa bring to the concert medium, show business and music-making in general?

So far I don't really have an opinion on this aspect... I haven't really seen any serious concert footage that has made an impression on how I view Zappa as a performer. While I have heard and read descriptions, I want to see some real first hand documented footage to allow me to form my own opinions. Much of what I have heard/read about Zappa has indicated that it was his live performances with the Mothers which gained him much of his initial notoriety as a musician/performer, so I am very curious to see this.


Zappa the entrepreneur: how did Zappa balance art and commerce throughout his career?

I am very intrigued by this side of Zappa's career. I am in the process of beginning to distribute my own music, and so to see how Zappa dealt with the music industry is very interesting to me. So far I am aware that he managed several of his own labels, however remained tied in some ways to the major labels. But this is the extent of what I know, more research will be required to get a better picture.

Zappa the social critic: through his lyrics, interviews, album art and other media, how did Zappa communicate his views on society and culture during his lifetime?

Zappa was no doubt an outspoken critic of popular society throughout at least the early part of his career. I feel that this aspect may have dwindled towards the end of his career, based on preliminary research I have done into his discography. This would be a trajectory which seems common in many counter cultural instigators and commentators... the idealist turned cynic. Again this will require further research before I can comment with any serious evidence to back up my claims.

Zappa the man: in terms of background, personal philosophy and other aspects of who Zappa was, how did Zappa’s personality affect his work and legacy?

Alright, so far my impressions of Zappa's personality are, from interviews I have watched and from being presented with a considerable chunk of his body of work in the first few weeks of the course, that Zappa was:

-Extremely egotistical

-Cynical...but also an idealist

-Dedicated to his art

-He believes in principles and stays true to those principles, even if they may not be popular with others around him

-Believes in family

-Sober (or at least, lucid) a large majority of the time

-Outspoken

-Extroverted

-A fan of groupies

-Provocative... possibly from a desire to instigate change, but I suspect more likely from a desire to get a response out of people