Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bargain Price DVD hits the spot for Zappa Fans, 4 Jun 2007
The previous review was so wide of the mark I wonder of (s)he is a Zappa fan or even watched the same DVD as me.
Lets face it - this is one for the fans - if you are new to Zappa's music then spend your money on the Ryko releases - but if your a fan - and I use that term in the true sense - as an abbreviation of FANATIC, then you will love this DVD. I am a member of a Zappa fan group - and no-one there has a bad word to say against this DVD - and with Amazon selling it for a bargain price there can be no complaints.
Zappa is dead so obviously there is no new footage of him - there is however some of the Roxy material. The interviews are not from the normal run of the mill faces - but include the likes of Elliot Ingber, Ian Underwood, George Duke, Steve Vai, Nappy, the Fowler brothers and Ruthie. The interviews are insightful and informative and not the slush that other reviewers describe them as.
I can take or leave the Gail insights - but Dweezil and Joe's studio tinkerings are interesting. The highlight for me was the bonus Transduce that Marimba - was there a tear in Ruth's eye at the end of that interview ? There certainly was in mine.
A great DVD - full of insights into one of Zappa's most potent ensembles. If you are a Zappa fan - you cannot fail to enjoy it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does Hubris Belong In Music?, 14 Feb 2008
The first ten years of Zappa's career was characterised by an itinerant desire to see what was around the next musical corner - hippy freak out; surf; orchestral; heavy rock; free jazz; big band; burlesque - it didn't seem to worry Frank that his path was so convoluted he was bound to shed most of his audience as he went.
Apostrophe is still Zappa's most accessible work, and his best selling album to date. Overnite Sensation acts as a suitable opener, but is a strong album in its own right, with almost every track being a classic. Both albums featured extensively throughout live performances for the remainder of Zappa's life.
No surprise then that these two albums have been given the "classic album" treatment. The format works well, with some great musicians illustrating the music as well as just sitting talking about it and how Zappa made it all come together.
Perhaps a more logical choice would have been the fan's favourite One Size Fits All, which is technically a more accomplished and dangerous work, representing Zappa at his peak. But perhaps audience comprehension might have been stretched by The Dweeze (son, Dweezil Zappa) trying to explain how live multitrack recordings could be transmogrified into one of the finest studio albums ever made.
The two albums examined here were complex recordings made by a band that had been touring the material for months, and it shows.
For the un-initiated and the fan alike, there is a lot to glean here, and it's especially rewarding to see Zappa's surviving collaborators speaking so fondly of him.
However, there are one or two glaring omissions and slight distortions.
Given that Tina Turner is all over both albums, why no recollections from her? Perhaps she wasn't willing or able to share her memories, but how much more fascinating would things have been if she had? Or if not her one of the other backing singers that sang with her.
And although I am a big fan of what Zappa did, how come NONE of his old band get ANY credit for anything other than reproducing like automatons only what Zappa wrote. Nothing could be further from the truth, and there are many well documented instances where Zappa's instructions to his musicians were deliberately vague. By any reasonable estimate the particular band that Zappa was working with at any one time might contribute anything up to ten or twenty per cent of the actual notes played.
When Zappa would conduct the band, very often all the parts were improvised by the collective, especially on pieces like Approximate (not represented here), where only the rhythm was composed.
When The Dweeze eulogises one particular passage, talking in reverent tones about how his father had the insight and courage to use a particular spacey sounding chord over a tight back-beat, George Duke (who in all likelihood actually composed the thing) must have wondered which planet Dweezil had been living on.
If you want to hear what Zappa's music sounds like when it is given the perfunctory treatment of a disinterested jobbing ensemble have a listen to the terrible rendition of Camarillo Brillo played by the Zappa Plays Zappa band, included here as a bonus item.
My major reservation with this DVD is that it is a barely disguised promo for that ill advised Family Trust funded project, which judging by the cancelled concerts, personnel changes and downright boring musical renditions, needed all the help it could get!
Still, this is a worthwhile addition to the collection of any music or Zappa fan (if only for those glorious moments where some missing gem is isolated from the multitrack mix by an obviously awestruck Dweezil), but missing a star for the subtly gratuitous promotion of vested family interests who really should know better.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good material but not enough of it live, 29 Oct 2007
For me this is very far from being "for hardcore crazies only". It is revealing, well put together and gives a very full sense of who Frank Zappa is as a person and of his huge and multi-faceted genius. I have been listening to FZ for over 30 years, but I still learned things from the analytical parts. My only disappointment is that there are many excerpts of live playing, but very few full-length live numbers, so it made me even hungrier for a genuine live video and that's why there's no fifth star. But it came close, so don't let that put you off.
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