In it for the technical challenge ... Frank Zappa continues to inspire new generations of musicians
Thirteen years after his death, there seems to be a struggle going on for the soul of Frank Zappa. The composer-bandleader-guitarist continues to inspire re-interpretations by all manner of performers, from rock, jazz and classical musicians. But who are the true keepers of the flame? Are they rockers such as the Muffin Men or the Grandmothers or contemporary bands like Ensemble Modern and the Britten Sinfonia? Or his own family, with the "heir-tight" Zappa Plays Zappa project?
For the moment, the big bands are ahead; in recent months we've had Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (Cuneiform) by the New York-based Ed Palermo Big Band, and Frank Zappa's Hot Licks (and Funny Smells) (Provocateur) by Colin Towns and the NDR Big Band.
On the Towns album, recorded live at the Moers festival, the German radio band adds both orchestral pomp and self-deprecating humour to tunes such as Be-Bop Tango and King Kong. The US band has a crisper, brasher sound, with a confident, distinctly American drive in the rhythm section, but the keyboards are a tad cheesy (check out Dwarf Nebula).
Meanwhile, in the classical corner, last week's Late Junction featured an extended-techniques adaptation of Zappa's How Could I Be Such a Fool (from Cruising With Ruben & the Jets) performed by violinist Alexei Algui and pianist Dietmar Bonnen. David Greenberg and David McGuinness with Concerto Caledonia, who play the music of "18th century Scotland and elsewhere", put Zappa's Echidna's Arf (of You) alongside psalms and hymns for baroque violin and harpsichord. Zappa repertoire turns up everywhere, from the distinctly underwhelming Banned From Utopia to the Gotan Project, whose version of Chunga's Revenge was played to death several years ago as the interstitial "sting" at the BBC World Music Awards .
In a BBC interview in the early 1990s, Zappa claimed his music wouldn't last, explaining that his sales were but a tiny fraction of Michael Jackson's. Post-WWIII, he explained, you would be more likely to find a copy of Thriller than any Mothers/Zappa product.
But maybe what survives is the music that musicians want to play. Sure, the average musician might find Zappa's tunes hard to figure out on the guitar. Zappa had a Prokofiev-like knack of adding a twist to the simplest melodic idea.
But above-average musicians want music they can get their teeth into, technically, intellectually and emotionally, and Zappa's music provides plenty of the first two, with challenge, reward and vicarious fun in equal measure. Zappa's elliptical riffs keeps thrilling in a way that Billie Jean can't.
