More Zappa
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Bands, Artists and Genres Appreciation
Forum Description: Discuss specific prog bands and their members or a specific sub-genre
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=109310
Printed Date: March 11 2025 at 11:40
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: More Zappa
Posted By: Evolver
Subject: More Zappa
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 13:48
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The ZFT (Zappa Family Trust) is starting to look desperate. When Gail was running the ZFT, she was very careful about spreading out the release of albums, to maintain interest in her late husband's work. Earlier this year, around the time the ZFT tried to squeeze money out of Dweezil for performing Frank's music, they released a flurry of disks at once (Road Tapes #3, The Crux Of The Biscuit, Frank Zappa For President). Not too long ago, they released "Zappatite", a somewhat pointless greatest hits collection. And now today comes "Chicago '78", a live concert, "Meat Light" the "audiodocumentary or "Uncle Meat", and "Little Dots", the companion album to 2006's "Imaginary Diseases". I also see at Zappa.com, that they are auctioning off Mom & Dad's stuff at inflated prices. I'm not one to complain about the availability of more of FZ's music (I already bought the new disks), but what Ahmet & Diva are doing looks to me like a crass money grab. As far as the new CDs, I'm listening to "Little Dots" right now, and it is fantastic. It's mostly unreleased material. A very early version of "Cosmic Debris", a semi-improvised piece "Little Dots", a version of "Rollo" with lyrics, a blues jam, "Kansas City Shuffle", and an FZ-conducted impromptu composition "Columbia, S.C.", recorded in a concert where, during the intermission, FZ's drummer and a horn player were arrested for smoking weed backstage. I'll post more after listening to the full album. ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Replies:
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 13:55
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The prices were already very high...and they're getting higher??? Haven't bought any post-lost episodes Zappa (except wazzo) and it don't looks like i'll start buying them soon.  ------------- |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 13:56
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Hey E, can you give a brief overview about the Zappa family beef? Thanks. ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 14:53
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It's discussed here: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=106598" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=106598 ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 15:13
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Frankly, (no pun intended) I love the flood of releases that have started in the post Gail version of the ZFT. Espeically being they are available everywhere and not just Bafrko-Swill. Obviously, all the DZ stuff is ridiculous and selling the sundries and miscellaneous goods is kinda silly, but for the time being I'm going to ride the train. Great to hear about Little Dots. Needless to say, I'm going to get all three new release (hopefully soon). ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 15:48
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The ZFT is a worry reading from DZ's site its nasty nasty nasty. I'd like the some of the new stuff if I could get it- very limited availability of the new ZFT stuff downunder, don't think ZFT have there distribution worked for outside the US. Good in a way at least we are not follded with it............. ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: Michael P. Dawson
Date Posted: November 04 2016 at 18:02
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People did nothing but bitch about Gail being too stingy with releases of archival FZ. Me, I'm delighted to see the floodgates open up a bit.
(Hey, what happened to my avatar?) (Oh, it's back now.) ------------- Buy this thing! https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelPDawson" rel="nofollow - https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelPDawson |
Posted By: Terrapin Station
Date Posted: November 07 2016 at 06:53
I'd rather see a crapload of releases, even if some seem superfluous or of lesser quality, than to see releases just trickle out. Again, I have hundreds of bootlegs. Plenty of those have questionable sound quality. But I'd rather be able to hear those shows with bad sound quality than to not be able to hear them at all. Re all the Zappa Plays Zappa/Zappa Family Trust/etc. bickering that was going on, I never really understood all of that anyway. Maybe Gail/the ZFT owned/owns the "Zappa Plays Zappa" name somehow (that seems dubious since Dweezil came up with it, but I suppose it has to be the case for any of this to make sense), but there's absolutely nothing that can stop Dweezil from playing Frank's music and not having to pay any significant amount of money for doing so. You're allowed to perform whatever cover songs you'd like to perform. You're allowed to do this both live and on recordings. You do not need permission to do so. There are compulsory licenses for this. The only issues would be if Dweezil were trying to use recordings of Frank's music that Gail/the ZFT owns the rights for, and selling merchandise with Frank's image, or the moustache and goatee logo, etc., on it, since Gail/the ZFT would have a trademark for those. Dweezil could simply name his band "Zappa" though and there's no way he could be stopped from doing so, since that's his legal name. One article on the familial quagmire says, "It remains unclear why Moon and Dweezil were excluded as trustees, nor is it known why, as the New York Times claims, Gail ‘defied’ her dying husband’s instructions to sell his master tapes and get out of the music business upon his demise. The Zappa Family Trust was not Frank’s idea. When Frank was gravely ill in 1993, he told his wife that he wanted her to sell the rights to his recordings and to forego the music business entirely." Knowing Gail and his kids, Frank may have forseen the mess that unfortunately arose. For their sake, it's too bad that he didn't sell the rights to all of his recordings prior to his death. He should have sold them to someone under particular contractual conditions for releasing stuff posthumously. (Although if he'd sold the rights to a company like Ryko, it would be ironic that the Ryko catalog is now owned by Warner Bros.) |
Michael P. Dawson wrote:Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: November 07 2016 at 13:53
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Chicago '78 Nice concert. I believe this was the first FZ tour for Tommy Mars and Ike Willis. Good stuff: Opening vamp for FZ solo "Twenty-One" - Early versions of tracks from "Joe's Garage". Nice extended version of "Village Of The Sun" (my wife's favorite FZ track). ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: EddieRUKiddingVarese
Date Posted: November 07 2016 at 14:35
Very cool post  ------------- "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes" and I need the knits, the double knits! |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: November 10 2016 at 14:58
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Little Dots is more or less fantastic. Looking forward to hear the other two soon. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: hieronymous
Date Posted: November 18 2016 at 15:23
| I picked up "The Crux of the Biscuit" - "Apostrophe" is one of my all-time favorite bass performances, and there is an unedited version which makes the disc worth it for me. There are also a couple of other tracks with Jack Bruce - as well as other alternate versions from the Apostrophe album. Will have to look into some of these new releases... |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: November 18 2016 at 15:59
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Got around to Chicago 78. A good show with stellar sound, although for some reason I wasn't overly thrilled with the performances. Seems a little...restrained. Although I must admit, this isn't my favorite era for FZ. AT this point, I much perfer the Buffalo show (that was released several years back), which IIRC is from around the same period. That said, it does have it's moments and I'm glad I have it. Meat/Light up next. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |