Sergei Prokofiev in Kansas City

On this day, January 22, in 1965, I was born! On this day in 1926, Sergei Prokofiev performed in Kansas City.
As I continue to look back at famous composers who actually came to Kansas City, none perhaps are as "big" as Sergei Prokofiev. I first heard "Peter and the Wolf" as a young child, and was thoroughly hooked by the wonderful story and even more wonderful melodies. Right around that same time in my life, my dad, who had already started taking me to record stores (see the very first entry of this blog) took me to a concert in Chicago. I was six years-old. It featured the Suite to Prokofiev's ballet, "Romeo and Juliet". I had no idea what to expect,....and WHAM ...the first 15 or 16 measures are so loud and alarming...it scared me to death. But then the familiar melody kicks in and the rest of the suite is exceptional. Fast forward about 10 years to May of 1981. My dad and I went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. They played Prokofiev's First Symphony in D major...his "Classical" symphony. To this day, I remember this as one of the greatest performances I have ever seen. The second movement of this piece is so light and delicate...so exquisite...and they absolutely soared. Philadelphia was always known for it's lush string section, and they showed me why.
While researching the travels of notable composers in the early 20th Century, I learned early on that Prokofiev emigrated to the US in 1918 and spent a great deal of time living and composing here. I later found a citation in a book that referenced his performance in Kansas City. It was vague and did not indicate what year he was here or any other details. I eventually found a book that listed his KC appearance as January 22, 1926. (my birthday!) So I went to the KC Public Library and pulled the microfiche of the KC Times and Star for January 1926. I spent an hour looking for the review, but to no avail. I was really bummed. So later I sent an e-mail to the Prokofiev archives at Columbia University in NYC. The curator of the performing arts collection (Jennifer Lee) responded within 24 hours. She had found the program and 2 newspaper clippings from his KC recital. It had been January 22, 1926. But for some reason I had not been able to find the review in the paper.
So here is what she found: (you will probably have to zoom in)

The interview on the right gives more detail about the logistics of the event. This recital was in the ballroom of the Kansas City Club at 918 Baltimore. Prokofiev's wife, Lina Llubera, a soprano, sang.
My grandparents were members of this club back in the day, and I can remember going there for special dinners on a few occasions. I had no idea that Prokofiev himself had ever been there.
Prokofiev toured the US again in 1930 but did not stop in Kansas City. He moved back to the Soviet Union in 1936. He died in 1953.

Here is a link to the second movement of his First Symphony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DjDzB37VaQ

And here is the "March" from his Opera "The Love for Three Oranges"op.33. As you can see above, Prokofiev played this at his KC recital. It's a very familiar melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyBcthsZHw

Date night at the Kansas City Symphony

I made it clear when I started writing this blog that I am not a critic....I am not going to write reviews. That still stands. But I am going to share some thoughts and reflections about my experiences as they relate to classical music. If it comes across as a "review"....so be it. But it's not my intention. (And frankly, one of the reasons I would be a terrible critic is I love the music too much to be objective, and every review would be a good one).
So Cheryl and I went to see the Kansas City Symphony last evening at Helzberg Hall. My mom has season tickets, and she is very generous to share them with me. In addition to awesome seats, we also have valet parking, which is totally worth the additional cost. We rolled up to the Hall at 6:30 pm, dropped the car off, and walked across Broadway to Los Tules for some great food and a cold cerveza. (location location location). It's nice to get the car parked, walk to dinner and only be a few hundred feet away from the Hall so we don't have to worry about being late. We made it back to the Hall and in our seats with plenty of time to spare.
The program this evening started with Mozart's Symphony no 35, the "Haffner" (The Haffner's were a family in Salzburg: Sigmund Haffner Sr. was mayor of Salzburg. His son, Sigmund Jr. commissioned this work of Mozart). This symphony is loaded with great melodies...Cheryl was familiar with some of them. Next was a newly commissioned work by Andre Previn; the Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. This work featured cellist Sharon Robinson and violinist Jamie Laredo. Lastly, After intermission, we heard the first symphony of Johannes Brahms. Back to this in a bit.
Throughout the evening, I made notes of my thoughts and observations.
Number one. The KC Symphony is truly a world-class ensemble and organization. We tend to use sports franchises to distinguish or denote "major league" status for a city. I would make the case that the better gauge of "major league" status for a city is it's symphony orchestra. I have seen just about every major orchestra of the world (yes, I am bragging here): Berlin, Vienna, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Gawandhaus of Leipzig, Munich, Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago....I can honestly and emphatically say that the Kansas City Symphony belongs on this list....it is THAT good. First-class. World-class. Big League. The musicianship is first rate, at every position. Maestro Stern has a clear and focused vision...long term...strategic....musically sophisticated....warm and reassuring, yet edgy enough to challenge you and push you into new musical territories. And he seems like a very nice guy. His rapport with the audience is relaxed, friendly and engaging. He comes across as very down to earth and accessible. Before the concert, he and the Executive Director of the Symphony, Frank Byrne, came to the stage to speak to the audience. They had a wonderful interplay between each other, and the audience. It was humorous, and very real. They thanked the audience for their support of the symphony...and it felt so genuine. Mr. Stern made a great comment about how those of us in the hall this evening know what a great thing we have with this organization and in this city.....and we need to share it with those who have not yet discovered what a treasure it truly is.
A great symphony orchestra does indeed transcend the walls of the hall. It becomes embedded in the community. It teaches, inspires, uplifts, cheers, consoles, unties, and most importantly, it makes you feel like it is YOURS....OURS. It is part of what makes Kansas City GREAT....just like our BBQ, the Royals and the Chiefs, the Nelson, the Plaza, the Speedway, the Jazz and Negro Leagues Baseball museums, and any other component of our community that means something special to you. Seeing all of the musicians and Mr. Stern wearing Royals jerseys and playing the National Anthem this past October at the World Series was amazing, and illustrates just what I am trying to say.
Back to rapport.....it seems clear to me that the musicians and Mr. Stern have a true connection. The vibe I get is one of respect and admiration...both ways. There seems to be sincere appreciation there.
So back to last night. It looked like a full house to me. And the audience LOOKS like you Kansas City. It's not the stereo-typical classical music crowd.....old and stuffy. (sorry to offend anyone who is old and stuffy). The audience is very diverse in age...I feel like I saw just as many "young people" <30, as I did >60. It was really cool. Jeans and suits. Argyle and leather. It's all there.
So back to the music. I have written before about Helzberg Hall. The acoustics are WORLD-CLASS. The Mozart came instantly to life and filled the hall with such beauty as I can't even describe. Perhaps the biggest revelation I had this evening came while I was looking around at the audience during the Mozart. Here is a group of 1600 people who came together to listen to music that was composed 235 years ago! Astonishing really. And it sounded so alive. It sounded so fresh. It sounded contemporary. That is the true gift of this music...this classical music that so few people really listen to in their daily lives. It is timeless. The Brahms First is perhaps my favorite of his four symphonies. In the program, several of the musicians are featured in a short 4 question interview. David Gamble, a french horn player, was asked if he has a favorite composition he likes to play or listen to. He answered "any of the four Brahms symphonies. Playing or listening, they always put me in a great mood". I couldn't say it any better. And the performance this evening of the First was breathtaking! I think I had a smile on my face all the way home.
This is YOUR Symphony Orchestra KC. It makes us all World-Class. It's playing in one of the greatest concert halls in the world. And it's right here...in your city. Don't miss it.

Ottorino Respighi in Kansas City

One of the first records I ever listened to was Respighi's The Pines of Rome. As I've said before, when I was six or seven years-old, my dad gave me some records to get me started on my classical journey. I remember a red record, with a black and white picture of a man with a big mustache and a stick in his hand. TOSCANINI......

Even on my tiny phonograph, back in 1971, the music came to life and grabbed my attention. I listened over and over.....
I was born in Kansas City, MO in 1965. Forty years before my birth, KC was a hot spot for music. The jazz scene flourished here in the 1920's. Benny Moten and his Orchestra were tearing up the jazz world. Charlie Parker was born here in 1920 and would soon define bebop. But classical composers and performers like Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Bela Bartok visited our fair city in the 1920's too, bringing their music and new ideas with them. Ottorino Respighi, whom I "discovered" 44 years later, performed in Kansas City on February 7, 1927 with his wife Elsa.
They performed at the Ivanhoe Auditorium. (I had never heard of this hall) It was located at 2301 East Linwood. It was actually part of the Ivanhoe Masonic Temple and was demolished in 1999.
Here is the review that appeared in the newspaper the next day:

From the Kansas City Times, Tuesday, February 8, 1927.

Ottorino Respighi’s First Kansas City Visit Has Its Climax in Ivanhoe Auditorium

Not every visit made by a genius has the hearty response given that of Ottorino Respighi last night at his concert with his wife, Elsa Respighi, and the Little Symphony. If its capacity to appreciate the numerous qualities of greatness in the man is any measuring rod, the audience must have been of unusual caliber. The concert was in Ivanhoe Auditorium under the sponsorship of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra Association, and was had largely through the devoted work of N. DeRubertis, conductor of the orchestra, and Powell Weaver, friend and pupil of the Italian composer.
The program seemed diverse on paper, but actually formed a rather homogeneous whole. It afforded brief glimpses into several fields in which the Italian excels as a composer of songs, as an arranger of songs, as a transcriber for orchestra, as a conductor, and as an accompanist.
All the compositions and all the arrangements showed an intellectual finesse and honest freedom of thought and execution that unfortunately are none too often associated with modern music. The five songs in the first group, “Notte”, “Stornellatrice”, “Nevicata”, “Noel Ancien”, and “Pioggia”, probably differ slightly in individual merit (the next to the last seemed least interesting, although it was repeated), but it is doubtful whether any other modern composer could find in his works five to match them in melodic and harmonic freshness, or quality of “inevitability” that all good music has. They are “absolute” in the sense that they invite no comparison, but form each its entity.
The old dances for lute are most freely transcribed in that Respighi has boldly made use of any effect, modern or otherwise, that seemed fitting to him. One of the trumpets wore a hat, the harp played harmonica, and in the first pages of the ballata, the strings played mandolin style. But the tunes were unashamed of their modern clothes because, perhaps, they realized they were improved thereby and were not triggered out for a catch-penny show. The aria was as lovely music as anyone could hope to write-a gorgeous, full throated song for the orchestra and one it sang from the heart.
Mme. Respighi’s last group was a set of arrangements, one from a Bolognese song about the girl who wished to marry the boy she loved in spite of his gambling propensities, another about the wise men, another a tarantella from Sicily, and so on. The set was provided some extraordinary accomplishments by the composer; he took away none of the earthy taste and added no “arty” atmosphere. “Il Tramonto”, a setting of Shelley’s “At Sunset” for string orchestra, proved interesting in spite of its length and the absence of the brass and woodwinds, which sections Respighi knows wonderfully well how to use. The visitor’s ability as a conductor was to be seen better at rehearsal than at the performance. His care for detail, broad knowledge, and generous spirit made the rehearsals a pleasure for the men of the orchestra, who gave him “all they had”. Mme. Respighi was considerably hampered by a very bad cold, which, however, did not cloud the unusual sympathy she has with her husband’s musical thought.
Mr. Weaver appeared once-conducting an orchestra for the first time in Kansas City in an early work of his own called “Music to an Imaginary Ballet”. Mr. Weaver chose the title before everyone else began using it-the ideas contained in the work are equally original and expressed with a neatness and facility that is excellent preparation for the newer work he is completing. It has a sturdy rhythmic backbone (a characteristic of his teacher’s work as well), and seemed last night to indicate the possession of a sure and facile dramatic sense. He was warmly applauded.
Mr. DeRubertis chose for himself a modest role, and played it with good taste and tact. He conducted the weaving rhythms of Debussy’s “Scotch March” and the brittle cleverness of Wolf-Ferrari’s “Dance of the Cammorrists”, both with imagination and with abandon. Between them he supported his distinguished colleague by returning to his old instrument, the double bass. And it must have been a considerable sacrifice of cuticle too, for finger tips grow soft after seasons of disuse.
The orchestra seemed inspired by the occasion. It has not played better this season.

The name of the reviewer is not given. 

I found the description of the Little Symphony interesting as well. Here is a link to the Kansas City Symphony's website that gives the history of symphony orchestras in KC, including a brief mention of the Little Symphony.

https://www.kcsymphony.org/StaticCtl/KCPhilAct

Here is a link to the September 22, 1922 Lawrence Journal-World that also gives some history of the Little Symphony.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19220922&id=hTxiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u3UNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3776,3644985

And lastly, for your listening enjoyment, a link to Toscanini's recording pictured above, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1953.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lm2ihmaJg

CD Recommendation-Pletnev and Rachmaninov (and Chopin).

I recently wrote about Sergei Rachmaninov's numerous concert performances in Kansas City back in the 1920 and 30's. (I had not been aware that he had ever been in my hometown). I love his music and I discovered a CD in my collection called Homage a Rachmaninov performed by the Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev. This became my favorite CD of 2014. It was recorded in 1998 at Rachmaninov's summer home known as Villa Senar on the banks of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Rachmaninov loved Steinway pianos, and he had his own special Steinway delivered to Villa Senar where it still remains in his study. (This is the piano he used to compose his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini). Pletnev recorded this album on Rachmaninov's piano.
The first thing I noticed was how GREAT this recording sounded. I don't know how to mic a piano etc....but the tone and presence of this recording is warm and alive.You feel like you are in the room at Villa Senar listening to Rachmaninov himself playing.
The first piece on the CD are his Variations on a Theme of Corelli, which Rachmaninov himself performed frequently while on tour. The liner notes are full of stories and anecdotes about Rachmaninov, one of which describes how when playing the Corelli, he "regularly omitted individual sections whenever it became clear that the audience was not concentrating or when they began to cough unduly".
The CD also features Pletnev playing Beethoven's Sonata no. 26, Mendelssohn's Andante cantabile e Presto agitato and Rondo capriccioso op.14, Chopin's Grand Polonaise op. 22, and Rachmaninov's 4 Etudes-Tableaux. All of these are terrific, but the Chopin jumped out as my favorite.
My first memories of Chopin go back to the 1970's when my sister was a ballet dancer with the Austin Civic Ballet.  At that time, the music for dance class was provided by a pianist, and Chopin's music was a staple of this repertoire. Her dance classes and my violin lessons were frequently on the same evening, and I remember my lesson being over first, so I had to wait at the dance studio for her class to finish which assured that I would get a healthy does of Chopin each week. Ballades, Polonaises, Mazurkas,....you name it....they were all there. Fast forward several years to high school. My first real girlfriend...and a good friend to this day...was a pianist. She turned me on to Chopin's Preludes. This changed my musical life, much the same way as hearing the Mahler 5th or the Beatles for the first time. I defy anyone to listen to Pletnev's recording of the Grand Polonaise and not feel lifted off your chair. It soars.
And back to my blog entry about Rachmaninov touring so extensively. The author of the liner notes for this CD, Jurgen Otten, describes how the Wall Street collapse of 1929 affected  Rachmaninov's financial security, forcing him to tour constantly throughout the 1930's. "Often enough, Rachmaninov would travel across half a continent, only to find himself performing in half-empty, badly heated halls". I hope his performances in Lawrence, Rolla, Hutchinson, St. Joseph, Columbia, Topeka and KC were well heated.
Here is a clip of a documentary showing Pletnev playing some of the Corelli, filmed at Villa Senar. It's in Russian, but it is fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHApKrfcXQ

Bela Bartok in Kansas City

Earlier this year, I happened to stumble on an article about Maurice Ravel's visit to the United States in 1928, which included a stop in my hometown of Kansas City. (KC has a reputation of being a "cow town" rather than a center of music and culture). I wrote about Ravel's visit and began to see that KC was in fact a vibrant center of music in the 1920's, and other luminaries of classical music also performed here. Last month I shared that Sergei Rachmaninoff played 6 concerts in KC in the 1920's and 30's, as well as nearby Lawrence, Topeka, Columbia, Rolla, and Hutchinson. A big reason we were able to lure such great composers to KC was the Pro-Musica Society. This was an organization founded in 1920 to "promote the exchange of musical ideas between Europe and America". Kansas City had a Chapter led by Mrs. George Forsee. I searched the internet repeatedly to learn more about Bartok's visit, as well as the Pro-Muisca Society, and the best reference I could find was a citation for a master's thesis by a woman named Sarah Lucas. As luck would have it, Ms. Lucas had been a graduate student at the University of Missouri in 2012, and her thesis was in the collection at the library there. On a recent trip to St. Louis, I stopped in Columbia and went to the University library and printed a copy of:

Bela Bartok and the Pro-Musica Society

A Chronicle of Piano Recitals in Eleven American Cities During his 1927-1928 Tour

by Sarah M. Lucas

This is a fascinating and detailed research paper that includes programs and reviews of Bartok's performances, as well as other historical and anecdotal references.
On January 23rd, Bartok arrived by train at Union Station in Kansas City. (Ms. Lucas cites a letter from Bartok to his son Peter where he clarifies that Kansas City is in Missouri, not Kansas. Ahh....our glorious state line issue). The recital was in the Ballroom of the Muehlebach Hotel, the same place Ravel gave his recital.  Here is the program:

The Program is hard to read, so I will share it here as well:

Bartok Suite, Op. 14

Kodaly Epitaphe (from Op. 11)

Kodaly Allegro molto (from Op. 3)

Bartok Sonata (1926)

Bartok Burlesque no 2, Dirge, Bear Dance, Evening in the country, Allegro barbaro.

Reviews seem to have been mixed. One reviewer wrote "Bartok's music demands especially attuned ear and mind too, to be at all intelligible. Therefore it either impresses as something akin to a revelation or else as a scarcely articulate experiment, often monotonous and agonizing, and the public's reactions range from warm admiration to violent antagonism". [Vaiani, Kansas City Journal January 24, 1928].

Bartok departed Union Station at 11:40 pm that same day, on his way to St. Paul, MN. He was here less than a day. Bartok died of leukemia in New York City on September 26, 1945. My two favorite works of his are his Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. Here is a link to the Concerto for Orchestra, performed by The Chicago Symphony conducted by Fritz Reiner. This was recorded in 1955 and remains, in my opinion, the best interpretation of all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBguC1zC4CA

Sergei Rachmaninoff in Kansas City (and other nearby places that may shock you).

When I wrote about Maurice Ravel's visit to Kansas City earlier this Fall, I became curious if any other "famous" composers or musicians had also come here during the first part of the 20th Century. So I did some research and discovered that Kansas City was in fact a destination for several other "big time" classical music luminaries. Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of them. Born April 1, 1873 in Novograd, Russia,  Rachmaninoff was a gifted pianist, composer, and conductor. He certainly qualifies as "Big Time" in my book. He toured extensively and made many recordings during his career. The first piece of music by Rachmaninoff that I remember hearing as a kid was the "Vocalise" which he wrote in 1915....still one of my all-time favorite pieces. He composed 3 symphonies, 4 piano concertos, and many other works that have become absolute treasures, including the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" from 1934. So how and why did he come to Kansas City? Rachmaninoff was what I would call a "road warrior"during his lifetime. He emigrated to the United States in 1917 with his wife and two daughters following the Russian Revolution which had taken away his estate and all of his possessions. He had to tour to support his family. So from that point until his death in 1943, he did little composing and a lot of touring....a lot.
According to Sergei Rachmaninoff, A Performance Diary compiled by Scott Davie and presented by the Rachmaninoff Society, he performed in Kansas City 6 times during his career. (This amazing document lists every performance he ever gave and in some cases, the program that was performed). His first visit to KC was March 19, 1920. The list does not indicate what theater or hall he played, nor the program. So I went to the KC Public library and searched through the newspaper archives. I found the review of the performance in the KC Times from March 20, 1920. The recital was at the Shubert Theater...now known as the Folly Theater. He played a program of Liszt (Dance of the Gnomes), Chopin Etudes (not listed), Chopin's B minor sonata, and Tchaikovsky's "Troika". It was not necessarily a glowing review however. Here are some interesting quotes from the reviewer, who was not named:
"His recital at the Shubert offers new sensations to music lovers", "Rachmaninoff begins where those of another caliber leave off" and "He has the detachment of creative genius". But my favorite quote was "An intellectual pianist, Rachmaninoff scorns display but dares to think". 
Here are the dates of Rachmaninoff's recitals in KC:

March 19, 1920
January 25, 1922
February 12, 1924
November 19, 1925
December 5, 1933
November 15, 1938.

(I hope to return to the library at some point to look for reviews of his other 5 KC recitals).

It's interesting that all of these were recitals. "Why didn't he play his piano concertos with the Kansas City Symphony?...you may ask. I don't know all of the reasons, but I do know that his first five visits had to be recitals because KC did not have a symphony until November 28, 1933 when the KC Philharmonic was born. His 1938 visit is listed as a recital too...I don't know why he would not have performed with the KC Philharmonic on this date.
On the other side of the state, in St. Louis, Rachmaninoff made 27 concert appearances, 14 with the St. Louis Symphony, 1 with the Boston Symphony and 12 in recital.
Here are the St. Louis dates:

March 4, 1919 w/ Boston Symphony at the Odeon
January 13, 1920 recital
February 13, 1920 w/St. Louis Symphony
February 14, 1920 w/St. Louis Symphony
January 31, 1921 recital
November 10, 1921 recital
January 27, 1922 recital
December 13, 1922 recital
March 16, 1923 w/St. Louis Symphony
March 18, 1923 w/St. Louis Symphony
February 6, 1924 recital
January 27, 1925 recital
November 20, 1925 recital
March 12, 1930 recital
March 10, 1933 w/St. Louis Symphony
March 11, 1933 w/St. Louis Symphony
January 15, 1934 recital
December 14, 1934 w/St. Louis Symphony
December 15, 1934 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 15, 1935 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 16, 1935 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 27, 1936 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 28, 1936 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 14, 1937 recital
November 4, 1938 w/St. Louis Symphony
November 5, 1938 w/St. Louis Symphony
December 9, 1941 recital

So one of the premier pianists and composers of all time spent quite a bit of time in KC and St. Louis. But I was simply amazed at some of Rachmaninoff's other tour stops: 

Hutchinson, KS  March 17, 1920
Rolla, MO January 9, 1922
Topeka, KS  January 23, 1922, January 29, 1925
Wichita, KS January 30, 1933, January 15, 1940
Columbia, MO November 13, 1935
Lawrence, KS February 15, 1937
St. Joseph, MO January 20, 1922
Hastings, NE February 9, 1940

Who would'a thunk it?!? It seems Rachmaninoff played just about everywhere! What a treat it must have been to see him perform. Not only was Kansas City at the forefront of the Jazz and Blues scene during the 1920's, it was also home to a vibrant classical music scene as well . And there were others who came here too. But that's for another post!

Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, CA on March 29, 1943. Here are links to a couple of his best known works.

His "Vocalise" sung by Anna Moffo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBVkYGLEUpg

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_BArG3ollw

Artist's Profile: A conversation with Dweezil Zappa

My friend Mike Brown is a BIG Frank Zappa fan. He has a huge collection of Zappa's music and actually saw him in concert back in the 80's. (Frank passed away from prostate cancer in 1993). I had of course heard of Frank Zappa, but freely admit that I knew very little about his music. What I did know was that he was a very prolific composer over the course of his 30+ year career, he was an amazing guitarist, his music did not sound like anybody elses, and his kids had very unusual names like Moon Unit and Dweezil. (Frank's other children are named Ahmet and Diva).
Anyway, in June of 2010, Mike asked me if I wanted to go see the Zappa Plays Zappa show down at Grinders in the Crossroads District here in KC? "Huh? What is ZPZ" I remember thinking. As I soon learned, Frank's son Dweezil is an accomplished guitarist in his own right. In 2006, Dweezil formed a band to perform and tour his father's music. So off I went with Mike on a sweltering June night to hear something new, and I was completely impressed and won over by what I heard. Dweezil is a guitar virtuoso. I am an aficionado of fine guitar playing in any genre...Segovia to Wes Montgomery to Django to Pat Metheny to Roy Clark to Van Halen to Pete Townshend....and so on. I love the instrument and the personalities of the "guitar world". Dweezil has a guitar technique and facility that puts him in the highest order of guitar heroes. Simply amazing. And his band is equally talented. They played a 2+ hour set of music I knew very little about, but became very interested in learning more about after the show was over. I began reading about Frank Zappa, listening to his music, and watching performances and interviews on YouTube. I learned that he was heavily influenced by classical music, especially Stravinsky, Ravel and Varese. There is great video of his first band, called the Mothers of Invention, playing an excerpt from Stravinsky's Petrushka, and another video of him conducting a large ensemble playing Ravel's Bolero. I found these fascinating. He composed many works that were classical in form and style, albeit his own unique style, as well as music that spanned the boundaries of classical-rock-blues-jazz-fusion and the avant garde. Frank Zappa's music was not "mainstream". Dweezil is dedicated to bringing his father's music to new generations of listeners. To quote him from an interview a few years ago, "Frank's music is very contemporary. If we are trying to attract a newer audience, which I am definitely determined to do, I want younger people to be interested in it and exposed to it". He also said "I want to stamp Frank's imperial mustache on the glabrous dome of the music industry". 
As I read this, it hit me that I was trying to do the same thing with classical music. (not the mustache part...the attracting newer audiences part) One of the reasons I started this blog was to help others discover the joy and enrichment of classical music. Dweezil and I are both on missions to enlighten and educate. 
Mike and I went to see Dweezil and the ZPZ tour again in 2013, and once again enjoyed a tremendous show. I'd kicked around the idea of trying to talk to Dweezil for this blog, and finally reached out to him through his website, and was eventually contacted by his publicist and given the opportunity to have a phone interview. Here is how that conversation went:

TH) Thank you very much for agreeing to talk to me. I really appreciate it. Was classical music something you heard as a child growing up?

DZ) I listened to whatever my dad was either working on in the studio or listening to when he was relaxing at home, so there was a varied amount of music; his own work, when he was writing any of his music, generally speaking, he considered it all to be classical music, and he was using a rock band to be the orchestra when he wasn't actually working with a real orchestra. Most of his compositions were constructed that way because as a kid he wanted to be a composer. He went to the library and taught himself everything about music by reading about it. Around the house I also heard different kinds of folk music from different countries. But yes, there was classical music. I remember the modern compositions…. one time he asked if I wanted to listen to something with him…it was a piece by Stockhausen. We listened to it and I didn't get it…I was probably 10 or 11, and it didn't really sound very melodic.

TH) Very atonal probably?

DZ) Yeah, and he said “do you like this?” and I said “not really” and he said “me neither”. But he got very into 12-tone music towards the end of his composing, and he was very interested in what he called note densities and chord densities. He was writing a book on all of that but he never completed it. But a lot of the note density and experiments he was doing with that became most of his synclavier music.

TH) He spoke in an interview I watched on YouTube about the tone colors and voicings of chords that were possible with an orchestra and the harmonic languages an orchestra could create…it was more rich and dense than what a 4-piece rock band could do. Do you have an interest in classical music today…do you have time to listen to it?

DZ) Over the years I have listened to a lot of it….I appreciate Bach and Mozart especially…that stuff is fun to listen to and cool. How they figured it out is amazing...and then for someone to actually be able to play it…even more amazing. The stuff I tend to like is because of my father’s music. Growing up I would hear my dad’s music, and I didn’t really hear any other stuff on the radio, but by the time I did when I was 12 or 13, I thought..."where’s the rest of it?”. There weren’t enough instruments or information in pop music. I thought “there’s got to be stuff missing here”. And so the things I tend to like need to surprise me with texture and rhythm because that’s what I was used to in my dad’s music and that’s what I have grown to appreciate. There are also film composers and film scores that I have enjoyed as well for some of those things…textures and rhythms. I like the stuff that John Williams has done over the years, and I listen to it off and on…it’s the background of my formative years.

TH) Have you been doing any composing?

DZ) I haven’t had time to do too much writing of my own for quite some time because ZPZ takes up so much time to keep the material learned. I’m hopefully going to make a record of my own later this year. I am planning to write an orchestral piece as well. I started it awhile back but I haven’t finished it.

TH) Do you play the keyboards as well as the guitar?

DZ) I do not. It’s a funny thing about how I decided to write this piece. I am not good with the actual notation so what I do is take a MIDI project and I will type in 5 minutes worth of the same note and the same rhythm and then I will start moving it around and make shapes with it. So when I hear things I like, I can create arpeggios and/or melodies and I can build around it. I can also target particular places on a time grid where I want something to happen so I can have an overview of the piece and start filling in the blanks that way. So instead of having a blank piece of music, I am throwing the notes on the page like throwing paint on the paper, and then you start seeing what you can make out of it. The piece I’m writing is based on that plan of attack.

TH) Are you scoring it for a small chamber ensemble or a larger symphonic group?

DZ) I am not exactly sure how it will end up, but I intend to play it with the band and an orchestra. We are already trying to do something next year where we play with smaller ensembles…there is a wind ensemble in Norway that is very good and they have done some arrangements of my dad’s stuff so we’d like to do some shows with them. Beyond just a wind ensemble, I’d like to also have strings and percussion. We already have a show planned in Denver in April next year with between 8-10 extra players from the Denver Symphony.

TH) I’d love to hear your own music this way.

DZ) There is one thing I did on a record that came out in 2006 and it has a short orchestral bit. It was my first foray into using a computer to create some of those kinds of sounds. It doesn’t have the human feel I would like (I am not the world’s greatest programmer of MIDI) but I put it on the record anyway. It’s a tune you might be able to find….most of my work is not available yet on iTunes, but you can find it on YouTube. It’s called “Rhythmatist”. The intro to it is called “Preludumus Maximus”. That’s the piece that has a classical “feel”. I’ve done other things that are classical related. I made a record called “Confessions of a Deprived Youth” and there’s a song called “Earth”…the intro on that is all guitar but it’s like a Mozart sounding kind of thing. It’s only been with the band I made for Zappa Plays Zappa that I’ve gotten into more ensemble playing. Most of the stuff I did before that was guitar oriented.

TH) Do you ever play a classical guitar?

DZ) Only marginally. I’m not very good with the finger picking. I’ve been trying to learn a little bit of that and incorporate it. Most recently I’ve gotten into learning how to play the oud. The only nylon stringed instruments I have are an oud and I have this other thing called a glissentar which is basically a guitar that is made to be like an oud. It’s a fretless nylon stringed instrument where the top E through low A are doubled, unison strings, and the low E is a single string. It’s a really fascinating instrument.

TH) You talked once about your dad’s music being “from the future”, and how contemporary it is. I totally agree with you. I hope that you can continue to find your own voice as a composer.

DZ) The record I’m making this November has taken an unexpected turn. I think I’m going to actually make a record that’s mostly vocal tunes in order to have an opportunity at a broader audience. And then I’m also going to make an instrumental record that goes basically into outer space! I didn’t want to combine the two because it would become, as many journalists like to say…"unfocused” (laughing). I think I will learn some things along the way and figure out what I want to do. I’ve done all kinds of things over the years that I never had a chance to actually release. I had forgotten that I transcribed and played two pieces by the Bulgarian Women’s Choir for guitar. It’s a “guitar orchestra” version of these two pieces. I had totally forgotten about doing it and I heard a tape of it the other day and thought “oh my God”. It was pretty cool. It might appear as a transition between some things. I’m definitely interested in blending some multicultural sounds. For example, that instrument I was telling you about...the glissentar…it has the sound of an oud…that ancient thousand year-old instrument. But a thousand years ago they didn’t have Fuzz Tone! (a guitar effect).

TH) or Wah Wah pedals!!

DZ) Yeah. Combining a nylon-stringed, weird instrument with some Fuzz Tone is where the weird experiment will begin.

TH) Are any of the musicians in your band classically trained?

DZ) The keyboardist took some classical lessons as a kid. And our bass player studied composition in college, so he is quite knowledgeable about orchestral music. He’s the one who goes through all of the scores we have at the house…anything in Frank’s hand or anything done by a copyist…he goes through it to make sure it’s all correct.

TH) Did I hear you say once that you didn’t read music?

DZ) I’m not very good at it. I can sit down and do it, but it takes me so much longer to learn something that way then it does for me to just listen to it and play it.

TH) That is phenomenal! I don’t see how you can learn some of the incredibly fast guitar passages in your dad’s music that way.  For example, I watched a video of you playing a fast passage from “Inca Roads”…. it’s too fast to hear!

DZ) You have things you can use to slow things down. But as a kid, I wanted to learn all those really fast things from Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. And before there was any technology to slow it down in real time I would just have to press “rewind” a million times, learning one or two notes at a time. So I’ve grown accustomed to picking things out in small pieces. It’s a challenge no matter what. One of the pieces we did in ZPZ recently was one of my favorite classical pieces of my dad’s called “Strictly Genteel”. We played that a couple of tours back. The crazy thing about learning music like that is it might take me a month to get something down that was never meant to be played on guitar. There was a passage for piccolo flute and I learned to play it on guitar and created a sound that was in the right register and it took me several months just to get this one thing down. We’re talking about 3 seconds of music or less. Then you have the other hours put in for learning the rest of the hard parts. The crazy thing is I spend all that time learning to play it on tour, but the moment I don’t play it for even one week, it disappears!

TH) I remember the days of trying to learn songs from a cassette player….rewinding over and over, and you could never get the tape to the exact spot each time.

DZ) It was even worse if you were trying to do it from a record!

TH) Are you coming back to KC on your next tour?

DZ) I’m hoping to get a Midwest run next year on the tour that starts in April.  The date will be on my website soon. We may be looking for opportunities to play with some smaller ensembles…maybe you could connect us with some musicians! We are planning to tackle one of Frank’s most poly-rhythmic pieces called “Sinister Footwear”.

TH) My buddy Mike Brown and I will be waiting for you! Thank you for your time and good luck on your projects and upcoming tour.

DZ) You bet. Thank you too.

Here is a link to Dweezil's website: http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/

A video of Dweezil "shredding" a guitar solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3YrDHNqx3c

ZPZ with Steve Vai joining them on a Zappa classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLXVWjs5ozA

Dweezil's Album "Go With What You Know". "Preludumus Maximus" starts at 13:15 into the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3agEcpiA08