'Zappa’: See New Trailer for ‘Definitive’ Doc About Frank Zappa

[Zappathustra]

Thank you for the answers

[proggy_jazzer]

Watched this over the weekend. Of course any 2-hour doc will seem incomplete in some way when it comes to such an amazing career, but i thought as a piece aimed at a "feature film" type of market it couldn't really have been done any better. The input from Steve Vai and Ruth Underwood was informative and emotional, and Mike Keneally brought the perspective of both being a huge fan and later an employee and colleague. The footage of the Ensemble Modern and Kronos Quartet was worth the price of admission for me. Not particularly surprised that the kids weren't involved in terms of interviews given all the division of the past couple decades, but I was surprised that Joe Travers wasn't interviewed or even mentioned other than the one short snippet of his performance with Ruth of The Black Page. Seems likely that there was material there that didn't for one reason or another make it to the final cut. Overall, very enjoyable and I will recommend it highly to anyone looking for an intro to the man's work and life.

[vmartell]

Watched this over the weekend. Of course any 2-hour doc will seem incomplete in some way when it comes to such an amazing career, but i thought as a piece aimed at a "feature film" type of market it couldn't really have been done any better. The input from Steve Vai and Ruth Underwood was informative and emotional, and Mike Keneally brought the perspective of both being a huge fan and later an employee and colleague. The footage of the Ensemble Modern and Kronos Quartet was worth the price of admission for me. Not particularly surprised that the kids weren't involved in terms of interviews given all the division of the past couple decades, but I was surprised that Joe Travers wasn't interviewed or even mentioned other than the one short snippet of his performance with Ruth of The Black Page. Seems likely that there was material there that didn't for one reason or another make it to the final cut. Overall, very enjoyable and I will recommend it highly to anyone looking for an intro to the man's work and life.

Remember reading a Bluray release is forthcoming - anybody remember a very fun doc on modular synths called "I Dream Of Wires"? Regular, theatrical, rental version was normal length but the Bluray version was 4 hours long! - Hope they do something similar... unlikely, I know... in general, directors/filmakers avoid that kind of thing - they believe if THEY decided to cut it, it was for a reason and they are always right - different of course, if someone else make them cut it... but I digress - hoping for an extended version on the Bluray...

v

[chalkpie]

[Munster]

Just an update on this documentary. It is now available on the BBC iPlayer for UK viewers.

[unclemeat]

Coming soon :
A BR + DVD edition of Alex Winter's ZAPPA movie, with audio commentary by Alex and editor Mike J. Nichols and 80 minutes of bonus features / deleted scenes.

[MudShark22]

rock!

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[Piskie]

Just watched it. A very moving film. Some of the music clips were a bit too short for my liking and I would have liked a little bit more music analysis - but I don't think the latter was their objective and is not meant as a real criticism.

[unclemeat]

A BR + DVD edition of Alex Winter's ZAPPA movie, with audio commentary by Alex and editor Mike J. Nichols and 80 minutes of bonus features / deleted scenes.

NOT

It turns out that the BR is the backers edition.

[Progatron]

Revisiting CD1 of this soundtrack album today, it occurs to me how good the Mothers Whisky A Go-Go '68 tracks sound. Where's the rest of this?

[pb2015]

Revisiting CD1 of this soundtrack album today, it occurs to me how good the Mothers Whisky A Go-Go '68 tracks sound. Where's the rest of this?

Joe has said it might come out.

A couple of unique bits sneaked out on Meat Light too (the tracks "Whiskey Wah" and "The Whip").

[Progatron]

Joe has said it might come out.

A couple of unique bits sneaked out on Meat Light too (the tracks "Whiskey Wah" and "The Whip").

I want. I WANT, I WANT, I WANT.

I do have Meat Light of course, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a complete release of that show.

[chalkpie]

[JJ88]

I saw this when it was shown on BBC TV over here last year. I enjoyed it but it felt a little 'light' on coverage of his albums, somehow. Even Hot Rats was barely mentioned, as far as I remember. I think even a few more minutes might have helped in that regard.

I had no idea about the existence of some of that early Mothers footage.

[ronmac]

I saw this when it was shown on BBC TV over here last year. I enjoyed it but it felt a little 'light' on coverage of his albums, somehow. Even Hot Rats was barely mentioned, as far as I remember. I think even a few more minutes might have helped in that regard.

I had no idea about the existence of some of that early Mothers footage.

Well, you have to admit, if they covered his albums, the doc would last several hours longer.

[Progatron]

Well, you have to admit, if they covered his albums, the doc would last several hours longer.

I'm waiting to hear what the problem with that is.

Seriously though, I would like the doc to have been a bit more album-based myself. I loved it, but it doesn't warrant repeat viewings (yet - I'm sure I'll watch it again sometime).

[chalkpie]

For the amount of stuff about FZ it did have, there is way more stuff it didn't have. But it was a great effort anyway. FZ is much too deep and vast for a 2+ hour film.

[JJ88]

I thought it did a decent job of briefly covering the earlier Mothers albums, but then it sort of gave up on that approach. Which was unfortunate. It's possible there's more of that within DVD extra features. I only saw the film itself on TV.

[pb2015]

I thought it did a decent job of briefly covering the earlier Mothers albums, but then it sort of gave up on that approach.

I haven't seen the movie yet but I remember reacting similarly to the Real FZ Book - it had a narrative of his life up through 1972 and then gave up on that.

[Mister Triscuits]

I want. I WANT, I WANT, I WANT.

I'll tell you what I WANT, I WANT, I WANT. Somehow I dropped the ball on the Kickstarter premiums for the movie and did not realize that they were offering a "soundtrack" EP and album that were not actually the same as the soundtrack LP released to the public (nor are they actually from the soundtrack of the movie at all) and would in fact contain otherwise unavailable recordings. Specifically, the EP contains one track recorded at my first Frank Zappa show, in San Diego, March 24, 1973--49 years ago today--an incredible show that has always been my Holy Grail of Zappa recordings. I still live in hope that someday they will release the whole show, but until then I will continue to kick myself because they released a portion of it and I MISSED OUT.

[Progatron]

I'll tell you what I WANT, I WANT, I WANT. Somehow I dropped the ball on the Kickstarter premiums for the movie and did not realize that they were offering a "soundtrack" EP and album that were not actually the same as the soundtrack LP released to the public (nor are they actually from the soundtrack of the movie at all) and would in fact contain otherwise unavailable recordings. Specifically, the EP contains one track recorded at my first Frank Zappa show, in San Diego, March 24, 1973--49 years ago today--an incredible show that has always been my Holy Grail of Zappa recordings. I still live in hope that someday they will release the whole show, but until then I will continue to kick myself because they released a portion of it and I MISSED OUT.

Oh man, that one ain't going to be easy or cheap to come by:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1629...Reward-Edition

[chalkpie]

Anybody have any particular favorite shows from the Morhers 1971 set? There's a few "Billy(s)" in there! Such a killer set. Unless you can't stand Flo/Eddie...but even so you have a 20 minute "King Kong" and other instrumental goodies to keep you semi-interested.

[Mister Triscuits]

Oh man, that one ain't going to be easy or cheap to come by:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1629...Reward-Edition

It's the EP that has the San Diego track: "Vault of Imaginary Diseases." Note the appearance of special guest Don Preston, who sat in during the second half of the show.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1626...Reward-Edition

None for sale of course. Only serious Zappa heads got their hands on this in the first place, why would they sell it?

[Progatron]

Anybody have any particular favorite shows from the Morhers 1971 set? There's a few "Billy(s)" in there! Such a killer set. Unless you can't stand Flo/Eddie...but even so you have a 20 minute "King Kong" and other instrumental goodies to keep you semi-interested.

Having listened through to the entire set once (with more to follow throughout this coming weekend), I can say the King Kong from Show #1 is played with a particularly noteworthy fire, and I spun it a second time before moving on. I'm so thrilled with not only the performances throughout this set but the quality of the recordings and the mix as well. The Fillmore East album never sounded like this. And though I've gone on record in the past as not being the world's #1 Billy The Mountain fan, I can genuinely say I've enjoyed it so much more these last few listens. I hate to even dangle this opinion, but perhaps I simply didn't care for Frank's mixes of this period. And certainly not his edits. Fillmore East and Just Another Band were my Zappa-loving buddies' favourite albums when I first got into FZ, so my early exposure was very Flo & Eddie-heavy (along with stuff like Bongo Fury and Zoot Allures). But it became my own task to run with it and discover the parts of Frank's catalogue that my friends were either less familiar with, or simply didn't warm to the same way I did. I fell in love with Hot Rats, Waka Jawaka, Grand Wazoo, and so on, and I would eagerly talk about this stuff to them, but their enthusiasm dropped when they didn't get to sing stuff like Dirty Love, or mimic the repetitive riff from Muffin Man. Even now, I still regularly talk to one of those guys, and he'd clearly prefer to listen to something like Apostrophe than hear me waffle on about the Wazoo or Little Dots releases. What can I say, they created a monster in me.

Anyway, that's all a tangent of sorts. The short answer to your question is that the first show is thus far my favourite, but I relish the chance to update my answer over time.

[MudShark22]

Anybody have any particular favorite shows from the Morhers 1971 set? There's a few "Billy(s)" in there! Such a killer set. Unless you can't stand Flo/Eddie...but even so you have a 20 minute "King Kong" and other instrumental goodies to keep you semi-interested.

I only received yesterday and wont get to the BtMs until weekend.

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