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Volume 27, Issue 13, November 04, 2004

Features

A band on stage performing
Lead guitarist, vocalist and veteran Zappa musician, Ike Willis and Andre Cholmondeley, founder of Project/Object, a Frank Zappa cover band, play Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom, Oct. 26th and 27th. Zappa's eclectic music has a timeless appeal, which some would say is still ahead of its time.

A token of their extreme: Project/Object keeps Zappa's legacy alive

Project/Object was gathered backstage between sets, having just played over an hour of demanding music. The first half of the band's concert was marked by a painstaking attention to musical detail, a diverse sampling of styles and sounds, a good dose of social satire, and an unbridled enthusiasm for the material.

For the moment, however, the focus of the discussion was not so much on the night's performance as it is on the man who inspired it.

"I freaked out on two albums when I first got into Zappa,"said bassist Dave Johnsen. "One was Roxy and Elsewhere. It scared me and freaked me out. It was the most beautiful music I'd ever heard."

It isn't surprising that the other assembled band members echoed a similar fascination with the work and personality of Frank Vincent Zappa, the American composer/rock star/satirist/guitar hero who made a career of challenging the status quo. Since 1993, the year of Zappa's death, the band has kept his music alive in their performances.

a close up photo of pumpkin
Andre Cholmondeley, founder of Project/Object, founded the band after hearing Zappa's album Zoot Allures. "I entered the pit at that moment. I realized, here's a guy whose not afraid to do it all."

"I started doing a party in 1989 or '90 to get people together once a year on Zappa's birthday,"said Andre Cholmondeley, the band's founder. "Later on, my band started playing at the party, just doing half a dozen songs. The next year we did 16 songs and the year after that we went to a club."

In 1997, the band gained a deeper degree of authenticity when veteran Zappa lead vocalist/guitarist Ike Willis joined their ranks. Napoleon Murphy Brock, another seasoned Zappa sideman came aboard on lead vocals and saxophone four years later in October 2001.

Willis was a constant figure in Zappa's band from 1978 to the final tour in 1988, contributing some of the most memorable lyrical performances of the Zappa catalogue. Brock was a central player in the 1974 Mothers of Invention, a band renowned for its complex arrangements and eclectic output. Both musicians contributed an intimate knowledge of the Zappa's complex and precise live arrangements.

"The thing about both (Napoleon) and Ike is that they've played with some of these great players so their standards of how it should sound are very high,"said Eric Svalgard, keyboard player and newest member of the group. "There's stuff that you can't get off the records that they have in their heads."

Frank Zappa's bands were characterized not only by their musical prowess, but by the improvisation and spontaneity of every live show.

"All the stuff you've ever heard me do...started out as an A side/B side," Ike Willis said. "When we were done, (Zappa) said, 'Hey we're here.' Next thing I know we've got 21 major tracks. The one thing Frank always told me was, 'There's tons of people with talent, they got chops. You could take some ink and fling it on the wall...Steve Vai could play it. But what's next? What do you do after you're there? You have to get loose."

A band on stage performing
Ike Willis started playing with Zappa in 1978 and remained a constant figure throughout Zappa's long and prolific career. "My major was political science and law and Frank was a genius, current on everything. So we could expound on anything. We basically spent a lot of time laughing our asses off."

Zappa would often change lyrics to satirize current political and religious leaders and tweak the music to fit his subject matter. For Zappa's last tour in 1988, the band used recorded samples and techno sounds to complete the effect.

Project/Object captures the same irreverent and topical spirit in their stage show. Whether including samples of President Bush or mutating lyrics to mock Ashlee Simpson, the band takes its political and satirical parodies straight from the source.

"We always tried to (include) some political things,"Cholmondeley said. "Because when you look at the Zappa shows, it would change every night."

For a new generation of Zappa fans who came of age too late to see the shows, Project/Object provides an accurate peek into the chaos, the discipline, and the brilliance that characterized his live performances.

"I did (see Zappa live), and speaking for the band, it pretty much brings the same character to life," said drummer Glenn Leonard. "We do see that it's a brand new generation. For the younger person who's never seen Frank, they do realize...it's as good as it gets in the 21st century."

Still, even with all the passion, even with the veterans, even with all the same elements at work, there is a certain emptiness at these shows. For all that they brilliantly capture, it's impossible to recreate the originator, the composer, the mad genius behind the notes.

"The only thing that's missing is that certain presence, that inimitable presence of Zappa," Leonard said. "And that's something you should know for the record. The closer you got to Frank, the more overpowering his presence could be. He was one of those people with presence. And to see it in the flesh, it would know you out of your chair."