DWEEZIL And The Time Machine
“My goal was always to focus on his work as a composer, as a guitarist, as a bandleader, and show the depth and the variety in the music.”
1969 was a momentous year for Frank Zappa. On September 5, he and his wife Gail celebrated the birth of their son Dweezil. Then, on October 10, Zappa released his second solo album, a fearsome blend of instrumental jazz rock fusion called Hot Rats.
Fifty years later, Dweezil is bringing the album back to life, playing the full record on tour with the band that he likes to call his “rocking teenage combo”. In honour of his father, Dweezil aims to produce a DNA-accurate audio presentation of Hot Rats onstage.
“It’s just a really cool-sounding recording,” says the guitarist. “Part of what we do when we go out is that we take into consideration the actual sound that was used on the recordings and try to recreate that the best that we can, so it really has a time machine quality.”
As much as he’s building a musical time machine every night, Dweezil, which means Dweezil’s guitar has an awful lot of musical real estate to cover. Even before the first Zappa Plays Zappa tour in 2006, Dweezil had spent years working to absorb his father’s music and intimidating virtuosity.
