{"id":12071,"date":"2017-01-17T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T10:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12071"},"modified":"2017-01-17T08:24:49","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T13:24:49","slug":"projectobject-frank-zappa-fantasy-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/17\/projectobject-frank-zappa-fantasy-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Project\/Object: Frank Zappa Fantasy Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"projectobject1\"\u201cI started Project\/Object<\/strong> around 1989 or ’90,\u201d says guitarist Andr\u00e9 Cholmondeley<\/strong>, leader of the popular Frank Zappa<\/strong> tribute group. \u201cI thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll do this for fun. We’ll do it once a year on Frank’s birthday.’ But I never had the concept that it would be a group involving musicians who had played in Frank Zappa’s bands.\u201d In short order, however, that’s the direction that the Zappa tribute group took.<\/p>\n

After meeting Ike Willis<\/strong>, guitarist\/vocalist with Zappa from 1978 to ’88, Cholmondeley sent Willis a tape of his band. The Zappa alumnus enthusiastically joined the group. \u201cAnd from that moment on, it transcended being just some guys getting together,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had this legitimacy; a real authenticity came about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been over a dozen different alumni who have either toured with us or popped up onstage,\u201d Cholmondeley says. The resulting tours feel more like a reunion than a tribute: \u201cI’ve brought guys together who haven’t played gigs with one another since the ’70s,\u201d he says. The group’s current tour features Willis and Don Preston<\/strong>; the latter was Zappa’s keyboardist for nearly the entire period 1966 to 1974.<\/p>\n

Cholmondeley sees Project\/Object as something quite different from a cover band. \u201cWith tribute bands, you’re trying to paint that picture, evoke the music, trying to do as well as possible,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I have is some of the people who actually recorded these songs. So I don’t have to have my singer sound like<\/i> the guy; I’ve got<\/i> the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"projectobject2\"<\/p>\n

The group makes the most of the talents of Willis and Preston. When coming up with a set list, Cholmondeley says, \u201cI ask myself, ‘What is the highlight album that they’re known for?’ And I work backward from there, making sure that we have a couple of tracks from that record.\u201d In Preston’s case, that might be We’re Only in it for the Money<\/i> (1968) or the 1974 double live LP Roxy and Elsewhere<\/i>. For Willis, it almost certainly means Zappa’s 1979 album Joe’s Garage<\/i>, but the set might include tunes from 1981’s topical You Are What You Is<\/i>. Cholmondeley describes the result as a kind of \u201cZappa fantasy camp. But then you also get to hear a best-of, with all kinds of cool stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cholmondeley says that his group \u201csplits the difference\u201d between note-perfect readings of tunes from Zappa’s fifty-plus albums, and the off-the-wall arrangements that Zappa himself often delivered onstage. \u201cWe’re fortunate that with an artist like Zappa, the audience is completely comfortable with different versions,\u201d he says. Musical in-jokes were always a major component of Zappa albums and concerts, and Project\/Object proudly carries on that tradition. \u201cAt heart, I’m a Zappa freak,\u201d Cholmondeley says. \u201cAnd fans love it when we play some games, pulling out a 1973 version of ‘Peaches En Regalia,’ and gluing it up to a 1988 version. Fans get the joke as it’s happening.\u201d Through it all, Cholmondeley plays the part that fits him perfectly: \u201cthe role of Zappa fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may also enjoy …
\nMy 2011 interview with Cholmondeley and Willis<\/a>
\nMy 2013 review of a Project\/Object concert<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cI started Project\/Object around 1989 or ’90,\u201d says guitarist Andr\u00e9 Cholmondeley, leader of the popular Frank Zappa tribute group. \u201cI thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll do this for fun. We’ll do it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,41,42,56,62],"tags":[191,701,1044,1742],"class_list":["post-12071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avant-garde","category-interview","category-jazz","category-prog","category-rawk","tag-andre-cholmondeley","tag-don-preston","tag-ike-willis","tag-project-object","cat-7-id","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12294,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12071\/revisions\/12294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}