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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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ZAPPATISTAS
Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London, 22nd August
2007 |
| This
was done on an impulse – or maybe it was the
result of an as yet undiagnosed pizza addiction
that’s slowly gnawing its way through my bones.
Either way it’s the Pizza Express Jazz Club
in Soho. We’re shoe-horned in next to a couple
of tables who are getting along like a coach party
on its way to Morecambe. On one there’s Kevin
and his son Know-it-all-Nigel (aged 10), on the
other Brian and Belinda. Nigel, who sensibly skips
the Pizza and goes straight for the Triple Chocolate
Glory (“mmm, I like it very much, Daddy”),
is a guitar nut and probably headed for the school
of rock. |
 |
| He
loudly informs his weary-looking father of a few
salient rock facts – “Did you know Daddy,
that Jimmy Page recorded the solo on ‘Stairway
to Heaven’ using a 1958 Fender Telecaster
that was a gift from his Yardbirds band mate, Jeff
Beck, and a Supro amp? I like it very much”.
Then he turns on Brian – “Do you play
the guitar too?” “No” says Brian,
“Actually it’s my 30th birthday and
Belinda’s brought me here for a special treat
(Birthday? Pizza? Just what sort of treat is this,
Serge?). But I did try and play a long long time
ago, but you know I could just never get the thing
in tune. Bad ear I suppose”. “Oh”
says Know-it-all, “But you don’t need
to use your ears. I’ve got a Peterson
VSS2 StroboStomp Pedal Tuner that Granny bought
me for over one hundred pounds and it does it all
for you. I like it very much. Don’t you have
one?” And so it goes. By the time they leave,
they’re swapping addresses and promising Christmas
cards and Nigel, somehow, has avoided getting plates
full of Pizza emptied on his head. |
Max Factor ad |
| We’re
here to see a very superior sort of tribute band
– it’s jazz giant, legend, and virtuoso
John
Etheridge, of mid seventies Soft Machine
(he’s here later in the week with his Soft
Machine Legacy too) and Stéphane Grappelli
fame, and his Zappatistas,
featuring Annie
Whitehead on trombone, Steve
Lodder on keyboards, Simon Bates on
saxophone, a wonderful trumpeter (not the regular
guy) who’s name I confess I didn’t manage
to get into the little black book. The band was
put together by Etheridge (who’s about to
tour the world with the Placido Domingo of the classical
guitar, John Williams) and Lodder as a one-off in
1998, but since then they’ve played occasionally
and recorded one album, the wittily titled ‘Live
in Leeds’. I have to remark that I’m
not a great Zappa fan (sorry Serge, it must be like
saying that I don’t like motorbikes much,
which I’m afraid I don’t) – I
mean I can see the technical brilliance of his music,
the accomplishment of his guitar playing (as a friend
said earlier today – “he was a fantastic
player, I mean he just sounded as if he could go
on and on and on, which he often did”) and
the sly edge wittiness of his lyrics but I just
couldn’t get engaged. If you must know that’s
also exactly how I feel about the Marx Brothers
– I got the astonishing timing, the uber-surreal
jokes, the wisecracks, but it didn’t really
make me laugh. But Know-it-all has got his mouth
stuffed with ice cream (silence at last!), I’m
pizza replete, so I’m in a good enough humour
for anything. |
| As
are the band, hustled and bustled through the songs
by musical director Lodder who sits at his keyboards
like a Sergeant Major, barking orders and gesticulating
at the band as he orchestrates their way through
the songs. We may all be having fun, but it’s
serous stuff, as Paul and Bruce in the front row
(down from Walsall for a night in the big city –
hello boys) found out when they navigated their
way through the profusion of music stands and half-inched
some sheet music (they tried to read it upside down
at first – typical Brummies). And although
various members of the band choose to sit out some
of the other solos at the bar (leaving a gesticulating
Lodder angrily staring into the crowd searching
for them when it’s their turn to play) everyone
turns in some pretty impressive playing –
not least of course Etheridge, who uses Zappa's
complex arrangements as a vehicle for some extravagant
soloing. He’s good. |
 |
| “Daddy,
I think he’s rather good, but I’m not
sure that he’s using his pinky enough in his
fingering. Do you think I should tell him?”
says Know-it-all, before Daddy eventually whisks
him away as he yells “Daddy, I thought Mr
Zappa used a Baby Snakes SG with a 23rd fret and
phase switches and an onboard preamp, played through
his Pignose amplifier. Why isn’t Mr Etheridge?
And look at his pedal configuration, that surely
can’t be right, he hasn’t got a Electro
Wagnerian Emancipator or a Electro- Harmonix Big
Muff….” |
| Well,
for all that nonsense we enjoyed ‘Peaches
en regalia’, ‘The grand Wazoo’,
‘Let’s make the water turn black’,
‘Eat that question’ (Etheridge was very
hot here on a blues solo – “why play
3 notes when you can play 125?” said the Photographer),
‘Big Swifty’, ‘Zoot allures‘,
‘King Kong’, ‘Harry you’re
a beast’, ‘Oh no’, ‘Lumpy
gravy’ and ‘I am slime’. And some
remarkable solo work from the brass section, and
from quite excellent bassist Rob
Statham. And after a chat with Paul and Bruce
from Walsall we left happily into an unusually wet
August night for home, with the sound of Serge’s
favourite Mr Zappa, and some excellent musicians,
ringing very pleasantly in our ears. - Nick
Morgan (gig photographs by Kate) |
FZ
and his SG: "Why play 125 notes
when you can play 500?" |
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