Dweezil Zappa does his daddy proud night after night performing extremely technical music at a very high level. From a young age, he promised his father that he would be a guitarist, but I’m not sure that anyone but Frank could believe that he would be as good as he actually is. Dweezil is one of the best guitar players alive, and people need to start giving him the credit that he deserves.

The Zappa Family Trust has partnered with Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) for a long-term, global licensing agreement for Frank Zappa's entire recorded catalog, as well as rights management participation across the rest of the visionary cultural icon's creative canon. The partnership spans Frank Zappa's vast music and film Vault for new product releases, trademark licensing, film and theatrical production.   

I had the pleasure of catching up with guitarist and bandleader Dweezil Zappa, who is in his eighth year of leading Zappa Plays Zappa, the tour de Frank.

When guitarist Dweezil Zappa, son of guitarist, composer, bandleader, actor, social activist, and pseudo-comedian Frank Zappa created the Zappa Plays Zappa project in 2006, he intended it as a tribute to his father’s legacy, a one-off that might reconnect some old fans and breed some new ones in the process. Eight years down the road his project is more popular than ever.

The second-born child of independent music pioneer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Frank Zappa first took the stage with his famous father at the tender age of 12. He was entranced by the elder Zappa’s “control over the music [that] almost seemed like a magic trick.” By the mid-1980s, he was contributing his own riffs to Frank’s albums such as Them or Us and finding an artistic identity of his own as an actor, MTV VJ, and Grammy award-winning musician.

The daunting task of interpreting the music of Frank Zappa has made the iconized jazz-fusion composer/musician less often a cover project than one might expect.

The ZAPPA FAMILY TRUST honors the American Composer’s “Signature Guitar Compositions” on iTunes.  Released on this year’s anniversary of FZ’s death (December 4), FRANK ZAPPA PLAYS THE MUSIC OF FRANK ZAPPA--A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE features the classic recordings of “Watermelon In Easter Hay,” “Black Napkins” and ”Zoot Allures,” as well as the earliest versions from the Vault at the time of the original CD release in 1996 (still available from Bar

For fans who have ever dreamed of being in the music business or running their own record company—here’s their chance. The ZAPPA FAMILY TRUST and ZAPPA RECORDS are offering up the unprecedented opportunity for Zappa fans to license their very own copies of ROXY BY PROXY by FRANK ZAPPA with The Mothers of Invention.For a $1000 licensing fee, fans can own a master duplication copy of ROXY BY PROXY (All Roxy No Elsewhere):  76 minutes of never-before-released

The music of Frank Zappa could be considered the most important compositional contributions to American popular music in the 20^th century. Many might find this claim blasphemous. What about Miles Davis? John Coltrane? Bing Crosby? The list could go on. Zappa's music blended important elements of orchestral and jazz music while serving as a working parody of music and popular culture.

The ZAPPA FAMILY TRUST is excited to announce a new 2-CD set released via iTunes and UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES Tuesday, October 30.  UNDERSTANDING AMERICA is one of only three compilation albums produced and titled by FZ himself.  (Ironically, MOTHERMANIA is another and is also on schedule for October 30.)  The project comprises by less than a quarter titles a