ASBURY PARK MUSIC IN FILM FESTIVAL

Sony Pictures Classics NEW JERSEY PREMIERE

EAT THAT QUESTION: FRANK ZAPPA IN HIS OWN WORDS





Followed by a Q&A with AHMET ZAPPA

and a live concert performance by

﻿WE USED TO CUT THE GRASS







It is only fitting that a comet and a mollusk are named in Frank Zappa’s honor. The famed American musician, composer, and thinker created satirical, operatic interpretations of music that seemed to originate from another world.







Thorsten Schütte’s film is a sharply edited and energetic celebration of Zappa through his public persona, allowing us to witness his shifting relationship with audiences. Utilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into the musician’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.

Zappa was uncompromising as he led the charge against music censorship in the ’90s and even went on to embrace the role of quasi-cultural ambassador in the Czech Republic. His music and ideas are vital, and they cut across generations, while his goal of freeing the listener from conformity still resonates today.





SATURDAY, APRIL 09, 2016

Tickets:

$50.00

(Film Premiere, Panel Discussion, After-Party Concert)

Showtime: 7:30pm





$15.00 (Concert Only)

WE USED TO CUT THE GRASS

& Special Guests

Following the documentary and Q&A, Asbury Park's own avant-garde large ensemble, We Used to Cut the Grass, will take the stage. Lead by multi-instrumentalist Cody McCorry, the group regularly features five horns, two drum sets, guitar, bass and vibraphone, performing a vast repertoire of contemporary pieces, including the group's own experimental music. The ensemble will be joined by multiple guests, including guitarist Tom Monda and violinist Ben Karas of the nationally touring North Jersey prog band Thank You Scientist, Asbury Park soul singer and bandleader Remember Jones, Red Bank multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jon Francis, with more to be announced as the show draws closer. We Used to Cut the Grass will endeavor to give the audience a look into the past, present and future of Frank Zappa as they perform a set that contains not only a wealth of complex Zappa pieces such as “The Black Page,” but also a study of the music that inspired him, including works by Edgard Varése and Igor Stravinsky, in addition to some of the ensemble's original work.