Just a casual update from Balint on the ZPZ Grammy post:
No official confirmation for this at all, but here’s what z dot com forum user Gregory had to say as an addendum to his review of ZPZ’s December 12 ’08 show at the Roxy:
I almost forgot! DZ announced at the top of the show that he has transferred the footage from his dad’s concert at the Roxy, 35 years ago to hi-def, and will finally be releasing it on DVD!
Yes: it’s hear-say, but (if this is really) coming from DZ I tend to give it a slight bit more credibility than most anything GZ sends out into the world…
Update: Sigh.
Judging from the 30-min clip that has been available on Zappa.com for a long time now, video quality has been one issue preventing release. I’m not talking about the compression used for Web video. You can tell the original video has issues. I would guess some form of scan conversion was used to convert to hi-def, but I wouldn’t expect miracles. But it’s the music that counts, so a Roxy release in any form is what counts.
Roxy on DVD.
The way I see it.
The esential thing about FZ is that he happened to be a pioneer of bridging various musical genres. For instance – let’s say – R& B and basically 20th century classical music ( with the exception of one step into 18th century Barock Italian music).
What’s the possible future of classical music? CD sales are in dire straits. Record companies ( the majors & a few other ones, with the exception of the smaller courageous ones) will now turn to ” home entertainment, ie amongst others DVDs. See for instance: Classical Music After the CD , i e http://businessofclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2008/12/classical-music-after-cd.html
Thus again : FZ as a pioneer.
It might take some time before various people notice it.
You may wanna check this out: http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=125583#125583
Call me a Scrooge, but with the ZFT track record, I can’t believe (or trust) a damn thing that they say. My guess is whatever is released with just be more teasers tagged onto yet another ZPZ DVD (that way DZ can increase the sales of his own DVDs). But the actual Roxy DVD release? I’ll believe it (and buy it) when I see it. So far, all they have proved is that they do not have the business acumen it takes to release something of Roxy’s epic proportions (just inconsistent piecemeal tracks without any conceptual continuity). Sorry for being such a cynic. I’ve seen and heard all this Roxy hubbub before…
I’ll believe it when I see it.
[quote comment=”3467″]You may wanna check this out: http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=125583#125583%5B/quote%5D
Now Barry feels like a Smurf!
Was this person attending the same concert as Gregory?
I feel like a Smurf.
i guess without knowing, it costs a few mio…….. dollars to make such a project happen……………. so should it happen i be so happy grew up on that record ZMRE ……….. that made me smart……………:)
Well.. I didn’t want to make you a smurf…
[quote comment=”3468″]Call me a Scrooge, but with the ZFT track record, I can’t believe (or trust) a damn thing that they say. My guess is whatever is released with just be more teasers tagged onto yet another ZPZ DVD (that way DZ can increase the sales of his own DVDs). But the actual Roxy DVD release? I’ll believe it (and buy it) when I see it. So far, all they have proved is that they do not have the business acumen it takes to release something of Roxy’s epic proportions (just inconsistent piecemeal tracks without any conceptual continuity). Sorry for being such a cynic. I’ve seen and heard all this Roxy hubbub before…[/quote]
We NEED the Roxy DVD. I’m also wondering what bonus features it’ll have when it’s released, hopefully before I die!
[quote comment=”3475″][quote comment=”3467″]You may wanna check this out: http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=125583#125583%5B/quote%5D
Now Barry feels like a Smurf!
Was this person attending the same concert as Gregory?[/quote]
Thanks for the link, Andrew. Now if Barry’s a smurf, I’m a spice-girl, baby! Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s really all the zft is good for, quite frankly. I mean, if I, Urbangraffito, was in charge, I would have released “Roxy: The DVD Experience” a decade ago with worldwide hoopla coinciding with as many FZ festivals, tribute bands, and fan-based weblogs as I could coordinate. Instead, what do we see? This musical genius’ own family “Nickel and Dimeing” his legacy into obscurity. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Judging from the trailer on the Baby Snakes DVD, the source is grainy-as-fuck 16mm film, so I somehow doubt that re-digitising it in HD is going to make it a whole lot better. Perhaps they’re planning to have it all put through some kind of “restoration” process which will reduce the film grain (although you usually lose a lot of detail and texture along the way). If they’d put the SD version out on DVD as it was (apparently FZ had mixed and edited the whole thing in the 1980s); then they would have had more money to throw at doing an improved HD version now. Gah.