JAY DANLEY

Jan Danley's Zappa side

Jan Danley's quality as a multi-instrumentalist is undeniable. On his latest album, he pays tribute to Frank Zappa with music that is composed and performed entirely by him. Danley plays all the instruments himself, and while the results are impressive overall, the quality is somewhat uneven. His guitar and drum work stand out as superb, but some of the other instruments fall short, lacking the same level of virtuosity or technical polish.

Still, it's an entertaining album that has some very high moments and others not, but it succeeds in paying homage to Zappa in many ways while maintaining Danley's own personal style. Perhaps the album would have benefited from a real horn section, as some of the synthesized or sampled brass parts feel lacking. There are also some keyboard sounds that don't quite land?something more vintage might have suited the material better.

But Jan Danley is a great musician, and beyond those minor flaws, the album is very well crafted and executed. Besides, we're talking about a one man band, and it's even more complicated to perform a personal tribute to Frank Zappa. That alone makes this project admirable. It is a high-quality record from a great musician that, most of the time, connects meaningfully with its title. And as I said, the album entertains and that's what matters.

Frank Zappa was an alternative music icon of his time (or anti-idol, you choose). His universe was equally built on the psychedelia of the late 60s, his complicated personality, black humour, and the craziness of the epoch in general. Additionally, his unconventional approach to music. It's quite impressive that his music still attracts many followers. The question is, who would Frank Zappa be if he were a middle-aged acting musician in today's world?

Canadian session guitarist Jay Danley's newest self-released album is a half-hour collection of original music, inspired by Frank Zappa. All instruments are recorded by Jay himself, and for such kind of recordings, the album sounds surprisingly well. Don't expect the vitality of music, recorded by a collective of musicians, playing together in a studio, but all instrumental lines are professional, doesn't matter what the instrument.

Jay Danley played with some well-known pop and jazz artists; some of his previous releases demonstrate his relations with such genres as Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz, among others. Still, "Great Googly Moogly!" is, first of all, a jazz-rock album, with dominating fluid guitar soloing, often tuneful, and with a positive mood.

Jay doesn't try to imitate Zappa's music, for good. There are a lot of snippets and tunes, which possibly could be found on Zappa's albums, but still, this album's music is very much Danley's own. Besides (dominating) soloing guitars' instrumental rock of the late 60s, there is a Santanesque dreamy song with vintage keys ("Canatloups On White Napkins ") and "Bozo's Bonanza" with brocken jazz-fusion rhythm. One can hear some neo-classical arrangements and Latin rhythms here and there as well.

Still, the main difference between Danley's music and Zappa's, for my ear, is in the atmosphere. For Zappa, dark humor and craziness in general were one extremely important element in music. Danley takes his musical aesthetics and techniques as the basis, and creates his own music, not such crazy and sarcastic, but more soulful, tuneful, and ... better-rounded. Jay's guitar sometimes sounds more like Gary Moore's on his bluesy songs than Zappa's. Songs are often arranged in a radio-friendly (or smooth jazz) manner against Zappa's more rugged sound. That means nothing wrong - if Frank Zappa played today, who knows what his music would be?

Usually the one-man-bands are defective with at least one of the instruments played. This is not the case. I've been nicely surprised by Jay Danleyl's technical skill with all the instruments he has played in this album. Not only he plays guitar as well as the great Frank, but everything he has put in the album is amazingly well played.

The compositions are very Zappa'esque, as the album title says. I'm sure that Frank would have approved this work. The spirit of Zappa is present also in the track's title, which have the same irony and have the power of sending a message even though all the tracks are instrumental.

Example: Bozo's Bonanza. I had to do some research to understand its meaning. It refers to Alan Livingston, the Capital Record president who was the creator of "Bozo the Clown" and later responsible of the broadcasting of Bonanza on NBC.

Googly Moogly indicates surprise and it seems was used by Willie Nelson in a blues before Zappa started making use of this interjection.

But let's go back to music. As Zappa said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture", so I won't attempt to describe the very complex tracks which are full of Zappa's humour also in the instrumental sudden changes inside the tracks.

I felt a bit of "darkness" in the central part of "Poker with Tarot Cards", but the rest is full of light and very enjoyable also for those who are not into the music of Frank Zappa.

I don't know the other works of Jay Danley, so I don't know how much he relates to Zappa. This album is a sort of tribute and it reaches its target. Let me joke about it being the first album composed by Frank Zappa after his death.

Well done...