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Zappa Plays Zappa, the concert experience that brings the music of the late Frank Zappa to the stage, under the direction of Dweezil Zappa, will this summer again embark on a North American tour. The tour starts July 18 at Winnipeg’s Centennial Hall with a total of 30 performance dates set for the tour’s first leg which concludes in Los Angeles at the end of August. Following a break, Zappa Plays Zappa embarks on a 17 city European tour including dates in the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In concept and performance, Zappa Plays Zappa offers audiences an opportunity to spend an evening with Frank Zappa’s music, performed meticulously by a group of top flight musicians who have been schooled in its subtleties. Far from a “tribute band,” Zappa Plays Zappa is more of a vehicle that underscores the compositional genius of Frank Zappa much as a symphony orchestra would perform pieces by a master composer. Nate Chenen, writing about Zappa Plays Zappa in the New York Times recognized this when he wrote that the show fully realized Dweezil's intent for it to be "an argument for Frank Zappa's legitimacy as a composer."

Frank Zappa died in 1993 after a career that saw him record over 80 albums. Today, the younger Zappa and his band mates are taking full advantage of the wealth and breadth of the material contained therein. "What we're preparing to do for this tour is perhaps even more complex than what we did on the first tour," says Dweezil. "Last year we learned about 40 songs from a very popular period of Frank's career and this year we will be learning about 30 more new ones that are somewhat more obscure. The tour will include material from 'We're Only In It For The Money,' 'Absolutely Free,' 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh,' 'Joe's Garage,' 'You Are What You Is,' The Yellow Shark' and much more, including orchestral works.”