Although Frank Zappa died in 1993 when he was just 52 years old, he made a huge impact in the world of music. His experimental rock ‘n’ roll and comedic ballads broke all categorical definitions. One of Zappa’s four children, Dweezil, became well known at the age of 17 when he was an MTV veejay. He has appeared in the movies “Running Man” and “Pretty in Pink.” Six years ago he began Zappa Plays Zappa, which has performed nearly 100 Frank Zappa songs.
A former Frank Zappa guitarist jammed on one song with Dweezil during a show in Toronto.
“I came up unexpectedly and came up onstage and did the Bob Dylan imitation of ‘Shake Your Booty’ from a song called ‘Flakes,’ ” Belew told Lake Tahoe Action before a recent North Shore show. “It was a great moment. I love the fact that he’s carrying on his father’s legacy. That music is difficult to play and Dweezil’s doing an excellent job at it. I’m just really happy to see it carried on for Frank’s sake.”

Zappa Plays Zappa performs Friday, Nov. 27, at MontBleu Casino Resort and Spa. Dweezil Zappa said it will be the first time he’s ever visited Tahoe. Here are excerpts from an interview with Action’s Tim Parsons:

Q Adrian Belew had some nice things to say about Zappa Plays Zappa. Are there any members of your father’s band in your show?

A No. From the beginning my goal has been to do what we’ve been doing. It was nice to have alumni for specialty occasions. The music itself is the real important thing with this. Sometimes people get confused that to have the music to sound a certain way you have to have alumni involved, and I don’t think that’s the case. I wanted to put the focus on the music and not the people playing the music.

Q A lot of listeners only know about Frank Zappa’s novelty songs. Are you doing this to remind them about his greater body of work?

A That’s part of the reason why I wanted to do this music to begin with. I felt Frank’s music has been under-appreciated and widely misunderstood, accidentally because of the comedy elements that made it to the radio. The only songs that ever made it to the radio were songs like “Valley Girl,” “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” or “Dancing Fool.” In Europe a huge song was “Bobby Brown.” All these songs that have comedic content gives people the impression that he’s in the same league as Weird Al Yankovic. That’s unfortunate because he made over 80 albums and there’s so much diversity throughout the music. Those handful of songs don’t reflect the bulk of the music, so to create a broader perspective of the music has been the challenge and to give people the chance to see and hear things that not only are they familiar with but also have some surprises with in the show.

Q Have you created a new group of Zappa fans?

A We’re trying to get it in front of a younger audience so they can really experience so they can dig into it on their own. The core fans we knew would be somewhat interested from the beginning but to branch out and create a newer, younger audience has been the goal and biggest challenge and over the past four years we’ve seen more and more younger people attending the shows.

Q Did your father teach you how to play his songs?

A I had a few chances to sit down and learn some stuff from him, but ultimately he just let me do my own thing. I was always interested in his music Jeff Munson 11/23/09 but the music, ? I was 12 and I would listen to his music and think, “That’s impossible.” At 12 I thought I have some time before I have to start worrying about doing stuff like that. Let me work on some other stuff, some Led Zeppelin, some Van Halen, stuff like that.

Q With such a talented band, are you considering recording some new material?

A We get a lot of feedback saying you should do your own album and do something outside of Frank’s music. We’re thinking about doing that but am not quite sure what we’re going to do yet. It may or may not happen before the end of this year.

Q There are so many Frank Zappa songs, you could make a career out of covering his songs.

A There is definitely enough material to do this on an annual basis for decades. It’s just a question of where there is a demand for it. It’s difficult to keep a band together. This band has been together longer than any of Frank’s bands as a touring band. There was a lot of rotation in and out of his band.

Q Did your father ever talk with you and your brother and sisters about the idea of playing his music?

A It was never discussed. Frank was really self-deprecating and Jeff Munson 11/23/09 thought of himself as something he enjoyed but wasn’t something that was that important to the rest of the world. I disagree with that concept. To me it was important to share what he was doing with the rest of the world.

Q What do you think Frank would make of the modern state of music?

A All the comments he made even in the early ’80s will still ring true today. In his book, “The Real Frank Zappa Book,” there’s a document in there talking about what is essentially iTunes. He was trying to patent the concept of digital downloading back in the early ’80s. He predicted much of what’s going on.

Q Since you are going where the huskies go — Tahoe — will you perform “Yellow Snow?”

A We do that song. When you went to one of his shows there was always the sense that anything could happen and that anything would be something that only that audience would see. There was always that improvisational element. We want to give people a show that’s unique to them.