Frank Zappa has always meant Halloween to me.  His Halloween concerts are legendary.  So its fitting that our Halloween issue should include a piece about the man and his music.

My introduction to Frank Zappa came at the hands of my neighbor, bearing “We’re Only In It For The Money”.  We sat and listened to that record over and over for two weeks leading up to one Halloween.  We locked ourselves away in my house and dissected every word, and absorbed each note.  For fourteen days Frank was God, and “Only In It” was the holy bible.

John developed a near fatal addiction to sniffing gas fumes right around the time we started hanging out.  He come over high, smelling of Exxon unleaded.  Any thought of lighting up a joint to achieve my own buzz left me a little nervous, so I’d toke a bit before he came by.  Our drugs of choice could have been an explosive combination had fate stepped in.  But somehow we managed to dodge that bullet.
Over time our Zappa sessions became strained.  John would violently thrash about the room, knocking over lamps with each shift of mood in every song.  The fuel had melted his mind, and The Mothers of Invention, were there to ply it with its fingers, and reshape it.

Years later I learned that John had been charged with raping a girl while high.  The charges were eventually dropped, but the stress from the allegations finished him off, and he was never quite the same after that.
Now when I pop on Joe’s Garage or The Man From Utopia, I fondly think of John, and I always smell gasoline.

You probably wonder what this has to do with Project/Object .  Absolutely nothing.
Project/Object is a band that was originally made up of a bunch of my friends, who wanted to pay tribute to Frank’s music. Eventually the band evolved  into an ensemble of ex-Zappa members, and a core of Frank fans and musical geniuses.

Project/Object is the brainchild of guitarist Andre Cholmondeley.  I spoke with Andre, though not about my neighbor John, nor the topic of gas fume addiction.  Instead we talked about how he’s been able to play the music of one of his idols, and play with musicians who were once part of Frank’s musical family. 

Glubdub :
How did Project/Object come together?

Andre Cholmondeley:
In the late 80s I used to hold a "Zappa Birthday Hang" at my apartment with my housemate J Cobe. 24 hrs of Zappa. I would have ALL my cassettes and LPs, and my massive collection of Zappa interviews, magazine articles and books/liner notes, out for people to peruse.  I noticed that, each year people would come over and maybe even jot down notes, and it made me realize "wait a minute there are still LOTS of people brand NEW to Zappa. So that planted the seed to carry the "didactic" part of it into the future. This notion that I (and the band) can turn some people onto a whole new type of music, and maybe it will lead them to EVEN MORE horizons in music beyond Zappa.

Zen Pajamas (a trio consisting of Andre, Stan Lachiewicz on bass and Mumbo on drums) started adding a couple easy Zappa tunes to our set. We added Boxy on keys, Wes on keys/drums and a revolving door of other assorted friends on various instruments and vocals, and booked a show at the Court Tavern. That same year Frank Zappa died, so it became a solemn thing, a wake instead of just a show. I adopted the name "Project/Object", a phrase Zappa used often to describe his ENTIRE output. I wanted a name that invoked "the big picture" of what Zappa was about.

The Lion's Den, in NYC, became our 1st "out of NJ" gig...and that was our main NYC stop for years. Slowly we started playing all around the tri-state area, and the rest is history. We've played in 30-40 states, Canada and Germany.

GD:
What was the response like from audiences initially?

AC:
Slow to grow, but Fantastic. People couldn't believe these freaks were attempting to do music they hadn't heard live in a decade, or ever in many cases. The tours with Zappa's son - Dweezil have helped us ALL by getting the topic of "Zappa music" in the news.

GD:
How did you get your first ex-Zappa member on board?  Was that Ike Willis?

AC:
Yes it was Ike. I met Ike when I was a poor black child - at age 19. Now - as a poor black MAN, i still have him in the band. I met Ike at the Jones Beach Zappa Concert in August 1984, right out by the merchandise, with 2 or 3 other band members, all going un-recognized by the milling pre-show crowd.

I ran into him again at a couple other shows that year, and we became friends. Then in 1988 Zappa toured again.  I went up to the first show with some buddies, and I saw a total of 7 or 8 other shows on that tour, most times hanging with Ike post show, or just saying hi.   He bought a couple of us drinks after the NYC show, and thru knowing Ike of course, saying hi and meeting the rest of the band was no issue.

The time between 1988 (last Zappa tour) and 1995, Ike was back out west where he lived. I had a college buddy Dave Aliprandi who was out there, and was playing bass in Ike's pickup band!! So, we stayed in touch thru him. In 1995 Ike played NYC with "Banned From Utopia", a group of 5 or 6 Zappa alumni doing FZ's music, and so named due to the continual hassles and legal threats of Frank's widow, Gail Zappa.

I saw the show and reunited with Ike. By this point Project/Object was playing in NYC. I gave him a tape and invited him to do some shows with us.  The rest is history. It slowly built from there. Every rat-hole bar in the northeast - it seems we've played there and sometimes still do.

Over the years we have also played a lot with Napoleon Murphy Brock - sax and vocals for Zappa in the mid 70s. He is also in the Dweezil Zappa "ZPZ" thing. We have played with a couple of the original Mothers Of Invention, especially Don Preston and Bunk Gardner. Along the way about a dozen total Zappa Alumni have been onstage with us.  Roy Estrada, Ed Mann (longest time in Zappa's band of anyone), Denny Walley, Ray White, Mike Keneally, Arthur Barrow, Al Malkin, Jimmy Carl Black, Bob Harris, Thana Harris, Bruce Bickford, and even Zappa's sister Candy Zappa.

GD:
Did you ever get a chance to meet Frank?

AC:
I said hi to Frank a couple times after meeting Ike.  My prize memory is telling him behind the Beacon Theater in NYC, that we would "bring a sign about Ed Meese and the PMRC" to the Washington, DC show.  He gave me a big grin, a thumbs up and said "Make it A Big One!!"