By Debra Devi
Dweezil Zappa in Montana – photo credit: Crown Festival/Steve Pickel
Forty-two years after Frank Zappa sang about “moving to Montana soon,” his son Dweezil has found a creative home at Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival in Bigfork, which takes place this year from August 30 to September 6.
Zappa will teach an intensive “Play with the Masters” course at Crown to 20 very lucky advanced guitarists chosen through video auditions. Berklee College of Music prof Tim Miller will co-teach Zappa’s course.
Dweezil will also perform with Zappa Plays Zappa on Sep. 3, and in the “Finale Extravaganza” concert Sep 5, which will feature Artists in Residence, faculty and “surprise guests,” and will be musically co-directed by Zappa and Live from Daryl’s House guitarist Shane Theriot.
Zappa first appeared in concert and at a clinic at the nonprofit Crown Guitar Fest–which benefits environmental and music education foundations in Northwestern Montana– last year.
According to Zappa, he is, “looking forward to our week in Bigfork at the Crown again this year! What a great combination of music and natural beauty! The collaboration between so many great players is amazing and very inspiring! Might be movin’ to Montana soon.”
He returns this summer not only with “Play with the Masters,” but also the first-ever annual Zappa Fellowship, awarded to Norwegian prodigy Haakon Kjeldsberg, 18, who will join Zappa Plays Zappa onstage.
The fellowship will enable Kjeldsberg to travel to Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork to study with Zappa and 2015 Artists in Residence David Grissom, Jon Herington, Madeleine Peyroux, Lee Ritenour, Brett Dennan, Romero Lubambo and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.
Zappa is not the only Crown artist to deepen his commitment this year. Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet members Scott Tennant, John Dearman, William Kanengister and Matthew Greif—who have performed and taught clinics at Crown in previous years—return this summer with an incredible opportunity to study with them in a weeklong “Classical Guitar Perfected” intensive.
Meanwhile, with Brett Dennan the Crown Workshop continues its tradition of supporting great songwriting as much as great guitar playing. Dennan will take over the singer-songwriter clinics taught by John Oates last year, help teach the singer-songwriter course with Bret Boyer and Madeleine Peyroux, and perform on a bill with David Grissom Sep 2.
Also returning to the big white concert tent on the grassy banks of Flathead Lake this year are powerhouse drummer Sonny Emory (Earth Wind & Fire, Steely Dan) and bassist Melvin Lee Davis (Chaka Kahn, The Pointer Sisters, Bryan Ferry). The dynamic duo will back Herington and Peyroux in concert Monday Aug 31, and Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour Tuesday Sep 1.
LA Guitar Quartet kicks off the week’s concerts Aug 30, with young blues phenom “King” Solomon Hicks opening the show. Hicks, who attended Crown last year on a scholarship from the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, has been playing with Cotton Club All-Stars since he was thirteen.
These are exactly the opportunities Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival chairman and classical guitar enthusiast David Feffer dreamed of creating for talented young guitarists when he founded Crown in 2009 with a vision of turning Bigfork (population 4,270) into an international center for the study and appreciation of the guitar.
Dweezil Zappa – photo credit: Crown Guitar Festival / Steve Pickel
Feffer’s dream is realized every summer now, as guitarists of all ages and nationalities arrive in Bigfork for the opportunity to share meals and trade licks with their heroes in the informal dining hall of the Main Lodge and on the banks of Flathead Lake at the tail end of another gorgeous Montana summer.
According to Feffer, “We don’t bring anyone here who isn’t nice. It doesn’t matter how famous or talented they are. They also have to be nice. That’s the magic ingredient that makes this all work.”
To date, Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation has awarded more than a half million dollars in scholarships to both local Flathead Valley students and gifted guitarists from around the world.
Additional fellowships awarded this year include the Chairman’s Fellowship to Josh Turner, Hawaii Fellowship to Shem Kahawii, Wes Montgomery – Ritenour award to Leandro Pelligrino, D’Addario Fellowship to Lily McAndrew and the AOCGC Classical Fellowship to Phillip Goldenberg.
Dweezil Zappa teaching a clinic in Montana – photo credit: Crown Guitar Festival/Michael Roessmann
The Crown Workshop is also open to amateur guitarists of all levels and ages whose idea of the ultimate vacation is to play guitar for 16 hours a day. Students take three-hour morning classes in the genre of their choice and attend afternoon Artist in Residence clinics in the homey log cabins that stud the grounds of Flathead Lake Lodge, a dude ranch run by the Averill family since 1945.
The public evening concerts are attended by around 1,000 people who gather as the sun begins to set and the Lodge’s 90-plus herd of horses gallops up the hill behind the tent to their evening paddocks. Picturesque doesn’t do the scene justice; magical is more like it.
Post-concert jam sessions at the Lodge and performance opportunities at Bigfork clubs give all attendees plenty of chances to play, and excuses to stay up late.
They will still have to drag themselves out of bed and grab their guitars by 8 AM for the breakfast chow line at the Lodge and classes from 9 AM to noon, which are helmed by Crown’s killer faculty, including James Hogan (jazz/rock fusion), Dennis McCumber (jam class), Bret Bayer (songwriting), Mark Dzubia (jazz), Jared Meeker (rock and blues), Romero Lubambo (Brazilian jazz), Doug Smith (acoustic/fingerstyle) and Susan Mazer (beginner). Somehow, we don’t think that’ll be a problem.
To learn more about Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival, visit www.crownguitarfest.org. To apply for Dweezil Zappa’s “Play with the Masters” Class, submit your performance video to sbeaulieu@crownguitar.org.
Debra Devi is the lead singer/guitarist for the rock band DEVI and author of The Language of the Blues.
