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Rotcod Zzaj grew outta' th' fermentation that wuz' th' '60's; alla' th' "hex"periences from those times that yer' could possibly imagine (both sweet & sour) were what created his attitudes towards music & th' playing thereof.
Th' name is (as you prob'ly awready recognize) a perversion of "Doctor Jazz"; buncha' doodz' in th' early '80's started tellin' this Zzaj that hiz music wuz TRULY TWISTED, a form of BACKWARDS jazz, ergo th' name!
Tho' Zzaj haz attached th' moniker of (irr)Reverend to his nick, there's no "cosmic mystic crapola" involved... th' premise of ALL Zzaj Productions (tapes, a 20 page paper 'zine, & a chap or two) izzat' music & art BELONG to th' PEOPLE! NOT to some self-assigned "guardians" of our morality (if we're IMmoral - we need to FIX it ourSELVES, right?)... ...or some PRIEST of the PROPER, who tells hiz flock what to wear, what to eat, what to breathe - who to BE! Well, ya' won't find ANY o' that krap at ZP! Plain & simple, we're about music that the PEOPLE produce, whether for themselves, just for friends, or perhaps for radioplay... what- EVER... ya' got it, send it to US for review & comment!
Dick Metcalf (aka Rotcod Zzaj) began playing music at a very early age. Since boogie-woogie wasn't quite kosher in the W.A.S.P. environs he grew up in (northeastern Pennsylvania), he had to wait several years for his music to be accepted. In the ensuing years, he wandered the world (in uniform until 1988), breathing in the music and energy from cultures as disparate as the United States, Germany, Yemen, Korea and Thailand. Those travels made him appreciate the musics of many cultures as a friend that could be relied upon, even in the darkest of times... as a sort of energy that could aid in healing emotional pain... and ultimately as a form of communication that is able to convey all colors on the palette of emotion! Along the way he dabbled in poetry - reading it, writing it and eventually performing it. Several chapbooks later, the natural (r)evolution from words to music have resulted in several things... a WWW magazine called
IMPROVIJAZZATION NATION, a tape catalog of over 70 releases and over 40 CD releases. He enjoys writing about music and the musicians that perform it, as well as the developments in technology that have allowed musicians to be much more independent.Dick is currently the technology editor for "the Improvisor" (the bible for improvisors), as well as editor of "Improvijazzation Nation"; he also plays on and produces CD's for his own label, Zzaj Productions and for other artists. He has performed with some notable artists through the past 20 years, such as LaDonna Smith, Davey Williams, Wally Shoup, Bret Hart, Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Thom The World Poet (who is a sort of poetic spokesman for GONG.
Dick Metcalf's Interview with Sonoloco...lengthy, but worth the read
