Guitarist Neil Zaza is a low-profile and improbable success story.
He achieved acclaim, and the admiration of the guitar community, when he played with popular Cleveland pop-metal band Zaza. But when that band broke up in the summer of 1992, he never played regularly with another band.
He simply continued to play, and record, and teach, and do clinics, and collaborate with various other musicians, and tour — expanding his reach to Europe and Asia. His catalog now includes more than a dozen albums.
And Zaza is still based in Northeast Ohio and performs here several times a year. He’s back at the Kent Stage, a converted movie theater, where he’ll do a special concert to be filmed for a concert DVD and multimedia documentary release.
The production team is headed by noted Sports Illustrated photographer Bill Frakes who has been spending time with Zaza in Northeast Ohio, documenting his musical activities.
Because it’s being recorded for the DVD, the concert will cover Zaza’s whole solo career, with a setlist that will incorporate suggestions fans have been making online. He’ll perform with a band that includes bassist Bill Dickens, Styx drummer Todd Sucherman, guitarist Nick Greathouse, and keyboard player Todd Rogers.
Tickets are $20.