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Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)

Jazz Fusion, Progressive Rock

This was the first official live album from a Mothers band following the Wazoo era. It's interesting to note that this disc has features no songs from the previous two studio albums — it's as if Frank wanted to have a "pop" persona for his studio albums, but a more jazz fusion persona in concert. I wonder how many people went to the Roxy shows and were disappointed not to hear "Dinah Moe Humm" or "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow."

"The Roxy" means the venue in Hollywood, over three December nights in 1973; "Elsewhere" is the Auditorium Theater in Chicago and Edinboro State College, Pennsylvania, in May of 1974. According to the liner notes, the three "elsewhere" tracks — "Dummy Up," "Son of Orange County" and "More Trouble Every Day" — are live as-is, but much of the Roxy material is overdubbed (highly overdubbed, if the rumors I've heard are true). So while this may in fact be as much a new Zappa studio album as a live document (eight of the ten songs are new and the two that aren't are performed with new arrangements), the frequent stage banter and the two skits give it a definite live-album feel. Whatever you want to call it, I think it's mostly an excellent album and one of Zappa's best '70s releases.

This group, the "Roxy" group, is often considered by Zappa enthusiasts to be the best regular band that Zappa assembled after the demise of the original Mothers of Invention. This group's style is roughly a combination of the jazz fusion of Zappa's two 1972 recordings (Waka/Jawaka, The Grand Wazoo) and the satiric rock of his two subsequent records (Overnite Sensation, Apostrophe(')). When tapping the back catalog, Zappa relied heavily on tracks from Overnite Sensation, as well as a few favorites from the '60s. From a technical perspective, this was arguably Zappa's finest and most versatile collection of musicians. Zappa had not yet started to dominate the instrumental portions of his music with guitar solos; thus, the long instrumental passages on Roxy placed formidable demands on all of the players. Overdubs notwithstanding, the many bootlegs still floating around from this period indicate that the band excelled at playing the difficult material night after night.

As for the tracks that Zappa fans in 1974 already had heard, "Son of Orange County" takes the basic theme from "Orange County Lumber Truck" and re-arranges it as a slow-burning soul/funk tune. "More Trouble Every Day" is a slower, horn-laden version of the great "Trouble Every Day," which first appeared on Zappa's debut album as jangly, stripped-down Dylan pastiche. The lyrics are tweaked to bring the song up to date. I prefer the original arrangement of the song, but this one works too, and it's more in line with the rest of the music on the disc. Unfortunately, the song is guilty of one of the most frustrating live album crimes: the fade out. I guess there wasn't enough room when the album was on vinyl. ~ Review compiled from 2 reviews by Bob Eichler & Matt P. @ Buy It at Lowest Price on Amazon

Tracklisting:

1. Penguin in Bondage (6:47)

2. Pygmy Twylyte (2:13)

3. Dummy Up (6:03)

4. Village of the Sun (4:17)

5. Echidna's Arf (Of You) (3:53)

6. Don't You Ever Wash That Thing? (9:40)

7. Cheepnis (6:33)

8. Son of Orange County (5:53)

9. More Trouble Every Day (6:00)

10. Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church) (16:40)

Total Time: 67:59

Line-Up:

- Frank Zappa / guitar, guitar (electric), keyboards, vocals

- George Duke / keyboards, vocals

- Tom Fowler / bass

- Ruth Underwood / percussion

- Jeff Simmons / rhythm guitar, vocals

- Don Preston / synthesizer

- Bruce Fowler / trombone, dancing!

- Walt Fowler / trumpet

- Napoleon Murphy Brock / tenor saxophone, flute, vocals

- Ralph Humphrey / drums

- Chester Thompson / drums

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