This being the 50th Anniversary of Fusion, Frank Zappa is getting a major re-evaluation with his site releasing important material such as the multi-disc Hot Rats album earlier this year, which solidified his reputation as one of the members of fusion’s Mount Rushmore. Now, the vaults have been opened, and Zappa’s ultra-important 1970 band of jazzers, rockers and funkers created a wild mix of sounds and attitude that still reverberate.
To put this 4 disc set into perspective, this band is the latest creation, just after Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh. Zappa has a brand new team of Ex-Turtles Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (aka “Flo and Eddie”), along with bassist Jeff Simmons, Ian Underwood on organ, keys and guitar, jazz wizard funkifier George Duke hitting the keys and on trombone, and the flying sticks of Aynsley Dunbar on drums. The box includes a disc of twelve tunes from England’s Trident Studio, and then highlights from concerts in The Netherlands, Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Civic Auditiorium, Spokane’s Coliseum among other anonymous gigs. This band would go on to release the albums Chunga’s Revenge, Fillmore East: June 1971 and most sticking around for 200 Motels.
The studio album has the band veering between 50s pop and rock as on “Wonderful Wino” to some artsy jazz on “Giraffe”. Duke gets bluesy on “Enormous Cadenza”, Flo and Eddie give doo wopping to “Lola Steponsky” and Zappa digs in on “Red Tubular Lighter”. The songs are filled with wry humor, a top of the hat to traditional rock as well as a healthy dose of futuristic funk, with all of it aging very well.
The concert albums include a bit of earlier material, but for the most part the songs are being debuted, with the concerts feeling almost like a vaudevillian act, with Zappa as emcee. The band rocks hard on “King Kong” , Dunbar mashes out on “Pound For A Brown” and “Sleeping In A Jar” and you even get a bit of nostalgia as Flo and Eddie give a sincerer take of The Turtles’ “Happy Together”. Duke swings it on “Who Did It?”, gets into a soul groove on the kinetic “A Chance Encounter In CIncinnati” and “Dog Breath” and Zappa lights a fusion fuse with his guitar on “Easy Meat” and Portuguese Fenders”. With all of this wild instrumentation, the sweet part here is the contrasting harmonies that are prevalent on the street corner sweet “Sharleena”, and with the humorous skits directed by Zappa during “Welcome To El Monte Legion Stadium” and “Agon” make you feel that the entire evening is ad-libbed, but you don’t end up with tight ensemble work as on “Mother People” without a lot of prep.
If you’re a Zappa fan, this set puts much muscle on the fibers of the few albums this specific band put together. Musically, it is a textbook illustration of an era that had an attitude of having no musical barriers, with any difference in genre simply a reason to explore it and put it in your own vocabulary. The antithesis of modern, sterile specialization.