After the boxes presenting concerts in 1970 and 1971 by Frank Zappa and his group The Mothers of Invention – sometimes reduced to The Mothers –, the chronological logic could have been to publish a set of the formation which existed during the autumn of 1972. But it is a geographical grouping chosen by the archivists of the guitarist, songwriter, singer and producer who died on December 4, 1993, at the age of 52..
Here we are in Erie County – Erie in English, hence the title of this 6 CD set, Zappa/Erie –, in northern Pennsylvania. First, in 1974, in the general halls of the small university of Edinboro, on May 8, and of Gannon University in the coastal city of Erie, on November 12, about thirty kilometers away. Then to the Erie County Field House, to again on November 12, this time in 1976. To these three concerts are added six excerpts from others during the same periods.
In April and May 1974, The Mothers of Invention having taken their name, on May 10, 1964, then Mother’s Day in the United States, Zappa organized a short tour celebrating the 10 years of existence of the group. Whose staff has changed several times, with nearly forty interpreters since the creation. There are saxophonist and vocalist Napoleon Murphy Brock, keyboardists Don Preston and George Duke, guitarist Jeff Simmons, the Fowler brothers, Walt on trumpet, Bruce on trombone, Tom on bass, and drummers Ralph Humphrey and Chester Thompson.
Execution precision
“But, where is Ruth Underwood? »asks a viewer in Edinboro. “Left to Los Angeles, she fell in love”, replies Zappa. Gag or reality, the percussionist, notably a virtuoso on the vibraphone and the marimba, who has been playing with Zappa since the end of the 1960s, is not on the 10-year-old tour. Charge to the two drummers to recall, with some melodic percussions, his interventions. The program for Edinboro and the other concerts on the tour is roughly similar. recent compositions, Cosmik Debris, Pygmy Twylyte, Cheepnis, crazy story of space monsters, Inca Roads, Montanaand long Dupree’s Paradise and its crossovers of improvisations. And a continuation of a dozen themes from the early days of The Mothers, rearranged for this mini-big band.
Jazz, rock, funk, blues, pop, rhythm’n’blues (where Napoleon Murphy Brock excels), traces of contemporary music, rhythmic and melodic overlaps, antics between musicians, musical jokes too, all of Zappa’s approaches are Party. The guitarist leaves great freedom to his comrades for the improvisations, but he expects a precision of execution in the statement of the themes, the reminders, the rendering of his complex writing. A few months later, at Gannon University in Erie, there are only Duke, Brock, Tom Fowler, Thompson. And Ruth Underwood came back. She shines from start to finish, often in complicity with Duke (RDNZL, Echidna’s Arf (of You), Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing ?, T’Mershi Duweenwhich she opens with children’s percussion…).
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