A Retrospective Album Review with Minimal Commentary on Online Commerce
So I just bought Frank Zappa’s archival release Road
Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki Finland, and if you like Zappa,
you probably should too. It features the short-lived Over-Nite
Sensation line-up of the Mothers, including at that time the great
George Duke on keys, as well as jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, exploring more
expansive instrumental territory than the album that they had just completed.
By turns jazzy and discordant, with Zappa’s trademark “humanly impossible”
compositions, it is a wonderful document of one of the most celebrated of the
line-ups of The Mothers.
The Road Tapes series, of which
there are presently only two, is relatively new, focusing on “guerilla” concert tapes, recorded on more primitive equipment, usually on tour stops outside of major metropolises where sophisticated multi-track tape machines would be more readily available. Sold almost exclusively through Barfko-Swill, the official online Zappa store, the Venue #2 set actually came out towards the end of 2013. I am almost ashamed to have gotten it only now, but I had my reasons…
See, for years Zappaheads have been irked by
Barfko-Swill, due to what they thought were inflated prices (indeed, years ago,
the RykoDisc re-masters of the Zappa catalog were sold on the site for almost
50% more than most retail stores, but since the rights to the music have
reverted back to the Zappa Family Trust, the prices on the site have been much
more reasonable) and inclusion of products of questionable value, hodgepodges
of poor quality rehearsal tapes and outtakes. Also, to this day, Barfko-Swill
has the annoying tendency to list new releases while giving very little
information about the content. For example, the only information provided
regarding One Shot Deal, a release from several years ago, is that
it “[m]akes its own sauce” and is a “[s]hocking summer surprise for
no reason at all!” Frankly, a track listing would be more helpful. When
all too often, retrospective releases can seem like a cash-grab, it’s things
like this that really drive that point home. It seems like the Zappa Family
Trust thinks that we should just buy anything that they deign to sell us.
I feel like I am in a comfortable position to
say this. As a youth, I spent several years accumulating the complete Zappa
catalog, and with over 60 releases during his lifetime, Zappa has the honor of
being the musician to whom I have given the most money. I must say, I kind of
resent this treatment. I may be a fanatic, but I’m not a chump.
On the other hand, as the Zappa Family Trust is
so fervently dedicated to the protection of Zappa’s works and legacy, it means
that many of these recordings have been carefully and lovingly restored. Also,
unlike bands like the Grateful Dead, many of these recordings have not been
available as bootlegs or widely traded tapes. Some of these archival releases
have indeed filled in some long existing gaps. For example, the 2007 release Wazoo marked
the first time that any live recordings of Zappa’s 20 piece “Hot Rats/Grand
Wazoo” big band were made commercially available, and the quality of the
release almost made it worth the 35 year wait.
Thus I had high hopes for this new Road
Tapes release, and certain expectations of quality. As you have
probably gleaned from the opening sentence of this post, I was not
disappointed.
Hardcore Zappa fans have probably heard live
recordings of this line-up before. Recorded on August 23rd and
24th of 1973 in Helsinki, this set was recorded days after the
performance captured on the classic bootleg, Piquantique, recorded
in Stockholm. Road Tapes, Venue #2, features many of the same
pieces, with many more besides, and with obviously hugely improved sonic
quality. Like that classic bootleg, it also shows the bridge between the
instrumental albums Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo,
and the celebrated live album Roxy and Elsewhere.
In comparison to the recordings made later at
the Roxy in Los Angeles, The Road Tapes sound comparatively
subdued, attributable partly to the mix, but also to the fact of personnel
changes in the interim, which included gaining an additional drummer and losing
a violinist before they took the stage at the Roxy in December. This is not to
say that the Road Tapes do not have moments of intense power.
In fact, it could be said that the set is much more dynamic. While Roxy
and Elsewhere surely illustrated both the band’s finely honed chops
and their stage antics, the Helsinki Road Tapes showed the band in a more jazzy
mode, demonstrating a more delicate virtuosity, stretching out on mostly
instrumental pieces showcasing some of the most elegant aspects of Zappa’s
composition and the interplay of one of his finest bands. The older pieces
included are arranged in ways that suit this incarnation of the band, and are
huge departures from the original versions. In addition, many of the newer
pieces would receive extensive reworking before being official released. Some
pieces would never sounds better, earlier or later.
 |
| Zappa, 1974. Photo by Jerry Aronson |
Particularly of note is "RNDZL." In my
opinion, no official recorded release of "RNDZL" ever perfectly
captured that piece (although the You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore,
Volume 2 version, recorded a year later, also in Helsinki, came
close). While the Road Tapes version does not contain the
melodic section that Zappa added after the departure of violinist Jean-Luc
Ponty later in the year (a section which I always thought disrupted the pace of
the piece), the propulsiveness, provided by the percussion section of drummer
Ralph Humphrey and vibraphonist Ruth Underwood, and the marvelous soloing of
Zappa, Ponty, and Duke, may make this the definitive official recording. While
some pieces like the "Village of the Sun"/"Echidna’s Arf (of
You)"/"Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing" suite pale in comparison
with the aggressive and tight recording on Roxy and Elsewhere, the
incredible versions of "Dupree’s Paradise" and "Farther
O’Blivion" make me wonder why this tape was sat on for so long.
Road Tapes, Venue #2 is truly this is one of those archival releases that will
thrill not only hardcore Zappaheads, but also people who may not be on that
train yet, but have adventurous tastes and still unapologetically listen to
music in the early 70s jazz-fusion milieu (okay, that’s a pretty specific group
of people). It’s a great release from a time when Zappa finally had that group
of musicians, made up of crack session musicians and future jazz legends, that
could realize the kind of music that he wanted to compose, and bring a
beautiful human element to it. So I highly recommend going to the Barfko-Swill
website and getting a copy. Believe it or not, it’s cheaper there than on
Amazon. I checked.
