Description
Frank Zappa and the Mothers toured Australia twice. The 1973 tour took in 11 concerts, including four at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion and three at Melbourne’s Festival Hall. The 1973 tour featured one of Zappa’s best live bands: George Duke (keyboards, synthesizer, vocals), Tom Fowler (bass), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Ruth Underwood (marimba, vibraphone, percussion), Ian Underwood (woodwinds), Ralph Humphrey (drums), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals) and Jean Luc Ponty (violin). He often introduced them as “our rockin’ teenage combo”.
The repertoire is taken mainly from Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe with additional pieces from Uncle Meat, Hot Rats and Chunga’s Revenge. Performed live at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Austrailia on June 24th 1973 and broadcast by Circle J Radio.
His music has encompassed everything from garage R&B, doo wop and jazz fusion to classical, avant garde and Musique concrète, and several points beyond. Words such as “non-conformity”, “improvisation”, “experimental”, “virtuosity” and “satire” have been used to characterise him and his work. And while improvisation was an important element of his live work, all of his compositions were just that: strictly composed and charted but allowing appropriate space for those all-important improvisational segments.
