A Pound for a Brown on the Bus and Ian Underwood Whips It Out

The Mothers of Invention: Frank Zappa (low vocals, electric guitar, percussion), Ray Collins (high-pitched vocals), Ian Underwood (alto and baritone saxes, flute, clarinet, piano, electronic organ, harpsichord, celeste), Bunk Gardner (alto, tenor and soprano saxes, flute, piccolo, clarinet and bass clarinet, bassoon), Don Preston (electric piano), Roy Estrada (electric bass), Jimmy Carl Black (drums) and Art Tripp (drums, timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, wood blocks, bells, small chimes). From the album Uncle Meat (1969).

After a short promotional tour of the album Freek Out!, Zappa met Adelaide Gail, married her, had four children and she was also his secretary until his death in 1993. In 2002, Adelaide founded the Zappa Family Trust, holder of the copyright of her late husband’s artistic and musical products, and commercial image. When she died of lung cancer in 2015, the administration was taken over by their son Ahmed. To record the next album, Zappa hired singer and saxophonist Jim “Motorhead” Sherwood, Bunk Gardner, who played woodwind instruments, keyboardist Don Preston and a second drummer named Billy Mundi. He also replaced Ingberg with Jim Fielder on guitar, turning the group into a nonet.

In 1967 the Mothers of Invention published Absolutely Free, in which we find songs that determined Zappa’s way of composing, creating them from different ingredients and introducing sudden and rhythmic changes. The lyrics criticize the hypocrisy of American society, but also the anti-system countercultural movement of the 1960s. Fielder then left the band and Zappa signed with Capital Records to record his first solo album, Lumpy Gravy, whose compositions are all his and for which he formed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra with studio musicians. Zappa conducted the orchestra, but didn’t play in any song.

In Easter 1967 the Mother of Invention performed at New York’s Garrick Theater, and due to their success, Cohen reserved the theater for the group to return for another six months during the summer. Their shows were a set of improvisations that displayed the skills of each member of the band, as well as quick renditions of songs by Zappa, who directed everything with his hands. At that time, the woodwind instruments player and keyboardist Ian Underwood joined the group.