A friend of mine, Douglas Hallan, recently posted an article about Frank Zappa that appeared in The Guardian on the 50th anniversary of Zappa’s album Hot Rats.
“Though Frank Zappa released no fewer than 62 albums in his too-short life – and though nearly as many sets have appeared since his death from prostate cancer at age 53 in 1993 – none sound quite like Hot Rats,” wrote Jim Farber. “It’s a work of such imagination, humor and freedom, it could appeal to a child as easily as it could a stoner, a rocker, or a fan of the avant garde. Zappa’s first true solo album, Hot Rats introduced new recording techniques, melded previously segregated styles, and even presaged a new musical genre.” (Watch a video of Zappa and his band in Sweden in 1973.)
Farber notes that Jean-Luc Ponty played electric violin on the album. “It’s one of the first, and certainly the most influential, uses of that instrument in a popular setting, presaging a whole trend in rock bands employing electric violins, from Papa John Creach in Hot Tuna, to David Cross in King Crimson, to Jerry Goodman in Mahavishnu Orchestra. In fact, Mahavishnu leader John McLaughlin first wanted to hire Ponty as his violinist, based, in part, on Hot Rats, but immigration problems forced him to look elsewhere. The jazz-rock fusion style that Mahavishnu advanced in 1971 can be traced directly to Rats. In fact, Rats rates as one of the first-ever fusion albums, along with works recorded in the same year by Miles Davis and the Tony Williams Lifetime.”
The albums he’s referring to are Davis’ In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, and Emergency! from the Tony Williams Lifetime, three keystone releases in jazz-rock, and all three, incidently, featuring John McLaughlin on guitar. McLaughlin had a rep in England as a fiery improviser when Williams invited him to New York, where he quickly became the dominant guitarist at the epicenter of fusion. McLaughlin founded the Mahavishnu Orchestra a couple of years later. (Watch a video of Mahavishnu Orchestra in France in 1972.)
All of which led me to comment on Doug’s post, “In the early 70s I saw Zappa and his band at The Spectrum in Philly on the same bill as the Mahavishnu Orchestra. That was an evening.”
Doug’s friend Mike Allcock commented, “I can only imagine that that combination was mind blowing.”
Indeed it was. I was a senior in high school, and a huge fan of both McLaughlin and Zappa, so there was no question I would make the trek to The Spectrum on 28 April 1973 to see this concert. With seats lower level off to the side I had a great view, and it was one of the most memorable music events of my life, anchored by my visceral, almost tactile recall of Mahavishnu bathed in colored spots as they started the evening with ‘Meeting of the Spirits’ from their debut The Inner Mounting Flame. Excuse the hyperbole, but some things you experience when you’re 17 make a big impression.
I’m not alone in that. In 2013, Peter Key, writing in the Philadelphia Business Journal, remembered that Mother’s Day weekend of two extraordinary concerts. The first was King Crimson and Todd Rungren at Penn’s Irvine Auditorium. The second was the same Zappa/Mahavishnu concert I was at. “The concert at the Spectrum on Saturday Night was billed as the Mahavishnu Orchestra meets the Mothers of Invention,” Key writes. “The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s latest album was Birds of Fire, and Frank Zappa’s latest album was The Grand Wazoo, although he was probably already performing material from Over-Night Sensation, which would come out later that year. The performances were amazing. World-class musicians playing intricate, rhythmically and harmonically complex compositions, often at breath-taking speed, and over a full range of dynamics from whisper-soft to eardrum-shatteringly loud.”
Based on various sources I’m pretty sure Zappa’s lineup at that April concert in Philly was Zappa on guitar, George Duke on keyboards, Tom Fowler on bass, Ralph Humphrey on drums, Bruce Fowler on trombone, Ruth Underwood on percussion, Ian Underwood on saxophone, Sal Marquez on trumpet, and Jean-Luc Ponty on violin.
Mahavishnu Orchestra featured the legendary original quintet. Keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jerry Goodman, and drummer Billy Cobham all had the technical skill and improvisational daring to keep up with where McLaughlin was taking them. Meanwhile, bassist Rick Laird was an island of focused calm keeping things from flying out of control. The original Mahavishnu Orchestra lasted just four years, but set both the template and the high-water mark for fusion music.
“After disbanding the Mothers of Invention in 1969, Zappa went on the road every couple of months, putting together different ensembles each time,” writes John Corcelli in the 2016 book Frank Zappa FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Father of Invention. “Notable acts did open the odd show, including J. Geils Band, Humble Pie, Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, Steely Dan… According to some fans, one of the best concert experiences they had was when the Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by John McLaughlin, opened eight shows for Zappa in the spring of 1973. Fans that I spoke to have never forgotten the impact that musical combination had on them.”
In later years McLaughlin would explore music more spiritual, more restrained, and more acoustic. But the original Mahavishnu declined to take prisoners; no fusion band ever rocked so hard, and they were more than ready to not only share a stage with Zappa, but to intimidate him with musicianship that was as skilled and complex as his own, forcing him to respond.
“Zappa did not want to be outdone,” continues Corcelli, “so he changed his set to include more long-form pieces, with lots of room for him to improvise. Years later, in issue #64 of the fanzine T’Mershi Duween, bass player Tom Fowler reported that Zappa often wrote tunes on the spot, inspired by Mahavishnu’s challenging time signatures. ‘I remember we were playing at the Spectrum in Philadelphia which is a basketball arena with the dressing rooms upstairs. I was down there listening to the Mahavishnu and I go upstairs and there’s Frank writing odd-metered tunes that were heavily influenced by McLaughlin’s stuff.'”
Man, those were exciting years for popular music.