I recently found a Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart bootleg titled 'Improvisations', which looked so intriguing that I had to download it. On listening to it, and doing some online research, it turned out to be just the second disc of a 2CD bootleg of Zappa and The Mothers 1975 concert at Providence, Rhode Island, and so logically the next step was to download the whole concert rather than just hear half of it. Of all the Frank Zappa tours, the spring of 1975 is the most unusual and frustrating, as the performances could range from absolutely exhilarating to rather drab, with sloppy renditions of composed core pieces like 'Advance Romance' and 'Willie The Pimp' played in the midst of brilliant improvisations by both Zappa and Captain Beefheart and the other musicians in the band. Add to this the paucity of really good recordings, and the frustration is obvious, but luckily Zappa's April 26th show in Providence was taped by legendary bootlegger Dan Lampinski, and not only is it arguably the best sounding show from the tour, it’s a tight and enjoyable performance. It is an amazing sounding document which captures the chaotic, eclectic turns in the set starting off with an atonal cacophony of noise in the beginning improvisation, leading into 'Muffin Man', which is played as an instrumental but contains Zappa’s band introduction, and is followed by the song that they usually start off the show with, 'Stinkfoot'. Mothers classics like 'I’m Not Satisfied' and 'Pound For A Brown' are scattered throughout the set, alongside Beefheart collaborations such as 'Poofter’s Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead'. For me, the best thing about the recording was the superb lengthy instrumental portions of the songs, often featuring some stunning guitar-work from Zappa, and so as I'd been persuaded to listen to this expecting some intriguing improvisations from the band, I thought that I'd carry that to it's logical conclusion, and pick out my favourite instrumental sections and combine them together to make up over an hour of the very best of Zappa/Beefheart and the Mothers improvisational skills. If you want to hear the whole concert then it's here on Soulseek, but for me this selection condenses the whole thing down into an hour of the Mothers finest.
01 Why Doesn't Someone Give Him A Pepsi (a.k.a. The Torture Never Stops)
02 Montana
03 Penguin In Bondage
04 Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy
05 Willie The Pimp
06 Advance Romance
