MULTIMEDIA
Frank Zappa Roxy: The Movie Fans of Zappa and the Mothers’ seminal double-drum-powered live album Roxy & Elsewhere, rejoice! Recorded over three nights in December 1973, Roxy: The Movie is the visual companion to the classic live Frank Zappa album Roxy and Elsewhere, bringing the record to life with herculean performances and the guitarist/composer’s mad sense of humor. Featuring drummers Chester Thompson
and Ralph Humphrey and percussionist Ruth Underwood performing incredibly challenging material like “Echidna’s Arf (of You)” and the opening theme of “Be-Bop Tango (of the Old Jazzmen’s Church),” the ninety-minute video, available on Blu- ray and DVD, presents Zappa’s genius and his band’s amazing technique and inspired interpretive skills in high relief. And there’s not a chart in sight. Over and above the original audio release, Roxy:
The Movie provides increased insight into Zappa’s brilliant players and their relative ease in performing music packed with circuitous melodic sequences, myriad metric modulation and polyrhythmic patterns, and dense arrangements that seemingly never end. It also includes material from the Roxy shows that didn’t appear on the LP: a bluesy, slow- swinging “Inca Roads,” a particularly funky “I’m the Slime,” and the instrumentals “RDNZL,” “T’Mershi Duween,” “Dog/Meat,” and “Big Swifty,” all of which turn this already percussion-heavy material into a drummer’s dream. It’s fascinating to watch Humphrey and Thompson bring their legendary performances to life, confi rming their unique contributions: Humphrey plays most of the demanding odd- meter and polyrhythmic parts along with cowbells and additional percussion. Thompson supplies the low-end funk and fl ow while also navigating through-composed sections. The pair play in unison
Groove Book by Jost Nickel Exploring the meaning of groove, both in terms of what’s played and how it’s played. Each chapter in Jost Nickel’s Groove Book presents a new concept, such as linear playing or ghost notes, and with it a set of rules for constructing patterns. Plenty of examples accompany each concept, so a student should feel prepared to come up with his or her own phrases after fi nishing a chapter. The majority of the book
deals with straight-8th- and 16th-note fi gures, but the ideas can be applied to triplet-based patterns or shuffl es. Long text passages are avoided, allowing more room for exercises, but the explanations, when needed, are clear. The book includes an MP3 CD with more than 200 of the book’s patterns.
106 Modern Drummer January 2016
for the bulk of the movie, but their approach is more about being complementary than syncing up exactly. Ruth Underwood is also a revelation. Performing on marimba,
vibraphone, timpani, snare drum, bongos, and other percussion, she is poetry in motion. Whether fl ying across her marimba or drawing sounds from concert bass drum, timpani, or snare, Underwood provides the rhythmic counterpart to Zappa’s poly-metric brain. Zappa conducts and cues every moment of this dizzying
performance—timeless music from an American master. (Eagle Rock Entertainment) Ken Micallef
For the most part the chapters are independent of each other, so students can dive into whichever idea they want to explore. An orchestration section introduces two concepts—splitting and shifting—that are used to create variations. Two sections devoted to building grooves include rules for constructing phrases (e.g., “The right hand begins on the fi rst beat”). Linear grooves, ghost notes, beat displacement, and go-go rhythms are covered, each with a separate set of guidelines for creating patterns while using the discussed concept. Some chapters feel misplaced. Nickel’s philosophies on groove and timing are found at the end of the book, for instance, while a student would benefi t from reading these ideas before practicing the preceding material. Likewise, bass drum technique is covered in the middle of the book, rather than up front where a student could internalize the motions before moving on. Fortunately, this doesn’t detract from how thoroughly each concept is covered. Drummers looking for a fresh perspective on the concept of groove will certainly fi nd it here. ($21.99, Alfred) Willie Rose
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