Frank Zappa: Be-Bop Tango

"Not too fast, because I want to get the right notes on the tape," Zappa advises his band before closing their set at the Roxy with a 17-minute version of "Be-Bop Tango." "This has to be the one. This has to be the one with all the right notes in it. [Pause] This is a hard one to play."

But this is more than a tough chart -- it is performance art of the highest order. During the course of this extended work, Zappa offers us intense energy jazz (with a flaming trombone solo by Bruce Fowler), pointillistic ambiance-jazz reminiscent of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, crazy scat-singing courtesy of George Duke, even a dose of Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser." But wait, there's more! as they say in the infomercials. We also get audience participation, impromptu choreography, a bubble machine, and a classic Zappa monologue. (Typical line: "Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.") Finally the band wraps up with a jaunty 12-bar blues.

The record label could easily have called this "experimental jazz," and it would have sold twelve copies. But disguised as rock music, Roxy & Elsewhere becomes an instant classic. But, it is also great experimental jazz. . . . Just don't tell the Zappa-philes; they might stop listening to it.