ROXY: THE MOVIE

The more I watch this blu-ray, the more I get the impression this has to be the best 1970s prog film of all. There are a few rival films in existence of classic prog bands at the top of their game. There's YESSONGS, which has terrible sound and too many silly graphics. There's that live recording of PG-era Genesis you can find on YouTube, but the sound doesn't really match the images, so properly speaking it doesn't count. There's JETHRO TULL LIVE AT MSG 1978 but it's not very long and the editing is terrible: we hardly get to see Martin Barre, even when he is soloing his heart out. No, if you long for an eclectic, avant-garde, jazzy and at times highly symphonic prog ensemble in full flight, ROXY THE MOVIE is the real deal! And let's not beat around the bush. Frank Zappa on lead guitar, vocals and occasional percussion; George Duke on keyboards and vocals; Napoleon Murphy Brock on sax and vocals; Ruth Underwood on vibraphone, marimba and other percussion; Tom Fowler on bass and Bruce Fowler on trombone; with both Ralph Humphrey and Chester Thompson on drums - well, together they give most classic British prog bands a run for their money. (And I say this as someone who grew up on Yes, Genesis & tutti quanti and who dearly loves them still.) Zappa's band are simply more accomplished, more virtuosic, more spontaneous AND more ecstatic than any other 1970s rock act. (Maybe only Gentle Giant came close, purely as multi-instrumentalists, as the GENTLE GIANT ON THE BOX DVD will demonstrate, but the Giant never had the crazy audience interaction that Frank Zappa so clearly encourages.) Let's just face it. In spite of its technical deficiencies (e.g. why is the entire programme performed against a background of cheap silver paper?) this simply has to be the best possible recording of some of FZ's best music by (most likely) his most accomplished and most likeable band. Lovers of Zappa's classic ROXY AND ELSEWHERE album waited for decades to be able to see all this. A progressive rock masterpiece, no doubt about it.