More Great 2015 Reissues and Finds: David Fricke’s Picks
Even in the assumed twilight of the CD era, there is no moment or aura in rock, pop, jazz or R&B history too small to be noted — or boxed. Now that the 2015 top-10-reissue sweepstakes is settled, here is a bigger roll call of the best anthologies, deluxe editions and mega-sets that you might have missed in 2015, many featuring increasingly distant bands and voices still awaiting their time in the sun.
Sly and the Family Stone, Live at the Fillmore East October 4th & 5th, 1968 (Epic/Legacy)
Two nights and four sets in the pre-stratosphere life of a rainbow-funk fireball: These previously unissued shows catch singer-leader Sly Stone on the verge of glory, onstage with the Family Stone a year ahead of their explosive crossover on Stand!, still filling out the set with covers (Otis Redding, “St. James Infirmary”). But the turbulence is ready for prime time. Rose Stone burns bright in her vocal feature — “Won’t Be Long,” originally a 1960 R&B hit for a young Aretha Franklin — and the extended workouts (“Love City,” “Music Lover”) have everything Stone and his family will soon detonate at Woodstock.
Frank Zappa, Roxy: The Movie (Zappa, DVD and Blu-ray)
This isn’t a reissue — it’s deliverance. Frank Zappa recorded and filmed his late-’73 Mothers – a compact, swinging combo with saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock, keyboard player George Duke, percussionist Ruth Underwood, Bruce and Tom Fowler on trombone and bass respectively, and drummers Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey — over three nights at the Roxy club in L.A. for a TV special that never materialized. Portions of the music surfaced on Zappa’s 1974 road album, Roxy & Elsewhere, but this audio-visual package (with a soundtrack CD) is all Roxy — a top-era Mothers in tight focus and playful spirits. The latter especially goes for Zappa, who leads this band with as much glee as command: sitting down with a cigarette, enjoying Brock’s sax break, in “Cosmik Debris”; sliding over to an extra drum kit to keep some wild time with Underwood, Humphrey and Thompson in “The Dog Breath Variations,” then jumping back to guitar for a solo turn. You’ll wish you’d been there. Now you are.
Led Zeppelin, Coda (Swan Song)
This was the runt of the litter when it was first issued in 1982, two years after drummer John Bonham’s death. Led Zeppelin’s last studio album — originally a half-hearted mop-up of sidelined music — is now the revelatory triumph in guitarist Jimmy Page’s deluxe restoration program, fattened with 15 additional tracks that include an early, alternate treatment of “When the Levee Breaks” (more blues, less boom), the first-album-session grenade “Sugar Mama” and the fabled Bombay adventures with strings. It’s hard to believe anything else of similar worth is left to release — but then, it took Page more than three decades to go this deep. Let’s check back with him in 10 years.