Alain Rieder: Montreux, Fire!

Original interview by Francis H for Zappa In France (July '04), translated to English by yours truly.

This month Alain Rieder did us the favour of accepting an exclusive interview. For those not in the know, Alain Rieder is a renowned Swiss drummer/performer who has performed alongside Frank Gambale, guitarist Chick Corea, Chris de Burgh and, closer to home, french band Quai des Brumes. Alain is also a veritable drum pedagogue. Not only is he a graduate of the Percussion Institute of Technology/Musicians Institute of L.A, but he's also the author of a book entitled "Time Manipulation" which is distributed by Warner Bros Music/IMP and recommended by drummers of international class such as Peter Erskine and Dave Weckl. What also interests us, in fact it's the major reason for his presence here, is the fact that he was at the '71 Montreux concert, the night the whole place went down in a blaze of fire. FIRE > a Montreux Special, as if you were there yourself! Have participated in he making of this second issue of French Powered: the Gilles Family Trust as well as Christophe Delbrouck; liner notes by Olivier Caubet. Editor in chief: Francis Hérard.

FP: Hello Alain, many thanks for answering our questions. You were born in 1955 I believe and your appearance in FP Nr 2 is also because you were present at the famous concert of December 4 1971 at the Montreux Casino. Were you a fan of Frank Zappa at the time, was it the first time you saw him in concert?
Alain Rieder: Yes, it was the first time I saw him live. I had turned 16 a week before if my memory serves me correctly, and I'd only been listening to his music for a short period of time. I knew a couple of records, Hot Rats I believe, as well as Fillmore East, Chunga's Revenge and Weasels Ripped My Flesh. That said, I've never really considered myself a fan: I don't like that word too much because it suggests fanaticism. But I've been passionate about the oeuvre of FZ and about the way in which he presented it. So I started buying all his records, as well as bootlegs, but I've never collected concert tickets for instance!

FP: Were you already a musician at the time of this concert which made you "abandon" the violin for the drums?
AR: I'd been playing the drums for a while as an autodidact, I already knew I wanted to become a professional musician and I was passionate about the drums. I started studying music when I was 5 or 6 and the violin, which was my first instrument, was more my father's idea than mine. I've studied it for about 10 years, in two times, and I abandoned it at the age of 20. It's at that time I started to study the drums more seriously. I could've taken that decision earlier, but my family didn't really encourage it. I could've been a good violinist I think, I have been called a "melodic" drummer. I've retained a love for beautiful arrangements of chord ensembles. I started to get interested in the drums at the age of about 13, listening to Cream and Jimi Hendrix. I like all sorts of music, but what I like about these musicians, FZ included, is the dimension of improvisation which has largely gotten lost in rock consequently. I like very much how John Guerin plays on Hot Rats, for instance, it's a wonderful hardly known drummer... who died recently, unfortunately.

FP: Do you remember your impressions of the Mothers Of Invention concert at the Montreux Casino?
AR: At the time I didn't know all the pieces that were played, I understood only very little English and so the dialogues didn't make me laugh. One of my friends had recorded the concert on a mono cassette tape that I've relistened many times despite its bad sound quality. That's where memories start to mingle because I think I've better assimilated the music after the concert... I still know it by heart 30 years later! On the visual side, I remember Zappa arriving with a coffee machine in his hand. I thought that was very funny at the time. I also remember that when Frank announced "Call Any Vegetable", all the lights turned green. On the recording of the concert, you can very well hear how the audience stops applauding in its surprize right at the moment that the lights go green (1).

FP: So you've seen Aynsley Dunbar in action! ... in those days Zappa-fans where flabbergasted by this drummer who was capable of playing Zappa without knowing how to transcribe. Since we detested the idea of having to pass through solfège in order to play rock, it was very convenient to us ;-)
AR: I didn't know his level of chart-reading at that time (and I still don't) but I already knew that it wasn't enough to be able to read in order to play, and vice-versa for that matter. For me, it's evident that music is the art of listening, before music-reading or music-writing. I think Aynsley Dunbar had a big capacity for hearing and remembering complex structures. I love, for instance, his intro and the break on "Tears Began To Fall" (2).

FP: Getting back to our main topic, were you aware that the Casino was on fire prior to of of Zappa's singers making an announcement at the microphone?
AR: Don Preston was playing around with the oscillators of his Mini-Moog, and I think I remember having seen the fire at the moment that it was announced by Marc Vollman (3). It was a really tiny fire at the beginning and I would've never imagined that, fifteen minutes later, the building would be devastated and crumbled to the ground. I got up (the audience sitting way up to the ceiling... as was frequently the case in that era) and I remember thinking that the fire-department was going to put out the fire and then the concert would resume. I almost left my jacket on the ground to keep my place!

FP: In several interviews, Frank Zappa claimed that the evacuation of the audience happened without panic and in the calm. Can you confirm this?
AR: Yes, I can confirm that, the public was cool. The fire seemed very small and there was no panic whatsoever, few people at the time thought the fire was going to spread as quickly as it did. The only anxious people where the uniformed guys from the safety crew, who thought that people weren't leaving the premises fast enough. The emergency exits weren't very big and there were windows with bars left and right at the scene, that were covered by curtains. When the smoke became too hindering, some people broke the windows by bashing them with chairs and that's how I got out. I remember seeing a guy who had cut himself. I seem to remember there was a 2 to 3 meter jump to be made, to the lawn,... and it's well possible that a leg was broken or twisted here and there. Next I made the tour of the building, and when I noticed how people were leaving by the main hall with posters of Frank Zappa, I went back in to get some myself! Laughter!

FP: Incredible! It never really became apparent who set fire to the ceiling, do you know yourself?
AR: No I don't know and I don't know if he's been caught. The version I know of is that some guy supposedly shot off an alarm fuse with a gun. It was less than 20 meters away from me, but I didn't notice anything. It was a false, decorative ceiling which hadn't been made fire-resistant. I believe there was bamboo. I think the act of breaking the windows provoked a sudden gush of wind coming in, which in turn woke up the fire extremely fast and beyond remedy.

FP: You could've met musicians, see Frank in person during the evacuation. What was the state of mind of the audience, once they were outside?
AR: One of my friends passed by the scene and found himself in a small smokey room with Frank Zappa, but it wasn't really the time for small talk. I didn't meet anyone personally myself and I didn't speak English at the time anyway. Once outside, everything went very quickly. The whole building lit up in flames and I vividly remember the moment when the roof collapsed right down to the ground. That's when we realized just what it was we'd escaped from... Really impressive! (4) It was a bit like being at a spectacle... and in those days we didn't have cellphones to call friends or parents with!

FP: Do you have a special anecdote that comes to mind?
AR: Nothing else as far as Montreux is concerned, but I've had the occasion to approach Frank Zappa backstage in 1980, on the occasion of his Geneva concert (5). I'd been helping out a friend who worked for the radio, to prepare an interview with Frank... but he didn't want me present during the conversation, the pretext being that he didn't like "fetishists"... which by the way was not at all how I perceived myself, but anyway. I stayed with his bodyguard backstage which was rather fun. My girlfriend came out of the room, and Frank came out a moment later. We said hello but didn't have any further exchange (note: but still!). I remember he was wearing a purple or violet pair of pants (note: Deep Purple?) and he made a remark about how it could be perceived as a bit "gay".

FP: You've certainly returned to the Montreux Festival since then, have you played there yourself?
AR: The Zappa concert wasn't part of the jazz festival that takes place each year. In those days, under the denomination "Montreux Pop" there was approximately one rock concert per month. Before Zappa I'd already seen bands such as Santana, Deep Purple or Jethro Tull. Jimi Hendrix was scheduled to appear but he died a month before, I believe, and that grieved me a lot. After that and still in Montreux I've seen bands like Led Zeppelin, Caravan, Pink Floyd and the first formation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra (note: John Mc Laughlin). The concert hall of the Casion was relatively small (it was before the mega-shows in stadions) and the concerts attracted an audience that came from all over Switzerland, France and Italy. I've often gone to the Festival de Jazz and I've played there on small stages, notably with Frank Gambale and Grafitti. I've also played there once with a group called Handle With Care, as the first part of BrandX.

FP: According to certain sources (affz) it appears Frank would have become superstitious after the Montreux events, with regard to the creation of Sofa (6) which dates back to that period and where he mocks God, what do you think?
AR: I don't know what it was like for FZ but I think he really feared outbursts from crowds and he's proven it several times (7). I'm not superstitious myself because I believe it brings bad luck - laughter.

FP: What do you think about the Deep Purples song "Smoke On The Water" (see below) that talks about the fire at the casino and of the canceled concert of the band that was supposed to play after the Mothers? - personally and like many french fans I've listened to that song right along with Zappa albums without ever knowing what it was referring to! Do you know the Pat Boone version (8)?
AR: I don't know the Pat Boone version (note: see below). That Deep Purple song wasn't my kind of thing at the time and I don't really associate it with the experience I had that night.

FP: I read in your bio you had participated in a "Zappa Special". Could you tell us some more about that?
AR: Initially, I wanted to do a unique concert with FZ compositions, for the pleasure of it, to learn, etc. We presented this project to New Morning of Geneva, and since the evening attracted an audience, they proposed to us one date per month throughout the season and we've also done other concerts in the region. We'd play songs such as Brown Shoes Don't make It, Peaches En Regalia, Blessed Relief, Eat That Question, Twenty Small Cigars, Oh No & Orange County Lumber Truck, Anything, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama. I played the drums and I also sang. We'd only scarcely rehearsed and the concerts were very improvised... but also very lively! The basic formation consisted of guitar, bass, drums, piano, sax and bass-clarinet, and we'd have invites every so often.

FP: What's your favorite Zappa album, Swiss Cheese (8)?
AR: I have my favorites of course but I mainly llistened a lot to his albums up until around '82. After that I let go a bit.

FP: I know you're an autodidact at the drums, you have that in common with Frank Zappa, because for those who don't know, Frank was a drummer before he became a guitarist (find the hidden picture ;-) Can you feel that in his playing?
AR: I feel his interest in rhythm and percussion more in his compositions as opposed to his guitarplaying...

FP: What do you think of the place of the drummer in Zappa's oeuvre?
AR: It is primordial, obviously. And the drummers that followed after Aynsley Dunbar were very good. I really love Ralph Humphrey as a drummer, and as a person. I've had the good fortune of being able to study with him during one year in Los Angeles and my contacts with him have brought me so much musically as well as on a human level. He's an excellent drummer, very respected in the business and relatively unknown to the big audience. Chester Thompson was excellent, Bozzio and Wackerman were too. David Logeman made a brief passage with the group and I've nothing against him but my preferred drummer is still Vinnie Colaiuta!

FP: It could be considered strange that an autodidact at the drums in turn becomes the author of a teaching method for the drums. What makes it special?
AR: I started out with the drums an autodidact however I already knew how to read music. At the time, the methods you could find on the french market didn't please me because I didn't find much of the stuff that I heard in the music I liked. I also rejected anything that ressembled the fanfare. So in the beginning I mostly worked from the ear and from observing drummers at concerts. I often wrote my own excercises to develop rhythmical concepts that I'd heard elsewhere... and I've always had a lot of ideas on that topic. So it seems quite natural to have continued to the point where I was published. Time Manipulation isn't really a "teaching method". It's a collection of excercises that allow you to work through all sorts of rhythmical movements in the grooves of funk and rock. Its approach is rather simple yet it allows for numerous developments. There's a big number of other works for studying the drums that are all complementary. "Time Manipulation" to me, is part of these works to be studied.

FP: Thanks for granting us this interview Alain, if you had to define Zappa using 5 adjectives, which ones would they be?
AR: Thanks to French Powered for being so inclined to ask me questions. Define Zappa using 5 adjectives? Isn't that a tad bit limiting? ;-) Demanding Intelligent Innovative Cynic Funny

(1) In the Zappa happening tradition, "Call Any Vegetable" has been a classic song since 1967 and the versions played at the Garrick Theater, during which the audience was invited to have itself covered with a variety of vegetables. Word of mouth since made it a moment of terror because certain spectators risked being dragged onstage by force. In 1971, the light show for the Mothers is taken care of by Coy Featherston whose passion is the same as that of Bunk Gardner before > to show ones ass, and not only "backstage".
(2) Aynsley, who refused an offer to join Jimmy Page's group Led Zeppelin as drummer, was the protégé of Zappa until 1972 when the drum scores of The Grand Wazoo Orchestra became part of his works. After Zappa, he tours with Mark and Howard upon which he's hired by Lou Reed for his album "Berlin".
(3) It's Don Preston who plays the introductory solo of "King Kong" deemed to be the very last piece of the spectacle. The fire is first discovered by some people in the audience, then by Mark Vollman who hesitates quite a bit before joking "The fire?... Arthur Brown in person Ladies and Gentlemen!" > Arthur Brown, barjo singer, reputed for his guignolesque shows during which he would appear totally naked or put his hair on fire.
(4) The Mothers didn't have the time to rescue their instruments and their amplifiers. All the material was destroyed and the band had to cancel consequent venues in Paris and Brussels, upon which they were forced to play on rented material at the London Rainbow (see You Can't Do That On Stage Vol. 3)
(5) The '82 Geneva concert is another unhappy memory for Zappa. Riots ended the concert prematurely (see You Can't Do That On Stage Vol. 5)
(6) Zappa compares God to a red sofa floating through space. This famous Frank Zappa composition will embellish the album "One Size Fits All" of '1975 in a modified version entitled "Sofa N°2" but it has already been added to the repertoire as of the '71 tour.
(7) Zappa will be thrown in the orchestra pit three weeks later by an irritated spectator and will suffer the consequences for the rest of his life.
(8) The name of the bootleg recorded during this famous concert in Montreux.

You can find out more on Alain Rieder at his personal site.