Ruth Underwood Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Ruth Underwood (born Ruth Komanoff on May 23, 1946) is a retired professional musician, best known for playing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and other percussion instruments in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from 1967 to 1977. Underwood began her music training in the classical tradition, studying both at Ithaca College under Warren Benson and under Saul Goodman at Juilliard. Throughout 1967, she kept a regular attendance at the Garrick Theater in New York City when Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention was the resident band, resulting in her association with Zappa beginning in... MORE

Ruth Underwood (born Ruth Komanoff on May 23, 1946) is a retired professional musician, best known for playing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and other percussion instruments in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from 1967 to 1977. Underwood began her music training in the classical tradition, studying both at Ithaca College under Warren Benson and under Saul Goodman at Juilliard. Throughout 1967, she kept a regular attendance at the Garrick Theater in New York City when Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention was the resident band, resulting in her association with Zappa beginning in December 1967. As Ruth Komanoff and Ruth Underwood she also appeared on drums with a rock group named The Hamilton Face Band during 1969, appearing on some of their recordings released by Philips Records and Bell Records. She married fellow Zappa musician Ian Underwood in May 1969. They later divorced in 1986. Underwood went on to perform in over twenty Zappa/Mothers recordings. Examples of her virtuosity can be heard on such tracks as the Rollo Interior interlude from St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast, from the Apostrophe (') album (1974). Equally impressive work is documented on Roxy & Elsewhere LESS