Ruth Underwood (born Ruth Komanoff; May 23, 1946) is an American musician best known for playing xylophone, marimba,

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

, and other

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

instruments in Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. She collaborated with the Mothers of Invention from 1968 to 1977.

Life and career

Underwood began her music training in the classical tradition, studying both at Ithaca College under Warren Benson and at Juilliard under Saul Goodman (timpani) and Morris Goldenberg (percussion). Throughout 1967, she kept a regular attendance at the Garrick Theater in New York City when Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were the resident band. This resulted in her association with Zappa, beginning in December 1967. In May 1969 she married keyboardist/saxophonist Ian Underwood, a fellow Zappa musician. They divorced in 1986. Professionally she used both her birth name, Ruth Komanoff, and her married name. Underwood performed in more than 30 recordings with Zappa or Mothers. Examples of her virtuosity can be heard on tracks including the "Rollo Interior interlude" from "St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast" on the '' Apostrophe (')'' album (1974). Other work is documented on '' Roxy & Elsewhere'' (1974) and on " Inca Roads", the opening track on '' One Size Fits All'' (1975). Underwood can be heard (though not seen) in the soundtrack of the Zappa movie '' 200 Motels'' (1971), and the ''Dub Room Special'' DVD (1982), which includes performances from the KCET Special ''A Token Of His Extreme''. She also features in the film of the Roxy performances (2015). During the 1970s, Underwood collaborated in recording sessions for a small number of other performers, most notably with the band

Ambrosia In the ancient Greek mythology, Greek myths, ambrosia (, ) is the food or drink of the Greek gods, and is often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Mount Olympus, Olympus by do ...

, composer Jasun Martz, and jazz keyboardist

George Duke George Martin Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as ...

, the last also a veteran of Zappa's bands. Underwood was the drummer with a rock group named the Hamilton Face Band during 1969, appearing on their recordings released by Philips Records and Bell Records. In a 1993 interview Underwood revealed that she played on one final session for Zappa shortly before his death from cancer in December of that year. Zappa was then composing mostly with the electronic

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the ea ...

system, though he used recordings of live musicians which were later manipulated and arranged with the Synclavier. She recalled: In 2008, she commissioned Gordon Stout to write a work for the percussion ensemble Nexus. She also features in the DVD - DC Collection: Vol. 1 - The Drummers Of Frank Zappa (2009) with Terry Bozzio, Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson and Chad Wackerman. She is the mother of two children, both musicians. She resides in Los Angeles.