A rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They mainly performed works by and were the original recording group of composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, although other members have an occasional writing credit.
Initially, the group was named The Soul Giants and consisted of drummer Jimmy Carl Black, bass player Roy Estrada, saxophonist Davy Coronado, guitarist Ray Hunt and vocalist Ray Collins. After Collins got into a fight with Hunt in 1964, Hunt quit the group and Frank Zappa took his place as guitarist - quickly becoming the leader of the group, which changed its name to the Mothers in May 1964 (on Mother's Day).
In late 1965, record producer Tom Wilson made a brief visit to a bar where the Mothers were playing and offered them a contract. The Mothers and Wilson then spent several months recording and editing the band's first album, a double named Freak Out! At the insistence of their record company, MGM Records, the Mothers again changed their name, this time to the Mothers of Invention.
Their debut album was released in 1966 and the Mothers of Invention subsequently went on tour. Freak Out! sold relatively poorly, but the band released Absolutely Free in 1967 and We're Only in It for the Money in 1968 under the leadership of Zappa.
In 1969, Zappa disbanded the original Mothers of Invention lineup. Estrada went on to form Little Feat with Lowell George, who had been in the Mothers for a few months in late 1968/early 1969 but was reportedly fired by Zappa because of his drug use.
In 1970, Zappa created a new incarnation of the Mothers which included only one other original Mothers member, Don Preston. This lineup also featured British-born drummer Aynsley Dunbar (ex-John Mayall's Bluesbreakers), multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood (keyboards, guitar, woodwind, vocals) and Ruth Underwood (marimba, vibes), who had joined the original Mothers for the recording of Uncle Meat in 1969. George Duke (keyboards, trombone, vocals) first performed with Zappa in 1970 on 200 Motels and subsequently became a key member of Zappa's mid-1970s touring bands.
Other new Mothers members included Jim Pons (bass), Bob Harris (keyboards, vocals), vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (aka 'The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie', former members of 1960s pop group the Turtles) and Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar).
The new Mothers (with drummer John Guerin) first played on the 1970 album, Chunga's Revenge, although it is credited solely to Zappa, followed by Zappa's ambitious concept film/album project 200 Motels, which also featured Black, folk singer Theodore Bikel and former Beatle Ringo Starr.
Now credited as the Mothers, Zappa and the group recorded two acclaimed live albums, Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band From L.A., but Zappa again disbanded the band in late 1971 after an attacker had pushed him offstage into an orchestra pit at a concert in London, resulting in serious injuries that kept him off the road for more than a year.
Although Zappa had always released, and would continue to release, albums explictly as solo artist (Lumpy Gravy, 1967; Hot Rats, 1969; Chunga's Revenge, 1970; Apostrophe ('), 1974), various lineups of the Mothers followed in the 1970s, the band now clearly just a vehicle for Zappa. Albums were variously released as Mothers/Zappa (Roxy & Elsewhere, 1974) or Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (One Size Fits All, 1975) until Zappa permanently dropped the name in 1976, from the release of Zoot Allures (1976) onwards.
Since 1980, Black, Preston and Bunk Gardner, plus other former members of the Mothers of Invention, have occasionally performed and recorded under the name The Grandmothers or The Grande Mothers Re:Invented, performing music by Zappa and Captain Beefheart as well as originals and blues standards.