Night Lights Classic Jazz Radio Program and Jazz Blog with David Brent Johnson

Night Lights is a weekly one-hour radio program of classic jazz hosted by David Brent Johnson and produced by WFIU Public Radio. Night Lights airs on WFIU HD1 Saturday at 11:05 p.m.

June 13, 2009

Frank Zappa Meets Steve Allen and Plays the Bike

By David Brent Johnson

Allen Zappa This one’s apparently made the rounds on the internets for some time now, but I can’t resist posting it here--Frank Zappa’s suit-and-tie-clad 1963 appearance on The Steve Allen Show. Zappa was a 22-year-old unknown, not quite yet the assertive persona he’d become, but certainly unflappable in the face of Allen’s wisecracking. Over the course of 15 minutes he gets Allen and the studio band to join him in making some far-out sounds on a couple of bicycles. I’m not sure what prompted Zappa’s appearance, though at the end he does mention a new record, “How’s Your Bird”.

Part 1:

Part 2: Kind of put me in mind of Art Ensemble of Chicago at times--no kidding! (And perhaps not too far removed from Henry Threadgill’s hubkaphone, an instrument made out of hubcaps.)