Allan Zavod

Jazz pianist Alan Zavod was part of The Mothers in 1984. An Australian whose father - Edward Zavod - was a violinist, Alan was classically trained on piano, and at the age of twelve he was taken on the road to the United States as his father’s accompanist. He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston. Upon graduation, he began his professional career in New York - in the early 1970s as a big band pianist, working with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Woody Herman, Mike Gibbs and Gary Burton, Maynard Ferguson, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, joining Jean-Luc Ponty in 1976. He remained with Ponty for eight years.

Alan Zavod provided keyboards for Does Humor Belong In Music?, Guitar, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3, You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4 , and You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6, as well as the unreleased Trance-Fusion. Alan can be seen in the Zappa movie Does Humor Belong In Music? (The Film).