Ontario Composer, Steve Allen, To Play Wacky Duet
Unknown Source, 1963
Frank Zappa, 22, Ontario resident composer of music, serious and otherwise, will be on television tomorrow night playing a bicycle concerto for two with Steve Allen. The show is at 11 p.m., Channel 5. "It's very funny," said Zappa. "You play a bicycle by plucking the spokes and blowing through the handlebars." Other methods of producing "cyclophony" is to stroke the spokes with the bow of a bass fiddle, twirl the pedals and let air out of the tires. The Zappa-Allen concerto will be abetted by a man in the control room fooling around with a tape recorder and by a jazz group will supply toneless background noise.
Zappa studied music and art at Chaffey College. He wrote the score for "The World's Greatest Sinner," a low-budget tale about a sacrilegious imposter who repents. "Sinner" had its premiere at Vista-Continental Theater, Hollywood, and open Wednesday at the Ken Theater, San Diego. Zappa writes musical commercials for TV and radio. They are recorded at Pal Studio, Cucamonga.
