Night Music: Yes--That Was on TV!

To the left on my video link you have access to performance footage from the late-'80s music variety show Night Music. Check it out. You will, I bet, be amazed that such a performance made it to national television (NBC, to be exact). The show was originally hosted by Jools Holland, who's doing something similar now in the UK that's not nearly as surprising, who then handed the reins over to major geeb David Sanborn. Concept: expose unsuspecting American night owls to great musicians on the margins. Partial list: Sonic Youth, Pixies, Sun Ra, Al Green, Diamanda Galas, Leonard Cohen, Sonny Rollins, the Kronos Quartet, the Residents. After each artist got to play a couple of their own pieces (which were separated by vintage black and white video footage of folks like Louis Jordan, Nellie Lutcher, and Aretha), they teamed up at show's end for the final piece, which resulted in bizarre pairings like Conway Twitty and the aforementioned Residents. Not surprisingly, the line-ups were put together by Hal Willner (Wikipedia him, please). Anyhow, my favorite performance ever, master tenor saxophonist Rollins and Sweet Pea Atkinson of Was Not Was spurring on Cohen's deathly "Who By Fire," is captured on the link. Check it out. Dig Sonny's improv and Converse, and Sweet Pea's encouragements. This show needs to be on DVD now!