“Have you heard of Frank Zappa?”
Visitors on my docent tour of the Bodega Marine Laboratory and Reserve often seem surprised by my question. Baby-boomers call out answers: Guitarist. Composer. Had a band called the Mothers of Invention. Named his kids Moon Unit and Dweezle. For those too young to recall, I explain that shaggy-haired, iconoclastic Frank Zappa (1940-1993) released more than sixty albums and rocked the music world in a career that spanned three decades,
Among Zappa’s legions of fans, one of the most ardent was Fernando (Nando) Boero, an Italian marine biologist and jellyfish specialist. In 1982 Nando, then a researcher at the University of Genoa, won a travel grant to the Bodega Lab to study local jellies. But he had an ulterior motive: to meet his musical idol. What better way than finding a new species and naming it after him? When Nando wrote to Zappa to describe his mission, the rock star responded, “There is nothing I’d like better than having a jellyfish named after me.”
In the waters of Bodega Harbor, Nando discovered a tiny jelly just .12 inches long, with a parachute-shaped body and swaying tentacles. Through meticulous research, which required growing the jellyfish across its entire life cycle in the Lab, he proved that it was “very different from all the other known species.” Nando named the newfound jelly Phialella zappai in honor of the man he considers the most important composer of his time.
The marine scientist’s dream came true. Zappa invited him to his home in Laurel Canyon. A two-day visit blossomed into a lifelong friendship.
“Whenever we met, we started to talk as if we’d met the day before,” Nando told an interviewer. “He used to play his latest pieces to me, and he seemed really curious to know my opinion…He was FZ, an absolute genius, and he was so serious and so humble…We had a very similar way of seeing the world. I too have a lot of fun with my work.”
In Genoa in 1988 the Mothers of Invention performed together for the last time. Zappa dedicated what he called “the jellyfish concert” to the Italian scientist. His song “Lonesome Cowboy Burt” became “Lonesome Cowboy Nando,” with lyrics that began: “My name is Nando / I’m a marine biologist / All my friends / They call me ‘Do.’” The refrain of “Nan-nan-nan-nan-nan, do-do-do-do-do” simulated the air bubbles of a diver’s regulator. The day after the performance, as Nando recalled, Zappa asked “if I liked the surprise he made for me. What do you say to FZ after he dedicated his last concert to you?”
Other natural phenomena named for the musician include a gene (ZapA), fish (Zappa confluentus), mollusk (Amauratoma zappa), spider (Pachygnatha zappa) and asteroid (Zappafrank). Zappa’s jelly also inspired a striking black-and-white painting created for an exhibit on “Jellyfish and Art” at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Standing beside a print that hangs in the library of the Bodega Lab, I explain to visitors why I enjoy telling this story. To me, it testifies to the power of two great and universal passions—for music and for the sea—that bring together people of different nations, talents, ages and backgrounds.
What could be cooler than that?
Photo source: Wikimedia Commons
