Moondog (Original Jazz Classics) (CD)

Often known as the Viking of 6th Avenue, the blind New York City street performer and Norse-inspired sartorialist Moondog (born Louis Thomas Hardin) was in fact a groundbreaking composer, jazz musician, and musical avant-gardist. Among Moondog's many admirers were Charlie Parker, Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, and New York Philharmonic maestro Artur Rodzinski. His unique artistry was a combination of the then blossoming minimalist compositional style, bop, and free jazz aesthetics, as well Moondog's own divined musical philosophies, which would generate creation of, among others things, the percussion instrument the trimba. Moondog moved to Germany in 1974, where he lived and worked until his death in 1999.

• Category:  Music  »  Rock & Pop  »  General Rock & Pop
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: August 20, 1990
• Label: Original Jazz Classics
• UPC: 025218174121
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106645041
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #57247 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #17973 in Rock & Pop (See Top 100 Rock & Pop Bestsellers)
• #11503 in General Rock & Pop (See Top 100 General Rock & Pop Bestsellers)

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Recorded in New York, New York in 1956. Originally released on Prestige (7042).

All tracks have been digitally remastered from original analog master tapes.

Moondog's 1956 debut album clocks in at just 31 minutes, but what a passionately resonant and bracingly inventive half-hour it is! Moondog was known at the time as a blind street musician on the streets of New York City, but these compositions show him to be much more than that. They're melodically alluring, mixing a modernist's propensities with a classicist's love of grounded tradition.

"Surf Session" is a three-part suite that utilizes a quartet along with the recorded sounds of waves washing ashore. "Dance Rehearsal" finds Moondog accompanying a dance teacher and her pupil, with the sound of spoken instructions mixing in with the playing. "Trees Against the Sky" features Moondog's own voice recorded twice, over his percussion. It utilizes the round form, which Moondog explored for much of his career. "Tap Dance" has Ray Malone ad libbing to Moondog's drumming, and "Street Scene" is three-and-a-half minutes of drumming and dialogue against a backdrop of Manhattan traffic sounds. This music is friendly and engaging from beginning to end.

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