Suddenly yesterday I received an e-mail from my friend Nick, who told me to listen to the music of the artist "Moondog" (real name: Louis Thomas Hardin) born on May 26, 1916 – died on September 8, 1999.
A blind man, almost self taught musician, poet, inventor of several musical instruments and cosmologist.He is know as "The viking of 6th avenue" since he would perform his music on NY city´s 6th avenue only wearing home-made cloths based on his interpretation of "Thor". He would also walk the streets of NY dressed in such way.
I started listening to his available discography on Spotify. After this experience I felt fascination towards his music, it drove me in like a strong magnet. There is a big ocean of surprises with him. You can also sit and listen to his poetry and feel the same pleasure as if you where listening to his music. He had (and has) a very personal voice and has made a great contribution toward the music scene from the late 70s on. I must say that he is a well-known unknown, since as far as I'm concerned he did not enjoy popularity, but he created an impact on many artist of his times, for example Steve Reich or Phillip Glass who said that he took moondog "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Julliard.”. He also was friends with musicians such as Leonard Bernstein or Charlie Parker.
His music is quite elaborate in rhythms and also counterpoint, is organic, is beautiful, is childish, is mature, and he is one of those persons who change your life. From the albums I have listened to I can recommend to start with:
"H'art Songs"
"sax pax for a sax"
I hope that with time I am able to provide more information on this artist and do hesitate to look around for other articles, I have read some interesting blog post about him today:
http://musiconthefringe.blogspot.com/2006/11/moondog-viking-of-sixth-avenue.html
Visit this following webpage with lots of good information about Moondog
http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/Moondog.html#anchor_45
and also his wikipedia page with a big biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog
Enjoy these videos
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