Vox Populi
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Audio: Moondog | The Last Concert
Piano by Dominique Ponty accompanied by Moondog on occasional percussion and couplets recorded just 6 weeks before the composer’s death. At the Mimi-Festival 1999.
Only available as the second disc of the rare and out of print Moondog album The German Years 1977-1999.
Photograph is of Moondog and Ilona Sommer (who took Moondog in and helped look after both him and his music in his later years).
CD2-01 Jazz Book: No. 2 00:00 CD2-02 Carnival 02:18 CD2-03 Elf Dance 4:06 CD2-04 From Jazz Book: No. 4 06:24 CD2-05 Fiesta 7:46 CD2-06 From Jazz Book: No. 3 9:46 CD2-07 Chaconne In A Minor 11:43 CD2-08 3 Couplets 14:11 CD2-09 Prelude And Fugue In A Minor 14:43 CD2-10 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 3 19:02 CD2-11 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 6 CD2-12 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 7 CD2-13 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 8 CD2-14 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 10 CD2-15 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 13 CD2-16 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 14 CD2-17 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 16 CD2-18 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 18 CD2-19 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 20 CD2-20 From Art Of The Canon, Book I: No. 25 CD2-21 From Art Of The Canon, Book II: No. 6 CD2-22 From Art Of The Canon, Book II: No. 9 CD2-23 From Art Of The Canon, Book II: No. 22 CD2-24 From Art Of The Canon, Book II: No. 23 CD2-25 Sea Horse 33:27 CD2-26 From Jazz Book: No. 1 34:58 CD2-27 From Jazz Book: No. 5 CD2-28 3 Couplets 37:17 CD2-29 From Art Of The Canon, Book V, No. 9 37:50 Mood Montreaux 43:03 CD2-30 1st Movement CD2-31 2nd Movement CD2-32 3rd Movement CD2-33 Santa Fé 52:02 CD2-34 Barn Dance 54:28
Total running time: 56 minutes
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Louis Thomas Hardin (born 1916), known professionally as Moondog, was an American composer, performing musician, theoretician, poet, and inventor of several musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer, his work drew inspiration from jazz, classical, Latin, and Native American music. His music, strongly rhythmic and contrapuntal, later influenced minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972; during which time he was often found on Sixth Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet. He sometimes busked, but often just stood silently on the sidewalk. He was recognized as “the Viking of Sixth Avenue” by thousands of passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career. In 1974, Moondog moved to Germany where lived until his death in 1999. To learn more about the life of Moondog, please click here. To learn more about his music, please click here.
Vox Populi 
Catchy. I’m sure it’ll be an earworm sometime after I can recall where I heard it!
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Thanks, Kim. Much of Moondog’s music stays with me.
Michael Simms Publisher/Vox Populi Founder/Autumn House Press Author/Nightjar (poems) Author/American Ash (poems) Author/Bicycles of the Gods: A Divine Comedy (novel)
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