Moondog

Moondog – born Louis Thomas Hardin in Marysville, Kansas on May 26, 1916 – was a unique and iconic figure in music. More of a renaissance man, Moondog was a musician, composer, theoretician, poet, and inventor of musical instruments who ended up becoming an inspiration to jazz, classical, and avant-garde musicians. Although he was born in Kansas and already interested in music and percussion, when his family moved to Wyoming, he played tom-tom at an Arapaho Sun Dance. This experience had a profound effect on him and influenced a lot of the future rhythmic patterns in his music. In 1932, when he was 16 years old, a dynamite cap exploded in his face and he lost his eyesight. Even though he could not see, he studied music and became a self-taught musician. He moved to New York and became acquainted with classical and jazz artists such as Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Parker, and Benny Goodman, who had a profound influence on Hardin. In 1947, he started using the name Moondog (in honor of a dog he once had that frequently howled at the moon). At that point, he began performing as a street musician and poet. He spent the next 25 years occupying the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue, performing and selling music, reciting poetry, or just standing quietly. Because of his unusual attire, he became known as ‘The Viking of 6th Avenue’. He also began his recording career with singles like 1950’s “Moondog’s Symphony”, one of his most popular compositions. He also began releasing a series of EPs and albums on a variety of labels. In 1953 alone, he released the album Moondog and His Friends as well as four EPs including Improvisations at a Jazz Concert and On the Streets of New York. More albums followed over the next two decades including Moondog and More Moondog (both 1956), The Story of Moondog (1957), Songs of Sense and Nonsense (with Julie Andrews and Martyn Green/1957), Moondog (Columbia version/1969), and Moondog 2 (1971). In 1974, inspired by Nordic history, he left New York and moved to Germany, where he continued to record albums for the next 21 years – the final album released during his lifetime was 1995’s Moondog Big Band. While his music was rooted in classical and jazz, his releases were eclectic and considered avant-garde. One important aspect of his own music was the use of instruments that he created including small triangular-shaped harps (which he named the ‘oo’ and the ‘ooo-ya-tsu’), a triangular stringed instrument (the "hüs"), and many others. After a long career spent in obscurity, he was finally recognized in the late 1980s and his influence stretched across all genres. Moondog died of heart failure on September 8, 1999.