Moondog - Moondog (1969)

The Chicago post got me thinking about Jim Guercio. He was quite a wunderkind with Columbia Records, writing songs and producing hits for Chad & Jeremy and the Buckinghams. When Chicago took off, as well as the hit-packed album he produced for Blood, Sweat and Tears, he had clout with the label - a lot of clout. He used that new muscle to get label deals for artists he was fond of. The avant-garde composer/street artist Moondog (aka, Louis Thomas Hardin) was one of them.

This was the first (and best) of two albums Guercio produced for him in 1969 and 70. Guercio gave the compositions the depth and respect they deserved. 41 years after its release and 11 years after Moondog's death they still sound fresh and beautiful.

You will certainly recognize Lament 1, Bird's Lament, but everything else is as rich if not as familiar.

amg:
Moondog's second self-titled album (the first one came out in 1956 on the independent jazz label Prestige) was the idiosyncratic composer's first release in 12 years, and it shows how much Moondog's already rich music had matured since 1957's The Story of Moondog. Where Moondog's '50s records were jazz-based, Moondog showcases the composer's orchestral side; producer James William Guercio assembled an orchestra of over 40 musicians from the classical and jazz worlds (including flutist Hubert Laws and bassist Ron Carter), and although the pieces are quite compact — ranging from the expansive three-part ballet suite "Witch of Endor" to the eight-second spoken poem "Cuplet" — Moondog uses the expanded range of tonal colors and dynamics impressively. For someone who spent most of his career performing solo on a street corner in Manhattan, Moondog's arrangements on pieces like the jazz-canon's "Stamping Ground" are not only admirably complex, but also richly melodic. Although Moondog is often thought of as a mere exotica novelty, thanks to the composer's eccentricities, it is, in fact, one of the finest third stream jazz albums of its era.

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