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Full discography below, adapted from Ilona Sommer's list.
American
Moondog (Prestige)
This is a beautifully eccentric album. A quirky mixture of sounds that never outstays its welcome. There are jazz pastiches, drum sounds, everyday background and animal sounds, oriental wailing, babies crying and buddhist rounds and zen conversations. If all that sounds heavy it isn't. Recommended - "Caribea", "Tree trail", "Surf Session" and "Trees against the Sky".
More Moondog
Follows the same pattern as the first but a bit more monotonous, having too many drum sounds for my taste. Recommended - "Chant", "Oboe Round" and "All is Loneliness".
The Story of Moondog
More of the same. Recommended - "Up Broad way" which is a faantastic jazz pastiche which reminds me of the painting "Broadway Boogie Woogie". This album is now available twinned with "More Moondog"
Back in 1970, it was the first thing I heard by Moondog. The album is more orchestral than the others, with classical and jazz inspired pieces. All of the tracks are recommended but "Stomping Ground" is my favourite.
Moondog 2
After the previous album this is a big surprise, consisting entirely of 26 short rounds and madrigals sung by him and his daughter. Some of them are good but the whole album is difficult to take at one sitting. The overall sound is a bit like a bunch of drugged up swingle singers. This album is available twinned with the CBS "Moondog" album. Worth listening to with headphones.
European
1. Moondog - H'art Songs
No details.
2. Moondog in Europe
The instrument used throughout is a pipe organ and by all accounts it is heavy going.
Moondog - Sax Pax For A Sax
"The kicker is that the 1996 release "Sax Pax for a Sax" is actually quite stunning. When Moondog did away with the stray noise, or wanking on one hand-made instrument, he showed a real knack for tone qualities, sad and beautiful melodies, and forceful honking. Moondog bangs along on the bass drum as the looping groups of saxes beat away at his charts. There are two gaslight-era sounding choruses, both extolling cities. The first is Paris, pronounced Par-eee, the other New Amsterdam. Your guess is as good as mine. When I heard the album in full for the first time I was quite taken with it, and figured ol' Moondog might return to the states and maybe play at Carnegie Hall or the Beacon like those other newly-recording octogenarians, the Buena Vista Social Club. But, no. Moondog instead died." - Kenneth Ansell
"Sax Pax for a Sax" was recorded in Bath, England, using English musicians. Most of them are, as you would think, pieces for saxaphone, although there are a couple of re-recorded piano pieces (from Moondog and More Moondog). Throughout the whole proceedings Moondog keeps up a fairly monotonous backbeat. Well he is getting on a bit. Also there are three numbers which have choruses that sound like the cast of "Sound of Music" on their day off. And the effect of al this? Wonderful. It all seems to work helped by the playing of nine saxophonists. as for the chorus - that works too. "New Amsterdam" is almost touching.
New Amsterdam
was her name
Before she was
New York
New Amsterdam is
a dame
The heart and
soul of big apple city
No matter what
name she goes under
I dig her deeply
And no wonder
For she's been
lovely to me
And I'm better
For having met
her
Not bad coming from someone who paid their dues by living on the streets for about thirty years.
