On May 30th, London's Barbican will present a series of events celebrating and remembering Moondog. A concert will feature a number of guest artists who reflect the extraordinary range of the composer. Before the show, a Freestage set from composer Max de Wardener and percussionist Tom Skinner will explore the canonical music from the 1970 album Moondog 2 (Sony/Columbia).
The first half of the concert will feature the specially assembled Moondog Choir featuring the idiosyncratic vocals of Lightspeed Champion, Pictish Trail and Adem ; they will perform with London Saxophonic, joined by pianist Liam Noble and percussionist Paul Clarvis who both played with Moondog when he last performed in London at Elvis Costello's Meltdown in 1995. Domino Records stalwarts Clinic will also perform two Moondog compositions in the Hall before their own set on the post-show Clubstage. In the interval there will be a Clubstage DJ set from Caribou .
In the second half the Britten Sinfonia will perform under the baton of Andr de Ridder of the Viva Orchestra, along with Andi Toma (of Mouse On Mars), who collaborated with Moondog on the music for Elpmas (Kopf, 1991) while the composer was living in Germany. The Britten Sinfonia will perform some gems from Moondog's classic CBS repertoire as well as previously unheard works.
Alongside Clinic on the post-show Clubstage will be a DJ set from Four Tet , in which DJ Kieran Hebden mixes sounds from all kinds of genres and crosses any musical borders he can find.
In a companion event, Moondog Around Midnight takes place in the beautiful setting of the church of St Giles Cripplegate at 11.30pm on the same evening. US organist Paul Jordan, a veteran Moondog collaborator, will play a concert of the composer's organ music.
For more information contact All About Jazz.