Prepare for MoogFest 2010 by listening to an original recording of electronic-music mastermind Bob Moog (inventor of the Moog synthesizer) performing in Asheville more than 30 years ago. Presented by the Bob Moog Foundation and local musical/composer Dan Lewis, Bob Moog Live is an electronic neo-classical album featuring the “only known recording of synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog publicly performing on his famous Minimoog,” plus clips of Moog speaking candidly in between songs, as a press release from the Moog Foundation describes. The world premiere and CD-release party for this historic recording will be held on Sunday, Oct. 10, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at Lexington Avenue Brewery (the LAB), located at 39 N. Lexington Ave., in downtown Asheville.
“The Bob Moog Live event will be a multilayered ‘happening’ that includes listening to samples of the CD and brief informal lectures by Dan Lewis and by Bob Moog Foundation executive director Michelle Moog-Koussa,” continues the release. “Live original music performed by Dan Lewis on guitar and synthesizers as well as an improvisational synthesizer jam featuring top area keyboardists performing on Moog synthesizers will provide live experimental synthesis as the musical backdrop for the evening.”
Special guests Jeff Knorr of The Funknastics; MaryFrances of Emyrael; and Ben Hovey, of Asheville Horns; among others, will accompany Lewis on stage. In addition, a small display of material and instruments from the Moog archive will be showcased.
Bob Moog Live features a recording of a performance that took place on Nov. 23, 1980, at the Asheville Art Museum, where Moog performed with Dan Lewis and Mike Abbott, who “rounded out the trio on keyboards, guitar and ukelin.” Lewis is the only member of the trio alive today and works as an audio engineer and arranger/producer at Acoustic Audio Recording in Hendersonville. He is responsible for preserving the original recording of the concert (which was titled “The Gig Tape” and was recorded on 1/4-inch analog tape), and for spearheading Bob Moog Live on a whole.
“While the recording is not 21st-Century high fidelity, we realized it allows the listener to ‘attend’ a somewhat historic event and experience the only known opportunity to hear Bob speak, tell stories and perform on his most famous invention, the Minimoog,” says Lewis, as quoted in a press release. “In that sense, the recording is unique.”
And, it’s all for a good cause: Proceeds from the event, which costs $7 at the door, and from CD sales benefit The Bob Moog Foundation, whose mission is to “educate and inspire children and adults through electronic music.” Bob Moog Live will be available online on Monday, Oct. 11, at www.moogfoundation.org/shop.
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