This album is a stone cold classic, albeit a ‘best of’.  If a contemporary DJ mixed Native American beats, classical arrangements, and jazz they would be lauded as The Next Big Thing. When Moondog mixed these styles sixty years ago he was considered a talented kook. After hearing this hopefully you’ll be scouring the internet for his other releases. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is a beautiful, eclectic album.

I am verbose on many topics, but the music of Moondog speaks for itself. He has inspired countless people and thinkers. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is a compilation of his life’s music and career. The first thing you need to know is that Moodog was a tall blind man who dressed as a viking, and lived on the streets of New York. This might not be all you need to know, but hopefully it is enough to interest you. Moondog fits his own genre.

Moondog, a.k.a Louis Hardin, grew up and lived in the west of America. It is said that the seminal moment in his life was when his father took him to watch a Sun Dance of the local Arapaho tribe. He is said to have sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom during the ceremony. Moondog can truly be seen as a product of a past era. He was an unwitting pioneer of world music, influenced by jazz and classical music training made available to him by chance, after he was blinded in his youth.

Released
2005
This album was compiled and released by Damon Alban, champion of world music and lead singer of hugely popular seminal Brit pop band Blur. The music was originally recorded from the 1950s through to the 1990s.

Lyrics
Generally not. Where there are words, they are mainly samples with the occasional spoken word aspect.

Mood
Slow to fast, jazzy to classical, to world.

Good to work to
Ideal to work to. Meets all my requirements. It takes you beyond the distractions of the everyday, and has few associations for a busy mind to cling to or to be diverted by. This particular compilation flits between genres from be-bop, street sounds, and Native American-inspired classical. Your brain does not have enough time to get used to any one particular vibe, but the differences in music are not jarring, and this makes it excellent focus music. However, it is not erratic.

Like
I can think of nothing like this album and artist. Don’t let it discourage you though. Moondog is, or rather was, like classical/Native American, and be-bop.

The Artist(s)
Louis Hardin, who later took the name of Moondog, had a fascinating life.

Brought up by his father near an indian reservation. He became completely blind when a blasting cap he was holding in his hands exploded, at the age of sixteen. He was sent to a school for the blind and received a musical education he said he could not have afforded otherwise. Perhaps because of the loss of his sight, his aural sense was heightened.

I am not sure why he moved to New York to live on the streets. He said that he dressed as a viking to gain more attention as a street performer. He had some memorable encounters with potential collaborators like Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Charlie Parker that all seemed to go awry at one stage or another. He eventually moved to Germany in the Seventies after many years on the streets and sporadic recording contracts. The Germans recognised his genius and took him under their wing, enabling him to record a number of eclectic albums using sax, church organ, among many other instruments.

Oh yeah… and he also invented various musical instruments.

Other works
Moondog had a long recording career, from his early days in New York to his latter-day eclectic renaissance in Germany. His other albums include Moondog, Moondog2, Elpmas, H’art Songs,  Moondog in Europe, Sax Pax for a Sax. Lesser-known albums were released from a random mix of countries in Europe and America. I would hunt them all down if I was you, but check to see whether you like this album first.

Where can I buy it, and in what formats?
You can get this particular album almost anywhere and in any format. While the rest of his collection might be hard to find, this album is not, and it is guaranteed to pique your interest.

The Verdict
Get out there and buy it as soon as you can.