Moog etc Celebration

For those who live in the NE of the USA:
Moogfest 2005: A Celebration of Synths at B.B. King's Tuesday May 31

Featuring Robert Moog, Edgar Winter, Brazilian Girls, Deodato

New York, NY - May 2005 -
Fifty years ago, American maverick inventor,
Robert Moog began developing instruments that
altered the course of modern music for all time
and have since become an integral part of our
musical culture. Moog's namesake analog
synthesizer helped catapult the careers of such
a diverse list of artists as rockers Edgar
Winter, Todd Rundgren, Gary Numan and Devo,
funkster Bernie Worrell with
Parliament-Funkadelic, disco producer Giorgio
Moroder with disco diva Donna Summer, fusioneers
Chick Corea with Return To Forever, Herbie
Hancock with The Headhunters, Jan Hammer with
the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Klaus Doldinger with
Passport and Joe Zawinul with Weather Report,
New Age icon Tomita and classical performer
Wendy Carlos. To honor Moog and commemorate his
groundbreaking achievements, several renowned
keyboardists and longstanding Moog users will
gather on Tuesday, May 31 at B.B. King�s
Bar &
Grill in Times Square (237 w. 42nd Street
between 7th & 8th Avenues) to participate in a
gala Moogfest. The list of performers includes
Edgar Winter, Will Calhoun (Living Colour), The
Volt Per Octaves, Adam Holzman (Miles Davis),
Jordan Rudess
(Dream Theatre), Steve Molitz (Particle),
Brazilian Girls, Deodato, Don Preston (Frank
Zappa), Chris Clark (John Entwistle), Gershon
Kingsley, DJ Logic and
musical director Jason Miles. Showtime is 7:30
p.m. Tickets for this special event, produced by
Charles Carlini of the Carlini Group, are $35
and are available at the box office
(212-997-4144) or at all Ticketmaster outlets.
Purchase tickets today<br>Visit >><a
href="http://www.moogfest.net"><font
color="#CC0000"
size="2">www.moogfest.net</font></a></ b></
font></p

Born in 1934 in New York City, Moog (rhymes with
vogue) took piano lessons as a child. It was in
1954 that he began making Theremins, which
provided the high-pitched eerie squeals in
'50s-era sci-fi/horror movies. Ten years later,
he created the first Moog Modular synthesizer,
premiering it at the Audio Engineering Society
Convention in October of 1964. By the time he
got a graduate degree (PhD in Engineering
Physics) in the summer of 1965, the R. A. Moog
Co. had delivered several modular synthesizer
systems, mostly to academic and experimental
composers. But it would be a few years later
before Moog synthesizers would leap into public
consciousness via Wendy Carlos' groundbreaking
album Switched-On Bach. Released on Columbia
Records at the end of 1968, it immediately sold
over a million copies and created a sharp demand
for Moog modular synthesizers throughout 1969
and early 1970. By the end of 1970, R. A. Moog
Inc. introduced the Minimoog, a compact
performance synthesizer based on the technology
of Moog modular products, enabling keyboardists
to take the Moog on the road, which began a
decade of music that would be forever altered by
the Minimoog and its incomparable sounds.

In response to a rise in interest in the
theramin, Moog designed
the Series 91 Theremin in 1991 and Big Briar
produced them for the next five years. In 1996
he introduced the Etherwave Theremin and in 1998
designed the Ethervox MIDI Theremin. Moog has
since designed several Moogerfooger analog
effects modules, which are based on the
technical principles of the original Moog
modular instruments and were designed to bring
the benefits of analog synthesis to all
performing musicians. Then in 2002, Moog
resurrected his namesake analog synthesizer,
designing the new Minimoog Voyager for a new
generation of Moog players. Like the
Moogerfoogers, this instrument is based on the
technical principles of the original Moog
modular instruments and the original Minimoog,
but in addition incorporates a wide range of
contemporary features such as fully implemented
MIDI and a three-axis touch surface. Last year,
Bob reclaimed the right to use the Moog Music
and MiniMoog trademarks, and immediately changed
the name of his Big Briar to Moog Music Inc. The
company's latest new product is the Moog
PianoBar, which fits onto any acoustic piano and
enables the player to use the piano's keyboard
to control electronically generated sounds.

Over the past 50 years, Moog's dedication to the
craft of making instruments has been as
legendary as the instruments themselves. And at
the 50 year mark in his storied history, Moog is
still active in his workshop in rural North
Carolina, continuing to shape musical culture
with some of the most inspiring instruments ever
created. Robert Moog's substantial achievements
have recently been recounted by documentary
filmmaker/musician Hans Fjellestad in Moog
(www.moogmovie.com). Shot on location in
Asheville, N.C., New York, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Tokyo and London, this feature
documentary explores Moog's collaborations with
musicians over the years and his ideas about
creativity, design, interactivity and
spirituality while also examining his mythic
cult hero status among musicians. The DVD of the
recent theatrical release is planned for the
summer of 2005, distributed by Plexifilm.
Artists such as Stereolab, The Neptunes, Devo,
Meat Beat Manifesto, Tortoise, DJ Spooky, Money
Mark, Luke Vibert & Jean-Jacques Perrey, 33,
Junky XL with Gary Numan, The Album Leaf, Bernie
Worrell, Pete Devriese, Bostich, Charlie
Clouser, Baiyon, Suzanne Ciani, Electric
Skychurch and others are contributing original
music produced on Moog instruments for the
soundtrack.