On May 23, 2023, the 89th anniversary of Bob’s birth, we celebrated “Bob’s Electric Birthday” at the Moogseum in Asheville.

 

 

We welcomed members of the electronic music community and fans of modular synthesis from as far away as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Washington State. 

 

 

Click here to see a short TV news segment on our celebration from our local news station, WLOS.

 

 

There was cake, champagne, fellowship, and of course:

music, history, legacy, and memory.

 

 

 

 

We hosted synth pioneer Patrick Gleeson in a reunion of sorts with the vintage Moog modular he purchased in 1968, not yet knowing it would serve as a gateway to joining Herbie Hancock on tour, and even appearing on the masterpiece soundtrack to “Apocalypse Now” (where Gleeson served as master synthesist at Francis Ford Coppola’s request).

The Gleeson modular is now on permanent exhibit at the Moogseum, part of our Patching Sound exhibit.

 

 

Born just one year after Bob Moog, Gleeson was a longtime friend of Bob’s, as well as a composer and recording studio founder who worked with artists including Devo, Brian Eno and David Byrne. 

 

 

As one guest commented, Dr. Gleeson is one of the few in the 1960s who bet everything on a crazy machine called a “Moog” when there were no guaranteed returns on their massive investment.

Gleeson and a select few others were part of the movement that kickstarted what we now experience as a whole new sonic universe. 

Like the lunar astronauts of the same time period, they were that world’s first visitors.

 

Their exploration of that new world changed music forever.

 

 

Gleeson is a seminal part of electronic music history we were honored to experience and share with our community for the sold-out “An Evening With Patrick Gleeson,” the interview and DJ set that formed the close of our celebration.

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“Something nobody had heard before”

 

 

Here’s a fascinating piece of electronic music history from the interview: an inspiring story from 1972, of how jazz met synthesis when Gleeson introduced Herbie Hancock to the Moog modular.

All text below is taken from Gleeson’s interview with Michelle Moog-Koussa at Bob’s Electric Birthday:

(Herbie) said I’ve got, maybe, some ideas we could explore. I think “Quasar” was the first tune we worked on. 

We got in about 15 seconds, and he said, “(Play) something there, maybe?” So in my mind, I heard some melodic birds rising out of a field and moving out into the distance, and becoming electrified. 

So that’s what we did for about, I would say, no more than another hour. And Herbie said, “Well, I’ve got a lot of things to do today. Why don’t you just keep going, and I’ll be back?” 

And he didn’t specify when he would be back. So I worked all night. And by noon the next day, I had overdubbed half the album. <laughs>

…Herbie was very pleased with it. He told people in print several times how much he liked it. He said it blew his mind; he never heard anything like it.

There had been some connections between jazz and synthesizers earlier, but nothing, I would say, serious, and nothing at the cutting edge of jazz. So this was something nobody had heard before, really.

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Preserving and sharing legacies

 

 

Our mission is, in part, to preserve legacies, especially those closely connected to Bob’s. The day after Bob’s Electric Birthday, we interviewed Gleeson again at the Bob Moog Foundation offices, filming him for an oral history that will become a permanent part of our archive.

He shared more about his pioneering work with Herbie Hancock, his work on the “Apocalypse Now” soundtrack, and even his thoughts on the future of synthesis. 

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Bob Moog would have been 89 years old on Tuesday, May 23.

 

Thanks to everyone who attended, virtually via our livestream and in person, to remember and celebrate Bob and his legacy with us and our special guest, Patrick Gleeson.

 

We’ll see you again in 2024!