Mike Abbott, Bob Moog and Dan Lewis, Asheville Art Museum, 1980

Bob went on to consult for many of the world’s great synth companies,
eventually re-establishing Moog Music, while Mike and I went on with our separate
and occasionally joint music careers, frequently getting together to perform
everything from original work to 50s and 60s rock & roll for dances.
Whenever I would run into Bob in Asheville, he was always happy to see me,
as if we had just played last week, and always asked about Mike.
Michael Abbott passed away some years back, and Bob passed
a few years later, leaving me the one to tell the story; I hope they will approve.

Bob once told Mike and me something I’ve always remembered.
He said:

“Electronic music should always be changing, because it can”.

That seems as profound today as it did 30 years ago, when Bob said it.

ABOUT THE MUSIC & THE MUSICIANS…

Bob Moog in performing on the Minimoog in Concert, November 23, 1980

Robert Moog (1934-2005) was the internationally famous inventor of the Moog
synthesizer, and the many synthesizer variations and analog effects that bear his
name and that of Big Briar, Inc., which is the name of the cove where he built his
home and workshop in western North Carolina. Bob had performed on piano as
a young man, but rarely performed after the success of his inventions. It is
conservative to say that the fabric of modern music was forever changed and
expanded due to the work of Moog and his fellow synthesizer contemporaries.

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Mike Abbott at the synths, November 23, 1980

Michael Abbott (1953-2004) was the most accomplished professional musician
of the trio, having played and performed steadily since the late 1960s with bands
too numerous to list. Playing anything from a Fender-Rhodes to a Hammond B-3,
Mike was almost certainly the first in western North Carolina to own and perform
on a MiniMoog, and quickly picked up a MicroMoog and several polyphonic
synths as they became available on the national market. Mike was a huge asset
on any stage; on this recording, he provides the multi-timbral “glue that holds
the music together, and composed the instrumentals “Hannibal” and “Someone”.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Dan Lewis on the Ukelin, with Mike Abbott in the background, November 23, 1980

Dan Lewis (1953- ) is a songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist since 1974,
with 12 albums of original music (6 of them instrumental synthesizer) to date, and
is producer/arranger/audo engineer at Acoustic Audio in Hendersonville, NC.
Most of the music offered on this CD are his original compositions circa 1980;
he began playing music in 1974, is entirely self-taught, and had been playing a
total of six years when this music was made.

Dan Lewis

Flat Rock, NC

October 2010

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The CD Release Party for “Bob Moog Live” happens on October 10, 2010 at the Lexington Avenue Brewery’s Music Venue in Asheville, NC from 3:30- 6:00 p.m.. Doors open at 3 p.m. Tickets are $7, with proceeds benefiting the Bob Moog Foundation. Performers include Dan Lewis, Mary Frances (Emyrael), Jeff Knorr (Funknastics) adn Ben Hovey (Asheville Horns) with other special guests.

Bob Moog Live will be sold exclusively through the Bob Moog Foundation online store  (www.moogfoundation.org/shop) beginning October 11.

The post The Making of “Bob Moog Live” (Part 4 of 5): “Electronic Music Should Always Be Changing” first appeared on The Bob Moog Foundation.

Bob Moog and Dan Lewis Rehearsing in Bob’s workshop in the country

Needless to say, Mike and I were thrilled and terrified at this totally unforeseen ?opportunity [to rehearse and perform with Bob], and spent weeks scrambling to come up with something that we ?could incorporate Bob into, and that we hoped might measure up to our ?amazing new line-up. The results were far different from whatever we had origin?ally planned as a duo, and the rehearsals with Bob at his shop at Big Briar, some ?25 miles outside Asheville, were always productive and memorable.

Bob played the most popular Moog synth, the MiniMoog. Mike played a Mini, a MicroMoog, ?a Wurlitzer electronic piano and an Oberheim OB-8, while I performed on ?acoustic guitar, a 32-string Ukelin (16 plucked, 16 bowed) a small harp ?and on one tune, a Moog Sonic Six.

Most of the original material was mine, with two songs by Mike Abbott. Mike and I ?collaborated by improvisation and experimentation until we had found what we liked ?and what worked the best, while Bob wanted his parts written out, so I had to ?invent a graph system quickly so I could write out his parts. It was amazing to me ?that 99% of my efforts were accurate; once in a while, I’d hear a “clam” when ?we tried out a new part, and I’d pull out my graph and find that I had misplaced a note ?and had to fix it. ?To this day, after 30 years in music and a dozen albums, I don’t read or write down music.

Our usual arrangement was this: I’d play the basic tune, Bob would play either a bass line or ?a melody, while Mike would provide all the middle part, the “glue” that brought the ?other parts together. Mike was always a great musical asset who anchored any gig we ever did; ?when we were on stage together, I could count on Mike to not only play brilliantly, ?but help cue musicians on the back line who may not have known the music as well.

Bob had a wonderful enthusiasm that was always a pleasure to be around, ?and even the most casual conversations were treasured by we two young ?musicians; we became friends, and at the same time, felt awed to be with him. ?He never gave you any impression that he was famous, nor thought he was. ?He was totally accessible, real and genuine. ?We spent many afternoons at Bob’s home in South Turkey Creek, rehearsing ?in his workshop at Big Briar. Afterwards he always invited us to stay for dinner ?with his family.

We rehearsed with the huge roll-up doors open, looking out across the valley. ?Once, Bob’s Minimoog started squalling like an electronic pig. Mike and I were ?shocked to see the inventor calmly turn it up on it’s side, give it three whacks ?with his fist, sending horrific electronic thunder cascading across the hillsides. ?Naturally, the Minimoog responded immediately to the master’s touch, and performed ?flawlessly the remainder of the evening.

Once the music started to come together, Mike brought his Tascam reel-to-reel ?recorder and taped the rehearsal, and later had a friend come and  monitor the recorder during ?both concerts to capture our performances. Even then, we knew we were ?participating in something that felt historic, and Mike was wise enough to ?record it.

Our first performance at Bele Chere 1980 was a success, and the feeling was ?good for everyone, so we agreed to repeat the performance in more controlled ?indoor circumstances. I was able to arrange a concert some months later ?at the Asheville Art Museum, then located at the Asheville Civic Center. The concert on ?November 23 was well attended and the audience enthusiastic. From that event ?came the bulk of the recorded music on the Bob Moog Live CD, the rest from earlier rehearsals.

That was to be the second and last concert of Moog, Abbott & Lewis. As Bob often ?said, he was first and foremost an electronic musical engineer, and performing ?music was not his first priority. Mike and I realized that we had been incredibly ?fortunate to know and perform with Moog; thanks to Mike’s forethought, we also ?have the recordings.

Dan Lewis

Flat Rock, North Carolina

October 2010

The CD Release Party for “Bob Moog Live” happens on October 10, 2010 at the Lexington Avenue Brewery’s Music Venue in Asheville, NC from 3:30- 6:00 p.m.. Doors open at 3 p.m. Tickets are $7, with proceeds benefiting the Bob Moog Foundation. Performers include Dan Lewis, Mary Frances (Emyrael), Jeff Knorr (Funknastics) adn Ben Hovey (Asheville Horns) with other special guests.

Bob Moog Live will be sold exclusively through the Bob Moog Foundation online store  (www.moogfoundation.org/shop) beginning October 11.

The post “The Making of Bob Moog Live” (Part 3 of 5): The Squalling Minimoog first appeared on The Bob Moog Foundation.

Cover of “Bob Moog Live” CD

The Bob Moog Foundation and Asheville composer/musician Dan Lewis announce the world premiere and release party for a historic live concert recording, Bob Moog Live. The premiere event will take place on October 10, 2010, at the Lexington Avenue Brewery in Asheville, NC, from 3:30–6:00 p.m. Admission is $7, with proceeds benefiting the Bob Moog Foundation.

Bob Moog Live is the only known recording of synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog publicly performing on his famous Minimoog, the best selling analog synthesizer of all time. Created in 1970, the Minimoog celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The Bob Moog Live recording took place on November 23, 1980, at the Asheville Art Museum and captured a performance by Moog, Abbott & Lewis. Local musicians Dan Lewis and Mike Abbott, an accomplished synthesist, rounded out the trio on keyboards, guitar, and ukelin. Lewis and Abbott performed with Moog twice in Asheville in the summer and fall of 1980. The CD features the latter performance along with sterling rehearsal sessions.

Lewis and Abbott composed all the music on the CD. Lewis, who preserved the recordings for the last 30 years, brought this project to the forefront. He produced the album to highlight a historic event and to create a fundraising mechanism for the Bob Moog Foundation. The CD, described as electronic neoclassical music, features excerpts from Moog, Abbott & Lewis’s live concert tape. Subtitled “The Gig Tape,” it was originally recorded on 1/4-inch analog tape, thanks to Mike Abbott’s forethought.

The CD will be available exclusively through the Bob Moog Foundation’s online store beginning on October 11, 2010. In addition to original music and instrumentation, the CD features Moog speaking candidly between songs about a variety of subjects ranging from the capabilities of electronic musical instruments to his life during that time period. At the time of the recording, Moog had recently left the company he started 25 years prior and moved from New York to North Carolina, where he started a new business, Big Briar, Inc.

Here’s a sample from the CD:

Hannibal Crossing the Alps with Bob Moog on the Minimoog

Bob Moog passed away in 2005, and Abbott in 2003. Lewis remains in the Asheville area as audio engineer and arranger/producer at Acoustic Audio Recording in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

The Bob Moog Live event on October 10 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. 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. Jeff Knorr (The Funknastics), Mary Frances (Emyrael), Ben Hovey (Asheville Horns), and others will join Lewis on stage. A display of Minimoog material from Bob Moog’s Archives will be on display.

“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. In that sense, the recording is unique,” said Lewis. The CD will be available for purchase at the event.

Michelle Moog-Koussa states in the liner notes that it was rare to hear  father at the piano when she was growing up and it was rarer still that he would perform. The Bob Moog Live CD is indeed a treasure and a unique glimpse into a time in Bob Moog’s life when he was taking a break from his professional life. He was relaxed, and that comes through in his commentary and playing The Bob Moog Foundation has embraced this project as an extension of  its work in historical preservation.

The proceeds from the event and CD sales will support the Bob Moog Foundation, whose mission is to educate and inspire children and adults through electronic music. The Foundation is currently working on its educational goal of creating a curriculum with professors at UNC-Asheville that will teach K–8 children science through electronic music, and its historical goal of preserving and sharing Bob Moog’s extensive archives.

Online CD sales will be available after the event on the Bob Moog Foundation website at www.moogfoundation.org/shop.

The post “Bob Moog Live” CD Announced first appeared on The Bob Moog Foundation.

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