The Making of “Bob Moog Live” (Part 4 of 5): “Electronic Music Should Always Be Changing”

[Leading up to our Bob Moog Live CD Release Party on October 10, 2010 at the LAB, we are presenting a series of blogs written by Dan Lewis. You can check out the first post “The History”, here ,  the second post,
The Secret Behind the Music”
here and the third post “Squalling Minimoog” here. Lewis is the only surviving member of the trio of Bob Moog, Mike Abbott and Dan Lewis who rehearsed and performed together for this recording. Dan will be performing and speaking at the release party.]

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”.

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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.