Who I Am & Where I Live
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Name:
Tom Moon
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City:
Philadelphia, PA
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Country:
United States
My Life & Work
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Bio:
When award-winning music journalist Tom Moon began sharing his original music in 2011, he found himself routinely grilled by his peers about what some saw as his unusual move – transitioning from writing about art to creating it.
“I would try to point out that what I was doing wasn’t an ethical conflict of interest,” Moon says of the interviews he did to spread the word about Into The Ojala, from his group Moon Hotel Lounge Project. “I’d rattle off a list of people who thrived doing both pursuits – the composer Virgil Thomson, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, jazz pianist Keith Jarrett and many others.” During one of the more heated exchanges, Moon recalls, he went back to a transcript of a 2004 interview he did with Stephen Merritt, the singer, songwriter and leader of The Magnetic Fields, who was writing criticism at the time.
“Stephen had clearly thought about this, both from the ethical and aesthetic perspectives,” recalls Moon, a regular contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered and the author of the New York Times bestseller 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die.
“He sensed that he had a responsibility to share whatever specialized knowledge he’d picked up, and wanted to use that knowledge to advocate for great work. Then he said something that stuck with me: “That wall between church and state, between the press and the people the press covers? The Internet has pretty much shattered it. If, as a journalist, you decide to refrain from sharing your original music or anything else you make, recognize that you are following your own code. Nobody cares what side you are on.”
Moon credits Merritt with helping to clarify his thinking on the church/state divide, which has eroded further in the years since he spoke those words. A saxophonist and composer, Moon has Merritt’s quote at the ready as he prepares to share Blue Night, the debut from his group Ensemble Novo. The album offers breezy, inviting interpretations of classic Brazilian samba and bossa nova, as well as several similarly-spirited Moon originals. To be released July 16 on CD and via all music download sites, the album marks the next step in Moon’s unlikely return to music-making.
Moon studied music at the University of Miami, and while living in South Florida amassed an enviable resume – performing in pit orchestras behind Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher and others, working in salsa bands, entertaining on cruise ships, and touring for a year with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. He served as music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1988 until 2004, a job that prevented him from pursuing his own music.
Moon returned to active music-making in 2010, after the publication of 1000 Recordings. He started out at low-key jam sessions, where he was regarded as something of a curiosity: “Most of the players were in college or had just graduated,” the award-winning journalist recalls, “and they’d look at me and go “Who’s that greybeard? But they turned out to be incredibly open-minded. I’d been away from music for a long time, and those guys were incredibly patient with me. I was lucky to be welcomed like that –we developed a rich musical rapport very quickly.”
Since then, Moon has become part of a thriving collective working to improve the environment for creative music in the city. He’s composed music for several different groups – his originals are featured on Into the Ojala, the 2011 release by Moon Hotel Lounge Project. The album drew critical raves: USA Today described it as a “seductive spell, jazzy grooves rooted in a bygone era of nightlife sophistication.” Other Moon-led groups appear regularly in Philadelphia music spots – including Time Restaurant, Triumph Brewery, L’Etage, World Café Live and Milkboy Philly where he hosts the weekly Jazz Casual on Tuesday nights.
The roots of Ensemble Novo can be traced to one of Moon’s early jam-session sojourns. “I was deeply immersed in Brazil because I’d just finished a piece on the great singer Elis Regina for NPR,” Moon recalls. “And so at this session I suggested we play Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “How Insensitive.” The guitar player floored me – he knew every rhythm and voicing from the original, really understood the tune in a deep way. We connected instantly.” The guitarist, Ryan McNeely, was in his last semester in the music school at Temple University, and had spent much of his college years studying Brazilian music. He and Moon began playing regularly, and pretty soon – after McNeely returned from his first visit to Brazil – Ensemble Novo was up and running. The group also features percussionist Jim Hamilton, a founding member of the popular Philly drum corps Alo Brazil, and vibraphonist Behn Gillece.
Moon says his goal for Ensemble Novo is simple. “I just want to share these endlessly uplifting and accessible melodies. People have this perception of Brazilian music as a little bit dentist-officey, and sure, it can be that, but it’s also incredibly sensual, and powered by these beautiful alternating currents of joy and sorrow. It’s the opposite of music that demands attention – just a nice low-key elixir that can sneak up on you.”
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