The Story of Moondog

AMG Review of The Story of Moondog

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Moondog's third Prestige effort is a tad less accessible than his previous ones, going heavy on percussion numbers utilizing instruments of his own invention: the oo, trimba (a triangular-shaped drum), and tuji (a series of mounted sticks of graduated lengths). There's also a softshoe dance, a nice piano solo improvisation, and the usual bit of random street noise and quotations of poetry. It's still unpredictable Moondog -- "Wildwood" is reminiscent of Native American chants, and spooky organ underlies the shuffle-shakes of maraca and clave on "Organ Rounds." "Up Broadway," by contrast, is a jubilant jazz/swing cut that would have made a great opening number over the credits of any number of 1950s inner-city crime dramas. The album is now available on CD, in tandem with the 1956 record More Moondog, on Prestige's single-disc More Moondog/The Story of Moondog reissue.