Waves of Inspiration. The Legacy of Moog - Pics by Brian Kehew

Some shots of the event via Brian Kehew

"Keith Emerson's big Moog was installed and a few late-coming visitors to the museum got to see it go in up close. Emerson was there too and made sure everything went well, then checked out the exhibit and museum."

Remember, a search on Waves of Inspiration will bring up all posts.

Prototype Controller from Bob Moog

via the Bob Moog Foundation blog on the upcoming Museum Exhibit, Waves of Inspiration. The Legacy of Moog. See the link for more. Keith Emerson will be performing.

"The exhibit will also include many artifacts from other private collections including the Moog Modular prototype previously owned by Herb Deutsch, a full Moog Modular IIIC and a working and extremely rare Eaton-Moog Multi-Touch Sensitive Keyboard loaned by avant garde opera composer John Eaton. Of particular note, Keith Emerson’s (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) custom built “Monster Moog” synthesizer will be displayed for the first month of the exhibition along with notes and schematics from Bob’s archives regarding the instrument." Note I gave this post the DIY label, just to make the point that it all starts with DIY. Click on the image.

Update: the following official newsletter came in from the Bob Moog Foundation on the event. I thought I would capture it here for the archives.

Keith Emerson to Perform at Opening of Moog Archives Exhibit
Synth legend Emerson and Erik Norlander will both perform at the Museum of Making Music to celebrate the opening of the first exhibit of Moog Archives!

Who: The Bob Moog Foundation & The Museum of Making Music
What: Waves of Inspiration. The Legacy of Moog. An exhibit, interactive engagement and opening weekend of performances including Keith Emerson and Erik Norlander.
When: August 28-30, 2009
Where: The Museum of Making Music, Carlsbad, CA

Interested in purchasing a ticket? Email to request details.

Visit our blog for details on the exhibit and "sneak preview" pictures of Bob Moog's archives, including a schematic drawing Bob drafted for Emerson's "Master Module".

See the pictures.

The Museum of Making Music, a division of the NAMM Foundation, is a small museum located 35 miles north of San Diego. The museum is dedicated to the exploration of the multifaceted history of the American music products industry from its beginnings in the 1890s to today. The Bob Moog Foundation has been planning this exhibit over a year and a half ago with the museum’s Executive Director, Carolyn Grant and Curator, Tatiana Sezinenko. Moog historian Brian Kehew has been involved as the consultant for the exhibit and is responsible for introducing the two parties at Winter NAMM 2008.

Here at the Foundation we regard Bob’s archives as a fascinating testament to history, innovation, and a lifetime of perseverance. Since retrieving the archives from unstable storage conditions in January of 2006, we have worked to preserve and protect this priceless collection that traces the 50 year career of a dedicated pioneer. With this exhibit, we are delighted to be sharing an extensive part of the archives with the public for the first time.

A special thanks to Carolyn Grant and Tatiana Sezinenko for their generous energy and thoughtful attention to telling a rich, fascinating story with an emphasis on accurately portraying Bob Moog as the toolmaker he so often described himself to be while giving careful consideration to the many people who make up the Moog Legacy. Thanks also to Brian Kehew who has worked (and will be working over the next six weeks!) tirelessly to help bring this exhibit to fruition. Finally, our deepest thanks to Douglas Babb, who made the trek from Indiana to North Carolina five times (on his own dime) to help us sort out and understand Bob’s archives.

We encourage all of you who are in the San Diego area to attend this unique exhibit. It will be an excellent opportunity to share in the life and work of Bob Moog – and for all you gearheads out there, it will be a chance to see many rare, if not one-of-a-kind pieces. Come share in the legacy that continues to inspire!

Continue to check our blog and the museum’s website for updates.

The Bob Moog Foundation
Make Waves by donating to the Bob Moog Foundation"

Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog Museum Exhibit

"Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog Museum Exhibit Features Electronic Music Pioneer's Archives for the First Time

Carlsbad, CA/Asheville, NC – The Museum of Making Music and The Bob Moog Foundation announce Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog exhibition to run from August 29, 2009 – April 30, 2010 at the Museum’s facilities in Carlsbad, California. The exhibit is the first of its kind, marking the first public display of the artifacts from Bob Moog’s archives.

Bob Moog (1934-2005) was a pioneer in the field of electronic music, inventing the Moog synthesizer in 1964. His invention made synthesis accessible to musicians for the first time and in doing so provided them with new realms of sonic expression. The instrument revolutionized the face of music and was used by such early synthesists as Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer, and more.

“The Moog synthesizer defined the sounds of progressive rock and was regarded as the best sound in synthesizers. ” – Keith Emerson(Emerson, Lake and Palmer)

The Moog synthesizer is widely used today in almost every genre of music and continues to be coveted for its rich, warm analog sound and high level of expressiveness.

“Bob Moog was one of the great visionaries of our time. His ideas far transcend just music, and to this day continue to have impact on everything from rock to rap to quantum physics” – Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)

Moog's career spanned over 50 years and his work left an indelible impact on music, musicians and music-lovers alike. Bob Moog's unique legacy is one of expanding musical expression through innovation and inspiring musicians to explore the boundaries of sonic reality. Tens of thousands of musicians worldwide were, and continue to be, inspired by Moog's work, and the sonic palette it provides.

Bob Moog was awarded two GRAMMYs for his work: the NARAS Trustee's Award in 1970 and Award for Technical Achievement in 2002. He also won the Polar Music prize in 2001 from the King of Sweden and numerous other awards that recognized his contributions.

The exhibition, which highlights the inventor's career and the impact that it had on the world of music, will feature rare vintage synthesizers and other related Moog instruments and memorabilia from the Bob Moog Archives and from various private collections. A custom video presentation created by Moog historian and exhibit consultant Brian Kehew will form a central part of the exhibit. The exhibit will explore the numerous musicians, engineers and colleagues who played a vital role in the evolution of the Moog sound and the relationship between and the inventor/toolmaker and the musician, as well as the genesis of a variety of musical interfaces.

The instruments featured in the exhibit will trace the history of Moog’s work. The exhibit begins with vintage theremins and a prototype of the first modular synthesizer which originally belonged to Herb Deutsch, an experimental music composer from Long Island whose 1963 meeting with Dr. Bob Moog would help define the synthesizer as a musical instrument, and set a course for the future of electronic music. Other excellent examples of modular instruments from the late 1960s and early 1970s will be on exhibit, most notably Keith Emerson’s famous “Monster Moog” will be featured for the first time as a part of the museum display.

The exhibition will highlight and explore crucial steps that were taken in the advancement of the Moog synthesizer during the years following the development of the modular system. The display will showcase a sequence of models that led to the emergence of more compact instruments, such as the Minimoog. The main impetus behind this tremendous work was Moog’s vision to create a portable electronic music studio on which musicians could compose and perform.

The opening weekend (August 29 -31) will kick off with a launch of the Moog exhibition featuring an intimate musical performances by Keith Emerson and Erik Norlander and talks by Larry Fast and Brian Kehew.

Tickets for the opening weekend events can be purchased on the Museum's website beginning August 3, 2009. The Museum is planning an array of exciting programming throughout the seven month exhibition with panel discussions featuring people who collaborated with Moog throughout his lifetime, and concerts featuring top synthesists. The ultimate goal of this exhibition and its programs is to highlight Moog's career while celebrating synthesis as a whole.

This exhibition is funded in part by The Norris Foundation.

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The Museum of Making Music is a division of the NAMM Foundation.

Founded in 1998 under NAMM’s organizational umbrella and with its sponsorship, the Museum of Making Music explores the multifaceted history of the American music products industry from its beginnings in the 1890s to today. Housed at NAMM Headquarters in Carlsbad, California (north San Diego county), the Museum tells stories of hard work, challenge, inspiration and pioneering innovation, and reveals the profound relationship between the industry, popular music, and global culture. For more information see www.museumofmakingmusic.org.

The Bob Moog Foundation is a non-profit organization founded upon Moog's passing in August 2005. The mission of the foundation is to educate and inspire children and adults through the power and possibilities of electronic music and through the intersection of science, music and innovation. The foundation has three main projects: preserving and protecting Bob Moog's archives, creating a Student Outreach Program that brings electronic music into the schools, and its hallmark project, the creation of a Moogseum in Asheville, NC, for which it was recently awarded a $600,000 lead grant by the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. The Moogseum is planned to open late 2012.

For more information see www.moogfoundation.org."

A Very Old Moog

Update: Looks like it's the Moog System 1.

Title link takes you to more shots via Suit & Tie Guy.

Via Suit & Tie Guy on AH:
"so i visited a local college's EM lab tonight because i knew they had an early moog system.

"early" begins to describe it.

it was so old, the mixer and ribbon controller both had perfboard circuits, and the ribbon controller was made from a chuck of Formica tabletop!

now, i know you're probably thinking i'm quite naïve: "whoa hold it there STG, _everyone_ knows the ballsy tone of Keith Emerson's ribbon controller solos was because of the Formica base." but it seemed pretty damn freaky to me at the time. the Dymo legending on the console panel is a nice touch as well.

anyway, here are the pics:

http://www.suitandtieguy.com/sights/050406_bu_moog/

apparently i'll be spending more time with this beat up old bitch of a modular. if anyone wants me to A/B it with my Liberation i'd be happy to do so.

the keyboard acts so stupid on this thing i kind of want to play a solo with it just once so i can mystify everyone as to how i got that crazy sound. the best part is none of the knobs on the keyboard change anything at all.

also: no you are not seeing things, that really is an 18 space moog slant cabinet."

Hmm... Wonder if I beat Analog Industries on this one... : )

Haven't Found The Perfect Sequencer?

Maybe this will help. A sweaty towel owned by none other than Keith Emerson! Wear it while you play for that extra perspiration, I mean inspiration, or take it to your local cloning lab and grow your own Keith Emerson. Details from the auction below (the seller sniffed it).



Via the auction:
"Keith Emerson's Towel
From Black Moon Tour
Here's a weird one. I was digging through my old boxes at my parents house and found my old concert t-shirts and this blue and white striped bath towel in a bag. It didn't take long for me to remember why I saved this towel in a ziplock bag - it was Keith Emerson's towel he used during the ELP concert I saw at Stanhope, NJ back in the summer of 1992.

My two brothers and I got to the show many hours early and I was lucky enough to get to stand against the wall in the front of the stage. I remember it being a very good show and that they played the classic song "Pirates". Keith used the towel the whole show to wipe his head and neck and threw in into the audience after the show was over. My entrepreneurial brother who was standing behind me actually caught the towel out of the air and then sold it to me for $15 on the ride home. (Nice brother, huh?)

After getting home, I placed the towel into a plastic ziplock bag and I NEVER washed it. (Pretty gross, I know) It has stayed in the bag ever since. It doesn't smell though- I sniffed it to check.

Well anyway, I'm not much of an ELP fan anymore, so I'm selling this piece of music memorabilia starting at the $15 price I paid for it 14 long years ago. You are welcome to use it as a bath towel, use it to cover your mini moog, hang it on your wall for inspiration, or somehow possibly extract Keith Emerson's DNA from it and make super keyboardist babies in the future! : )"

Standing In Front of a Dream - New Flickr Shot

Cool shot. That's Keith Emerson's Moog modular in the background.

Bob on a Harley

Found this great picture of Bob Moog on a Harley on Keith Emerson's website. Thought this was an absolutely great shot. : ) Title link will take you to the source.