RUNJOTEKA: MOON MAN: MORT GARSON

Even the moon danced to his music.

Mort.........

...in njegova mašina.

MORT GARSON

Pobrano na AllMusic:

Mort Garson boasts one of the most unique and outright bizarre resumés in popular music, spanning from easy listening to occult-influenced space-age electronic pop -- all in the same decade, no less. Born July 20, 1924, in the Canadian city of St. John, New Brunswick, Garson attended the Juilliard School of Music, briefly graduating to the ranks of professional pianist and arranger before he was drafted to serve in World War II. Upon returning from duty, Garson cemented a reputation as a top session hand, tackling arranging, conducting, or even composing duties if necessary; a small sampling of his credits includes sessions by Mel Tormé, Doris Day, Ed Ames, the Lettermen, and the Sandpipers. He also arranged and conducted a series of easy listening records in the mold of Les Baxter, among them the Continentals' Bossa Nova for All Ages, the Total Eclipse's Symphony for the Soul, and the Dusk 'Til Dawn Orchestra's Sea Drift. In 1963, Garson teamed with lyricist Bob Hilliard to write the lovely "Our Day Will Come," a number one pop hit for Ruby & the Romantics; with Perry Botkin Jr., he also arranged and conducted a number of easy listening records inspired by the era's biggest pop hits, among them two volumes in the Hollyridge Strings' Play the Beatles Songbook series and also their Play the Hits of Simon & Garfunkel. And in 1968, Garson experienced his crowning moment of commercial glory as the string arranger behind the Glen Campbell blockbuster "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

But the aforementioned accomplishments are all mere prelude to the most fascinating work of Garson's career -- specifically, the series of electronic LPs he made with spoken-word artist Jacques Wilson. 1967's Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds, which also featured contributions from electronic pioneer Paul Beaver, was the first record cut on the West Coast to feature Robert Moog's namesake synthesizer, and a year later the principals reunited for the Bernie Krause-produced The Wozard of Iz -- An Electronic Odyssey, a hallucinatory psychedelic satire of the L. Frank Baum children's classic featuring Nancy Sinatra (credited as "Suzy Jane Hokum") as Dorothy. For A&M, Garson next recorded Electronic Hair Pieces -- electronic renditions of songs from the hit musical Hair -- as well as the 12-volume Signs of the Zodiac series, with one record for each astrological sign. His masterpiece, however, is undoubtedly 1971's Black Mass/Lucifer, a seriously freaky and intense concept record drawing upon themes and images central to Satanist mythos. That same year, Garson teamed with performance artist Z for the aural aphrodisiac Music for Sensuous Lovers. He then spent the next several years composing film and television scores, returning to record stores in 1975 with another occult-themed effort, The Unexplained -- Ataxaria; a year later, Garson issued Plantasia, a collection of Moog pieces designed to boost the growth of indoor plants. From that point forward, Garson basically disappeared from sight.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mort Garson (20 July 1924 – 4 January 2008) who was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, was an electronic musician best known for his albums that predominantly feature Moog synthesizers. Is recognized for his compositions near on the Occultism theme.

Early life:

Mort Garson studied music at Juilliard and worked as a pianist and arranger before getting pulled into the Army near the end of World War Two. He could carry out any or all of the musical chores on any given session: composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, and even pianist if that was required. He conducted the "Love Strings" on Liberty Records, arranged for the Lettermen on Capitol Records, provided background to Laurence Harvey reading poetry on Atlantic Records, accompanied Doris Day on Columbia and experimented with the Moog synthesizer on A&M Records, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. With lyricist Bob Hilliard, he wrote one of the great lounge hits of the 1960s, "Our Day Will Come" originally written by Columbus Mitchell, a hit for Ruby & The Romantics and more recently covered by k.d. lang and Take 6 for the soundtrack of the movie Shag.

Early career:

Garson spent the mid-1960s on a rapid succession of accompaniment jobs: two Doris Day albums (Sentimental Journey and Songs for Latin Lovers), Mel Tormé's Right Now! album of contemporary covers like "Secret Agent Man," Glenn Yarborough's highly successful cover of Rod McKuen songs, The Lonely Things, and Glen Campbell's even more successful "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." He also appears to have been a favorite of producers when the job involved soft pop vocal groups and string ensembles, since his handiwork appears on albums and singles by the Lettermen, the Sandpipers, the Sugar Shoppe, the Hollyridge Strings, the Sunset Strings, and the Love Strings.

Highly prized albums among collectors and exotica fans are Garson's electronic albums from the mid to late 1960s. The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds - Celestial Counterpoint with Words and Music, a suite of Garson originals released on Elektra Records includes tracks for each of the 12 signs of the zodiac, and features Paul Beaver on a variety of electronic instruments with voice-overs by Cyrus Faryar. Zodiac was the first album recorded on the West Coast to make use of Robert Moog's new Moog synthesizer. Another moog album, Electronic Hair Pieces, covered songs from the hippie-influenced musical, Hair. The mod album cover art for Electronic Hair Pieces featured a model with a wired-up skull; liner notes were provided by Tom Smothers of the Smothers Brothers. Another album, The Wozard of Iz, a psychedelic satire based on The Wizard of Oz featured Bernie Krause providing a rich array of environmental sound effects and Suzy Jane Hokum voicing Dorothy. (The widely repeated claim 'Suzy Jane Hokum' is a pseudonym for Nancy Sinatra is untrue.)

With the success of the original Zodiac LP, Garson went on to compose and arrange a 12 album series of zodiac albums for A&M Records, one album for each sign. Like Zodiac, each album contained original tunes with heavy use of electronics. In 1974, Mort Garson composed the electronic music score for the 18th Annual Grammy Award winning Best Children's Recording of The Little Prince narrated by Richard Burton. Plantasia, which was released in 1976, was an album of Moog compositions to be played for growing plants. Garson also released a record of music-and-moans to capitalize on the best-seller at the time, The Sensuous Woman by "Z". He wrote an electronic Black Mass album under the pseudonym Lucifer that again featured the Moog. Garson followed Black Mass with an album titled Ataraxia designed to accompany meditations to the mantra of the listener's choice.

Film composer:

Garson also worked in television and film, scoring a wide variety of music for many different movies and TV shows, from Beware! The Blob! to Kentucky Fried Movie to National Geographic specials, although it is Elmer Bernstein who is credited with composing the well-known National Geographic orchestral theme that first appeared in on the magazine's TV specials in 1966.

Garson was very closely associated with Heatter-Quigley Productions, creating the theme songs and music cues for the following TV game shows:

▪ "Amateur's Guide to Love"

▪ "Gambit"

▪ "Runaround"

▪ "Baffle"

▪ "The Magnificent Marble Machine"

▪ "Battlestars"

The music for the first five featured Garson playing synthesizers, but the Battlestars package used more conventional marching band orchestration.

Musical Theatre composer:

Garson composed the score for the West End musical Marilyn!, which opened at the Adelphi theatre on 17 March 1983. Jaques Wilson wrote the lyrics for the show which starred Stephanie Lawrence as Marilyn Monroe.

Cultural references:

A sample from Garson's "Planetary Motivations (Cancer)" was incorporated into DJ Shadow's 1996 song "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt," from the album Endtroducing......

The song "Exchange" was covered by Massive Attack on their 1998 album Mezzanine.

In the 1994 Peter Lynch short film Arrowhead, Ray Bud (played by Don McKellar) manipulates a dead fish while singing Mort Garson's closing theme to the 1970's Canadian nature program Untamed World.

DISCOGRAPHY:

The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (Elektra Records EKS-74009) 1967

Časti Theroxrey

The Wozard of Iz: An Electronic Odyssey (A&M Records SP4156)1968

Čast Theroxrey

Electronic Hair Pieces (A&M Records SP-4209) 1969

Časti Theroxrey

Didn't You Hear? OST (Custom Fidelity CFS 2379) 1970

Časti M.M.

Black Mass Lucifer (United Artists UAS 73111) 1971

Časti Theroxrey

Music For Sensuous Lovers by "Z" (Sensous Anthem-5800) 1971

Ataraxia: The Unexplained - Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult (RCA Records) 1975
Časti Theroxrey

Plantasia (Homewood H-101) 1976

Časti Theroxrey

Music from Patch Cord Productions (2020)
Časti Exystence

Journey to the Moon and Beyond (2023)
Časti Music Rider

Somedays, Mort Garson's name seems to pop up on just about every other 60s recording I flip past. Conducting the "Love Strings" on Liberty, arranging for the Lettermen on Capitol, providing background to Laurence Harvey reading poetry on Atlantic, accompanying Doris Day on Columbia, experimenting with the Moog on A&M.

Garson pushed out some serious quantities of product in the 1960s.

Garson studied music at Juilliard and worked as a pianist and arranger before getting pulled into the Army near the end of World War Two. Garson could carry out any or all of the musical chores on any given session: composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, and even pianist if that was required. With lyricist Bob Hilliard, he wrote one of the great lounge hits of the 1960s, "Our Day Will Come," a hit for Ruby and the Romantics and more recently covered to perfection by k.d. lang and Take 6 for the soundtrack of the otherwise forgettable movie, Shag.

Garson spent the mid-1960s on a flurry of accompaniment jobs: two Doris Day albums (Sentimental Journey and Songs for Latin Lovers), Mel Torme's great Right Now! album of contempo tunes like "Secret Agent Man," Glenn Yarborough's highly successful cover of Rod McKuen songs, The Lonely Things, and Glen Campbell's even more successful By the Time I Get to Phoenix. He also appears to have been a favorite of producers when the job involved soft pop vocal groups and string ensembles, since his handiwork appears on albums and singles by the Lettermen, the Sandpipers, the Sugar Shoppe, the Hollyrdige Strings, the Sunset Strings, and the Love Strings.

The most highly prized Garson albums among exotica fans are his electronic albums of the late 1960s. Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds, featuring Paul Beaver on a variety of electronic instruments with voice-overs by Cyrus Farrar on a suite of Garson originals covering the 12 signs of the zodiac, was the first album recorded on the West Coast to include Robert Moog's new Moog synthesizer. Garson returned to the Moog for his album Electronic Hair Pieces, a choice artifact of the late 1960s, featuring a mod model with a wired-up skull on the cover, versions of "Hair," "Good Morning Starshine," and other hippy-dippy tunes, and liner notes by Tom Smothers. The Wozard of Id, a psychedelic satire with Bernie Krause providing a rich array of environmental sound effects and Suzy Jane Hokum as Dorothy, is another favorite.

Garson appears to have had a philosophy of, "No job too silly to take seriously." For A&M, he composed and arranged a series featuring a whole album for each sign of original tunes with heavy use of electronics. He wrote an album called "Plantasia" that you were supposed to play to make your indoor plants grow better. When someone had the bright idea of putting out a record of music-and-moans to capitalize on the best-seller, The Sensuous Woman by "Z," Garson was their man. He wrote an electronic "Black Mass" album that probably spun at many an acid party, and followed that with one called, Ataraxia designed to accompany meditations to the mantra of your choice. Garson also worked in television and film, scoring all creations great and small, from "The Son of the Blob" to "Kentucky Fried Movie", from short-live game shows such as "Baffle" and "The Magnificent Marble Machine" to serious fare such as National Geographic specials.

The Little Prince: Narrated by Richard Burton 1974

Mort Garson - Walking In Space

Mr. Garson penned music for "The 2000 Year Old Man" - a 1975 animated TV special by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner - as well as game shows, documentaries and "Marilyn! The Musical." He co-wrote with lyricist Bob Hilliard the 1963 hit "Our Day Will Come," performed by Ruby and the Romantics. He worked on albums with Mel Torme, Joanie Sommers and Glenn Yarbrough.

But he was better known, in music circles at least, for using the Moog synthesizer on several albums in the 1960s and '70s, including "The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds," "Electronic Hair Pieces," "Signs of the Zodiac" and, with Jacques Wilson, "The Wozard of Iz," a parody of "The Wizard of Oz."

Because of him, millions of Americans became familiar with the Moog sound when CBS-TV broadcast the Apollo 11 spacecraft landing on the moon. Viewers who tuned in to the historic event watched mission control coverage that was alternated with a short film - a compilation of other NASA spaceflights - featuring music composed by Mr. Garson using a Moog.

"The only sounds that go along with space travel are electronic ones," Mr. Garson once told the Los Angeles Times.

The event, incidentally, was celebrated at Mr. Garson's home in Southern California's Laurel Canyon with a party - the July 20, 1969, event coincided with his birthday.

Mr. Garson, who was married to the late Margaret Garson, originally lived with his family in New York City and moved to Los Angeles after his hit song became a sensation in 1963 and a Hollywood studio asked him to work with Doris Day, Darmet said. The family later moved to France before returning to the United States in 1993.

Darmet recalled her father becoming smitten with San Francisco in 1976 while working on a conference about plants with event producer Bill Graham. Mr. Garson's 1976 album "Plantasia" contained "warm earth music for plants, and the people who love them," according to pictures of the album cover posted on various Web sites. He made the album in the belief that the right music could help plants grow faster.

He loved San Francisco so much that he made it his family's home upon returning from Europe, and was inspired to write a work for orchestra about 10 neighborhoods, which he called "San Francisco Suites."

He worked on it until his death, and portions of it were recorded digitally, Darmet said, noting there are plans to complete the recording.

Darmet, owner of a catering business, likened her father's career to fusion cuisine. In the way that innovative cooks combine French and Chinese cuisine, her father had the insight to combine the electronic Moog with traditional string and wind orchestra.

"My dad was fusing things that didn't seem to go together, but he knew instinctively it would work," Darmet said.

She recalled him as a man "full of life, always laughing," who talked to anyone and everyone because he wasn't shy. "Every day," said Darmet, "he'd wake up and say, 'If you're breathing in and out, you're ahead of the game.' "

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Garson is survived by a grandson. A private memorial service is pending.

ponedeljek, 1. oktober 2012

MOON MAN: MORT GARSON

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