Mark Turner (mturner@netcom.com)
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 16:47:42 -0700 (PDT)
Wednesday, October 21: In 1970, Jean
Jacques Perrey said,"Without a ship
Columbus could not have traversed the
Atlantic, without a telescope Galileo could not
have charted the solar system, and what the
Moog Synthesizer opens up for the future of
music is beyond dreams."
Sounds a little sci-fi Cold War hokey now,
except he turned out to be right.
A self-taught pianist, in the '50s Perrey was on
track to a medical career when he met George
Jenny, the inventor of the Ondioline -- a
keyboard that could mimic the sound of
different instruments while emitting its own
electronic tones. Quelle advancement!
Perrey was so inspired that he left medical
school, toting the funky box around Europe,
showing off his magic to anyone who would
listen. Those performances put him in touch
with Jean Cocteau and Edith Piaf, who very
sweetly funded a trip to America for their rising
star.
In 1960 he landed in New York City to become
one of the first Moog musicians, holding
impromptu beatnik jam sessions, and
eventually meeting Gershon Kingsley.
Together, they would spend weeks literally
piecing together songs with tape, scissors and
an audio recorder. Their work was progressive,
for sure, and at times deliciously weird. The
pinnacle -- an outlandish and wild Volkswagen
ad soundtrack -- nabbed the duo a 1968 Clio
Award.
Perrey himself went on to create some of the
most innovative synthesizer music ever. To say
that Perrey's influence on music today is
anything less than phenomenal is like saying
that makeup-metal has little to do with
spandex thong-o-riffic pants. He's been
sampled by Ice T and remixed by Fatboy Slim.
Everyone from the Beastie Boys (who borrowed
Perrey's "In Sound From Way Out" title) to
Stereolab (who remain "Switched On" to this
day) still builds on the foundation the
75-year-old French villager laid down so long
ago.
Jean Jacques Perrey, Justice League, 628 Divisadero St. @
Hayes, SF, (415) 289-2038.
-- Mark Turner | "Jazzadelica" with Rocky Rococo on KFJC mturner@netcom.com | Sundays 10pm-2am, 89.7 FM, Los Altos Hills, CA
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