Thanks for that.
I guess I stumbled over him while looking around on Youtube. I’d forgotten about him — hadn’t listened to him since about the late 70’s. The first song I picked was Parchman Farm— I was familiar with Johnny Winter’s version and liked it and read somewhere that Mose’s rendition influenced Johhny’s. It was a revelation. I hadn’t appreciated the clear narrative and complex, broad-grounded chords he delivered with such rhythmic precision and humor in my earlier hearings. After that I scrolled down the cue and noticed “Monsters..” I had to listen, and having listened I had to pass it along.
I think he did this in the late 50’s or early ‘60’s, when Freudian Analysis was a popular topic of discussion on campuses and around the cocktail circuit. That would have been the beatnik period and I think there’s a touch of it’s influence as well. I think he was based on the west-coast and I associate that music with musical sophistication, restrained expression and light undercurrent of satire.
I could be wrong about his back-ground; I’m going to look into it. I also want to see if Tom Lehrer (New Math) might have been another influence, or vice versa— both were remarkably talented.
I’m glad you heard what I heard.
Thanks again.
Okay:
Wiki says he grew up in Mississippi attended college and did two years in the service. He moved to New York, then out on Long Island, married and raised four kids. Imagine, a great artist who also lived an exemplary life.
So much for my theories.