Cinco perguntas para Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley (ou Goetz Gustav Ksinski, seu nome "oficial") nasceu no dia 28 de outubro de 1922 em Bochum, Westfalia, Alemanha. Ele viveu em Berlin durante sua infância mas em 1938, aos 15 anos de idade, ele mudou-se para a Palestina devido à ascensão do Nazismo na Alemanha. Separado de sua família, Gersh morou e trabalhou em um kibbutz na terra que posteriormente viria a ser conhecida como Israel. La ele tornou-se pianista auto-didata e tocou em bandas de jazz locais na região de Jerusalem e Tel Aviv.

Em 1946 Gersh decidiu mudar-se para os Estados Unidos. Primeiro ele mudou-se para Los Angeles e tentou ingressar Julliard School of Music, mas a Julliard não o aceitou porque ele não tinha o segundo grau completo, então ele decidiu terminar o ensino médio à noite enquanto estudava música no LA Conservatory of Music (hoje conhecido como Cal Arts). Durante este período ele também trabalhou como organista em várias sinagogas na região de Los Angeles. Depois de se formar no conservatório como bacharel em música, Gersh começou a trabalhar como regente no "Music Circus" em Sacramento, California.

Em 1955, aos 33 anos de idade, ele mudou-se para New York e depois de uma temporada regendo o musical "Melody Fair" em Framingham (Massachusetts), ele tornou-se o diretor musical de "The Entertainer", uma produção da Broadway estrelada por Lawrence Olivier. Ele também regeu e arranjou várias produções da Broadway e Off-Broadway, incluindo "Porgy and Bess", "Jamaica", "Ernest in Love", "The Cradle will Rock you", "Fly Blackbird" e "La Plume de ma Tante" - ele foi indicado para o prêmio Tony como Melhor Diretor Musical em 1958 por esta peça. Ele também ganhou dois prêmios"Obie" por seu trabalho teatral Off-Broadway.

Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley

Durante os anos 60 Gersh trabalhou como Staff Arranger na gravadora nova-iorquinaVanguar Records e foi durante este período que ele conheceu o compositor francês Jean Jacques Perrey, em 1966. Perrey e Kingsley trabalharam juntos em dois discos nos dois anos seguintes: "The in sound from way out" (1966) e "Kaleidoscopic Variations" (1967). O primeiro álbum é uma das primeiras gravações no mundo que misturava estruturas da música pop com música de vanguarda, musique concrète, loops de fita e músicos ao vivo (ainda hoje é um álbum incrível, moderno e divertido, quase 40 anos após seu lançamento) e o segundo álbum apresentou o sintetizador Moog para muitas pessoas neste mundo (inclusive eu mesmo), já que sua faixa "Baroque Hoedown" - incluída neste disco - ficou muito famosa como tema da Main Street Electrical Parade nos parques da Disney do mundo inteiro!

Perrey e Kingsley não lançou mais nenhum disco como dupla mas ambos se consagraram entre os principais artistas a gravar Moog music do mundo. Em 1969 Gersh lançou seu álbum "Music to Moog by", que recebeu críticas entusiasmadas e continha sua música mais conhecida, "Popcorn", que foi regravada mais de 100 vezes, por vários artistas de muitos lugares diferentes deste planeta!

The First Moog Quartet

Em 1970 Kingsley formou o "First Moog Quartet", um esforço para levar a música eletrônica para ambientes de música erudita. O grupo era composto por quatro músicos tocando sintetizadores Moog, dançarinos, colagens de filmes abstratos e realizou o primeiro concerto de música sintetizada no Carnegie Hall, no dia 30 de janeiro de 1970. Como quase tudo que é novo no mundo da música, principalmente nestes primeiros passos da música eletrônica, a platéia ficou confusa com o que ouviu e o concerto recebeu críticas tanto boas quanto ruins, mas mesmo assim um disco do"First Moog Quartet" chegou a ser lançado no ano seguinte. Ao longo da década de 70, Gersh compôs extensivamente para a televisão, para o cinema e também lançou grandes álbuns (alguns de música pop, outros de música judaica). Ele também foi um dos pioneiros no uso de sintetizadores digitais, gravando os primeiros álbums lançados com sintetizadores Fairlight e Synclavier do mundo, provando que - mais uma vez - Gershon Kingsley esteve sempre à frente do seu tempo!

Music to Moog by (1969)

Eu conheci a música de Gershon Kinglsey pela primeira vez há muitos anos atrás, através do disco "Music to Moog by" (um LP que ganhei de presente do meu amigo Jimi Joe) e meu primeiro contato com Gersh foi em novembro de 2006, quando lhe enviei um email escrevendo sobre o quanto seu trabalho é importante na minha vida e ele gentilmente me respondeu este email (como o fez em todas as vezes que escrevi a ele depois disso). Quando eu estava pesquisando um pouco mais sobre ele, para realizar esta entrevista, percebi o quanto seria legal postar a entrevista no dia 23 de maio - aniversário do Robert Moog -  e ele prontamente me respondeu, me dando esta honra e oportunidade. Gostaria de agradecê-lo mais uma vez por esta entrevista, então: "Muito obrigado Gersh, meu amigo"!!!

Robert Moog and Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley and Robert Moog

ASTRONAUTA - Hoje (dia 23 de maio) é o dia em que comemoramos o aniversário do Robert Moog. Você teve contato com ele tanto no início da invenção do sintetizador Moog quanto nos últimos dias da vida de Bob, quando vocês dois foram entrevistados por Hans Fjellestad para o documentário "Moog". Como você conheceu Robert Moog e, no seu ponto de vista, qual o maior legado dele?

GERSHON - Eu o coneci em 1969, na sua casa em Trumansburg e depois de um tempo considerável aprendendo como me especializar em modulação de frequência, eu comprei um sintetizador com o último dinheiro que eu tinha. Felizmente, em algumas semanas, eu recebi o dinheiro de volta gravando um comercial para um secador de cabelos.

Provavelmente o maior legado de Bob seja o sintetizador polifônico e o desenvolvimento do theremin. 

ASTRONAUTA - Sendo você um dos grandes pioneiros da música eletrônica, você também conheceu e trabalhou com um contingente enorme de estrelas da música. Como você conheceu e foi trabalhar com artistas como David Merrick, Lawrence Olivier, John Cage e Jean Jacques Perrey? E como aconteceu o convite para você trabalhar como Staff Arranger na gravadora Vanguard Records, no início dos anos 60?

Gershon Kingsley and the musicians from
"The Entertainer" with Lawrence Olivier

GERSHON - David Merrick era produtor de espetáculos na Broadway e eu regi "The Entertainer", "La Plume de ma Tante", "Take me Along", and "Jamaica".

Eu conheci o Lawrence Olivier quando eu regi "The Entertainer", peça que ele estrelou na Broadway.

Eu fiz um evento com ele, improvisando no Moog enquanto ele recitava um discurso do Buckminster Fuller. Eu também encontrei-o em um avião, jogando xadrez com a viúva do Marcel DuChamp. O avião estava passando por uma turbulência enquanto eles calmamente jogavam uma partida de xadrez com pinos e furos para segurar as peças.

Jean-Jaques me chamou para ouvir seus loops de fita e tornou-se meu parceiro em "In Sound from Way Out", cuja "Baroque Hoedown" tornou-se a canção-assinatura da Disney.

Eu também trabalhei com cantores conhecidos, como Jan Peerce e outros tantos artistas que eram contratados da Vanguard.

Kingsley and the Moog synthesizer

ASTRONAUTA - Eu lí em algum lugar que "Popcorn" (sua composição mais conhecida) foi escrita em alguns minutos apenas. esta informação é correta? Você pode nos contar um pouco a história desta música? E o que você pensa sobre as várias regravações de "Popcorn"? Além da original, qual sua versão preferida?

GERSHON - Quando eu a gravei pela primeira vez e não tinhamos o título ainda, um dos músicos sugeriu "Popcorn", não porque soava como pipoca mas por "pop" vir de popular e "corn" vir de kitsch (cafona). A música surgiu como uma música folk russa ou uma invenção do Bach, originalmente.

Para ser honesto, não muito. Porém eu gosto da Popcorn International - que eu supervisionei e foi gravada com a Cologne Radio Orchestra - da Popcorn Fantasie, arranjada pelo Benny Gebauer, da versão dos anos 80 da M&H Band, Goodiepal (com batidas extras), do Crazy Frog e da versão do Cozinheiro Suéco, dos Muppets.

Para ilustrar, quando eu regi no Japão, no início dos anos 80, a Yamaha me convidou para ir até sua fabrica onde eu ouvi pela primeira vez "Popcorn" sampleada em um dos seus sintetizadores Yamaha.

ASTRONAUTA - Nos primeiros anos de sua vida, você se mudou de país para país até se estabelecer nos Estados Unidos nos anos 40. Quais eram as principais diferenças entre os países que você viveu durante sua juventuda (Alemanha, Palestina e estados Unidos)? E sua mudança para Los Angeles e depois para New York, foi intencional?

GERSHON - A razão pela qual eu mudei de um país para outro foi porque eu estava vivendo durante o Holocausto e tive que deixar a Alemanha.  Eu trabalhei em um Kibbutz em Israel (Palestina na época) e então me mudei para os Estados Unidos.

Eu não gostava tanto de New York e meu irmão queria mudar-se para LA. O clima da California é mais parecido com o da Palestina. Eu frequentei o conservatório de LA e decidi terminar meus estudos e graduação lá também. Eu voltei à New York com uma dançarina que havia iniciado sua nova companhia de dança lá.

ASTRONAUTA - Você sempre foi um artista ligado ás inovações tecnológicas e novas tendências. Você gravou vários discos misturando rock com música e cultura judaica durante sua carreira (e foi um dos primeiros artistas a fazer isso). Você também foi um dos primeiros artistas a gravar com um sintetizador Moog, nos anos 60. Nos anos 70, você foi um dos primeiros a utilizar tecnologia digital, usando um Synclavier e um sintetizador Fairlight em gravações. Você está no twitter e no facebook, você responde seus emails com certa frequência. O que motiva você, Gershon Kingsley, a procurar esta modernidade e este senso de inovação (e muitas vezes estar à frente do seu tempo)?Podemos esperar algo novo em breve (um novo disco, talvez)?

GERSHON - Eu tenho um lema -- Quando você é criativo e curioso, você nunca envelhece.

Sim, um disco chamado "Megan".

Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley conducting The First Moog Quartet

Five questions to Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley (or Goetz Gustav Ksinski, his original name) was born on October 28th, 1922 in Bochum, Westfalia, Germany. He lived in Berlin during his childhood but in 1938, when he was only 15 years old, he moved to Palestine due to the rise of Nazism in Germany. Separated from his family, Gersh lived and worked in a kibbutz in the land that later became Israel. There he became self-taught pianist and performed with local jazz bands around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In 1946 Gersh decided to move to the USA. First he moved to Los Angeles and tried to attend the Julliard School of Music, but the Julliard didn't accept him because he had no high school degree, so he decided to finish high school at night while studied music at the LA Conservatory of Music (now known as Cal Arts). During this time he also worked as the organ player in several synagogues in the Los Angeles area. After graduating from the conservatory with a BA in Music, Gersh began to work as conductor at the "Music Circus" in Sacramento, California.

When he was 33 years old, in 1955, he moved to New York and after a season conducting for the "Melody Fair" musical theatre in Framingham (Massachusetts), he became the musical director of a Broadway production of "The Entertainer", starring Lawrence Oliver. He conducted and arranged several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including "Porgy and Bess", "Jamaica", "Ernest in Love", "The Cradle will Rock you", "Fly Blackbird" and "La Plume de ma Tante" - he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical Direction in 1958 for this play. He also won two "Obie" Awards for his Off-Broadway theatrical work.

Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley

During the early sixties, Gersh began to work as the Staff Arranger for Vanguard Records and it was during this time that he met the french composer Jean Jacques Perrey, in 1966. Perrey and Kingsley worked on two albums in the next two years, "The in sound from way out" (1966) and "Kaleidoscopic Variations" (1967). The first album is one of the first records in the world that mixed pop music structures with avant-garde music, musique concrète, tape loops and live musicians (it's still an amazing, modern and funny album, almost 46 years after its release) and the second album introduced the Moog Synthesizer to many people in this world (including me) since their tune "Baroque Hoedown" - included in this album - became very famous as the signature song of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disney parks worldwide!

The duo Perrey and Kingsley never released another album together but both became the main artists to record Moog music in the world. In 1969, Gersh released his album "Music to Moog by", that received enthusiastic reviews and contained his most famous song, "Popcorn", maybe the first electro-pop tune ever written. Since its release, "Popcorn" was covered more than 100 times, by many artists from many different places in the world!

The First Moog Quartet

In 1970 Kingsley formed the "First Moog Quartet", an effort to bring electronic music into classical music venues. The group consisted in four musicians with Moog synthesizers, dancers, abstract film collages and performed the first live show of synthesized music ever in Carnegie Hall, in January 30th, 1970. Like almost everything new and fresh in the music business, mainly in these first steps in electronic music, the audience was kind of confused with the concert and it received very mixed reviews, but an "First Moog Quartet" album was released in the next year. Throughout the seventies, Gersh composed extensively for television and movies and also released great albums (some with pop music and some with Jewish music). He was also one of the pioneers in the use of digital synthesizers, recording the earliest albums with a Fairlight synthesizer and a Synclavier, proving once again that Gershon Kingsley was always ahead of his time!

Music to Moog by (1969)

I've heard Gershon Kingsley's music for the first time some years ago, listening to his famous album "Music to Moog by" (my great friend Jimi Joe gave me this LP) and my first contact with Gersh was via email, in November 2006. I wrote him just to tell how much his work is important in my life and he was very gentle and kind when he answered me (like every time I wrote him after that first contact!). When I was researching about him to make this interview I realized how nice it would be to post his interview in Bob Moog's birthday, on May 23rd and he promptly gave me this honor and opportunity. I'd like to thank him once again for his friendship and for this interview, so: "Gersh, thank you my friend"!!!

Robert Moog and Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley and Robert Moog

ASTRONAUTA - Today (May 23) is the day we celebrate the birthday of Robert Moog. You had contact with him in the beginnings of the invention of the Moog synthesizer and also in the last days of his life, when you were interviewed by Hans Fjellestad to the "Moog" documentary. How did you meet Robert Moog and, in your point of view, what is Bob's greatest legacy?

GERSHON - I met him in 1969 up at his place in Trumansburg and after considerable time of learning this specialty of frequency modulation, I bought with my last money the synthesizer.  Luckily, in a few weeks, I got my money back making a commercial for hair dryers.

Bob's greatest legacy is the probably the polyphonic synthesizer and further development of the Theremin.

ASTRONAUTA - Being one of the greatest electronic music pioneers you also met and worked with a huge team of music stars. How did you meet and worked with artists like David Merrick, Lawrence Olivier, John Cage and Jean Jacques Perrey? And how happened the invitation for you to work as Staff Arranger at Vanguard Records in the early '60s?

Gershon Kingsley and the musicians from
"The Entertainer" with Lawrence Olivier

GERSHON - David Merrick was a producer of broadway shows and I conducted the Entertainer, La Plume de ma Tante, Take me Along, and Jamaica.

I met Lawrence Olivier when I conducted the Entertainer in which he starred on Broadway. 

I did a program for him on the Moog improvising while he was giving a speech by Buckminster Fuller. I also saw him on a plane playing chess with Marcel DuChamp's widow. The plane was going through turbulance while they calmly played a chess game with pegs and holes to hold pieces.

Jean-Jaques brought me in to hear his tapeloops and became my partner with "In Sound from Way Out", where "Baroque Hoedown" became the signature tune at Disney.

I also worked for known singers like Jan Peerce and many artists who were under contract with Vanguard.

Kingsley and the Moog synthesizer

ASTRONAUTA - I read somewhere that your very well known composition "Pop Corn" was written in just a few minutes. Is this information correct? Can you tell us a little about this song? And what do you think about the many re-recordings of "Pop Corn"? Which version do you like the most, besides the original?

GERSHON - When it was first recorded and we didn't have a title,  one of the musicians suggested "Popcorn", but not because it sounded like popcorn, but "pop" for popular and "corn" for kitsch.  It came out like a Russian folk tune or a Bach invention originally.

To be honest, not much.  However, I do like the Popcorn International I oversaw that was done with the Cologne Radio Orchestra, Popcorn Fantasie arranged by Benny Gebauer, and the M & H Band '80s version, Goodiepal (with the extra beats), the Crazy Frog version and the Swedish Chef Muppet version.

As a side remark, when I conducted in Japan in the early 80's, Yamaha invited me to their factory where I heard for the first time Popcorn as a sample in one of the Yamaha synthesizers.

ASTRONAUTA - In the early years of your life you moved from country to country until settling in the U.S. in '40s. What were the main differences between countries you lived during your youth (Germany, Palestine and United States)? And your move to Los Angeles and after to New York, was that intentional?

GERSHON - The reason I moved from one country to another was because I was living during the Holocaust and had to leave Germany.  I worked on a Kibbutz in Israel (Palestine at the time) and then moved to the United States.

I didn't like New York so much and my brother wanted to move to LA. California was closer to the weather of Palestine.  I applied to the LA conservatory as well and decided to finish my degrees out there.  I returned to New York with a dancer who started her own company.

ASTRONAUTA - You have always been an artist linked to technological innovations and trends. You recorded several albums mixing rock with Jewish culture and music during your career (and was one of the first artists to do that). You also was one of the first to record with a Moog synthesizer in the '60s. In the '70s, you was one of the first  to use the digital technology, using a Synclavier and a Fairlight in your records. You're on twitter, facebook, you answer your emails quite frequently. What motivates you, Gershon Kingsley, to seek this modernity and this sense of innovation (and sometimes be ahead of your time)? Can we expect something new soon (a new record maybe)?

GERSHON - I have a logo -- When you're creative and curious, you never get old.

Yes, a record called "Megan".

Gershon Kingsley

Gershon Kingsley conducting The First Moog Quartet

Moog Prodigy (text in english)

In the second half of the '70s, Moog Music - the company founded by Robert Moog in 1953 in NY City, that in 1975 became a division of Norlin Music, Inc. - was at the height of its existence. It was almost 10 years after the initial impact caused by the invention of the synthesizer and the fear that the machine could replace the musician was already dead and buried: bands and artists from almost all kinds of music used synthesizers in their performances and recordings. Some musical styles were born totally based on the use of synthesizers, as the new style that emerged in England - based on the German bands like Kraftwerk - and would direct nearly all the musical production of the next decade: the Synthpop.


Coincidentally or not, in the same period that Synthpop was born, musical instrument companies started to invest in making more accessible synthesizers (both in price and ease to operate) and Moog wasn't out of this trend. The Minimoog was still a relatively expensive and the modular models were very complicated to be used by beginners (and obviously extremely expensive) the solution was to adapt and simplify on new models. In 1978 comes the Multimoog (the bigger brother of the Micromoog, that appeared in 1974) and in the following year appeared the models Liberation, Opus 3, Rogue and - probably the best known of them - the Moog Prodigy.



What made the Moog Prodigy so popular (around 11,000 units were sold) was its simplicity, especially if compared to the Minimoog: only two voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) - oscillator 2 can be sync'ed to oscillator 1 - generate three waveforms that can be selected on three different octaves (oscillator 1 between 32 ', 16' and 8 'and the oscillator between 16', 8 'and 4'). The signal passes through the VCF - the classic 24dB per octave Moog Filter (with controls for attack, decay and sustain) and the signal is sent to the VCA (voltage-controlled amplifier), also with controls for attack, decay and sustain individual. A single on/off switch controls the release on the VCF and the VCA (like on the Minimoog).


On the left side of the panel, a knob controls the pitch of the instrument, another knob controls the portamento (glide) between notes and a third knob controls the speed of the modulator on both the VCF and the VCO's (the VCO and VCF have individual on/off switches, but the speed knob and the switch which defines the waveform of the modulator are the same for both) a two and a half octaves keyboard (32 keys, from F to C), and pitch and modulation wheels - similar to those on the left side of the Minimoog - complete the Moog Prodigy.





The rear of the first Moog Prodigy models (those manufactured between 1979 and 1981) has only one audio output and internal adjustment keys for instrument calibration. Models made ​​from 1981 on (starting on the serial number 4160) included jacks for external controls (an S-trigger, an input/output for an external keyboard and inputs to control the VCO, VCF and the sync). As mine was manufactured before 1981, it doesn't have these extra controls.



Among all the artists that used a Moog Prodigy in their records, impossible not to mention first The Prodigy (the electronic music band led by Liam Howlett, who decided to name the band with the name of his first analogue synthesizer). Another big name in electronic music produced recently that used a Moog Prodigy is Fatboy Slim (the synthesizer appears - among other nice equipments and thousands of LP's - in the inner sleeve of his best known album, "You've come a long way, baby", from 1998). The band Depeche Mode (Andrew Fletcher appears using a Moog Prodigy in two different performances at the UK tv show "Top of the Pops" in 1981, playing the songs "New Life" and "I just can not get enough"), Blur, Massive Attack, The Album Leaf, Nine Inch Nails, Moloko, 808 State, Christian Lorenz (from the German band Rammstein), EMF and the composer/musician Howard Jones are also great names that played with a Moog Prodigy.



My Moog Prodigy - serial number 3766 - was the first Moog synthesizer I ever bought (I had a Korg 700s, an ARP Omni 2 and a Roland JX3P at the time) and it also was the first Moog I played in my life! I bought it in late 1997 and I remember going to Porto Alegre, south of Brazil, with Emilio (a friend of mine who was present some other times when I bought vintage instruments somewhere. He also helps me to remember some facts). Actually I have not bought the Moog synthesizer but a number of drum softcases and used it as "money" to pay the previous owner - I think his name was Daniel, I do not remember, but obviously he was a drummer. A curious fact is that the contact for purchasing the Moog Prodigy was done through the internet, via email or something, and that wasn't so common at that time (at least for me). Well, I got home, happy with my new instrument but it wasn't functioning - probably because it wasn't being played for a long time - so I took it to Paulinho, the technician who repaired my instruments when I was living in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), he opened the synth, cleaned it and ok: here it is the Moog Prodigy working perfectly until today! This instrument has traveled with me all around this country, from Bage - in the extreme south of Brazil - to Rio Branco, Acre - extreme north of Brazil!


photos: Kay Mavrides e divulgação/internet


I recorded this video on July 31st, 2011!




Here you can check Depeche Mode at TOTP playing "New Life"



Depeche Mode playing "I just can't get enough" (TOTP, 1981)



And here's a video of me playing a prototype of my song "Wir sind nicht allein" (called "Blitzkrieg" at that time) on my Moog Prodigy, with Felipe Messa on bass guitar and Cristiano Nanão on the drums. It was recorded on July 25th, 2010 in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil:



I found these ads on the internet: