Moss, David (Michael)
Moss, David (Michael)
Moss, David (Michael), avant-garde American percussionist and vocalist; b. N.Y., Jan. 21, 1949. He studied South Indian drumming with Tanjore Ranganathan (1970) and composition with Bill Dixon (1971–73). From 1972 he toured Europe, Japan, Australia, and the U.S. as a soloist and leader of his own ensembles in more than 950 concerts; worked with David Van Tieghem, John King, John Zorn, and others. Moss has collaborated with numerous dance, visual, theater, and video artists; his recordings include Terrain: Solo Percussion and Voice (1980), David Moss Dense Band ’Live’ in Europe (1988), and The Day We Forgot (1990); he also created and produced new music programs for radio (from 1981). Moss’s solo performances combine a wide range of pitched and unpitched percussion, “found” objects, sound sculpture, and electronics with extended vocalizations.
Works
Light no. 18 (1983); Full House, duets (1983); King Lear, incidental music (1983); N.Y. Objects & Noise nos. 1 and 2 (1984); Vox Box (1984); Mossmen (1984); Intimate Solos (1985); Light no. 20 (1985); Operadio (1986); Slow Talking (1987); Slant Lines (1987); Operadio no. 2 (1987); Conjuring Calvino (1988); Language Linkage nos. 1–3 (1988); That Tempest (1989); After That Tempest (1989); Stolen Voice (1990).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire