Moondog

Often known as the Viking of 6th Avenue, the blind New York City street performer and Norse-inspired sartorialist Moondog (born Louis Thomas Hardin) was in fact a groundbreaking composer, jazz musician, and musical avant-gardist. Among Moondog's many admirers were Charlie Parker, Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, and New York Philharmonic maestro Artur Rodzinski. His unique artistry was a combination of the then blossoming minimalist compositional style, bop, and free jazz aesthetics, as well Moondog's own divined musical philosophies, which would generate creation of, among others things, the percussion instrument the trimba. Moondog moved to Germany in 1974, where he lived and worked until his death in 1999.