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The New York Times

August 20, 1970

Hyman, at Museum, Gives Moog Synthesizer Concert
By John S. Wilson

The increasing viability of the Moog synthesizer as a flexible musical instrument was demonstrated by Dick Hyman Thursday night at a concert in the "Jazz in the Garden" series at the Museum of Modern Art.
Using a compact, newly developed minisynthesizer, consisting of a short keyboard and a small panel covered with dials, Mr. Hyman played an unaccompanied solo combining bass and treble lines with varied dynamics. The results were gentle, melodic and rhythmic and relatively free of the blips and bleeps that often turn up in electronic music.
The essential merit of the minisynthesizer was made evident in his performance of "The Minotaur," His synthesizer recording of the piece two years ago required multiple overdubbing and the assistance of an engineer. Thursday night Mr. Hyman produced the same result on the minisynthesizer unassisted and as simply as though he were playing a piano or organ.
The main portion of the program, however, was devoted to what Mr. Hyman described as "free-form happening," performed by Children of All Ages, a group made up of Mr. Hyman on organ, piano and mini-synthesizer, Richard Davis, bass, Ed Shaugnessy, drums and tabla, Arnie Lawrence, soprano saxophone and electrified alto saxophone, and Mr. Lawrence's children, Jana, 10, Ricky, 9, and Scott, 6, who played trumpet, saxophone, violin, slide whistle, kazoo and a variety of percussion instruments and also vocalized.
The happening, a combination of the sounds of New Year's Eve and the sensations of the morning after, lasted for 55 minutes, which was more than a large part of the audience did. Before it was half over, listeners were seeking shelter inside the museum and by the time it eventually stopped large areas of the garden had been cleared.
The one bright moment came when the clear, clarion sound of a trumpet, blown by Jana Lawrence, burst through the sludge of electronic sound being produced by her father's electric alto saxophone and Mr. Hyman's organ.