In pursuit of the best musical experiences worldwide, Tom Moon dedicated over three years to finding and collating the world’s best recordings of all genres.
In 2008, Moon’s musical voyage birthed the 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. This book features not only the acknowledged musical masterpieces but also the unsung master recordings left overlooked.
The book aims to broaden the readers’ taste, with an intentional arrangement of musical entries in alphabetical order rather than by genre. Each entry comprises recommendations in the artist’s discography with related recordings. The indexes that group the entries based on their genres are provided at the end of the books. Furthermore, there are special “occasion” indexes with playlist catalogs for different moods.
Ultimately, Moon intends to arouse interest in all types of music with his book. In the introduction, he likens the discovery of the best music forms to a treasure located on the outer boundaries of our familiar sounds.
Short Biography
Tom Moon was a musician before becoming a music critic. He began his professional voyage into music at the beginning of the 1980s when he was a music student. Later on, Moon spent almost a year playing saxophone and accompanying the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra before his move to music journalism. In 1983, Moon started writing about music.
By 1988, Moon had to pause his music career when he began writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. However, it seemed as if his previous career posed some resistance to his newfound choice, which he confirmed in an interview with JazzTimes. He shared that he had to inform The Philadelphia Inquirer that he would not be a professional musician any more. He continued working with them as the local music critic until 2004.
Throughout Moon’s career, he made notable contributions to several music publications. These were Spin, Esquire, Blender, GQ, Rolling Stone, and many others. In addition to this, in 2011, he presented the album Into the Ojalá. It was recorded on Frosty Cordial Records, the music label run by Moon.
1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die — Most Popular Book
The success of the book is the result of Tom Moon’s familiarity with the music industry as both an artist and journalist. While studying at the University of Miami, which he graduated from in 1983, he began playing the saxophone professionally. Moon worked in Latin bands, orchestras (supporting Tony Benett, The 5th Dimension, etc.), and on South-Florida-based cruise ships like SS Norway. He also toured the United States and Canada for about a year as a part of Maynard Ferguson’s band.
Moon discovered a new interest in music journalism when he started writing about music. He wrote for the Miami Herald as a freelancer up until 1986, before he moved to Philadelphia. In 1988, Moon started his career as a regular music journalist when The Philadelphia Inquirer hired him as their resident music critic. He worked there until 2005.
While working with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Moon made multiple notable contributions, reviews, and features. Furthermore, Moon can boast of many recognitions for his contributions to music journalism. He was awarded ASCAP-Deems Taylor Music Journalism twice. Moon was also selected as an inaugural fellow of the National Arts Journalism Program in 1994. And in 2001 he became the “Heroes” laureate by the Recording Academy (Philadelphia chapter).
As a journalist, Moon had interviewed lots of talented artists like Madonna, Miles Davis, Ibrahim Ferrer, Frank Zappa, and Keith Richards.
Now, Moon lives on the outskirts of Philadelphia with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
Tom
