Tom Moon with Ensemble Novo
Time Restaurant and Whiskey Bar
1315 Sansom St.
Philadelphia
Sept. 4, 2024
Saxophonist Tom Moon forgot the melody of Cole Porter’s “I Love You” mid-song — and a music critic caught him in the act.
Moon was performing on sax Wednesday night as part of a jazz ensemble at Philadelphia’s Time restaurant.
The critic calling Moon into account was … Moon himself.
Moon is better known as a music critic than as a musician. He traded in his reeds for a computer keyboard, steady revenue, and zero conflicts of interest back in the 1980s to become the Philadelphia Inquirer’s house music critic. After a career contributing to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and major outlets like Rolling Stone, Moon has since returned to his first job: Playing the sax for the people at Philly hot spots like Time, where he was found riffing with his band “Ensemble Novo” through 1 a.m.
During a break between sets, Moon, 63, agreed to improvise a review of his own performance.
Here’s what he wrote said: “I’m rattled by the fact that we played a song called ‘I Love You,’ a great standard I’ve played more than 150 times in the last 10 years, maybe more, and I forgot the melody.”
Moon had faced many of those same mental lapses during his younger years, which he spent studying saxophone at the University of Miami and playing with the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra. But years later, he is still searching for the reason: “It’s not muscle memory and it’s not just your mind memory — it’s something in between.”
The key, he urged, “is not to panic.”
Moon came across as the master of relaxation on Wednesday. Though the supposed star of the show — his name, rather than the band’s, was listed on Time’s events calendar — Moon mostly stood off to the side of the stage in a faded, floral shirt, often picking up percussive shakers and throwing his head back with glee while his bandmates explored lengthy solos and bar sitters stood up to shake their own hips.
“I have modest goals for music,” Moon said. It’s all about putting out “healing vibrations.”
He likes playing at Time because they host no-cover, live music nearly every night and leave their front-facing windows wide open so that people dancing in the street become part of the performance.
Moon’s laid-back attitude comes in part from disgruntlement with the bureaucratization and buy-outs that have taken over modern journalism. That’s what prompted him to ditch freelancing for free improvisation.
“You just reach a point where you can’t give a fuck anymore,” Moon said as he sipped an iced cocktail from his windowsill perch. “Your body, your memory, your friends will all fail you. Perseverance is what we most need in the world. You have to ask yourself: What can I do that I actually care about? That’s what’s important. Whatever’s in your heart, whatever you’re about at any given point in time.”
Alongside Behn Gillece on vibraphone, Donovan Pope on drums, and Chris Simonini on keyboard, Moon served not only as saxophonist but casual conductor. He suggested songs off the cuff like Freddy Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower,” then “I Fall In Love Too Easily,” followed by “I Love You,” chased by a cover of the Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” and concluded with Wes Montgomery’s “Road Song.”
Moon’s career as a critic no doubt helped him draft that group of star players; I had to remind myself to catch my breath repeatedly while immersed in Gillece’s marathon mallet races up and down the vibraphone.
But Moon’s critical chops have also been a hold-up he’s still working to get over.
“I’ve had to really shut down my judgmental brain in order to do this at all,” he said. “That’s a daily struggle.”
Like embouchure, music criticism is also a “muscle,” Moon said. But unlike most muscles, it’s one that’s hard to wear down.
“It’s really a bunch of reflexes that allow you to listen to a piece of music and process it, to know where it’s antecedents are and where it comes from and where it’s going contextually,” Moon reflected. “If you do that, it does get in the way of what I would call the flow of just playing music.”
Fortunately, recovery — whether that’s finding the melody or letting a little looser under the spotlight — can come to you through something as small as a deep breath. Sometimes a little time is all it takes to get back on your feet.
“You can always find your way back,” Moon promised, as he found his way back onstage for the second set of his second life act.
NEXT:
Check out Time’s live music calendar here. Find out more about when and where Moon and Ensemble Novo are playing through their website.
