Last night, while driving home, WNYC's Evening Music program played a piece by Moondog, entitled New Amsterdam. It was a lovely example of jazz-classical fusion, and I can understand why Steve Reich admired him.

But my initial astonishment was over the composers' name. I'd never heard a piece of his before, but I'd heard of him while reading Allen Steele's "Lunar Descent;" that wonderful novel that precipitated my (as others can attest) fanboy-ish devouring of any material by Mr. Steele.