Songs To Sing At The Funeral Of A Shark

Written By Mike Greenblatt
Mike Noordzy

Rutgers Bassist-Composer-Educator Mike Noordzy—a Middlesex County resident—is a man for all seasons, be it with his quintet or bands like his El Noordzo (covering Nirvana and Radiohead in an Afro-Cuban framework) or Moth Guts. He’s always filled with musical surprises, unorthodox approaches and the fact that he obviously takes such pleasure in totally defying all known genres. His current album is Shark Funeral Songbook Volume #2, the follow-up to an album he released nine years ago. “The album squirms and throbs with murky life,” according to Keith Hadad of Record Crates United, his label out of Union County, who likens it to a meeting of the minds between Tom Waits and the late Euro avant-gardist Peter Brotzmann. Ask Noordzy who his influences are and he’ll be quick to mention Moondog, the oddball composer-poet-inventor who used to stand outside buildings on the corner of Sixth and 54th in Manhattan dressed like a Viking almost every day from 1949 to 1972.

Mike Greenblatt

MIKE GREENBLATT has been writing for Goldmine magazine and New Jersey's Aquarian Weekly for more than 35 years. His writing subjects fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He's interviewed Joe Cocker, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He was 18 when he attended Woodstock in 1969.

In addition to writing about music, Greenblatt has worked on publicity campaigns for The Animals, Pat Benatar, Johnny Winter, Tommy James and Richard Branson, among others. He is currently the editor of The Jersey Sound.

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