The art of Jazz, Mendonoma style
By Harrison Goldberg
INDEPENDENT COAST OBSERVER, May 17, 2013
It has been 10 years since I had the pleasure and privilege of performing in the very first Whale & Jazz Festival as part of a trio comprised of sax, guitar and acoustic bass at the former Top o’ The Cliff Restaurant in Gualala and I am here to report, that a decade later as whales continue to frolic off our coast that the Festival is alive and well and was extremely successful. Enthusiastic audiences filled the venues to enjoy jazz like never before. Indeed, it appears that jazz music has had a resurgence on the coast. This year my own personal musical journey has joyfully delivered me as both an enthusiastic participant, and audience member at this, the 10th and our most recent Festival. I am also extremely proud and was gratified to have been a part of the Jazz in the Schools program when it was presented at Gualala Arts. The importance of sharing the music and introducing it to younger audiences may assure that the rich historical legacy and traditions of jazz music be perpetuated.
It obviously takes a lot to run a Festival of this scope, size and vision and I would like to salute Fred Adler, Festival/Music Coordinator, Jan Harris/Festival consultant; David Susalla of Gualala Arts along with his support staff, fellow organizers, and Festival friends and always, the variety and enormous talents of participating musicians who came from near and far to keep the torch of jazz music lit. To this list, add the many venues with their gracious hosts and the sponsors of this coastal jazz treasure. All of you are to be commended for a job well done. Hats off to you!… and may we look forward to more exciting Whale & Jazz Festivals for many years to come!
Recently, and timed perfectly to be presented in conjunction with this year’s Whale & Jazz Festival, we had the pleasure of experiencing the magical music-orientated visual art of Jazz and Blues when it was offered at the Gualala Art Center in an exhibit entitled, “Body and Soul: A Jazz Tapestry,” by the multi-talented Bay Area artist, and my longtime friend, Jeanie Dooha. A watercolorist and passionate lover of jazz and blues music, Ms. Dooha has given us in her poignant and vibrant studies of some of the most endearing and iconic figures to emerge on the American jazz landscape, nothing short of the visual equivalent — in larger than life terms — of the music itself; indeed, I feel that Jeanie has captured the music’s very essence. When visual art has the power to transcend and offer the viewer yet another sensory experience, in this case an audio one, we call this phenomenon, synesthesia.
Each piece was rendered exquisitely and in the medium of watercolor, no mean feat. Jeanie has lent us her own soulful eyes to see into the very soul depths of her musical subjects. The result of all of this was to impart a collective living force, an organic colorful vibration, to the room where the paintings were displayed and, as in every exhibit the importance of hanging a show and particularly of this magnitude and dimension, is paramount. Well I can attest having personally experienced the behind the scenes of launching many exhibits, that Jim Grenwelge got it right, yet again, at Gualala Arts. In the musical pantheon of musical sounds represented, one felt the emotions of joyful to tragic that the artists wished to convey. Indeed the eyes of Jeanie’s subjects seemed to draw the viewer almost hypnotically in upon these musicians’ gritty, though charmed, musical life experience. All their ordeals, pain, musical elation and celebration the artist has apprehended, but especially one heard the music, as I did when I “listened” to each painting!
Finally, I was deeply touched, and am most appreciative of a tribute painting Jeanie created of me that is based upon a photo taken back in the 1970s when, fresh out of Boston, Mass, Berklee College of Music, I moved to Newport, R.I, and for a decade before moving westward and ultimately to our coast, I was active on the jazz scene there. Special thanks go to Sharon Nickodem, curator of the exhibit, who was a personal and invaluable asset to Jeanie at Gualala Arts and to me in preparing a beautiful presentation of a poem I wrote along with my bio, to accompany Jeanie’s tribute piece to this saxophonist. To Carol and Steve Chell, much gratitude for opening your gracious home and providing an unselfish hospitality to Jeanie and Tim when they made repeated treks from the Bay Area. I am extremely grateful for the generosity of a group of friends in this community and elsewhere who on my behalf, have made it possible for me to secure this wonderful work of Jeanie’s art, which I shall cherish and I am especially grateful to continue to share the joy of music with you here, in my coastal community, my home like no other!
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Mendonoma musicians Harrison Goldberg and Tim Mueller of duo’Xplore are releasing their pioneer album titled “dream smuggler” in May and the public is invited to hear and see more. To celebrate this creative accomplishment, KTDE 100.5FM/ !e Tide Community Radio’s Erin and John will premiere the band’s recording Saturday, May 29, at 5:00pm on their popular “Celtic Coasting” radio program. There will be an encore presentation of the album on the following Wednesday at 6:00pm on KTDE’s “Mendonoma Music” program.) Then on Sunday, May 30, the Dolphin Gallery and Gi” Shop in Cypress Village, Gualala will host a live duo’Xplore ‘Meet the Artists’ and autograph signing event from 12:00noon to 2:00pm.
The beautiful six-panel audio CD package is paired with a unique and equally beautiful 8 x 8 inch hardcover Artbook featuring sixteen prints of Goldberg’s small abstract works in color. Each painting is a natural companion . . .
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Gualala jazz saxophonist explores his visual art side in solo
Point Arena exhibit- Collage du Jazz: Living in the Land of Imagination
What do jazz musicians and visual artists have in common?
Apparently quite a bit, at least that’s the opinion of Gualala-based saxophonist, Harrison Goldberg, whose solo multimedia art exhibit, “Collage du Jazz: Living in the Land of Imagination” opens with a reception at Think Visual Gallery, Point Arena, on Friday, December 6, from 5:00-7:00 pm. The show will run through Monday, January 6, 2020.
Though the means for transmitting personal expression are obviously and radically different—a saxophone versus pen, paper, paints and ink, Goldberg, a self-taught visual artist, finds a shared vocabulary and artistic process in improvising jazz music and creating and fabricating visual art.
“As one who easily transitions from the world of a performing jazz musician to that of a visual artist, my work shares a common creative language featuring improvisational free play, color, tone, tempo, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, phrasing, space, shapes and forms, motifs and storytelling.
With the ever-changing tools of my craft: paper, pencils, pen and ink, acrylic inks, oil pastels, water-based brush pens, I embark on a nocturnal journey established during a recurrent pattern of insomnia. While it has deprived me of badly needed sleep, it has serendipitously provided the gateway to the creation of many of the works presented in this exhibit.”
For Goldberg, the strong though ineffable influence of the natural environment, and especially the Mendonoma coast where he has made his home for a number of years, play a significant role in his artistic process. He explains:
“ A variety and abundance of flora and fauna along with the daily drama of ever-changing colors of sky, ocean and sand, fanciful shapes of driftwood, clouds, craggy ancient rocks, wrinkled hills, sanctuary of redwood spires, and nocturnal star-laden skies all find their way into my art.”
The artist, a Massachusetts-bred city boy, acknowledges yet another strong influence on his work: a lifelong fascination with urban graffiti.
“The ubiquitous detritus of peeling paint on doors and walls, fading torn advertisements on wooden store fronts, and especially the remarkable shapes and patterns that seem to magically emerge on sidewalks and roads—all of these, too, contribute to form a chorus of generous artistic images.”
Goldberg is no less enthusiastic for creating visual art than playing the saxophone and concludes:
“I am grateful to be plumbing the depths of my artistic creativity, and now invite and welcome you, the viewer, to establish your own personal dialogue with the work in this exhibit, the joyful and bountiful harvest of my imagination.”
THINK VISUAL GALLERY 240 Main Street Point Arena, CA, Telephone# 707- 882-4042
Listening to Jazz, through a variety of styles, one can often conjure up memories of people and places, sometimes maybe even aromas. For me, it is almost always a specific type of room. For example, Danilo Perez brings to mind Sweet Basil on 7th Avenue in New York. Diana Krall reminds me of the Oak Room at the old Algonquin on 44th Street. There are, however, times when my mind connects music with images or memories that in reality have no direct connection.
That happened recently when I sat down and listened to a new CD by Pacific Woods. The nature of the 8 tracks brought two clubs to mind. There is Smalls in New York City and the much older club, Jazz Café Alto in Amsterdam. In both cases I knew that the music on the Pacific Woods CD Pool of Mirrors would fit perfectly in these smallish, moderately-lit establishments. Both are places where you could take a table (preferably off to one side of the room), sit back, and get lost in the music. Harrison Goldberg (tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones) and Dave Jordan (electric bass guitar) paint a tapestry that enables the listener to get lost, happily.
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“The songs of Tales of Kings by Neon Egypt are first-take improvisations. Yet out of the potential for chaos indigenous to such spontaneity, Harrison Goldberg on soprano, tenor, and alto sax, and Steven Miller on his resonant, one-of-a-kind Shendai Ceremonial Drums travel a purposeful, though curvilinear journey. The languid flight of a singular bird, an ibis, perhaps, coursing desert night from Alexandria to Luxor, then on to Khartoum and Kampala. The music is the tone poem migration of sensibilities, as if the Nile could flow through Chicago.”
(from TALES OF KINGS LINER NOTES by Sandy Thompson)
For more of Sandy Thompson’s notes as well as many reviews:
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“Recently we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Harrison Goldberg and reviewing his portfolio of label designs and other pieces. We were very impressed by the depth and originality of his label designs and other pieces…”
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“Harrison stopped by the other day: 30-minute max. When he left I felt consumed, yet energized, by the pulse of his everyday reality. And all I did was listen. As he talked about his life, I imagined the juggling act of The Brothers Karamazov: wild but focused…”
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On first glance, Harrison Goldberg appears to be like so many of us. On the Mendocino Coast we are all…
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