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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“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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