So here goes: You know what really grinds my gears — music performance venues where the focal point isn’t listening. I’m talking about bars and festivals with crappy sound, not conducive to listening. I’m talking about restaurants and the like that sell themselves as having ‘live music’ and then relegate the performer to being only slightly louder than the clink of the dishwasher and ambient noise of talking diners, thus making the musician/s inaudible and unlistenable for all intents and purposes.

To be fair I’ve played a lot of gigs where the intended purpose was to be nothing more than sonic wallpaper: restaurants, cafes, coffee houses, and art openings… all places where you expect that you’re job is to be the background music, but there’s no misunderstanding here.

Mostly, my irritation is with those places that purport to having “Live Music” or bars that emphasize live music, but then these venues don’t do anything to accommodate the performing musicians and their sound. Being a working musician sucks enough as-is. Between next to no pay, costly gear, and under-appreciating (and caring) venue owners  and promoters, the whole arrangement is often a lose/lose deal with the only satisfaction being that little bit that the musician squeezes out of the opportunity to perform. Maybe I just don’t have the right temperament or attitude for the thing. But I’ll say this, if more time was spent emphasizing not just the novelty of live music, but sitting in a comfortable room having some wine or a good meal while listening to properly balanced music where I could listen while I dine, I’d certainly be seeing a lot more music live.

I don’t see that forthcoming. Instead, I see the continual marginalization of the working musician and the proliferation of the hobbyist who has a job elsewhere, doesn’t care about pay, free drinks or put a hell of a lot of emphasis on their craft as a musician; a zero sum game…

While I’m going through all this, I’ll definitely say that I’ve found two great venues here in Michigan that treat music and musicians right: The Raven Cafe in Port Huron, MI and The Plymouth Coffee Bean in Plymouth, MI. These places truly appreciate and respect music and musician…

A few gigs with Teag and PK coming up over the course of the next few days and then we’ll break with gigs for the January. As well, Teag and PK will be going into the studio to record our first tune for our first release… more to come on that. Very exciting, though.

For the sake of a quick reader query: Have you missed the 52 Songs project?
I’d love to know what people think about this, as there’s been a bit of radio silence of late.

My earliest memories of improvising music in a group setting go back to when I was sixteen with my first band. There was no self-awareness of musical improvisation… that would come much later, but I knew I loved the freedom of just giving it a go and see what came out through the process. I knew nothing about music, improvised or otherwise at that age. I didn’t have any kind of musical background. Mostly, I was in a bit of a punk rock and metal phase as a guitarist and bassist, and had no awareness of the jazz, or John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, or of bands like Phish or the Grateful Dead who were known for their lengthy improvisations. I just knew that it felt freeing and very present to sit down and do something, musically, that I almost certainly do the same way twice.

This latter part has always been a point of major frustration to my friends and collaborators who’ve wanted to control the beast. Musical group improvisation can go either way… It can leave you elated and on cloud nine, but it can also leave you feeling lost, disoriented and like you just wasted a period of your life. Though, the latter has been easier to get a handle on manage from a craft vs. art perspective over the years, but I digress…

I think that the really killer thing about musical improvisation in a group or solo is that you never know what’s going to happen. You step up to your instrument and/or setup and you bring your past experiences, your history, years of practice, your perspective, your sensibilities as an artist, your skills as a crafts-person and a technician – time stops – and there’s just you, your art and the moment… I love that about improvisation.

This post is already getting a little long, but something that really strikes me about improvised music, is that like anything we improvise at in our life, we get varying results, until we get used to the being in that context, arrangement, situation, or whatever, and our second nature takes over — some would call that the Zen mind. I found the Zen mind when I was sixteen and I’ve spent nealry every day of my life since then trying to find that place as often as possible..

As I’ve evolved as an artist who’s worked in the ambient genre, I’ve really come to appreciate those artists who can make a contemplative ambient music without relying on electronics, tape delays, reverbs and the like, things that I very much have relied on. Some artists that come to mind are Jan Garbarek, Matthias Eick, Tom Heasley, Bruce Kaphan and Paulie Oliveros. For me, creating that kind of contemplative ambient music where the instrumentalist/vocalist carries much of the weight, that is using the echo of a room or even minimal uses of electronic reverbs and tapes is something that I’m striving for, artistically.

Curiously, I’ve come to this place via the singer/songwriter approach. While there’s a part of me that needs to be jamming with Teag and PK and really pushing the music, rhythmically and sonically, there’s another part of my creative personality that intends to also pursue a quieter side, probably within the context of Teag and PK. No doubt, these will be two different audiences or venues, but I think that there’s a music that kind of jams and there’s a music that really relies on space, much like my earlier ambient performances did. In any case, listening to ECM Recordings, and Arve Henriksen, in particular reminds me of that sacred space.

This is a piano tune that I recorded a couple weeks ago. I’ve been sitting on it, as I’ve been promoting Ghost Ship on a Black Sea, but I’m looking to keep moving on these tunes, so I’m posting. Enjoy.

Song: Imperfections

Lyrics:

Instrumental

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This post and recording are part of the 52 Songs project, where I’m working to write, record and upload a new song every Wednesday – 52 Songs in 52 weeks or bust – Please feel free to share and enjoy, but kindly give credit to Matt Borghi and MattBorghi.com

Michael Teager and myself had a fantastic gig at a place called The Raven Cafe in Port Huron, Michigan, and it went pretty perfectly. The venue was really interesting and we played on a loft sort of stage that we needed a ladder to get to, and once up there, we just kind of stayed there and continued to make music for two-plus-hours… I felt that we really stretched ourselves, musically, playing a wide range of covers and originals and a good amount of improvised stuff with one instance of totally improvised lyrics, actually we may have written a new song. I recorded it, but I’ve yet to listen back. Overall, though, it was a great gig and it kind of got us aligned and back on track, more focused than we’ve been the last month or so as we’ve dealt with issues around other musical endeavors, unrelated to Teag and PK…

But about the songs, I don’t know, 52 Songs may go by the wayside, or at least the 52 Songs in 52 weeks part, not because I can’t keep it up, because I certainly feel able to do that, but I’m concerned that I’m not putting enough emphasis on really working the tunes out before I post them. Some of the songs, I write them, record them and forget them, until I start looking through week’s past works, and then other times if I don’t keep rehearsing the tunes, then I forget the chords and kind of have to start over again… All of this leads me to think that I need to spend more time with the tunes before I post them, live with the tunes a bit longer and integrate them more fully into my repertoire, thus delivering a more refined work.

This refinement seems like the natural outgrowth of a lengthy prolific period. Now that I know that I can maintain the output, can I also maintain quality? I think that I can, but it’s going to mean more infrequent postings and more time spent on the tunes… Anyway, I’ve got some of my best ever in the works and I’m looking forward to getting ‘em online for you to hear.

10 years on and the Ghost Ship on the Black Sea completes the sonic trilogy that began with Huronic Minor (2001) and was followed up by The Phantom Light (2005). This series of recordings were an ode, or an homage, of sorts to the natural power of the Great Lakes but also evoked the feelings of the stormy, seasonal solitude of life in the Great Lakes basin in the winter months.

With this  trilogy of dark, long form ambient works, I intended to capture the feeling of the dark winter months on the open water, a place where the dark of night and the glow of the moon reflected against a white-cap sea is one where life and death have existed for time immemorial, and the emotional duality of nature’s power to give and take away.

The sea is not a new theme, but Ghost Ship on the Black Sea, which consists of 95 minutes of new music (thanks to the limitless format of digital releases) captures more than previous recordings, in the trilogy, a sense of place and musical impressionism that I first discovered in the Claude Debussy’s master work  La Mer (The Sea). While the timbres and technologies for executing this sonic picture have more than a century between them, the sentiment and sonic colors are quite similar.

You can buy Ghost Ship on a Black Sea at iTunes, Amazon and many other digital download sites. Click the icons below to go to the most popular sales destinations:

This is a silly little tune that I came up with this past weekend at Ikea. Now, mostly this store, at least in Detroit, is always busy and the people scurry about, seemingly without direction, like when you turn the lights on and cockroaches go running… I decided that as many times as I’ve experienced this Ikea retail reality, that it must be universal.

The songs speaks for itself, as I improvised all but the second part in this take and then rewrote it to capture the sentiment, even if I didn’t capture the exact wording. Anybody who knows me knows that there’s a lot of improvisation in my work and the songs are no different.

I’m looking forward to playing this one out, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Song: He pushed the cart at Ikea

Lyrics:

Spoken improvisation at beginning…

Intro

We were at Ikea, a couple days after Thanksgiving. We needed to buy some home goods and other things for the house. I was getting our pre-purchased, sustainable bags ready on the carts, not the yellow cart, because those are kind of flimsy and always feel like they’re going to tip over, and it wasn’t one of the really big ones that kids can ride in and hardly fit down the aisles, rather it was one of the medium carts that fits a couple bags and allows you snake through the sofas and kitchen items with ease…

Anyway, as I finished up, I noticed my son staring longingly at me, so I asked him: “Son, why are you staring longingly at me?” He said that he wanted to push the cart. I looked around at the frenetic masses rushing about two buy 99 cent silverware and two dollar bath rugs… I was unsure, and I looked back at him, his expression hadn’t changed… he was still looking at me longingly… If not now, when? I thought to myself, and then moved out of the way so that he could man the helm…. He smiled and took over, relishing the power of the cart in his hands…

I told him to be careful, and as I watched him navigate the slippery retail floor, I cam up with this song, this ode to his retail prowess!

Part 1

He pushed the cart at Ikea
What was he thinking?!

He pushed the cart at Ikea
Two days after Black Friday

He pushed the cart at Ikea
Even dared to go the wrong way

He pushed the cart at Ikea
Don’t even know why he did it…

Part 2

He pushed the cart at Ikea, and navigated expertly
He safely swerved around small children and the elderly
He pushed the cart at Ikea, like a ninja in battle,
He moved with the authority of a herd of cattle.
He pushed the cart at Ikea between arguing spouses and screaming kids
He made his way through piling discount homegoods as he did
He pushed the cart at Ikea, He pushed the cart…

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This post and recording are part of the 52 Songs project, where I’m working to write, record and upload a new song every Wednesday – 52 Songs in 52 weeks or bust – Please feel free to share and enjoy, but kindly give credit to Matt Borghi and MattBorghi.com

It’s easy to think that if you put more work in you’ll get a better return on the time you’ve put in, but sometimes, as in the case of the songs, I’ve seen less of a return for something that takes me more time. The average songs takes about two hours to put together, record and publish. The average blog post takes thirty minutes or thereabouts…

More interesting still, is that I’m putting more emphasis on lyrics and less emphasis on music and the words are getting harder while the music just keeps flowing out. What I’m really trying to do is add more humor to the songwriting. Songs like Bacon and 18” Pool have gotten great live responses and there’s little more satisfying than getting people to laugh…

All this is to say, I’ll keep doing the work, but sometimes it looks like the song won’t make it up there Wednesday morning… Every week that I make it is a bonus…