Reflections

Here are some reflections on recent music making.

A major high point of recent times as well as my entire music career happened at COVERT #1 – my collaborative/site specific/performance series with John Law.  I was standing with approximately 65 people on a cliff on on Mt. Davidson in the middle of San Francisco singing “The Gates/Take me to the Water” to the Bay Area and the world beyond.  The moon was rising, the city was sparkling and tears were running down my cheek.  Understand, I was standing in the audience and we all sang together facing the bay.  They weren’t facing me in the standard performer/audience arrangement.  I want to set up more shows with this format.

The other night me and my sexet played Lucio Menegon’s “Improv Hootenanny”.  I am so honored to play with such incredible musicians.  The ensemble was absolutely smoking.  I’m inspired to write a body of instrumental work for this ensemble as well as take more improv gigs.

Seth Ford-Young and I have been sorting through my repertoire one song at a time to figure out what direction we want to take each song in.  Doing this I’ve realized that in addition to my solo work, I want to work with three basic ensembles.

1. The Sextet – We are a chamber group and we strictly play theaters and listening rooms (no bars or loud parties).  The bigger, more compositional material works here.  It’s an incredible vehicle for large portion of my work but it’s also expensive.

2. A trio with Seth on upright, Chris Grady on trumpet and myself.  This trio is versatile.  We can play clubs and parties as well as highbrow theaters.  We can do my upbeat, fun and lighter material as well as the deep and artful material.  We can play with or without amplification.  We’re less expensive to hire and less expensive for me to rehearse and we can fit in 1 car with our equipment.  We’re calling this ensemble “The Mark Growden Trio”.  I’m booking lots of shows for us and I already have enough material for an album.

3. Another trio is Seth and I plus Alex on Cello.  In some ways, this ensemble is a paired down version of the sextet.  We will be playing my songs that are more in the the art music/new music traditions, more compositional.  Lot’s of accordion and piano and maybe some sax.  I doubt I’ll be playing any banjo or lap-steel with this group.   I need to come up with a name for this ensemble.

I compose/write on a number of instruments and different instruments bring out different styles in my songwriting/composing.  I’ve often had trouble with finding a way to put the variety of styles together in a cohesive manner.  Having the various groups helps.

I’m coming to terms with the fact that most people identify me as an accordionist.  I don’t see myself this way at all.  I identify as composer, saxophonist, composer and multi-instrumentalist.  (Actually, I identify as a heart in a body that happens to be male).  But I’m going to go with it.  Yes, I’m an accordionist.