Music

Music inspired by the haunted hospital

3445839032_547752053eI consider it a perk anytime I get to use my creativity at work. And, in the case of the most recent example, I found some inspiration I can use on my own projects.

A few weeks ago I produced a video for Long Island Business News about the abandoned Pilgrim State campus in Brentwood on Long Island. It was once the largest mental institutions in New York state. It had its own railroad station, its own power plant.

It was also the mental hospital where poet Alan Ginsberg committed his mother, and she was lobotomized there.

However, today many of the building are demolished or abandoned, and it’s a spooky place that many believe to be haunted with the ghosts of the deceased insane.

Our photographer, Bob Gigione, took some amazing photos which I used to create the video, and Ambrose Clancy, who wrote a wonderful story about the hospital for the paper, crafted a poetic script which he read behind the video.

All the movie needed was some creepy music.

I wanted the music to sound like it came from outside of one of the crumbling buildings, with the listener on the outside, wondering which tormented soul was pounding away at a dusty, aged piano in the institution’s rec room.

So rather than hook up a nice microphone above my own piano, I used the tiny, built-in microphone on my MacBook Pro, which I placed on the floor.

As for the improv, I thought about the hospital of old, the cacophony of the herded insane, versus the eerie silence of the campus today. I’d often return to a C blues scale to keep the mood sorrowful, but not cliché, like a lot of diminished chords would have come across.

For the video, I put an echo effect on the track to add a bit of spookiness and make it sound more in the distance.

In the end, the video came out great, and it’s been very popular.

But here’s the piano track on its own, without the echo effect I used on the video. Rather, this track just has a live music filter on it. The best part, around 30 seconds into the track my dog Charley walked by the MacBook, and his little nails tapping on the wood floor adds a very creepy element to the track.

Click to play:

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While I was improvising this I really felt like I could have stretched out beyond 3 minutes. I’m going to record a series of Pilgrim State improvisations in the near future. But this time I’ll hook up the nice microphones.

I’ll be sharing those later.

Lastly, here’s the finished movie.

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Publish date:
May 3rd, 2009
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Music

Improvising an album

2119775073_8f6460bf3bMost of my compositions are for solo piano, but when it came to creating my improvised album, Calendar, I tried something new. Using a synthesizer.

My first semester at Manhattan School of Music I took a MIDI class, which taught me how to create recordings of ensemble pieces without needing an ensemble. I loved it, and for more than 10 years I wanted my own setup; a keyboard, a set of synthesizer sounds, and a computer. I never had the cash.

Then, almost two years ago, after my employer unplugged my PC and handed me a MacBook – at my own prodding – I made the leap. Apple’s Garageband software, which came with the computer, looked like the idiot-proof program I needed. And for less than $300 I bought a full-sized, USB-powered keyboard. Finally I had the rudimentary studio I always wanted. And I had just the project in mind to break it in.

I decided I would create Calendar, an album where each track represented a month of the year, in a completely improvised fashion.

I’d start by thinking about a certain month, putting myself in the very mood of the month, gathering mental images, thinking about what instruments capture all of that. Then I’d noodle through the bank of synth sounds, come up with a quick melodic motif I thought felt right, pick the instrument I wanted to use for the lead track and just hit ‘record’ and play. If I didn’t like the track, I’d sometimes come up with a new motif, and go again. But I never wrote anything down. I wanted the music to feel spontaneous and vulnerable, imperfect was fine. Mood mattered most.

Next I’d just start layering the song with new sounds and instruments, playing along with the lead track, until I felt the song had enough color. The process was wonderful.

I’d played scores of gigs as a saxophonist, and I guess 99 percent of all the notes I ever played in public were improvised. But I’d never just improvised a song. And though improvising with my saxophone has always been a far more intimate experience, as it’s much easier to express what I want to express when I’m playing the horn, these improvised songs are much closer to the sounds I hear in my head. Improvising with my saxophone is like putting a nozzle on a garden hose. The spray is focused and fast, organized and able to be aimed. But improvising these songs was like taking the nozzle off, and the music just glub-glubbed right out of me.

Listen to them here. And any input is welcomed.

I write more about each track later.

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Publish date:
October 6th, 2008
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Music
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