7 May 2025
Jazz Musician & Poet Harrison Goldberg on Cartwheels on the Sky
Host Blake More speaks with musician, poet, artist Harrison Goldberg to discuss Goldberg’s long, interesting, creative career as a jazz saxophonist, poet, artist, and playwright.
With his trademark tools of musical expression, his three saxophones: tenor, alto and soprano, Harrison can be seen and heard in several local venues as well as on a variety of CD recordings. He changes these three instruments as easily as one might change hats, which brings something to mind: As the grandson of a Russian immigrant hat maker in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Harrison has “worn a few hats of his own making,” including that of an abstract artist in the Dadaist tradition, a wine label designer, a writer of music education workshops, and a mentor for young musicians. He has his share of awards for his visual art pieces which have found their way into some corporate and private collections worldwide. Harrison is an alumnus of the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and he has been playing saxophone professionally since the age of 17.
Following a series of successful music workshops for children, Goldberg has developed an epic musical edutainment story for young people, …& Music Was King™, which is in the process of being scripted for theater performance. He is also the creator of a cross- cultural music workshop project titled Tapestry International: Celebrating the Living Fabric of Cultures Entwined and its companion performance venue A Sound Vision, which showcases the artistic contributions of children in Tapestry International’s host countries.
Playing professionally since age 17, Goldberg enjoyed 12 years in the vibrant Newport, Rhode Island jazz scene, augmented by stints in Miami and on Carribean cruise ships, before relocating to northern California in the 1980’s. Here his expansion beyond mainstream jazz began in 1992 with formation of the performance art collaborative Tabula Rasa. This four piece ensemble undertook an intentional regimen of mental and musical exercises designed to reach beyond the players’ traditional “programming” as jazz musicians, and augment it with the ability to create new music purely by inspiration… through attentive, intuitive listening. (See NeonEgypt.com: Intuitive Music) This thread was later carried forward and expanded with other players in the group Cloudfire (cloudfiremusic.com), and in partnership with computer-electronic musician and visual artist Simon Burnett as Lavender Fog . Harrison’s latest group, BAKU, is dedicated to the art of spontaneous composition, combining contemplative, ambient structures and melodies with a strong, yet relaxing rhythmic pulse. Their “Jambient Soundscapes” embody a fusion of jazz, Afro beat, Middle Eastern, and other world influences and rhythms.
Goldberg continues to explore common ground between jazz music and the visual arts, collaborating with other mainstream and experimental artists around the globe from his home north of San Francisco. As he explains in his essay ImproVart: Jazz Musician As Painter, “As a practitioner of the musical and the visual, I embark on a dual creative journey. When I begin a painting I eagerly anticipate connecting heart and soul with a rich inner music. While creating, I observe, and at the same time listen to the painting to hear its underlying melody, allowing shapes, forms and colors to begin their inspired dialogue. And as in true jazz, a song soon emerges.”
Committed to sharing the fruits of his evolving artistic journey with audiences and fellow artists alike, Harrison continues to explore new musical expressions that expand the boundaries of his creative imagination. He describes his role in music as “one of many travelers… in concert with one another capable of creating peaceful and harmonious global connections, and building bridges with our neighbors near and far.” Web Site: See Harrison’s artwork with music pairings at: www.HarrisonGoldbergArts.com (https://harrisongoldbergarts.com/)
