David Borgo, With and Against, 1998

I've been covering David Borgo's music on these pages with a number of postings (do a search in the search box to find the others). That's because I find him one of the important West Coast voices today, as tenor-soprano stylist and as composer-conceptualist. If I retrace steps today to go back to one of his first (if not THE first), it's because I find it a worthwhile listen, and also because it is still available on CD Baby. I refer to With and Against (Resurgent Music 123, 2-CDs). It's a quartet of David with David Ake, piano, Todd Sickafoose, bass, and Mark Ferber, drums. This is an excellent band and there is much to hear (in the studio for the first CD, live for the second).

If you follow David Borgo (or even if you don't) this gives you a blueprint for where he comes from as a musician-composer, and where ultimately is is going (or went). The band handles adroitly old Duke, Monk, modern jazz-funk, swinging left-of-center mainstream and flat-out-pretty-out music.

It also gives you a good handle on how this band-as-a-band can do just about anything convincingly. The rhythm section is primed and David Ake plays some definite piano. Ultimately it is a testament to David Borgo's versatility, poise and fire in any number of directions. This outing impresses. And it is one any jazz afficianado will dig.

David Borgo and his Trio: "Initial Conditions"

David Borgo has many sides to his musical personality. Initial Conditions (Circumvention) gives you the modern jazz trio side. It's a "blowing" date structured by very good original material and each member carries his weight with a lithe and swinging countenance. Gunnar Biggs can play a very accomplished and notable solo, then go on to swing the group heartily. Duncan Moore plays a very together role as a swinging drummer who can get a little out but can also really propulse. There's nothing hackneyed about either player's style; they play in the freebop tradition, but with their own horizons in sight.

David Borgo sounds great on alto, tenor, and soprano saxes and also alto flute and Irish flute.

The pieces are about half by Borgo, three by Biggs and a couple by some names that are new to me.

What you get is a beautiful performance of some solid material. There are some quasi-African-like pieces, burning swingers, some out-of-time and free-floating avant balladry and a little advanced funk.

It's quite good. More than quite good. Highly recommended.

David Borgo's "Chance, Discovery and Design" DVD

David Borgo, musician, composer, conceptualist and educator, has much going for him. He plays fluent sax and flute in the jazz-improv-new-music mode, he combines at various times electronics, electro-acoustics, his "metric" music (which has an African sound to it), improv, modern jazz and modern classical. He also has a flair for visual video creation. All of these facets of his art are well in evidence on his DVD Chance, Discovery and Design (Circumvention).

The visuals: they are extraordinarily interesting. They actually go completely with the music. There's animation, computer graphics, and altered visuals of the musicians in action. They enhance the experience of the music in palpable ways.

There is a cast of some 16 musicians that come in and out of play on any given piece.

Chance runs the gamut from quasi-tribal to avant-fusionesque to high-impact improv. The vibrant visuals ought to help those who might not be familiar with these musical styles because they give them a "total art" context. But even if you know about these sort of sounds the package makes for a very stimulating foray into new music today.

Excellent.

KaiBorg: David Borgo and Jeff Kaiser

The world of electronic music has altered drastically since the days of Milton Babbitt and the RCA Synthesizer. . . one man in extended real-virtual time with a wall of glowing tubes and tediously compiled punch cards. You can do things on a laptop or two live that used to take months in the studio to accomplish, tape splicing block in hand. New software gives improvisers the ability to incorporate live electronics into their performances without a mass of equipment. Of course making things easier does not always lead to more "masterpieces." You get what the musicians' ideas can accommodate. Happily there is nothing ill-considered, unimaginative or hastily conceived in the music of today's posting.

KaiBorg's new CD Harvesting Metadata (pfMENTUM 058) reflects contemporary technical developments with music that entertains, challenges and stimulates. KaiBorg consists of reedman-composer David Borgo and composer-quarter-tone-trumpeter Jeff Kaiser. Together they explore the electro-acoustic interstices with a varied program of pieces that alternately overwhelms the senses and gives pause for contemplation. There are moments of thick electronic texture and quieter way stations of comparative repose. Free-style improvisations have counter ballast in the electronics that give form to a dialog between two imaginative players and their performance resources.

This music can at times be a bit abrasive but always expressive. It's an impressive outing.

David Borgo: The Fine Art of Conceptualizing and Performing

When I had the good fortune to review David Borgo's African inspired ensemble suite Ubuntu (Cadence 1181) I was so taken by it that I choose it as one of the top ten releases for that year. Never being one to let that all be, I searched out and found a few more albums by Dr. Borgo.

One of them we consider today, Reverence for Uncertainty (Circumvention 042). It turns out to be a wide-ranging, free to African-inspired outing with an ever-shifting lineup of musically sympathetic colleagues. David Borgo mostly is found playing his tenor, but also the alto and soprano, and a solo for chalumeau clarinet.

David has advanced degrees in ethnomusicology (good for that!) and teaches at the University of California San Diego. I suppose that helps explain some of his more African-inspired music, but on this CD there is a wider range of stylistic explorations: free improvisations, more or less formally written works, Ornettish anthems, and a little of Afro-groove-meets-avant-jazz, in a small group context.

Solos, duos, two and three horn pieces and three- to five-piece conventional combos alternate throughout the recording and keep the ear stimulated with the adventure of sound and the sound of adventure.

Dr. Borgo plays his saxes adeptly and with convincing avant fervor and polish, but he also thrives as conceptualist-composer. Reverence for Uncertainty provides the advanced improvisation aficionado with a sparkling gem of an offering. I recommend it highly.