ArchMusic Live

Welcome to a celebration of the release of ArchMusic and the 100th birthday of my saxophones.

ArchMusic came about because of Covid.

After months of just practicing at home I went looking for outdoor spaces to play. Playing a woodwind instrument outside, un-amplified, is very difficult. Without surfaces to reflect the sound back at you it takes more effort to sustain the sound. It is also hard to play alone without anyone or anything to interact with. Playing in a reverberant space solves both problems. It has natural “reverb” which radically reduces the effort to just physically make sounds but also the length of the reverberation provides a method for creating harmony, even when playing instruments that only produce single notes. One note continues to ring via reverb while you can play another. Every night is a new adventure in improvisation. Different sections of the tunnel reverberate in accord with different pitches, and each night the temperature, air pressure, and humidity change – altering which tones resonate longest, making each performance an exploration in resonant frequencies.

Prospect Parks Arches, and the Cleft Ridge Span made of Coignet Cement

I set out to play in all the reverberant spaces in Prospect Park. The Endale Arch being restored drew me towards learning more about the arches and tunnels in the park. And while the newly restored Endale Arch at the northern end of the park provided some incredible photos (see left) and some decent playing, of all the spaces I found the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park was the best for my music.

This arch has no lighting and is not directly an entrance to anything in particular, though it is often a pathway to the historic boat house. Its also just in from the ancient Camperdown Elm. The tunnel was one of the earliest cement structures in Brooklyn, made by the Coignet Stone Company of Brooklyn. Have you seen the bizarre stand alone white building next to the Whole Foods in Gowanus? This building is made out of the same material and was the ‘show piece’ for the company showing off what could be done with this new cement. (Whole Foods was forced to purchase and restore the building as part of their deal to open). The owner of the Coignet Stone Company also built the mansion on the west side of Prospect Park at 3rd street - The Litchfield Villa - which is how part of the administrative buildings for the park. You may have noticed that 3rd Street is extra wide - this was the path that the owner took from the top of the slope down to his works in Gowanus. The Villa actually pre-dates the park in fact. The fountain at the top of the park near Grand Army plaza also used this new cement for its construction. Though the current iteration of the fountain is likely different (did you know there have been like 5 different fountains there? An earlier one was likely much more fantastic with machine automations and moving parts - all which were destroyed and removed when the subway was constructed underneath).

Conn Corporation

I can talk about the CG Conn company for hours (and have done so). My interest comes from my choice to play their instruments. Many of my my early saxophone heroes played them and I prefer their sound. Conn was responsible for many of the advancements that make a modern saxophone what it is (decades before the French company, Selmer would become considered the finest in the world.) Their saxophones, and indeed many early American made saxophones have a larger bore than their European counterparts. Giving them a broad and powerful sound as opposed to a more focused narrow sound. Something I very much prefer. The bore is the shape and design of the inside of an instrument. This is ultimately what really determines the sound of the instrument - not what its made out of. A wood flute and a metal flute both sound like flutes. A wood clarinet and metal clarinet both sound like clarinets due to the inherent different acoustic properties of the inner dimensions of the instrument.

Conn was at one point the largest manufacturer of wind instruments in the world. Most brass and woodwind instruments owe a lot of their history and development to that company. At its height in Elkhart Indiana the company had sprawling production facilities and even an entire building dedicated to studying and experimenting on acoustics and manufacturing techniques. The Conn company was also instrumental (pun-intended) in the creation of the United States’ modern music education system as well as the idea that there could be band/music camps. They used their corporate might to partner with and support the creation of school music programs and summer music camps. Other countries do not have these things quite the way the US does - and that’s thanks to the lasting impact of Conn. As a sidenote there is an entire website dedicated to the art of engraving that Conn mastered over its many decades - worth a peak https://connsortia.site/.

100 years and still honking

The most saxophones produced at any time were made in the 1920’s. Just prior to the great depression during the ‘jazz-age’. Conn being the largest producer. Of my collection (don’t ask how many) I have 3 different Conn saxophones that turn 100 years old in 2026. An alto saxophone, a baritone saxophone (one octave lower than an alto - twice as long) and a Bass saxophone. My tenor saxophone is now 104, so we can include it in the party too I suppose. I have purchased, restored and ‘released back into the wild’ a number of Conn saxophones just to make sure they stay around. I am currently having restored a 1940’s baritone that was originally made for the US Marine Corps. The instrument is so well designed that if properly cared the instruments can be kept in playing shape almost forever. I hope my horns last another 100 years.

The Album

So during COVID I started regularly playing in the Cleft Ridge Span. Usually late at night to avoid being near people and their Covids. After a while I began recording each outing, eventually compiling 3 years worth and many hours of recordings. The sounds of the park and the city can be heard alongside the melodies. Crickets, casual listeners strolling through, car alarms, planes - it’s all in there. You can often hear my footsteps as I traverse the tunnel searching for that evening’s resonances. Even though the album was supposed to be an easy cheap way to make an album I ended up spending many hours listening through the recordings to select tracks for an album and ended up releasing it on Vinyl - thereby ensuring I spent both lots of time and money on the project. Well the album is out now on Ravello Records. Streaming I suppose, but best sounding on Vinyl.

On the album I often make use of an Indian Shruti box to give me extra harmony to improvise with. It uses bellows and ‘free reeds’ to produce sound, so is really another wind instrument as well. Though I have connected it to a manual foot pedal to work the bellows instead of hand pumping it like the traditional method.