Stories & Reflections
Notes on the music, the ideas behind the albums, and the creative sparks that shaped the catalog.
Some pieces begin as improvisations. Some begin as questions. Some begin as unfinished signals waiting for the right moment to return. These reflections gather the themes behind the music — creation, attention, memory, choice, repair, performance, and becoming.
CreateBecome
CreateBecome began as a mantra Alan Goldberg carried for more than forty years — a phrase used as a focus for presence, creation, and transformation.
The album follows that idea across eleven instrumental pieces, moving through continuity, innocence, choice, curiosity, emotional trust, pursuit, survival, connection, uncertainty, and realization. Piano sits at the center, sometimes leading the melodic conversation and sometimes moving through the ensemble like an inner voice.
The Show – Deluxe Edition
The Show began with forty seconds of unused film music. The filmmaker wanted something darker, but Goldberg heard something else in the cue and finished it as The Show: Redux.
That sparked the idea for an EP about the music surrounding a performance: the entrance, the intermission, the lobby, the curtain call, the ending, and the afterparty. Written during the pandemic with musicians recording remotely, the result is instrumental jazz with a relaxed, happy, theatrical pulse.
The Art Behind the Music
The visual world around Alan Goldberg Music has been shaped by several artists and collaborators who helped translate sound, story, memory, and imagination into images. From photography and montage to character art, cover design, and symbolic logos, these works became part of the larger language surrounding the music.
Diane Guccione photographed Alan Goldberg for several earlier visual materials, including images with “melting” electronics and other portrait-based pieces. Her photography helped capture a more personal, expressive side of the music’s visual identity.
Vshane Colclough created the cover art for the original The Show. His artwork brought to life Jix, the Master of Ceremonies — a character from Alan Goldberg’s teenage science-fiction writing who became part of the theatrical mythology around the music.
John Staple, an artist from Taos, New Mexico, created the cover art for CreateBecome. His montage, Fate’s Review of Path’s Taken, combines images from Morocco, Spain, and Guatemala into a warm, symbolic visual field of corridors, steps, skins, roses, and a movement through and upward.
Kat Powell worked with Alan Goldberg on the artwork for The Show EP, as well as the covers for Intermezzo Liscio and Finale Consumato. Her work helped extend The Show’s theatrical visual world into moments in time.
Kat Powell worked with Alan Goldberg on the artwork for The Show EP, as well as the covers for Intermezzo Liscio and Finale Consumato. Her work helped extend The Show’s theatrical visual world into moments in time
Cooky Goldblatt designed the Passion No Distraction logo, translating the album’s inner symbolic language into a visual mark. The central “star nut” represents inner essence or soul, while the surrounding ring and reaching arms suggest inner workings, communication, action, and interaction with the world.
Small Acts
Small Acts began in 2001 as a collection of solo piano pieces recorded with intention. Each piece represented a small act — something simple, direct, and meaningful that could help make the self, and perhaps a small part of the world, better.
The music was improvised after fasting, meditation, and a deliberate effort to let go. Twenty years later, the recordings were remixed, remastered, and expanded with three new pieces: Remembering, Listening Well, and Fixing It.
Passion No Distraction
Passion No Distraction was shaped by the feeling of putting on a progressive rock album and not knowing where it would lead. The goal was discovery: a musical ride where the listener lets go for a while and follows the changes.
The songs explore decision, distraction, reflection, desire, and focus. Ideas appear, pull attention away, return, and resolve — not as abstract concepts, but as music moving through thought, action, and emotional momentum.
Music for Video, Film, and Story
Many of Goldberg’s pieces are built like scenes: melodic, visual, and emotionally directed. Many begin through improvisation at the piano, then expand through ensemble instruments, guitar, horns, rhythm, and texture.
That cinematic quality also connects the catalog to licensing and sync. The music has been used for a variety of sync and social purposes, with pieces such as Afterparty and Finale: Consumato positioned for film and television use.
The emotional build, strong melodic identity, and dynamic movement found throughout the catalog create a natural synergy with visual art — supporting scenes, stories, and images with atmosphere, motion, and feeling.