(From the Ithaca Times, June 27, 2007)
On June 30, Bill Gregg will present a solo concert entitled “Electronica XXI: A Concert of Electro-Acoustic Music.” Although Gregg is proficient in many styles of music, this program will draw upon his electronic works of the last 20 years. This Saturday also marks his first live concert of electronic works in over 10 years.
Gregg is a master of many traditional instruments, such as guitar, piano, fiddle and violin, and can ably play in American folk and blues traditions. Yet most people do not know that another passion lies within the local history of Moog synthesizers and electronic music pioneered in the late 70s and 80s in Trumansburg.
Gregg’s concert on Saturday will be held at the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts, located only a few blocks from Robert Moog’s famous synthesizer factory. Gregg proudly calls his own electronic works “chamber music for the 21st century,” and the description seems apt.
We recently visited Gregg in his home studio in Trumansburg for a listening session of his works, both old and new. His pieces — some of which date as far back as the mid 80s, and retrieved from his own Atari computer system — are a unique combination of 80s-era synthesizer applications, traditional acoustic guitar finger picking, and contemporary digital software.
Gregg shared with us his thoughts on the upcoming concert, his outlook on the region’s musical communities today, and his memories of the Moog factory and the people who worked there.
Popcorn Youth: Why did you decide to hold the concert at the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts?
Bill Gregg: It’s this beautiful auditorium in need of repair, but the sound is great, and you can probably seat 200 or 300 people. It’s just an underutilized resource here in the village.
Popcorn Youth: The first Moog synthesizer factory was located in Trumansburg, correct?
Gregg: Yes. That was how I got interested in this — I learned the piano, and then I got into stringed instruments, but it was hard to miss the R.A. Moog Company on Main Street. A lot of the electrical engineers were pals of mine, and I would just sit there and talk to them about it. But it wasn’t until later that I really got into it — I had been away both in the service and working on the west coast, and when I moved back to the area, it turned out that my next door neighbor was Jim Scott, the co-inventor of the Mini Moog. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: Does Jim Scott still live in the area?
Gregg: The last I knew, he was living in a trailer in a Navajo Indian reservation. There’s so much history in this area. Trumansburg is the perfect place to get back into it. I was looking for an old computer part, and found it on eBay. The guy emailed me back and said, “You live in Trumansburg? That’s paradise — the holy land!” (Laughs) That was another impetus to get back into it. I thought to myself, “Oh yes, I’ve got enough time to do this.”
Popcorn Youth: Back then, did you feel like there was a tangible community of like-minded musicians or technicians?
Gregg: It was loose. I just happened to know those guys; I wasn’t even doing synthesizer work then. I had just come back from the service and I was fascinated by traditional American folk music. The big problem I had back then was that most of these instruments were monophonic — they could only play one note at a time. I thought, “Well, this would be great if you could have 32 notes playing at the same time, it would be like having your own orchestra!” And that’s exactly what I’m doing now.
Popcorn Youth: Has that music scene locally changed a lot since then?
Gregg: I would say there’s quite a bit of difference. There’s a lot of really good rich local stuff done by younger bands now — it’s different, but I don’t know whether you could say it’s better or worse, but definitely a lot of interesting stuff.
Popcorn Youth: How did you save your old music from the 80s?
Gregg: I recovered them from these old floppy discs. (Laughs) My early stuff is not indicative of what I’m doing now. What I did was, it was all programmed, and the separate parts were programmed separately without listening back to the first part. The time signatures are changing, and I put them together to see what would happen and that’s how it came out.
Popcorn Youth: What about your newer material?
Gregg: Well, a more recent piece, from January of this year, called “Borealis,” has an acoustic guitar part. The computer is playing the synthesizers — I actually improvised the parts and had the computer remember what I was going to play — and then I put the parts together again. As Jim Scott once said, most of the discoveries they made in the early days of synthesizers were serendipitous. And so what I tried to do was use accidents as a way to come up with new ideas. And then when these are all put together, I might go in and tweak them a little bit; I might play a little guitar or electric violin.
Popcorn Youth: What will the live scenario be like this weekend?
Gregg: I’ll come out and introduce some of the early things and let the computer play them. After a few of those, I’ll break to set things up, and then I’ll improvise with voice, guitar and electric violin, and I’ll probably play an early piece or two on the keyboard as well.
Popcorn Youth: So you haven’t played this music in a live setting for a while?
Gregg: Yes — over a decade. It’s been twelve years, which is kind of incredible. (Laughs) Throughout those years, I’ve still performed acoustic music on the guitar, banjo or fiddle, though.
In 1991, I did a concert featuring a symphonic, 40-minute piece with Brian Earle. He said, “I’ll hire Barnes Hall [at Cornell] and we’ll split the money if you make anything.” He was doing concerts with his people and his record company, and he was a little skeptical. But then he was just ecstatic because we filled the place. And I did concerts at museums and art galleries, places where my music really fits in.
It’s the contemporary version of chamber music — you can sit in a hall and listen to it, or you can go to an art show or museums as well.
Popcorn Youth: What is the balance between playing traditional music and the experimental projects?
Gregg: It’s funny. Every once in a while, one of my students will say, “Oh, I want to learn how to play synthesizers and learn how to program.” And I’ll say, “Learn the acoustic music first. Master an instrument, and then you’ll be able to transfer that knowledge, and it won’t sound totally off the wall.”
Popcorn Youth: I see you have John Fahey records, Varese CDs and much more. What tradition does your music fit in with?
Gregg: (Laughs) Have you listened to much experimental electronica? What would you say? Because I don’t know! I don’t see a strong connection. It’s definitely not a Phillip Glass minimalist thing, for example, although I have done some pieces that are a little bit similar.
My pieces tend to be much freer in form. That’s what I’m trying to do, to let the subconscious process do the work and compose the music rather than having a rigorous intellectual approach — I think that’s been done to death, especially with electronic music. I’m trying to use a more jazz-like approach, although there’s definitely a classical influence in there, too. It is its own genre, I guess. (Laughs) I’m not trying to copy anyone.
The concert will begin at 8pm on Saturday, June 30 at the Trumansburg Conservatory of the Fine Arts.