My best friend has written a musical!

 

My best friend Carmen Borgia called me Saturday morning from New York where he lives with his wife Alison. He was checking in like we always do, but this time it was a finite call, meaning he was expecting people to show up at their Apt to work on his new musical “South”, which he has been steadily creating for five years now, an awesome endeavor. They have a special music room where lessons can be given and group rehearsals can be held, in that New York kind of way. (If whatever you need is not waiting for you, bringing it is dictated by the constraints of the Taxi and the ability to schlep).

 

   I would be joining in to play the Mexican Guitarron acoustic bass, but since I’m in CA it’s not going to happen this time. I did get to play during the open reading they had a couple of years ago, the year before my Dad died. He and my sister Jacki got to come see us at Dixon Place, and it felt great playing in New York, my younger childhood town.

 

   “South” is a blend of traditional and non-traditional elements, held together by that most important part of the Musical form: the songs. In musicals, the plot holds our attention during the show, but it isn’t the part people go home with, isn’t that true? When we look back on the experience, we sing the songs. Carmen has written a raft of memorable songs, a few of which I sing every day as part of my vocal routine. When I say routine, I mean the songs that keep me in the game of practicing, like doing Beatle songs when you’re bored with scales. Lately it’s been “Lost To Me”, a hauntingly beautiful paean to the stars that almost makes me cry so much I can’t sing it.

 

         Carmen’s wife Alison is an Opera singer, I think Soprano Coloratura. I don’t know what that means, but I like the interesting names they give all the different types of Sopranos, like wine types. Alison has killer pipes as the Metal guys say, and it’s a bit of a thrill to hear her joining in to a chorus of her peers and wailing out some of these parts.    

 

          Of my many musical friends, Carmen is in the small minority of those who react as sincerely emotionally as he does intellectually in the ever-searching way we both scan the world for new musical experiences. He listens ironically, artfully, curiously, humorously, sensitively, and sincerely, and these qualities don’t crowd each other out as he unifies otherwise disparate sources into his listening universe. I have other friends that cover as much ground, but only a small few (including Lawrence Lazare and Wiley) that reach out to that level of the unknown and express their personalities by simply putting something on in a way that attracts followers of their taste.

 

         Carmen was raised in a community theatre town, and he’s got that going in his blood, whether he chooses it or not. It’s a problem, because I’m guessing he can only count on one hand the musicals he loves in that unreserved lifetime kind of way, like I feel about every Beatle album for instance, or the way people listen to Coltrane. Because of this, Carmen brings something new to the game. He’s always been funny, that’s a given. He’s sometimes dark, which I dig. And there’s always heart in what he does, and some amount of innocence, which you don’t see every day.

 

I feel it’s always good to bring together elements that haven’t been tried, I live for that.

          And the cast of characters: there are interesting people right and left, that’s the way it is hanging with Carmen. This is a potent combination of qualities he's bringing together, and I am excited he has the setting of New York and his talented wife and friends' participation to bring this project out.

 

You can click on "South, A Nautical Musical" on Facebook if you feel like following its genesis. I’ll be proud to follow it during my weekly phone calls.