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Chris Bergson’s guitar playing is rhythmic and meditative, but explodes with soul.

“You have to keep pushing yourself to keep learning and keep improving,” Bergson told the Journal in Oct. 2011. “It’s a challenge. It’s also a very demanding instrument. The instrument itself keeps you humble. I practice every day. You can never underestimate the guitar’s ability to kick your butt. It’s a challenging instrument to play. So I think that keeps you motivated.”

Bergson has a new record, “Live at Jazz Standard.” And on Saturday he will bring his band to The Falcon in Marlboro for a CD release party. Joining Bergson, who sings and plays guitar, will be Jay Collins on tenor saxophone and backing vocals; Craig Dreyer on organ; Matt Clohesy on bass; and Ethan Eubanks on drums.

Bergson, who grew up in Boston, is a former Brooklyn resident and currently lives in Manhattan, recently shed some insight on his love for making music.

1 – Why release a live record?
“I’d always wanted to make a live record to capture that energy and communication that takes place between the band and the audience. So many of our favorite albums are live albums —whether it’s The Band’s “Rock of Ages” or B.B. King’s “Live at the Regal” or Aretha “Live at Fillmore West,” there’s a real immediacy there — you can feel the sweat. You feed off that energy when the audience is right there with you in the moment at the club.

“I’d been wanting to make a live record for a long time but it had always been a matter of finding the right venue. So when New York City’s Jazz Standard offered us two nights back-to-back last June, I thought “Let’s do it!” We’ve been playing at Jazz Standard for ten years now. We had a weekly Monday night residency there back in the Fall of 2004, which was really the start of the band and Jay Collins and I playing together, so we all felt really comfortable and very much at home recording there.

“Some of the older, original tunes, like “Greyhound Station” and “High Above the Morning” are actually tunes we first played at Jazz Standard ten years ago and it’s cool to see how they’ve evolved and changed over time. The album also includes eight new original tunes including co-writes with organist Craig Dreyer and singer Ellis Hooks, as well as with my wife and co-lyricist, Kate Ross. We recorded about 25 different songs over the course of the two nights and then chose the best 15 performances for the album.”

2 – What challenges does a live record present that you don’t find in the studio?
“There was no starting and stopping on any given tune or any discussion after each song, as often takes place in the studio. We were going for total performances for each song. You had to really just be in each moment, trust and go for it. I found it very liberating and once we got in the zone, it felt so natural that I often forgot we were recording.

“I liked the part of “not looking back” after each song, not overanalyzing or judging the song you just played right after you played it, as sometimes happens in the studio and can interrupt the flow. In many ways, recording live in front of an audience, felt much easier and more natural than recording in the studio.

“We also decided up front that we weren’t going to do any overdubbing or add additional parts later the way we might in the studio — adding a rhythm guitar part here or an additional keyboard part there. I knew we had four sets over two nights so I felt confident we’d get what we wanted. A few songs we only did once over the run, but most we did at least twice so we’d have two versions to choose from.”

3 – What’s it like to play with a horn section behind you?
It feels incredible. It’s really a dream come true. Having the punch of the horn section groovin’ and poppin’ takes me back to the sound of my favorite soul records. It makes everyone play a little more economically and you build your solos differently having that incredible support behind you.

4 – You live in New York City. Does the city inform your songwriting at all?
“Definitely. I get a lot of ideas for songs from just walking around, observing the city’s constant revolving casts of characters.

“I also like looking for inspiration from other sources. “Bluemner” was inspired by a visit to the Whitney Museum of American Art and discovering the amazing and overlooked German artist Oscar Bluemner, and a painting of his from 1927 of a winding street and streetlamp at night. Kate suggested a little writing assignment: to give myself twenty minutes and write as much as I possibly could about the painting. We started combining lyric ideas over a slow Skip James-inspired delta blues groove and “Bluemner” was born.”

5 – You’ve performed often in the Hudson Valley, does this region inform your songwriting at all?
Definitely. I feel like it’s my home away from home, having spent quite a bit of time up here over the years. I think you can really hear the Catskills influence on songs like “Fall Changes” and “Goin’ Home.” I remember picturing the winding roads around the Ashokan Reservoir when I was writing “Fall Changes.”

6 – Do you ever encounter writer’s block and, if so, how do you manage it?
I feel lucky that I’ve never really gotten writer’s block, although we all can feel stuck sometimes. But returning to and learning or playing a song of someone else’s that you really love can help re-center you and it’s important to stay connected to the music that moved you in the first place. Looking for inspiration from other sources seems to help keep the creative juices flowing, too.

7 – What do you like about playing the guitar?
I love trying to tell a story on the guitar and making the instrument sound like a human voice. I also love playing chords and rhythm guitar and in some small humble way, I try to find ways to adapt chord voicings from piano players Ray Charles and Bill Evans to the guitar.

8 – What do you like about singing?
I love singing as I feel I can express the most feeling through singing. I love trying to get inside the story and finding the emotional center of a song — it’s like an actor inhabiting a role — you have to make everyone believe it, it has to feel real.

Written by John W. Barry
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