Sticks & Stones & Stampede

So here we are in Calgary -- it's a really beautiful city. I got a chance to see a little of the city in the morning before the recording session. Very clean, and quite modern. Check out these sculptures. Unfortunately, I have no idea what they are... but they look cool!

While Dwayne and I drove around, I had a chance to check out the soundtrack to the new Cirque du Soleil show, LOVE. It's quite interesting -- mashups of Beatles tunes. The best one I heard was "Within You, Without You" combined with "Tomorrow Never Knows"...

Here's an artsy-fartsy shot -- those are posters for the concert that night. This is the only proof I have that I was there, because it's the only picture I took of myself...

... and here is Dwayne staring with some degree of disdain at the parking ticket machine that just ate his $30. He is calling the company that owns the machine, who told him not to worry, even though he didn't have a ticket or any proof that he'd paid for the parking, they wouldn't tow him or anything. Very trusting souls, those Canadians...

On to the recording/performance venue -- The Grand theatre. It's a fully renovated theatre that had fallen into quite some disrepair over the years, but it is coooooool now... they're still working on the front facade, so there was a sign to remind everyone that they ARE open.

Here's the front hallway -- an uberhip mixture of post-apocalyptic art-deco with an ultra-modern industrial flash -- the perfect place to stage Paradise Lost when it comes to Calgary. That chandelier is made out of broken bottles. Wicked-dangerously cool.

Here's the restaurant and lounge outside of the hall. We had drinks and I had a vegetable panini after the show here, and it was excellent (sorry folks, no pics of the sandwich).

Getting ready for the session... the musicians begin to assemble on one side of the stage...

... and on the other side...

Meanwhile our engineer, Leif Gilbertson, checks on the gear to make sure everything is good to go. Leif was totally on-the-ball but laidback and mellow -- the perfect vibe for a recording session. He was also very openminded about my NUMEROUS requests and suggestions, which I really appreciated...

... and Tyler Hornby, our drum set soloist, getting warmed up. Besides being an extraordinarily talented drummer and musician, he was also great to work with during the session. His cadenzas were miniature compositions in and of themselves, and I wish I could put every one of the takes on the album -- yes, they were all that good.

Here's a shot from the top of the audience's seating of the recording setup. Check out that HUGE brick wall behind them -- it's like a natural shell, projecting everything out. It also looked hella cool. You may also notice that the drumset is on the floor in front of the band, facing the ensemble -- BEHIND the microphones. Why would do that?! Because that center pair of mics are directional, and by putting the drums on the other side, the magnetic pattern of the microphone will reject the drumset, and actually make the drums sound farther away. Then we can put close mics on the drums (two overheads, a kick mic, and a snare mic which will probably never get used) to give us presence, and the ensemble mics will give us a nice sense of the "room" for the drums, AND it keeps the director and the ensemble closer to the drumset, minimizing the delay of sound travelling through air, and therefore giving us a tighter performance. Just a little advanced acoustic recording technique tip for ya' there...

Here's a close-up from behind Tyler's drums, for the tweaky drummers out there. What you can't see is his main snare drum, but what you can see on the left is the extra mini snare he also plays -- very cool contrasting snare sounds. Also notice the mini-gong on the right (which he used subtly to great effect), and the pages and pages of drum chart layed out end to end to avoid page turns...

TAKE FIVE. While the musicians were taking a break, I snapped this attractive but useless photo of their instruments, lined up like a row of Harley Davidsons outside of a biker bar. What you can't really tell in this picture is that all the player's instruments are forward-firing for maximum power. Tubas? Mounted on their shoulder like a giant bazooka. Euphoniums? French Horns -- bells forward, low notes ablaze. I wanted a really aggressive sound for this piece, and believe me, I GOT IT.

The session went as smooth as glass, and Tyler and the band played great. I think we've got a great recording of the piece.

I didn't take many pictures of the concert, so if anyone has any of the Sticks & Stones performance, send them to jimbonney@aol.com. I don't even have a picture of the cool cowboy hat they gave me! (could take one here in Chicago, but I don't think it'd be the same...)

Here's the drumline, about to perform. Through a rather bizarre upbringing, I'm pretty sure I've never heard a drumline perform live before that evening.

Now that I have, I can say without reservation: it's probably the greatest acoustic ensemble EVER.

Here's a closeup of Andrew Bell playing drumset -- this guy looked like he was having more fun than the entire band put together, and he grooved hard too. It was awesome to watch.

This was a world premiere performance of an arrangement for brass choir, based on a painting by a well-known painter of Western scenes. To bring things full-circle, they had an artist (Alexandra, who also happened to be an excellent bass clarinetist) paint a new work while the piece was being performed. Art imitated life imitates art. Or something like that...

Sticks & Stones was the final piece of the evening, and it was INTENSE. The band played super-tight, and Tyler was bangin'. He came offstage totally stoked and I heard him say the coolest, most candid thing:

"Wow -- I wish I could do that every night!"

This is coming from a guy who headed out on Monday for a European tour with a successful jazz ensemble -- he's not sitting on the couch waiting for wedding gigs. I was really excited that I could be a part of creating something that could get these players that pumped up, and honored that he had such an enjoyable time playing my piece.

A successful performance, and after a long day, the only thing left was to load up the equipment and head home. I had to take a picture of the Calgary Stampede TRUCK -- yes folks, this band has their own TRUCK, complete with custom art that would rival the cover of any Harlequin romance novel. Priceless stuff.


I want to give a huge thanks to the Calgary Stampede and Tyler Hornby for playing their asses off, and to Leif Gilbertson for getting us a great recording. And last but far from least, a giant thank you to director Dwayne Engh, for making this whole project come off without a hitch, for being an extremely considerate host, and for conducting this ensemble through a successful recording session and a killer performance. THANK YOU CALGARY!!!!!