Wind Ensemble Project (pt.IX)

Chris Woton wrote me a short, simple, but absolutely beautiful email today, telling me not only that he was totally committed to this project, but WHY. Thank you Chris -- you made my day by sharing your joy, and I'm honored to have you involved with this project!

I now have 5 musicians, a conductor, and an engineer. I also have plane tickets for me and Nicki -- I bought them today. So either I'm gonna have a slammin' recording session in two and a half weeks, or I'm gonna have a looooooooong uneventful weekend in Columbus!

One hall has fallen through -- that's good -- we had too many anyway. Waiting to hear about percussion equipment, and I'm continuing to contact players... I'm averaging about one "yes" per day. Since I need about 35 more musicians, that means I'll be ready to record by November 3rd. I'm gonna have to get a little more aggressive about this if I'm gonna pull this stunt off...

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.VIII)

Zach Roberts, the tuba player with a million Hawaiian shirts, is gonna play "TranZendental Danse of Joi"! Zach played at Ohio Wesleyan on Chaos Theory, and at Ohio State on Courage & Compassion (he's the lone tuba player at the opening -- you'll hear it on the upcoming BCM CD). I'm totally jazzed to welcome him on board. Thanks for the call, Zach!

I finished going through all the parts last night -- the ones from the reading at Wheaton College on Monday. I was looking for any comments or indications the players might've made that'd revisions that might need to be made -- 80 sets of eyes are better than one! There were a few computer glitches that were pointed out, and one of the clarinetists drew an arrow to the title "TranZendental Danse of Joi" and wrote:

"Hooked on phonics"

I thought that was pretty phunny.

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.VII)

(Today was a whirlwind -- I started the day by hiring musicians for a recording session this afternoon, for a piece of music I hadn't even started to write! That all turned out fine, but is a whole different story...)

Y'know, I need to put Milt Allen on my speed dial -- every time I call that guy, I'm more and more convinced that we're gonna pull this project off! Because when you stop and think about it, finding 40+ people AND a recording hall AND there's only one day to do it on... it's kinda daunting. But Milt is so positive, and so high-powered -- I can't believe how lucky I am to know this guy, let alone be partnered up with him for this project. He's closing in on not one, not two, but THREE halls in Columbus for us to record in -- we're hoping to have one locked down solid by the end of the week!

And the Speedy Gonzales Award goes to Travis Pennell -- French Horn monster and die-hard BCM advocate. Check out these stats: Travis played on the "Courage & Compassion" recording session at Ohio State University. He was at opening night of Eric Whitacre's opera electronica, "Paradise Lost" IN LOS ANGELES. But I'm here to give him mad props for his timely response to my invitation to play on "TranZendental Danse of Joi" -- I wrote him an email, sent it, logged off, and my phone rang. I'm not sure how he was even able to read it in that amount of time, but he swears that he read the email twice! Thanks Travis -- so psyched to have you on board!!!

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.VI)

(I've got another musician on board for the recording session! Derek Scoles, the first trumpet from Ohio Wesleyan University, is totally psyched to be involved. Thank you Derek!)

After a late night of taping parts, and a very harried Monday at work, Nicki and I blasted out to Wheaton College for the first reading of "TranZendental Danse of Joi". When we arrived, Jim Warrick was busy conducting the rehearsal, so we quietly grabbed seats in the hall and listened. When they went on break, we started handing out parts. I gave the upright bass player my bass guitar, and he went backstage to find an amplifier. I also gave the percussion section my plastic paint buckets and dowel rods -- the ones I'd been using for my own "rehearsals" of the piece. After the break, a guest conductor picked up the rehearsal, and I could see Jim Warrick off to the side feverishly conducting through this piece -- with a meter change every 1-2 bars, I couldn't blame him!

With 20 minutes left in rehearsal, Jim W. called me up to the stage. I said a few brief words, thanked them for this opportunity, and then asked that if they had any comments or suggestions, to write them in their part so I could review them afterwards. I jumped offstage, and before the band could start, there was a blast of outrageous feedback -- the bass amp had died. So, no bass guitar for the reading. Jim W. shows them the 7/8,7/8,12/8,2/4 groove, and then gave the downbeat. No one came in. Several bars go by, no one is playing. I run back to the percussion section, and they're all standing at their buckets, dowels at-the-ready, with no idea how to play this part. My notation has completely stymied them. I play through it once, and the 1st percussionist IMMEDIATELY gets it -- this guy is a very quick study! The rest of the band comes in, and they do the best they can to play through the piece. After running it from top to bottom, we go back to one short section, and then we're out of time. Fortunately, Jim W. has had the foresight to record this rehearsal, and he's able to present me with a CD-R immediately afterwards, so I can study the reading and make changes.

My sincerest thanks to the Jim Warrick and the Wheaton College Symphonic Band -- you were presented with a daunting task, and as unsatisfying as the experience may have been you, I WAS able to gain some insight on what tweaks need to be made to the piece. Your rehearsal time was GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.V)

I've already received one response to play on this "TranZendental Danse of Joi" recording session, and it's a YES! Maria Finkelmeier, percussionist from OSU, is on board! I met her at the recording session for Courage & Compassion and I'm so excited that she's up for playing another one of my pieces. She even gave me contact info for another percussionist, and a lead on getting instruments. Thank you Maria -- YOU RULE!!!

Meanwhile, I've busting by butt all day getting scores and parts ready for the reading session at Wheaton College tomorrow night.. this band is HUGE. 17 flutes, 6 oboes, 3 bassoons, 11 clarinets... are you getting the picture?!? I'm headed home to start taping the parts together. Nicki has offered to help. The poor girl has no idea what she's in for...

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.IV)

Had a long talk with Milt Allen this morning, and while he sees what he can do about a hall in Columbus, I'm going to start trying to recruit musicians for this premiere recording of TranZendental Danse of Joi... I will not be mentioning the names of the musicians who I am asking, in order to protect the guilty... I will, however, be lauding mad props on the cats that decide they want to play this piece.

I emailed out 4 invitations tonight to the TranZendental recording session, and every time I hit "send", I got this cold jolt of fear and excitement -- fear of the possiblity of screwing up this project before it even gets off the ground, and excitement at the possibility of having these musicians involved.

rcsmfltsl!!!

More Good News!

Mark Whitlock wants me to perform Chaos Theory during the "BCM-in-residence" gig at University of Minnesota Deluth!

Keith Dye has commissioned me to re-arrange "Asturias" for the Texas Lutheran University, to be premiered in February 2005!

Good News!

Jim Kull wants to perform two of Tim Davies' pieces with the St. Charles Jazz Ensemble, and he's me to play guitar with them! Tim is a very good friend, and they want to play two of my favorite pieces -- Iron Chef Big Band, and Chocolate Requiem. This is gonna be a total blast.

And I don't have to move!! I can stay for 6 more months in my current apartment! This is a huge load off my mind.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.III)

(for the unenlightened: I am putting together my own wind ensemble, to record my new piece, "TranZendental Danse of Joi", for the upcoming BCM CD, due out in December 2004)

Logistics, logistics, logistics... the dates have been thrown about wildly, but we've come down to ONE DAY that we can record within the next 2 months. OCTOBER 16th. All are eggs are in one very small basket marked "October 16th". A "one" (as in only one chance to pull this off) and a "six" (as in... well, sixteen).

I'd decided to do this project in Ohio, and now we've narrowed down the city -- Columbus, Ohio. Now all I need to come up with are 40 musicians and a recording venue in Columbus, Ohio -- that are all available on October 16th...

In the meantime, I've set up to reading sessions: the first is this Monday night with Jim Warrick and the Wheaton College Wind Ensemble. The second is on October 13th, with Jim Kull and the St. Charles Wind Ensemble. Both Jim Warrick and Jim Kull are being supremely cool by offering to do this, and I am exceedingly grateful to both of them for their generosity. I'll let you know how things go...

Alpharetta to Chicago

Randall picks me up at 7:15 AM (no time for cinnamon rolls this morning), and we head off to fight the rush hour traffic. We get there in good time, and have one last opportunity to talk before I jump on the train. I've really had an excellent time with Randall and the ensemble, and I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to spend time with everyone!

Hop on the train, hop on the plane, read some more of the Baghavid Gita (smart guys, them Hindus), grab my bag, hop on another train, jump in my buddy's car (who's waiting at the curb -- what a guy!), and back to work -- both guns a-blazin'.

There are 60 emails waiting for me. There are phone messages. I've missed several meetings while I've been gone. I get caught up on the mundane stuff, then play some rhythm guitar tracks on this jazz mambo tune for another composer. Conference call to Las Vegas, more catch-up, and then a voiceover recording session... business as usual!!! Whew!?!

Chaos in Alpharetta (pt.3)

Usual morning routine -- a little breakfast (the cinnamon rolls are still fantastic), and then Randall comes by to pick me up. First order of business -- music theory class. I meet the theory and chorus teacher, Beth Gibbs. She helps me crank up the recording of Chaos Theory, and then I show the class a few of the rock and classical elements that make up the piece. The highlight of the morning seems to be when I drop the F-bomb on the entire class... nice one Jim, very nice. But otherwise things go smoothly, and nobody falls asleep, which I take as a very good sign.

Randall and I have some free time, so he shares the piece he commissioned from Sam Hazo for his grandson, called "Diamond Fanfare". Very lovely piece. He also plays a piece called "Harrison's Dream" by Peter Graham, and I am totally blown away. This is a very difficult piece, and his ensemble handles it beautifully. Randall is even kind enough to give me a score and one of the band recordings of the piece -- I'm definitely going to be spending some time with this one.

We head to rehearsal and disaster strikes -- no amplifier. The band rehearses their other material, and then Randall asks me "what do you want to do?". I suggest we bite the bullet -- patch directly into the PA system and see what we get. The results are actually pretty good -- my tone is a little raw and undercooked, but the coverage over the hall and the balance with the ensemble is excellent! We decide to go with it, and with Beth Gibbs help on the levels, we complete our rehearsal and soundcheck with no problems. I do manage to royally screw up a few of my solo runs, so I realize I will have some woodshedding to do before the performance tonight...

Rehearsal is over, Randall heads to a meeting, and I catch up on the blog. Then I head back to the hotel, rest, relax, and do some mental practice -- I close my eyes and run through the entire piece, hearing the entire ensemble as clearly as possible, hearing my part, visualizing every fingering, every technical nuance... noticing where there is tension, where there are holes in my visualization... I manage to make it through the entire piece without falling asleep. Again, a very good sign.

I change clothes for the performance and as I'm putting on my "stage pants", I realize they're alot more snug than the last time I wore them. Note to self: take it easy on the cinnamon rolls tomorrow morning.

Bruce, the color-guard director, is cool enough to pick me up, and after a stop a convenience store for an energy bar and a bottle of water, I'm ready to go. I leave my gear backstage, and head out into the audience to join Bruce, Lindy, Kim, and Anne Coleman and her mother -- who is 92 year old and a pistol! I hear the first band, led by Rhianna Franklin, and they sound really good. For alot of these students, this is their first high school concert, and this is definitely Rhianna's -- she does a great job leading this ensemble through a very tight, solid performance. Next is the Dennis Naughton's ensemble -- very polished music-making from this ensemble, and I find myself studying Dennis' conducting technique -- VERY expressive and interpretive, but NEVER straying too far from a clear, rock-solid beat pattern. The curtain closes and I dash backstage to get set up.

Tegan (the bass guitarist) and I set up in front of the curtain, while the band gets set up in back. Soon everything is set and has been double-checked, and I head off to the wings to listen to the band. They sound great -- I can't wait to get out there and play with them! Finally Randall steps up to the mic and introduces me with some very, very kind words. The band kicks off and the sound is HUGE -- it's like having this giant sonic wave coming over me, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm gonna be loud enough to compete! Near the end of my cadenza, I toss my pick into the ensemble -- I've never done this before, and it shows. Evidently, you have to toss a pick like a frizbee, or they just flutter about stupidly and fall straight to the floor. And that's exactly what happens -- nobody catches it and it looks completely ridiculous. (after the performance, one of the flute players who'd been sitting nearby gave me the pick BACK. I tell her she can keep it, but she's not interested. I bet this never happened to Eddie Van Halen!)

But that doesn't matter at all -- the performance is really dynamic, and the audience is already clapping and cheering before we've even finished. We're a smash hit in Alpharetta!

Sincerest thanks to the musicians: Tegan (you rock, girl!), Daniel (thanks SO much for the amp), Grant (dude -- so sorry I lost your pen), Grant (what is this, a comedy routine?), Joey (next time, up an octave!!!), Justin & Andrew and the whole percussion section, John (enjoy the score!), Michelle, Josie, Josh, Chris, Matt (next time YOU play the guitar part!), and all the other talented players whose names did not deserve the ill-fate of my pea-sized brain! Thank you all for a great performance!!! Also sincerest thanks to Beth, Rhianna, Dennis, Bruce, Lindy, Kim and Anne for making my visit so enjoyable and easy -- I really enjoyed getting to know you all. Extra special thanks to Randall Coleman for making this whole experience possible -- it was an excellent time for me, and I thank you for making it happen.

MILTON H.S. ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Chaos in Alpharetta (pt.2)

Get up, grab breakfast (the cinnamon rolls are EXCELLENT), practice, and then Randall Coleman swings by to pick me up. It's the first time I've seen him since we were both down at Georgia Southern University, and we have a great time getting caught up on things. I meet another of the band directors, Dennis Naughton, and soon after, it's time to get set up for rehearsal.

Daniel, the first clarinetist, is cool enough to lug his personal 4x12 cabinet and amp head to school so I can play through it. The only problem is that Daniel is a bass guitar player, so this is a bass rig. We manage to tweak it so that it sounds acceptable for rehearsal, but we all agree that we're gonna have to find something different for the concert.

The rehearsal is great -- the band is well-rehearsed and they are playing aggressively, which is exactly what this piece needs. And right from the dwonbeat, the percussion section is really tight -- Justin, who's playing alot of the hi-hat and tom fills, is really driving the beat, and combined with this ensemble's big sound, it feels great to play with this band.

Randall and I duck out with a local director (and GSU alum) named Lindy, then I go back to the hotel to chill for a while. I change my strings, practice for an hour, call Nic, call Steve, call Newman, turn on the TV -- BIG MISTAKE. ESPN2 has the World Series of Poker on, and I'm glued to the tube until dinner-time.

Randall and his wife Anne come by to pick me up and we head to an Italian restaurant called Ippalito's (note to Zagats: give this place a A+). Lindy and his wife Kim join us, and so does Rhianna. We sit down to eat and this is when I come to realize that Lindy has missed his true calling -- this guy should be doing standup comedy. He is hysterically funny and we are all laughing the entire time we're at the restaurant. We finish up with a HUGE slice of Coconut Cream Pie (the best I've ever had), and Black and White cake (TO DIE FOR), then pick up our doggie bags and sloooooooowly move towards the door.

Randall, Anne and I pile back into Randall's truck, and I ask to stop at a drug-store for a few quick things I'd forgotten. 10 minutes, in, out, and I'm back. I open the door to the truck and I'm immediately assaulted by this stench -- it smells like low tide at fisherman's wharf. It turns out that my styrofoam container of Seafood Marinara has stunk up the WHOLE car, and I've left poor Randall and Anne cooped up with it this whole time! They are exceedingly gracious about it, but they've got to be wishing I'd ordered something less... pungent!

Chaos in Alpharetta (pt.1)

My trip couldn't have been smoother. The cab rolled up right on time and the driver took an extremely creative yet zippy route to the airport -- getting me there with time to spare, and saving me about 10 bucks! Check-in was a breeze (gotta love e-tickets), and for the first time in ages, I got through security without having to be poked, prodded, and invaded. Even my pedal-board (the hyper-sophisto-sonic-mutation-station) made it through x-ray without even raising an eyebrow -- AMAZING.

The flight was very smooth, and I was was left in peace to eat my pretzels and drink my coca-cola and read the Baghavid Gita (a little Hindu wisdom never hurt anybody). Got off the plane, walked to the baggage claim, and spotted my bag just coming onto the carousel -- how lucky does one traveller get?!? Walked over to the MARTA train station, and the train I need is stopped and waiting. This is too much! Arrive at my stop, walk out, and Rhianna Franklin, band director and my ride to the hotel, is right there waiting. Now THAT'S a smooth trip.

Quick stop at Taco Bell, head to the hotel, call Nic, practice for an hour, turn on the TV -- whoa, BIG MISTAKE. The "World Chopper Build-off" is on the Discovery Channel, and I am transfixed by visions of tricked-out custom motorcycles until 2 AM...

Atlanta-bound

Today I'm headed to Atlanta, Georgia to play Chaos Theory with Randall Coleman and the Milton High School Wind Ensemble. It's been a crazy couple of weeks leading up to this, but I've managed to squeeze practice time into the available nooks and crannies, and I'm feeling pretty good about this performance. I've also got a new guitar for the gig -- a salesman was able to track down the exact limited-edition Fender Strat that I wanted, and they shipped it up from Texas. I picked it up yesterday -- it sounds and plays like a dream. I've hardly put it down since I've gotten it.

Hopefully I will be able to find an internet connection while I'm in Georgia, so I can keep you up-to-date on the gig -- if not, I'll be sure to let you know how everything went on Wednesday -- STAY TUNED!

* Rock n Roll Quickee *

So what do you do when you have a matter of hours to get a rock 'n' roll track to the client before you "never work in this town again"? Desperate times call for desperate measures -- I took the rock 'n' roll track I did 2 weeks ago and chopped it in half. I called the bass player, piano player, and drummer, and told them they were getting paid for another recording session that they'd already done (they were, of course, overjoyed). Then I stripped off the saxophone track, and laid down a lead guitar part in it's place. VOILA! Instant new music track -- we'll call this wham bam thank you ma'am.

For the shredheads out there -- I borrowed a friend's ES-335 to get that authentic Chuck Berry sound... only problem was that my friend had strung the guitar with heavy guage half-round jazz guitar strings, and there was no time for adjustment. The result was that the tone was a more mellow than usual, and string bending was reaaaaaaaally difficult. To compensate, I played really really hard and dug in with lots of double-stops -- it's not the most intelligent lead guitar part I've ever played, but it's got lots of attitude!

* White Hot *

OK -- here's that track I was talking about yesterday -- White Hot. The drummer came back and laid down the same heavy groove, only this time, I kept my eye on the ball, and a good engineer was there to catch it.

For those of you who like to screw up with a perfectly good musical instrument, check this out -- I took all but the top two strings off of my bass guitar, tuned the D string down to a C so that the string would sound flappier, and then capo'ed the bass at the 2nd fret to bring it back up to pitch. Now I could strum fifths with a big fat pick... a little variation on the classic "drop-D" guitar tuning.

(yesterday someone asked about hearing the original mix -- the difference would only be of interest to the tweakiest-of-tweaky recording engineers, and once I smoosh this recording down to a 56kHz mp3 file, you probably wouldn't be able to tell much difference between the old one and the new one...)

spanked

I had a recording session yesterday that was a total disaster. Granted, I have been very busy lately, and this session sprang up out of nowhere, but I made so many mistakes AND I KNOW BETTER, so I'm writing down these lessons, in hopes of NOT FORGETTING THESE THINGS IN THE FUTURE.

1. NEVER UNDERSTIMATE THE GIG. The project was to do some hard-driving sax, drums, and rock-n-roll. I figured this was gonna be a piece of cake -- the charts were gonna be simple, we could track everything at once, and I didn't need an engineer -- me and one of the other composers could handle it. Riiiiiiiight.

2. BE A GOOD BOY SCOUT. And I'm not talking about walking old ladies across the street here, I'm talking BE PREPARED. When the drummer showed up, the studio was not prepped for a recording session, and I still hadn't finished writing out the parts. So I sent the other composer to set up the session, while I frantically wrote the last bits.

3. DO IT RIGHT, OR DON'T DO IT AT ALL. In order to finish the parts quickly, I started skipping steps -- leave out a dynamic here, oversimplify a drum fill there -- I needed to get these done and get into the studio, and I figured I could explain it to the players as we went. All this did was make my musicians look at me more and more disparagingly as I said "oh yeah -- one more thing..." over and over and over and over again.

4. PLAN FOR THINGS TO GO WRONG. That way you'll know what you're gonna do when they do go wrong (and don't worry, there will always be things you DIDN'T think of that'll keep life entertaining). I didn't plan for anything. The drummer didn't bring the baby splash I wanted (because I didn't ask him to ahead of time). One of the mics wasn't working, and we didn't have a spare. The 9V battery in my bass guitar was on death's door, and once I'd figured out that the battery was the problem (actually, the drummer figured it out), it took me another 10 minutes to go get another one and install it.

5. ONLY COOK WITH THE BEST INGREDIENTS. My buddy is a great composer, but he's NOT a professional engineer. It took him a loooong time to get set up, and he had to ask two more guys to help him figure out why the board and the patch-bay weren't working (I would've helped him myself, but I was busy explaining the music to the other musicians. See rule #3). By the time we were set up and ready to go, we only had one overhead mic on the drums, no room mic, no hi-hat mic, and we'd wasted at least 45 minutes of precious studio time.

6. DON'T WALK AND CHEW GUM AT THE SAME TIME. I figured I could manage the bass part AND run the session at the same time. BIG MISTAKE. I was so busy making sure I played my part well, I couldn't see the big picture, which was that THINGS WERE NOT GOING WELL AT ALL. I should've either tracked my part beforehand, or overdubbed it afterwards.

7. HE WHO SMELT IT, DEALT IT. The groove was swinging like a rusty gate, and I couldn't figure out why. I was playing MY part right, but it just seemed like the sax player and I were not locking up. Was he playing his part right? Maybe it was his phrasing or his slurs, or maybe he has a bad sense of time... no, he's a pro studio musician... can he hear the click OK?... or did I notate what I wanted correctly or incorrectly?... am I playing my part wrong?... turned out that in the process of whipping through the sax player's part, I'd left off a dot on one of his dotted-quarter notes, and it was a repeated rhythmic figure. The moral of the story: if something stinks and you can't figure out what it is, it's probably you.

8. LISTEN FOR THE MUSICS. We were running so far behind, we didn't do a sound-check. I never went into the booth to listen to what we had until we were finished, and at that point, I was concerned with making sure my client was happy and that I could cut the drummer loose so we could get him off the clock. And sure enough, when everyone was gone and I sat down to mix, I couldn't believe my ears. The drums sounded terrible -- they sounded like corrugated cardboard, only with less personality. The bass part was totally out-of-control -- it sounded OK on the headphones, but it wasn't working over speakers. And some of the doubled sax parts were phasing out and creating weird cancellation. What was I gonna do with this slop?!?

The bottom line? I could probably get away with just mixing this down and calling it art -- the client LOVED what he heard at the session, and seemed to take no notice that the whole process was limping along like a three-legged dog. But instead I'm going to bite the bullet: I'm going to have the drummer come back in to re-cut his tracks, and this time, have a professional engineer come in to record and mix everything. I'll put it up here when it's finished.

CountdownS

Including today...
3 days to finish 3 games (2 of which I haven't even started yet)
5 days until I fly to Atlanta, GA
7 days until I perform Chaos Theory
(12 days to finish 2 more games)
16 days until I have to be out of my apartment (with no particular place to go afterwards)
(17 days to finish an additional 2 games)
20 days until I fly to Las Vegas, NV (work, not play)
26 days until my sister runs the Chicago Marathon (and I finish the last 5 miles with her)
32 days until I record "TranZendental Danse of Joi"
34 days until I fly to New York City
40 days until I record Steve and Newman at Tarleton University
44 days until I fly to Duluth, MN
48 days until the BCM CD has to be at the plant

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.II)

O.K. -- Milt Allen is on-board and totally pumped to conduct this project into reality. We're already brainstorming on names for the ensemble so we can print up t-shirts, and we don't even know who'd be wearing the t-shirts yet! (by the way: anybody have an uncle in the t-shirt printing business?)

Alan Bise is also 100% behind this. I can't believe how lucky I am to have a friend like Al. By taking the engineering on, Alan takes a tremendous weight off my shoulders. So two of my key ingredients are already in place...

The plan is to do this whole thing start-to-finish within 3 hours -- estimating 2 hours to rehearse and an hour to record. That's not a huge amount of time, but it should suffice. Alan, Milt and I have compared schedules and the two dates I'm aiming for are October 16th, or October 24th... if those get too ugly I have the first weekend in November as a fall-back. I'm hoping to be able to book an auditorium in a high school -- there's rarely anything going on in a high school on the weekend, so it should be pretty quiet for us to record there.

Now I'm definitely going to do this project in Ohio... but Alan is in Cleveland, and Milt is in Columbus... I know quite a few musician-friends still living in Cleveland, but there's lots of great musicians at OSU...

BCM CD news

Last night Eric, Steve, Newman and I had a conference call regarding the upcoming BCM CD. The major topic of conversation: what to call the album and what to put on the cover. This has been a heated debate for months now, and we all decided that we were going to settle it before we hung up the phone. After much discussion, we agreed on an artist to do the cover art -- Ian Simmons. Ian's pen-and-ink technique is really, really awesome -- dark, moody, and unbelievably detailed. Ian had done a rough sketch of a cover concept that we never would've dreamed up in a million years, but it got all four of us really excited. So once we'd settled on Ian's cover art, we decided to base the title off of that. This simplified things considerably, and in short order, we came up with a new title that everyone liked.

Coming December 2004: BCM - "MEN OF INDUSTRY"

Wind Ensemble Project (pt.I)

I've been having a very difficult time deciding on how to get my new piece, "TranZendental Danse of Joi" recorded in time for this new BCM CD. I've known who I wanted to conduct it -- Milt Allen. He's a great conductor and musician, he's an all-around great guy, and he just seems to "get" my writing. And I've known who I wanted to engineer the recording -- Alan Bise. Al has great ears and he's one of my very best friends. I could even think of musicians who I'd love to be part of this project, but I had no idea how I could ever work it out so that all these ingredients could come together.

So I've decided to create my own wind ensemble, for the specific purpose of recording this new piece. I'm going to chronicle my progress for the next few weeks -- we'll see if I pull this off. I am confident I can.

Eddie V's "Frankenstein"

King Arthur had Excalibur. Clapton had Blackie. Costello had Abbott. The Lone Ranger had Silver (and Tonto). Luke Skywalker had R2-D2. Sajak had Vanna. Paul Bunyan had Babe. B.B. King had Lucille. Astaire had Rogers (or did Rogers have Astaire?). Batman had Robin. Bo & Luke had the General Lee (YEEEeeeEEE-HAW!). Lewis had Clark (or Martin, depending on the occasion).

And Edward Van Halen had "Frankenstein".

* Rock n Rollin' on the Riverboat *

OK everybody, here's the last installment from those recording sessions -- for starters, here's my 50's rock 'n' roll track. That's Rob Berry banging his brains out on the piano, and Paul Mertens blowing the bejesus outta the sax.

And just to leave everyone on a positive note, here's a little dixieland music. In retrospect, I probably should've tracked a tenor banjo player, but everyone seemed to like it as-is, so I guess I'm off the hook. For all you techies out there, take a listen to the tuba... that's actually a trumpet, recorded at 192 kHZ, then pitch-shifted down 2 octaves and resampled at 44.1 kHz! Sounds a little more pointed and not quite as round and warm as a tuba, but it's close enough... I've gotta give credit to Mike Connelly for inventing this technique, and also adapting his trumpet playing to give it a more "tuba-like" delivery.

Thanks for listening everybody! Hope you've enjoyed the tunes!

* Go Daddy-o! *

Here's some classic jump band swing. Compare this to the big band tune -- it's the exact same musicians with the exact same microphones in the exact same studio on the exact same day (I'm even playing the exact same guitar!), but it's amazing how everything from the player's performance to the mix gives it a totally different sense of style.

* Coooool bay-bee... *

Two more from last week's recording sessions: some uptown cocktail mambo and some downtown modal jazz. Remember -- everything had to sound very "retro"...

HEY who turned out the lights!?!

Don't know when the site went down, but if you're reading this, I guess we got it back up... welcome back!

* a-pickin' AND a-grinnin' *

Little two-for-one action today -- here are both of the country/western tunes. The first is easy-going, the second is a real barn-burner. John Rice played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and dobro on these, and did an amazing job.

* Memphis groove *

This was probably the track that was the most fun to write and produce, and I think the musicians had a good time with this one too. So here we are kickin' it Memphis style. I really wanted to get that 60's Sam & Dave/Booker T and the MG's/Memphis Horns sound, and the band did a GREAT job of capturing that style.

(I should mention that all these tunes were written to be loopable -- most of them are 30 second loops, but this one is 60 seconds long)