I appreciate everyones support. I would like to see this thread grow into a parallel of remember your first gig. Maybe not from the sentimental standpoint but I plan to do a lot more recording as Im sure do others and a discussion on the process would probably be fruitful for more than just me.
In response to Bolo, I know what you mean, I stayed close to home on the fingerboard much more than I normally do gigging. I was focused on time and playing supportively so I just played more conservatively harmonically. I practiced all of these 2 octave and thumb position things, but little, if any of it, will show up on record. Maybe next time.
Ed, you know. You and Ray were in my head during the session yesterday because I knew that I as much as I have opined, I was going to have to actually reveal myself as a player now. I will upload something and take my lumps. Actually, Ill appreciate and value your feedback. Youll have some problems with it, I do too, but on the other hand, I think its going to have its moments. Not sure when Ill have possession of a track, but when I do, Ill upload.
On 2 shorter sessions, I think there could have been some value to that. There were some logistical and band dynamic issues that kind of made it go the way that it went. It is a trumpet lead quartet and the trumpet player arranged it, booked it and paid us for the session rather than having it be a band project. 2 of us took vacation days from our day jobs, so an extra day would have been possible, but just for scheduling et al, we did it in one this time. It was pushing our physical limits although it did go pretty fast for the most part. We got bogged down at a point and I think never quite recovered from that, which I think is an argument for 2 shorter sessions.
With regards to all you can do is all you can do, I accepted that last week and it helped. My teacher who a really top guy with a huge discography told me that he hears something on every one of his recordings that tells him what he needs to work on. Ill be better next time and the time after that and hopefully this is the first of 50 or 100 recordings for me.
UncleToad, I think it will be better than it felt too. We did a dry run several weeks ago at the Art Institute of Seattle. They have nice studios and their students will record you for free and its worth, exactly every penny, but our objective was to get some studio jitters out, listen to what we sounded like and take some lessons learned away from the experience. All of which helped. That session went, we all felt pretty poorly, but the recording turned out much better than expected, which makes me excited about this one because it clearly went much better.
The project is several original compositions and one standard Ill Close My Eyes, for which will likely get sued by Sam Jones estate for copping a bunch of his stuff. They will have to get in line behind Blue Mitchells estate who will likely recognize quite a bit of the trumpet improvisation. Well go through Harry Fox to get the rights on the song.
Of the originals, 2 were mine, a Cuban piece that I wrote several years ago and a Boogaloo that I wrote one morning this winter. The trumpet player wrote 3 or 4 really nice tunes that I think will come off well and the piano player contributed one that even he was having trouble playing, well see how it comes out. Things that went well and Ill make a habit of:
I brought a stool. I usually practice on a stool, but gig standing. It helped a lot with the fatigue. I chose to stand for some tracks, but the option was nice and I see no reason to ever limit myself on future sessions.
Only the drummer used cans and we didnt obsess about bleed. We had some adequate separation, but still allowed sight and sound lines and for most part got by. In the dry run we let the guy fear monger us over bleed and we werent set up in proximity that was natural for us and it showed in our playing. This was a very good quality and comfortable studio.
We have a producer who well never let go of now. He understands how to record jazz, he understands musicians and he got great sound out of us in seemingly no time. I dont think my bass has ever sounded better. Set up was quick and unobtrusive, which made all the difference and I dont think I could go back now.
I put a used OLIV G string that Ive been hanging onto for a while on the day before the recording and because I didnt know how long it would take to settle in, I kept my chromatic tuner plugged in. I gave me one fewer thing to worry about and I actually used it a bit for some long tone and double stop sections, since I couldnt exactly hear that piano that clearly all the time to adjust with my ear. I wouldnt have thought that I would have used it that way, but it was helpful, so Im glad I had it. I didnt look at it when I was walking or blowing, but it was good to check it with it in spots.
I brought a metronome and we used it at one point when we were stuck on something and needed to work through it. Good thing to throw in the bag.
I drank tons of water. I dont know if it was an adrenaline thing, but it seemed appropriate and in spite of the many trips to the john, it probably helped with the physicality of the day.
I brought a magazine and when the drummer and/or piano player were fooling around and getting all of their rock fantasies out (which they both do too much of), I separated myself into a sonically different room, put on a 3 Sounds CD and read about European cycling. I realized in this process that Im a feel player. I need to feel the music, feel the time, feel that triplets. I think thats both good and bad. Good because its artistic, bad because I need to be better prepared to just do the job, play the line, put the emphasis on the & of 3 in bar 26 or whatever. But, my process is to get in and be the music that were playing for whatever amount of time were playing it and its very distracting to me to have people screwing around musically between takes. Which was becoming a source of band tension. But, thats their process, I have mine. I accomplished what I needed to by being prepared to give them their space without letting it get in my head. I realize that there is a better long term solution to that problem, but the situation was what it was and I dealt with it constructively.
So, there I go with another long post. Ill try to upload a photo with it, if you see one, then it worked. So, very tired
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Troy
Looking forward to hearing some of the product!
