— Down in Deep

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3. Don’t forget to eat. This may sound silly, but I’ve seen quite a few sessions de-rail because of blood sugar issues. Sometimes this happens because everybody’s so in the flow that meals get passed by. The less acceptable way this happens is when you have a producer who is determined to get every second they can squeeze out of studio musicians & will put off meal breaks until way past the point of people being able to perform at their peek. The phrase that comes to mind is “Penny wise, Pound foolish”. You’ll end up loosing much more than you can ever gain by the extra 20-30 minutes squeezed out of the musicians. (Not to mention the obvious loss of good will & interest in the project from the musicians.)

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2. Pick a spokesperson for the band when dealing with engineers, producers, or session musicians. If you have to take a few minutes to discuss things to come to a consensus that’s fine. There’s nothing more confusing than having 4 or 5 people all telling you they want different things all at the same time. Everyone’s ideas can get a hearing, but not simultaneously.

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A series of observations ranging from the mundane to almost esoterically philosophical, most filtered through a bit too dry sense of humor.

1. Choose one tuner for everyone to use through the entire project.
Make sure it’s calibrated to instruments you may be using that do not have variable tuning, such as a Hammond organ.
Also make sure it always has fresh batteries. Cut it off between usage.
There’s nothing quite as frustrating as realizing that great guitar part that makes the song is out of tune with the rest of the track.

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Recording Adron and Colin playing bamboo leaves.

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Seems like documentation is not really my strong suit. Here’s some of the last few months events.

Through the summer I finished tracking Holly Allen’s CD. Vocals will be done between Christmas & New Year. Did keys, recorded some percussion, & a wrote a couple of string arrangements for Shawn Mullins’ new CD. Also did keys on some tunes by Calaghan that Shawn is producing. Knocked out a marching band arrangement, played some keys, & recorded reinforcement horns & percussion for Band of Horses new single, “Georgia”. Also did string & horn arrangement work for their live show.

Finishing up Khari Cabral Simmons new CD. Being mixed by Bluey from Incognito & Mo Hausler. Cool project featuring some great guest artists. This will get it’s own post as release time nears. Still plugging away at Tommy Dean’s solo project. Working right now on the last couple of mixes on Max Davidson’s CD. He’s quite a talent, watch out for him. Mixed Willie Ziavino’s CD with Rafael P. producing. Beautiful work. On the Jazz front, I’ve been blown away by some of the younger artists coming through. Recorded projects by Nick Rosen, Colin Agnew, & in the process of one by Will Goble. Amazing musicians. Some of the other guys really impressing me are Kevin Smith & Henry Connerway II. Ridiculous players. Khari & I are also co-producing a project by Chantae Caan. We have several more projects lined up for 2011. The European release of Heston’s new CD “Warm Human” is done & delivered, & we’re finishing up the last mix for the American release which will have 2 additional tracks.

That’s enough for now. Pretty sure I’ve left stuff out, but you’re probably tired of the laundry list by now any way.

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Tomorrow should finish tracking on this project. For those of you who recognize the name but can’t place it, he’s one of the greats of the jazz world. He worked with Count Basie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Dizzie Gilespie, and many more in addition to working as leader on multiple records. In addition to all of this, Curtis is a wonderful gentle soul & a joy to be around.

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Starting the blog back up after recovering from hacker attack.

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