Tuesday: Did I mention that Yacht Rock is recording some original material for an album? I can't remember, and frankly, I don't feel like looking. Anyway, rhythm section (bass, drums, guitar, keyboards) stuff was recorded over the last two weeks, and then I wrote horn parts based on that. My usual plan was to record demo versions at home and submit them to the people in charge.
Monday night, I finally got some specific feedback from the people in charge, and so Tuesday was a very long day of writing more and editing things, finishing just after 3 AM with multiple parts for the three horn songs printed, taped together, and ready to go.
Wednesday: Up at 8 AM to get caffeinated and head to the studio. Rob Opitz (trumpet), Richard Sherrington (trombone), and I recorded three songs, and then I went back and overdubbed more sax parts, and then I put solos on a few songs, sax parts on a song, flute parts on a song, and then another sax solo on another song. Ten hours after walking in, I picked up my horns and walked out of the studio never more braindead in my life.
 |
| an interesting set up--the horns were not individually mic'ed, but instead set up in an arc around three microphones (with two more to capture more the sound of us in the room) |
Saturday: Since Yacht Rock isn't touring right now, I was able to squeeze in a musical this week--playing Footloose at The Lovett School. There's only one reed book--I'm playing flute, clarinet, and tenor and bari sax.
I'm not sure how it was done when I was in high school, but it does seem weird to be in a pit orchestra of professional musicians, playing for a high school cast, but...it's a gig (and I do enjoy the challenge of playing musicals)! Rehearsal number 1 was today.
This gig has some quirks:
1. We are situated in scaffolding upstage right, so we are packed in pretty tight. For instance, I cannot see the conductor's "conducting" (right) hand--only the "cueing" (left) hand. Also, there are two electric guitars, electric bass, and two keyboards up there, and all of their sounds are coming out of two floor wedges (actually just one on Sunday, as the other wedge died mysteriously).
2. Straight ahead jazz guys playing rock is...not convincing. Maybe it's just that there are no amps on stage, so there's not much balls to it.
3. In spite of our close proximity, it's hard to hear what everybody's playing, and there's a little delay between the drums and the band, and a lot of delay between the vocalists in the room and the band, and then if we put either in the monitor, it can become blazingly loud...we're having some issues with the mix!
4. The music director (keyboard 1) has played the show with the cast more than the conductor, so he'll react to their lines and start playing and leave the band a fraction of a second behind, making us all fight to find tempos.
5. The music itself isn't very difficult, but getting used to all the cuts in the music is, and sometimes when I turn the page, I can't find the next place in the music. I might need to add some post it note flags or something to lead my eyes to the right spot on the page.
I think it's all going to come together (I guess it HAS TO!). The process of getting the thing going is much different than other gigs that I play, though.
Sunday: Footloose rehearsal 2, and then I raced down to Venkman's to play a Yacht Rock "Unplugged" show. We haven't seen too much of each other in the last two weeks, but there wasn't too much rust on the ol' machine.
I was very late to soundcheck because of the rehearsal, and then I made some adjustments to my mix after we finished, and then my mix was terrible. I just kinda lived with it since it was my fault.
Nothing particularly memorable about this one, except for Ganesh Giri Jaya filling in on drums. All my horns felt great--definitely a byproduct of all the playing I did earlier in the week. Monkeyboy told some particularly bad jokes. Nick went around the room with his wireless microphone.
