Studio marathon

Today was the day that Chucho arrived. He had a long flight from Cuba and missed a connecting flight from Toronto due to a Caribbean storm. We generally gave him a lot of space to rest up for tomorrow. Hugh got a nice cigar to puff on, so he was happy.

The rhythm section loaded in at 10:00 am and the horns at 11:30, then soundcheck. Marianne's piece was first up and by the second take, it went quite well. That set the tone for the day. The second was Carl Anderson's - he had heat stroke, now recovered - and I was a few minutes late for the setup, as the start time was advanced by 15 minutes. I was still 15 minutes ahead of when tape started rolling, but I felt bad about not being there right from the jump, and I think my playing sufferred a bit as a result.

We kept gaining time throughout the afternoon and we took an early dinner break. We got a bit bogged down with Jon "Bunny" Stewart's tune, as Jon has rushed putting the arrangement together, and had never heard it played before Banff, but everyone really wanted to make sure we got a good take of it because it was a great piece. Jon asked Mike Herriott to conduct (it was in 5) and take the solo, which was quite an accomplishment. Because we were still all working hard to nail the piece, I suggested to Mike that someone else conduct while he soloed, a suggestion he didn't take particularly well, as he was more focussed than anyone to make this piece work. But after the supper break, a variation of that did happen, as Marianne took part of the trumpet solo on piano, enabling Mike to conduct us through the tempo changes. Bunny also gave direction from the sidelines. In the end, I think we got a really good take of the piece.

After that was a period of pandemonium while the extra instruments for my piece were set out, miked and sound-checked. We did two takes and I was quite happy, particularly with the second one. Again Mike was very helpful in pointing out some clams being played in my notated sections, while I did all I could to make sure my conducting went well. I need a lot of work in that department. The subsonic rumblings at the beginning were astonishing. Every band should have an alphorn. I will have to wait to hear a mixdown of this - the studio guys will also do a 5.1 surround sound mix for me. BONUS!

After that, things lightened up for me and I could focus more on playing. We wrapped the final piece at 10:30 pm, with about 260 minutes' worth of music in the can. If anything, the orchestra's focus increased as the night progressed, and the rhythm section kept kicking it until the last note. If any of them had started dragging, the whole evening would have been a disaster, but it was just the opposite. This was quite a feat and the whole band is now as ready for Chucho as we will ever be.

Tomorrow awaits...