Box set

This is Carl Anderson leading the orchestra during the recording of his composition during our amazing day in the recording studio at Banff. The session went about 11 hours, we did 2 takes of each piece by 10 different composers in the band. And the band just got better and better as the day went on. By the final take, we were in overdrive. Perhaps it had a lot with Chucho Valdes about to take the reins the following day. Carl's piece was one of my favourites - he's definitely a guy to watch out for here in town.

In June I got a package of 10 cds documenting our various concerts and recording sessions. A couple of them, including half of the studio recording (the morning session with Carl's and Marianne's pieces) were poorly duplicated and unplayable. I need to get Technical Services to send me a good copy.

There was some great music, and really nice recordings there and some that were less so. The one playable disc I got of the marathon day in the studio sounded really good. I was relatively pleased with the way my piece came out, although I now question my decision to move the piece along through the various cells so quickly. Some of the sections could have been left to develop more.

Some of the live concert recordings had uneven miking, so that certain soloists were never loud enough in the mix. There is a simple reason for this. The full orchestra had 25 members, sometimes more. There simply were not enough channels to indivdually mic everyone. Most saxes had to share 1 mic between each 2 players, and some of the studio mikes used were very directional, so one guy sounded fine, but the other guy didn't when it came time to solo. Lead tenor Mike Ruby and I both had this problem in both of the big concerts. We consistently were way too low in the mix when we soloed. I was playing on mic, but it was pointed at the guy beside me. Live and learn. I was only mildly disappointed. Setup time was at a premium and we knew going in that some compromises would have to made. Trumpets and trombones also had some uneven solo micing, but hell, everyone in the band got at least one solo. Recording an orchestra of that size live in concert is one hell of an undertaking.

I would liked to have had better recording quality for myself on the Love Supreme Suite and the final performance of Mambo Influenciado, with Chucho, but it was what it was. These are documentation recordings, not commercial releases.

In the end, I liked the studio recordings, the three "simple" pieces that Chucho shared with us, and a set at The Club of music written by Bunny Stewart. I didn't care for much of my own playing. Especially in the concert recordings, I sounded like I was blowing my brains out to compensate for the lack of adequate micing. No big deal - in previous years I would have gotten worked up over it, but now it's time to move on.

Jumping ahead to the present, today I spent several hours at Chris Gestrin's house working on a mixdown of a recording made back in February at the Cellar. It was a full evening of ion Zoo - Clyde Reed on bass, vocalist Carol Sawyer and myself on saxes, bass clarinet and a wall of percussion, along with guest Lisa Miller on piano. Now here was a recording where everyone was nicely miced and I never had to overblow. This session came out really well and we're quite stoked about it.

Then when I got home, I got a message that the recording of the Song Room show would be available at the end of the month - that's one I'm dying to hear.