Blue of a Kind singing at the recent Mayor's Emergency Fund telethon where we offered some hope as well as a challenge to viewers to call in pledges while we sang, matching them dollar for dollar. The telethon raised money many times over its' goal to help local folks having hard times and we were proud to be a part of it.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Trouble Soon Be Over posted to YouTube
A video of Blue of a Kind performing "Trouble Soon Be Over" is available on YouTube. You can just click on the title to view it, or search YouTube for "Blue of a Kind".
Second tenor, Ron solos on a recent Melrose MA TV telethon for the Mayor's Emergency Fund. We made a challenge to callers to do a dollar match on all pledges made while we sang and the calls spiked! The telethon raised a sum more than 4 times it's goal. We were proud to be a part of it.
Blind Willie Johnson's song goes back into the 1920's. This treatment is based on Geoff Muldaur's way of performing it, with a little fancy footwork to make it work for a cappella.
Bob
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Blue of a Kind CD project - Michael Clem and Eddie from Ohio
Home Stretch for Blue of a Kind CD, "To the Sky"
We're tracking the solo overdubs, doing little fix ups and preparing for the final mixing and mastering. I gathered some images and ideas and tossed them over to our graphic artist, 2nd tenor Bob Griffin. Bob drove rough ideas to realization. Once he made his presentation, we had a unanimous conclusion: the CD was going to be entitled, "To the Sky". Wait until you see it!
The imagery is stunning, and the font and design decisions were not only professional, but inspired. He connected with the concept.
A trip to HarryFox.com and I was able to secure licenses for the "intellectual property". You need to set up an account (it's free) and then you can search their database for the composer and songs. If you don't find the title or artist there, you still have to track them down. I rely on HarryFox, but there is often someone "outside the box". On the Whiffenpoof CD, this was Fred Hellerman, who wrote "Delia". On this project, it was Michael Clem of Eddie From Ohio, composer of "Walk Humbly, Son".
Eddie From Ohio Rocks!
First, let me say I'm a huge fan of this band. They are 4 diverse talents each of which composes for the "best band you never heard of". In truth, lots of people have heard of them. Blue of a Kind has been singing one of their songs, "Walk Humbly, Son" for a couple years, ever since I heard EFO sing it on a CD I bought from them at Club Passim.
Michael Clem wrote this song. It's full of his slightly offbeat humor, but has a powerful message. I had to do some heavy lifting adapting it for men. In the EFO treatment, Julie drives the melody in the stratosphere. I also wrote to EFO back then and bought the official chart so as to align myself with what Michael was doing harmonically. EFO and I had a little email exchange and they were excited that we were mounting the piece.
Now, it's going on the "To the Sky" CD. And I was not able to locate Michael Clem on HarryFox.com. So the rule is: find the composer and make a negotiation to give them their due. You can look on ASCAP, but I haven't yet figured out how to actually pay the composer there. It must be easy, but....
So I visited the EFO web site and sent an email via their "contact us" link, explaining what we're doing and how I want to pay Michael for his beautiful work.
This morning, he wrote me back. I only have to attribute the song correctly and send him a copy of the CD. He's flattered and pleased that we want to cover his song.
One of the great things about this job
Being a musical director, you get to realize projects over 6 months or a year's time. You get to herd cats, week in and week out. You get to rant and rave, and you have to keep it fun. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and I understand where my guys are coming from.
But one of the great things about this job is getting a response like that from Michael Clem. Or writing to Geoff Muldaur about "Trouble Soon Be Over" to tell him I am arranging the song after his treatment and would he be cool with that, and he writes me back saying, "Have at!" These guys just love doing what they are doing and are downright glad that folks want to cover their stuff.
And they know who we are, that we're just a bunch of guys with a couple hours a week scratching together all the money we made in the last year to make a CD, sell it and have our little place in the sun. That's pretty cool, don't you think?
We're tracking the solo overdubs, doing little fix ups and preparing for the final mixing and mastering. I gathered some images and ideas and tossed them over to our graphic artist, 2nd tenor Bob Griffin. Bob drove rough ideas to realization. Once he made his presentation, we had a unanimous conclusion: the CD was going to be entitled, "To the Sky". Wait until you see it!
The imagery is stunning, and the font and design decisions were not only professional, but inspired. He connected with the concept.
A trip to HarryFox.com and I was able to secure licenses for the "intellectual property". You need to set up an account (it's free) and then you can search their database for the composer and songs. If you don't find the title or artist there, you still have to track them down. I rely on HarryFox, but there is often someone "outside the box". On the Whiffenpoof CD, this was Fred Hellerman, who wrote "Delia". On this project, it was Michael Clem of Eddie From Ohio, composer of "Walk Humbly, Son".
Eddie From Ohio Rocks!
First, let me say I'm a huge fan of this band. They are 4 diverse talents each of which composes for the "best band you never heard of". In truth, lots of people have heard of them. Blue of a Kind has been singing one of their songs, "Walk Humbly, Son" for a couple years, ever since I heard EFO sing it on a CD I bought from them at Club Passim.
Michael Clem wrote this song. It's full of his slightly offbeat humor, but has a powerful message. I had to do some heavy lifting adapting it for men. In the EFO treatment, Julie drives the melody in the stratosphere. I also wrote to EFO back then and bought the official chart so as to align myself with what Michael was doing harmonically. EFO and I had a little email exchange and they were excited that we were mounting the piece.
Now, it's going on the "To the Sky" CD. And I was not able to locate Michael Clem on HarryFox.com. So the rule is: find the composer and make a negotiation to give them their due. You can look on ASCAP, but I haven't yet figured out how to actually pay the composer there. It must be easy, but....
So I visited the EFO web site and sent an email via their "contact us" link, explaining what we're doing and how I want to pay Michael for his beautiful work.
This morning, he wrote me back. I only have to attribute the song correctly and send him a copy of the CD. He's flattered and pleased that we want to cover his song.
One of the great things about this job
Being a musical director, you get to realize projects over 6 months or a year's time. You get to herd cats, week in and week out. You get to rant and rave, and you have to keep it fun. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and I understand where my guys are coming from.
But one of the great things about this job is getting a response like that from Michael Clem. Or writing to Geoff Muldaur about "Trouble Soon Be Over" to tell him I am arranging the song after his treatment and would he be cool with that, and he writes me back saying, "Have at!" These guys just love doing what they are doing and are downright glad that folks want to cover their stuff.
And they know who we are, that we're just a bunch of guys with a couple hours a week scratching together all the money we made in the last year to make a CD, sell it and have our little place in the sun. That's pretty cool, don't you think?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Blue of a Kind CD project
The boys have been working hard. We have "tracked" mostly everything and we have feathered our nest. There are some important notes on what we intend to release.
Here is the probable lineup:
Recorded at Chillhouse studios, November - December 2008:
Under the Boardwalk
Words and Music by Artie Resnik and Kenny Young
Arranged by Mark Brymer
[Steve Francis' solo makes this a total knockout]
You Don't Know Me
Words and Music by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[This really rocks and was requested of me by Saki Okura, one of our founders. I sang it with him on duet one time and it was a memorable moment. Let us say, Saki has a gift.]
Trouble Soon Be Over
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Based on Geoff Muldaur's treatment of the same tune. This is a folk/blues songs from the late 20's by Blind Willie Johnson that defies description. Songs from that era did not abide by the rules of pop song. It's a honey. I asked Geoff about "stealing" his treatment, and he said, "Go to town!" Ron Serisky's solo really does the number.]
This World Is Not My Home
Words and Music by Albert E. Brumley, Jr.
Additional lyric by Woody Guthrie
[Another Steve Francis solo that drops jaws, I arranged this after hearing Geoff Muldaur sing it at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. Geoff later told me, "Wow, that's a really difficult song!"]
Mobile Bay
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[It's a gem. Marshall Bartholomew's pumping chantey lives on. Bob Griffin's solo makes it special.]
Pirates Chorus
Words and Music by G. C. S. Southworth (Songs of Yale, 1870)
[This song was mined from "Songs of Yale" published in 1870. I doubt it has ever been recorded in either the 20th or the 21st centuries. Blue of a Kind uses it for their marching song when entering the performance hall. This is a particularly moving rendition of a song that dates back to just after the Civil War.]
It's Gonna Rain, Again
Words and Music by Charles Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[The Sensational Nightingales. Need I say more? Tug Yourgrau, Karl Geller and Mike Margolis send this one off into the stratosphere.]
To the Sky
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[No one has heard this song, but when they do, OMG! Evans brought me this from his voice teacher. I arranged it in like a day and wait until you hear Evans Travis nail it.]
MacNamara's Band
Words and Music by O'Connor/Stamford
Arranged by Lewis Girdler
[My dear friend, Lewis Girdler arranged this piece for the Yale Whiffenpoofs. I sang the solo with the Whiffs in 1972-1973, and my dear pal, George Caruby sang Uncle Julius with me at Saunders Theater in Cambridge, MA for my musical hero, Leonard Bernstein sitting in the front row. As I recall, Lenny and his companion got up and danced while George and I sang. Pinch me! Dan Franklin and Br. Richard Cook give this tune a run for the money.]
South Australia
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[I transcribed the entire "Songs of Yale", copyright 1953 assembled by the great Marshall Bartholomew. In the process, I learned something about arranging sea chanties. Check this one out. I sing the solo. It's a chantey men used to ask to be sung to them on their deathbeds. Stay with me...]
Away to Rio
Tradition Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[No one does it better than Marshall Bartholomew. Extra verse penned by Evans Travis. I love a man who understands "holy stoning".]
'Linin' Track
Traditional Work Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Chanties were not only sung at sea. This is a chantey sung while aligning railroad track, a particularly grueling task. I got this song and the treament from the great Jug Band master, Jim Kweskin. Also from Club Passim. The place really rocks!]
Rolling Down To Old Maui
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[What can anyone say about the greatest forecastle chantey of all time? (A forecastle chantey was a non-work song sung only for pleasure by the work crews, for the benefit of all.) If you have not heard this song, you will be stuck on it forever once you have. Wayne Leslie solos on this and his unbelievable bass tone must be heard to be believed. Karl Geller and I layer atop Wayne for a duet and later, a trio.]
Roll Jordan, Roll
Spiritual
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[Just listen and smoothe your short hairs down. Solos by Tug Yourgrau, Phil Kukura and Steve Francis.]
Loch Lomond
Traditional Scottish Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Most of this arrangement was mined from an old songbook, but I crafted a front end and a back end and it's totally different, so it's mine! Irish tenor, Br. Richard Cook shows you how it should be sung.]
John the Revelator
Words and Music by Son House
Arranged by Blue of a Kind
[We developed this arrangement ad hoc. Son House was our inspiration. We listened, sang, crafted, re-listened, performed.... This one can really get ya. Solos by Evans Travis, Tug Yourgrau, Mike Margolis]
Nkosi Sikelel i'Afrika (South African National Anthem)
Words and Music by Enoch Sontonga and Samuel Mqhayi
Adapted for men by Bob Eggers
[Tug Yourgrau grew up in South Africa. He also composed the music for a Broadway show name "The Song of Jacob Zulu", which featured "Ladysmith Black Mambazo". Lucky for us, Tug sings with Blue of a Kind. He introduced me to this song and the SATB arrangement. I rearranged it for men. Singing this song used to land a man in jail in South Africa. This version will keep you free.]
Walk Humbly, Son
Words and Music by Michael R. Clem
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Eddie From Ohio. They are from Virginia. Go figure! This is another group I heard at Club Passim. I must buy some more tickets soon. Michael Clem writes the funny stuff they do, but this song also reveals a deep spiritual awareness.]
Sentimental Journey
Words by Bud Green
Music by Les Brown and Ben Homer
Arranged by Walter Latzko
[Walter Latzko. The Chordettes. These 4 girls showed up in NYC and got hired at CBS to sing every week on the Arthur Godfrey show. I watched them as a kid. Each week they were dressed in stunning dresses and sang sultry mens' Barbershop songs like angels. Boys like me, and men twice my age swooned. Later, they went on to become pop and film stars. Walter Latzko was with them all the way, and married one of the dolls. Mr. Latzko has arranged a piece just for Blue of a Kind, but not this one. This is one he did for the Chordettes.]
Live/bonus tracks:
Kentucky Babe (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Richard Henry Buck
Music by Adam Geibel
Arranged by Walter Latzko
[Walter Latzko, again. Also arranged for the Chordettes. You're going to love this performance.]
Morning Prayer (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Evans Travis
Music Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Arrangement by Bob Eggers
[Umpteen years ago, I got snagged by a kid's video from Russia, because the soundtrack was the complete "Children's Album" by Tchaikovsky. Written for his piano pupils, it's a masterpiece no matter how you slice it. I just had to sing "Morning Prayer", a true song without words. I arranged it for men many years ago but could not come up with lyrics. Once I met Evans in Blue of a Kind, he asked me to let him at it. Hope you like it.]
To the Sky (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Evans Travis and the boys raise some goosebumps in a live performance in Melrose, MA.]
Trouble Soon Be Over (live at MMTV, Dec. 14, 2008)
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Ron Serisky rocks the house on local MMTV. Look for a YouTuber version of the same.]
The Blue of a Kind CD
The boys have been working hard. We have "tracked" mostly everything and we have feathered our nest. There are some important notes on what we intend to release.
Here is the probable lineup:
Recorded at Chillhouse studios, November - December 2008:
Under the Boardwalk
Words and Music by Artie Resnik and Kenny Young
Arranged by Mark Brymer
[Steve Francis' solo makes this a total knockout]
You Don't Know Me
Words and Music by Cindy Walker and Eddy Arnold
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[This really rocks and was requested of me by Saki Okura, one of our founders. I sang it with him on duet one time and it was a memorable moment. Let us say, Saki has a gift.]
Trouble Soon Be Over
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Based on Geoff Muldaur's treatment of the same tune. This is a folk/blues songs from the 20's by Blind Willie Johnson that defies description. Songs from that era did not abide by the rules of pop song. It's a honey. I asked Geoff about "stealing" his treatment, and he said, "Go to town!" Ron Serisky's solo really does the number.]
This World Is Not My Home
Words and Music by Albert E. Brumley, Jr.
Additional lyric by Woody Guthrie
[Another Steve Francis solo that drops jaws, I arranged this after hearing Geoff Muldaur sing it at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. Geoff later told me, "Wow, that's a really difficult song!"]
Mobile Bay
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[It's a gem. Marshall Bartholomew's pumping chantey lives on. Bob Griffin's solo makes it special.]
Pirates Chorus
Words and Music by G. C. S. Southworth (Songs of Yale, 1870)
[This song was mined from "Songs of Yale" published in 1870. I doubt it has ever been recorded in either the 20th or the 21st centuries. Blue of a Kind uses it for their marching song when entering the performance hall. This is a particularly moving rendition of a song that dates back to just after the Civil War.]
It's Gonna Rain, Again
Words and Music by Charles Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[The Sensational Nightingales. Need I say more? Tug Yourgrau, Karl Geller and Mike Margolis send this one off into the stratosphere.]
To the Sky
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[No one has heard this song, but when they do, OMG! Evans brought me this from his voice teacher. I arranged it in like a day and wait until you hear Evans Travis nail it.]
MacNamara's Band
Words and Music by O'Connor/Stamford
Arranged by Lewis Girdler
[My dear friend, Lewis Girdler arranged this piece for the Yale Whiffenpoofs. I sang the solo with the Whiffs in 1972-1973, and my dear pal, George Caruby sang Uncle Julius with me at Saunders Theater in Cambridge, MA for my musical hero, Leonard Bernstein sitting in the front row. As I recall, Lenny and his companion got up and danced while George and I sang. Pinch me! Dan Franklin and Br. Richard Cook give this tune a run for the money.]
South Australia
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[I transcribed the entire "Songs of Yale", copyright 1953 assembled by the great Marshall Bartholomew. In the process, I learned something about arranging sea chanties. Check this one out. I sing the solo. It's a chantey men used to ask to be sung to them on their deathbeds. Stay with me...]
Away to Rio
Tradition Sea Chantey
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[No one does it better than Marshall Bartholomew. Extra verse penned by Evans Travis. I love a man who understands "holy stoning".]
'Linin' Track
Traditional Work Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Chanties were not only sung at sea. This is a chantey sung while aligning railroad track, a particularly grueling task. I got this song and the treament from the great Jug Band master, Jim Kweskin. Also from Club Passim. The place really rocks!]
Rolling Down To Old Maui
Traditional Sea Chantey
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[What can anyone say about the greatest forecastle chantey of all time? (A forecastle chantey was a non-work song sung only for pleasure by the work crews, for the benefit of all.) If you have not heard this song, you will be stuck on it forever once you have. Wayne Leslie solos on this and his unbelievable bass tone must be heard to be believed. Karl Geller and I layer atop Wayne for a duet and later, a trio.]
Roll Jordan, Roll
Spiritual
Arranged by Marshall Bartholomew
[Just listen and smoothe your short hairs down. Solos by Tug Yourgrau, Phil Kukura and Steve Francis.]
Loch Lomond
Traditional Scottish Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Most of this arrangement was mined from an old songbook, but I crafted a front end and a back end and it's totally different, so it's mine! Irish tenor, Br. Richard Cook shows you how it should be sung.]
John the Revelator
Words and Music by Son House
Arranged by Blue of a Kind
[We developed this arrangement ad hoc. Son House was our inspiration. We listened, sang, crafted, re-listened, performed.... This one can really get ya. Solos by Evans Travis, Tug Yourgrau, Mike Margolis]
Nkosi Sikelel i'Afrika (South African National Anthem)
Words and Music by Enoch Sontonga and Samuel Mqhayi
Adapted for men by Bob Eggers
[Tug Yourgrau grew up in South Africa. He also composed the music for a Broadway show name "The Song of Jacob Zulu", which featured "Ladysmith Black Mambazo". Lucky for us, Tug sings with Blue of a Kind. He introduced me to this song and the SATB arrangement. I rearranged it for men. Singing this song used to land a man in jail in South Africa. This version will keep you free.]
Walk Humbly, Son
Words and Music by Michael R. Clem
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Eddie From Ohio. They are from Virginia. Go figure! This is another group I heard at Club Passim. I must buy some more tickets soon. Michael Clem writes the funny stuff they do, but this song also reveals a deep spiritual awareness.]
Sentimental Journey
Words by Bud Green
Music by Les Brown and Ben Homer
Arranged by Walter Latzko
[Walter Latzko. The Chordettes. These 4 girls showed up in NYC and got hired at CBS to sing every week on the Arthur Godfrey show. I watched them as a kid. Each week they were dressed in stunning dresses and sang sultry mens' Barbershop songs like angels. Boys like me, and men twice my age swooned. Later, they went on to become pop and film stars. Walter Latzko was with them all the way, and married one of the dolls. Mr. Latzko has arranged a piece just for Blue of a Kind, but not this one. This is one he did for the Chordettes.]
Live/bonus tracks:
Kentucky Babe (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Richard Henry Buck
Music by Adam Geibel
Arranged by Walter Latzko
[Walter Latzko, again. Also arranged for the Chordettes. You're going to love this performance.]
Morning Prayer (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Words by Evans Travis
Music Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Arrangement by Bob Eggers
[Umpteen years ago, I got snagged by a kid's video from Russia, because the soundtrack was the complete "Children's Album" by Tchaikovsky. Written for his piano pupils, it's a masterpiece no matter how you slice it. I just had to sing "Morning Prayer", a true song without words. I arranged it for men many years ago but could not come up with lyrics. Once I met Evans in Blue of a Kind, he asked me to let him at it. Hope you like it.]
To the Sky (live at Fitch Home, October 16, 2008)
Southern Folk Song
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Evans Travis and the boys raise some goosebumps in a live performance in Melrose, MA.]
Trouble Soon Be Over (live at MMTV, Dec. 14, 2008)
Words and Music by Blind Willie Johnson
Arranged by Bob Eggers
[Ron Serisky rocks the house on local MMTV. Look for a YouTuber version of the same.]
Saturday, December 6, 2008
More Attribution Mysteries
The Whodunnit plot rethickens
Believe it or not, the story continues, and maybe Robert "Missing" Link is indeed the missing link in the evolutionary process of "(That Slippery) Slide Trombone". Robert recently wrote me, saying,
I should have told you that I knew Bill Oler when he was a freshman and I
was a senior; I assume that he's the reason that Song Fest got into the
Whiff repertory. Also, a many years friend of mine is Brower McClintock,
'40, a founding member of O&Bs. If it's in the O&B repertory, I assume that
Brower got it there.
So the trail has not gone cold. Oler, Brower.... Connections and all part of the evolutionary process.... By the way, Mr. Link was made an honorary Whiffenpoof in 1947, as I said before, but is also an honorary O&B. Connections....
Connections... and another Whodunnit
Another fun whodunnit story surrounds the classic Whiff arrangement, "I'll Take Romance". I engraved this long time favorite many months ago from a manuscript that was marginally readable. Before and after screenshots of a few measures this piece can be found on our home page, Acappellanation.com. Of side interest, this note: there is an error in that screenshot that has since been corrected in the actual engraving.
But I digress, don't I? During some months last Summer after making that engraving, I also engraved another half dozen or so arrangements by the same Whiff arranger, but these from his undergrad years in the Bakers Dozen. This arranger is Lewis Girdler, known for "MacNamara's Band" as well as "When Sunny Gets Blue", among other gems. I wrote about him before as the man I believe introduced the faux string bass line in a cappella singing. This humble genius probably turned the a cappella singing world on it's ear in the late 1950's and opened the door to some of the expression we have seen flourish in our genre ever since. That's another investigation....
I'm still digressing, but it's a story! Well, I attributed the arrangement to him because I could make out his name in the top, right corner where it emerged from a black cloud caused by too many xerox generations. I also recognized the handwriting, but so many of the works I engraved had been recopied by others hands making this evidence less credible. However the style of the arrangement, it's voicings, pace and rhythms all sounded like classic Girdler, so I had no reason to doubt it was his.
Arranged by "Unknown"!
Nonetheless months after I submitted it, our lead editor and musicologist bounced it back to me saying to change the arranger to "Unknown". I looked at the original xerox (interesting combination of words there). Girdler's name was clearly legible at the top and I was baffled. Perhaps the black cloud from which it emerged had said, "copied by", but the rest of the evidence suggested otherwise.
Luckily, I had come to know Mr. Girlder while doing the Bakers Dozen engravings, and I sent him a copy of the copy asking, "What about it?". Yes, he replied, and thanked me for sending the manuscript so he could say for certain. It turns out our lead editor had asked Lewis about 10 years ago at some Whiff function if he'd arranged "Romance" and well, he wasn't sure he had. So rather than take credit for what might be someone else's work, he said, "No." Remember what I said about humble? Besides, Mr. Girlder's contribution to both the Whiff and Bakers Dozen repertoires is vast and this is but one sweet "Romance" that slipped his mind. ;-)
Once Mr. Girdler recognized his own hand writing, we'd solved this whodunnit. Luckily, he's still matriculating along with the rest of us, otherwise this piece might have remained forever "Unknown".
Dick Peaslee's Garden of Earthly Delights on Broadway now!
Quick note before I depart: Dick Peaslee, another Whiff and Bakers Dozen arranger I've mentioned in earlier blogs, has a new musical on Broadway, called "Garden of Earthly Delights". Click on the name to visit the web page about it. The man is a powerhouse. I am currently engraving another bunch of his works from the 50's that he'd saved away in his attic and there are some great songs there!
Bob
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone, continued
"Missing" Link is found and tells all!
Robert Frederick "Missing" Link wrote me back and has relieved me of my position that he is the "missing link" in the case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone. I hate to see this theory blown, but oh, what fun!
First, Robert made clear he was merely an honorary Whiff. He actually graduated in 1942 but was made an honorary member of the 1947 Whiffenpoofs. I'm sure there's another story there and I won't venture any guesses beyond saying the guys at Yale during the War years didn't pass and become forgotten at the usual rate of 4 years apiece. Robert may never have sung with the Whiffs or he may have done a ton of pick-up singing to fill the ranks - this I don't know yet. He says he probably got the song in his head hearing the '42 Whiffs sing it.
But Robert was the man whose hand wrote the pages of music I described. First he wrote me that he had little if anything to do with Slide Trombone, certainly had not arranged it. He said he might have written it down in 1946 among a group of songs he called "Song Fest" that he and a bunch of guys probably sang together at least once, maybe many times. He said songs like that were floating around being sung and shared. He suggested perhaps the "Silver Dollar Quartet" was the inspiration the arrangement of Slide Trombone.
Well, that seemed like a dead end, but I thought I'd see if my mysterious song cycle happened to be this "Song Fest", so I wrote him back, naming all the songs I mentioned below. Well, he said, if I looked at the piece "Slow Motion Time", "There should be a picture of feet sticking out from a sombrero" on the last page. Indeed, when I brought up the scan and scrolled to the last page, there was his little hombre in the sombrero.
Oh, how I laughed to know something about the source of these charts.
What can be known about anything?
Many years ago, I read "The Perfect Storm" and the author said the thrill of writing that book was creating a story about an event that was not witnessed and about which nothing could be known. But in the process of researching narratives of others in that storm, some kind of knowledge clearly emerged.
Sometimes, you can't know anything about certain things, but every once in a while you can get a glimpse. I just read "Shadow Divers" about one of my schoolmates named John Chatterton who was diving a deep wreck off New Jersey, a vessel that from his first dive, he thought might be a submarine. On one of his first dives, he found a dish and in 200 feet of cold, turbid water and he turned the dish over to find a swastika on the underside. For some long minutes, John was the only person in the world who knew the wreck he was diving was a German U-boat from the big War. A sudden glimpse, and it made him laugh.
So I laughed!
A link was made way into the past, concerning documents I had seen in 1971 and gave me pause. Other SOB compadres have also observed and wondered about these same charts. My thoughts about the genesis and life of these songs, of this manuscript, including where these particular songs went in published records have been shared by everyone who has seen them. And now, for a few moments I know something! They are "Song Fest", recorded in 1946 by Robert "Missing" Link.
And they're definitely part of that whole "oral tradition" thing. As Robert wrote to me, "Sometimes songs arrange themselves in an evolutionary way." He doesn't really know how he knew all the pieces, note for note. Really quite a bit of knowledge there. His explanation: "I osmosed them somehow when I was there."
So who arranged (That Slippery) Slide Trombone? Maybe "WBB" is short for "we'll never know".
Still on the trail,
Bob
Robert Frederick "Missing" Link wrote me back and has relieved me of my position that he is the "missing link" in the case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone. I hate to see this theory blown, but oh, what fun!
First, Robert made clear he was merely an honorary Whiff. He actually graduated in 1942 but was made an honorary member of the 1947 Whiffenpoofs. I'm sure there's another story there and I won't venture any guesses beyond saying the guys at Yale during the War years didn't pass and become forgotten at the usual rate of 4 years apiece. Robert may never have sung with the Whiffs or he may have done a ton of pick-up singing to fill the ranks - this I don't know yet. He says he probably got the song in his head hearing the '42 Whiffs sing it.
But Robert was the man whose hand wrote the pages of music I described. First he wrote me that he had little if anything to do with Slide Trombone, certainly had not arranged it. He said he might have written it down in 1946 among a group of songs he called "Song Fest" that he and a bunch of guys probably sang together at least once, maybe many times. He said songs like that were floating around being sung and shared. He suggested perhaps the "Silver Dollar Quartet" was the inspiration the arrangement of Slide Trombone.
Well, that seemed like a dead end, but I thought I'd see if my mysterious song cycle happened to be this "Song Fest", so I wrote him back, naming all the songs I mentioned below. Well, he said, if I looked at the piece "Slow Motion Time", "There should be a picture of feet sticking out from a sombrero" on the last page. Indeed, when I brought up the scan and scrolled to the last page, there was his little hombre in the sombrero.
Oh, how I laughed to know something about the source of these charts.
What can be known about anything?
Many years ago, I read "The Perfect Storm" and the author said the thrill of writing that book was creating a story about an event that was not witnessed and about which nothing could be known. But in the process of researching narratives of others in that storm, some kind of knowledge clearly emerged.
Sometimes, you can't know anything about certain things, but every once in a while you can get a glimpse. I just read "Shadow Divers" about one of my schoolmates named John Chatterton who was diving a deep wreck off New Jersey, a vessel that from his first dive, he thought might be a submarine. On one of his first dives, he found a dish and in 200 feet of cold, turbid water and he turned the dish over to find a swastika on the underside. For some long minutes, John was the only person in the world who knew the wreck he was diving was a German U-boat from the big War. A sudden glimpse, and it made him laugh.
So I laughed!
A link was made way into the past, concerning documents I had seen in 1971 and gave me pause. Other SOB compadres have also observed and wondered about these same charts. My thoughts about the genesis and life of these songs, of this manuscript, including where these particular songs went in published records have been shared by everyone who has seen them. And now, for a few moments I know something! They are "Song Fest", recorded in 1946 by Robert "Missing" Link.
And they're definitely part of that whole "oral tradition" thing. As Robert wrote to me, "Sometimes songs arrange themselves in an evolutionary way." He doesn't really know how he knew all the pieces, note for note. Really quite a bit of knowledge there. His explanation: "I osmosed them somehow when I was there."
So who arranged (That Slippery) Slide Trombone? Maybe "WBB" is short for "we'll never know".
Still on the trail,
Bob
Sunday, November 30, 2008
How is The Sunshine Girl?
Hey, Sunshine Girl!
The CD has been on sale now for months and it hasn't hit number one. But the cool thing is, it's selling. Gosh darn it, people like us! I have three vendors (and happily all my royalties are paid): amazon.com, acappella.com and Cutler's Records in New Haven, CT.
What's it like being a record magnate? Same as not being one. We see steady sales at all three locations. Each venue sells a few CDs per month without any real advertising or marketing. The Whiffenpoofs have a cachet, and collectors are always looking for interesting or "lost" recordings. This is an "original recording remastered", so if it didn't exist, it would be pretty much gone from the planet. People like getting something like that.
The CD was lovingly remastered and the result is very fine quality. I've heard some worn records that were remastered without high end filtering that are just barely listenable. This was a pristine LP and was given lots of attention and high end treatment. It's very close to the original quality of the master tapes and certainly more than equal to a pristine LP record. You are not distracted by lots of snaps, crackles and pops. It's quite smooth and clear.
One thing I learned at Amazon is that it does not really pay to be a Premium Seller unless you're doing high volume. They don't keep any inventory on hand, so you do all the work whether you are a Premium Seller or just another bozo. They send you an email, you print a packing slip, package the goods and mail it to the buyer, all within 2 business days. If Amazon fails to notify you, which happened to me in one case, the buyer will stew for a few weeks and then write a nastygram to Amazon, at which point Amazon will notify you, and the buyer will never believe you were not notified in the first place. Try complaining to Amazon? It's "talk to the hand". There's no one listening.
As a Premium Seller at Amazon, you pay hefty monthly fees for their service. Without this status, you have to renew your selling "site" every 60 days. It's a pain, but well worth it if you're losing money paying their service fees. Otherwise, they deduct your profits from the fees you owe and you gain nothing. Not so sweet. If you make money, they direct deposit it to you. Sweet.
Acappella.com, on the other hand will keep some small inventory on hand and ship to the buyers. You have to keep track of the sales and resupply them periodically, but there is no ongoing cost. You won't lose money in a month where nothing sells. They pay the postage, do the shipping and send you checks when they sell - sweet! But your record must be good enough for them to include it in their catalog. They listen and if they figure it won't sell, you're toast!
The brick and mortar operations like Cutler's Records work pretty much the same way. They accept a small inventory, sell it at an agreed upon "split", and you have to check with them periodically to keep them supplied, at which point they pay you for what was sold. Like acappella.com, brick and mortar operations won't waste space unless they think they can sell your product. Luckily, the Whiffenpoofs are a proven commodity and Cutler's is glad to carry us.
I read up on CD Baby recently, and they operate much like acappella.com - small inventory, simple profit split, no monthly overhead and lots of happiness for all. CDBaby will carry you no matter what. You pay a small one-time fee and that's all there is to it. Look for Whiffenpoofs Sunshine Girl there soon!
If you want to sell publicly, make sure you pay for all the intellectual property rights you need to be legal. It's really very simple. You go to Harry Fox agency on the web, research every song in their database and declare how many CD's you're making and pay it in advance when you are manufacturing the CDs. Pretty much everyone who wants to be paid is listed there. Rarely they are not listed and you have to track them down and make a private deal. When making the Sunshine Girl CD, I had the opportunity to pay license fees for downloads but did not opt for that. There's a serious profit margin there, but unless you're expecting a feeding frenzy on your music, it's probably more bother than it's worth. Don't take my word for it but you gotta sell to make money, that's for sure!!
Bob
What's it like being a record magnate? Same as not being one. We see steady sales at all three locations. Each venue sells a few CDs per month without any real advertising or marketing. The Whiffenpoofs have a cachet, and collectors are always looking for interesting or "lost" recordings. This is an "original recording remastered", so if it didn't exist, it would be pretty much gone from the planet. People like getting something like that.
The CD was lovingly remastered and the result is very fine quality. I've heard some worn records that were remastered without high end filtering that are just barely listenable. This was a pristine LP and was given lots of attention and high end treatment. It's very close to the original quality of the master tapes and certainly more than equal to a pristine LP record. You are not distracted by lots of snaps, crackles and pops. It's quite smooth and clear.
Amazon.com
One thing I learned at Amazon is that it does not really pay to be a Premium Seller unless you're doing high volume. They don't keep any inventory on hand, so you do all the work whether you are a Premium Seller or just another bozo. They send you an email, you print a packing slip, package the goods and mail it to the buyer, all within 2 business days. If Amazon fails to notify you, which happened to me in one case, the buyer will stew for a few weeks and then write a nastygram to Amazon, at which point Amazon will notify you, and the buyer will never believe you were not notified in the first place. Try complaining to Amazon? It's "talk to the hand". There's no one listening.
As a Premium Seller at Amazon, you pay hefty monthly fees for their service. Without this status, you have to renew your selling "site" every 60 days. It's a pain, but well worth it if you're losing money paying their service fees. Otherwise, they deduct your profits from the fees you owe and you gain nothing. Not so sweet. If you make money, they direct deposit it to you. Sweet.
Acappella.com
Acappella.com, on the other hand will keep some small inventory on hand and ship to the buyers. You have to keep track of the sales and resupply them periodically, but there is no ongoing cost. You won't lose money in a month where nothing sells. They pay the postage, do the shipping and send you checks when they sell - sweet! But your record must be good enough for them to include it in their catalog. They listen and if they figure it won't sell, you're toast!
Cutler's Records & Brick and Mortar operations
The brick and mortar operations like Cutler's Records work pretty much the same way. They accept a small inventory, sell it at an agreed upon "split", and you have to check with them periodically to keep them supplied, at which point they pay you for what was sold. Like acappella.com, brick and mortar operations won't waste space unless they think they can sell your product. Luckily, the Whiffenpoofs are a proven commodity and Cutler's is glad to carry us.
CDBaby.com
I read up on CD Baby recently, and they operate much like acappella.com - small inventory, simple profit split, no monthly overhead and lots of happiness for all. CDBaby will carry you no matter what. You pay a small one-time fee and that's all there is to it. Look for Whiffenpoofs Sunshine Girl there soon!
Pay the royalties and licenses to your composers, lyricists, arrangers...
If you want to sell publicly, make sure you pay for all the intellectual property rights you need to be legal. It's really very simple. You go to Harry Fox agency on the web, research every song in their database and declare how many CD's you're making and pay it in advance when you are manufacturing the CDs. Pretty much everyone who wants to be paid is listed there. Rarely they are not listed and you have to track them down and make a private deal. When making the Sunshine Girl CD, I had the opportunity to pay license fees for downloads but did not opt for that. There's a serious profit margin there, but unless you're expecting a feeding frenzy on your music, it's probably more bother than it's worth. Don't take my word for it but you gotta sell to make money, that's for sure!!
For most of us, it's just cool to be selling it and bragging to our spouses and girlfriends. Make sure you stay legal and that you don't lose your shirt for the bragging rights!
Bob
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Whiffenpoof Songbook project: Whodunnit?
To bring you up to date and give the executive summary: we have engraved hundreds of arrangements using Finale to preserve and protect the Whiff's hundred year old tradition. I have engraved something like 70 arrangements from all over the 20th Century.
Many of the originals were in a poor state, copied over by hand several times, and then copied by xerox many times over. By and large, the music was readable but there were times when you really had to squint. Then, many oddities could only be revealed by playback and still more errata found only by superb editing by our music leader, who now sits at piano and plays through every engraving weeding out glosses applied by copyists, errors applied by the engraver and truing up harmonics to match early recordings.
One very interesting problem that came up several times was that of attribution. Sometimes the songs themselves have unknown origins. They may have been Tin Pan Alley songs whose copyrights have lapsed and no information exists about them at ASCAP or Harry Fox. Some of these may have been composed by undergrads, and no one took credit. Some of the arrangers names got lost over the years when manuscripts were copied. These mysteries have proven difficult to solve, especially when songs go back more than 50 years and few folks are around to remember.
One piece I engraved was "Slide Trombone". Whiff records have the composer as Alstyne and the lyricist as Williams. You will not find this song anywhere on ASCAP or Harry Fox, nor will you find the lyrics posted anywhere. The Internet does not know this song exists! For the arranger, Whiff records show "WBB", which is an abbreviation for "Whiffenpoof Blue Book". It's in the book. Yes, there was an actual "Blue Book" assembled at some point which few people have ever seen and probably no one is allowed to touch. Maybe it's in Salt Lake City and heavily guarded! Anyway, it's in that book and no one knows who arranged it. "WBB" is short for "we don't know".
The Whiff singing society sang, collected songs, stuck them in folders, passed them along and didn't always care very much about history and keeping records. Arrangers noted their work often by just putting their initials on the page. Three letters, nothing more. So now on their 100th anniversary, folks come along to document what this fun-loving bunch of guys did, and knowing stuff like who arranged what is suddenly very important.
So here's my story about Slide Trombone that actually leads to knowing something more about this piece than has been known for probably the last 50 years.
While engraving the SOB songbook, which I noted earlier in this blog included a bunch of songs "stolen" at some point from the Bakers Dozen, there were a number very old manuscripts in a hand that was, well "scary". I had seen these charts years ago when as Pitchpipe, I had the actual SOB songbook in 1971 and 1972. A set of songs including "Slow Motion Time", "Jungle Town", "Deh Wind Blow Ober Mah Shoulder", "George Jones" and "Slide Trombone". I remember the handwriting of these charts vividly, since they gave me a shiver when I looked them over in 1971. Several of these songs ended up in the Yale Songbook, also known as "Songs of Yale".
That songbook as we know it today was assembled by the great Marshall Bartholomew in 1953 but had had many editions published. The first copyright was 1903 and there were copyrights in 1906, 1918, 1934 and 1953. Songs in the 1953 edition had been passed on for many years without attribution. I have some of those in the "Songs of Yale" assembled by C. S. Elliot published in 1870, including earlier versions of songs you can see in the 1953 edition. The songs apparently had a life of their own; they grew, got embellished, updated and probably were just sung in the wider College community in the "oral tradition".
In any case, wondering who arranged the Slippery slide Trombone, I took a look at the ancient manuscript for Slide Trombone that is in the SOB archive. It's clearly very old, and it is sitting among what appear to be a group of songs that were floating around the singing community described above, some of which became part of the Whiffenpoof "Blue Book" and some of which were published in Bartholomew's 1953 edition of "songs of Yale". It's not exactly note for note the same as the one in the "WBB", but it's clearly an ancestor, and a very close one. In a court case on plagiarism, this manuscript would convict.
And this copy has something on it. It's an inscription, mostly unreadable, saying something like "Old song- freely cooked up...", then some unintelligible stuff, and then "by R. F. L.". Like I said before: three letters, nothing more. I am not sure what we really have here, but when I look into the Whiffenpoof records, I find only one singer in the 100 year history of the group with those initials. He is Robert Frederick "Missing" Link who sang 2nd bass with the Whiffs in 1942. The stars are aligning. Did he arrange it? Well, maybe he did or he knows who did, or maybe he was just the guy who transcribed what was being sung around campus. The search for truth and the meaning of life goes on....
More next time on some other finds.
Many of the originals were in a poor state, copied over by hand several times, and then copied by xerox many times over. By and large, the music was readable but there were times when you really had to squint. Then, many oddities could only be revealed by playback and still more errata found only by superb editing by our music leader, who now sits at piano and plays through every engraving weeding out glosses applied by copyists, errors applied by the engraver and truing up harmonics to match early recordings.
A Musical Whodunnit?
One very interesting problem that came up several times was that of attribution. Sometimes the songs themselves have unknown origins. They may have been Tin Pan Alley songs whose copyrights have lapsed and no information exists about them at ASCAP or Harry Fox. Some of these may have been composed by undergrads, and no one took credit. Some of the arrangers names got lost over the years when manuscripts were copied. These mysteries have proven difficult to solve, especially when songs go back more than 50 years and few folks are around to remember.
One piece I engraved was "Slide Trombone". Whiff records have the composer as Alstyne and the lyricist as Williams. You will not find this song anywhere on ASCAP or Harry Fox, nor will you find the lyrics posted anywhere. The Internet does not know this song exists! For the arranger, Whiff records show "WBB", which is an abbreviation for "Whiffenpoof Blue Book". It's in the book. Yes, there was an actual "Blue Book" assembled at some point which few people have ever seen and probably no one is allowed to touch. Maybe it's in Salt Lake City and heavily guarded! Anyway, it's in that book and no one knows who arranged it. "WBB" is short for "we don't know".
The Whiff singing society sang, collected songs, stuck them in folders, passed them along and didn't always care very much about history and keeping records. Arrangers noted their work often by just putting their initials on the page. Three letters, nothing more. So now on their 100th anniversary, folks come along to document what this fun-loving bunch of guys did, and knowing stuff like who arranged what is suddenly very important.
The case of (That Slippery) Slide Trombone
So here's my story about Slide Trombone that actually leads to knowing something more about this piece than has been known for probably the last 50 years.
While engraving the SOB songbook, which I noted earlier in this blog included a bunch of songs "stolen" at some point from the Bakers Dozen, there were a number very old manuscripts in a hand that was, well "scary". I had seen these charts years ago when as Pitchpipe, I had the actual SOB songbook in 1971 and 1972. A set of songs including "Slow Motion Time", "Jungle Town", "Deh Wind Blow Ober Mah Shoulder", "George Jones" and "Slide Trombone". I remember the handwriting of these charts vividly, since they gave me a shiver when I looked them over in 1971. Several of these songs ended up in the Yale Songbook, also known as "Songs of Yale".
That songbook as we know it today was assembled by the great Marshall Bartholomew in 1953 but had had many editions published. The first copyright was 1903 and there were copyrights in 1906, 1918, 1934 and 1953. Songs in the 1953 edition had been passed on for many years without attribution. I have some of those in the "Songs of Yale" assembled by C. S. Elliot published in 1870, including earlier versions of songs you can see in the 1953 edition. The songs apparently had a life of their own; they grew, got embellished, updated and probably were just sung in the wider College community in the "oral tradition".
In any case, wondering who arranged the Slippery slide Trombone, I took a look at the ancient manuscript for Slide Trombone that is in the SOB archive. It's clearly very old, and it is sitting among what appear to be a group of songs that were floating around the singing community described above, some of which became part of the Whiffenpoof "Blue Book" and some of which were published in Bartholomew's 1953 edition of "songs of Yale". It's not exactly note for note the same as the one in the "WBB", but it's clearly an ancestor, and a very close one. In a court case on plagiarism, this manuscript would convict.
And this copy has something on it. It's an inscription, mostly unreadable, saying something like "Old song- freely cooked up...", then some unintelligible stuff, and then "by R. F. L.". Like I said before: three letters, nothing more. I am not sure what we really have here, but when I look into the Whiffenpoof records, I find only one singer in the 100 year history of the group with those initials. He is Robert Frederick "Missing" Link who sang 2nd bass with the Whiffs in 1942. The stars are aligning. Did he arrange it? Well, maybe he did or he knows who did, or maybe he was just the guy who transcribed what was being sung around campus. The search for truth and the meaning of life goes on....
More next time on some other finds.
Bob
Blue of a Kind Recording Update
The guys showed up ready to play for the next session. Compared to the second session which produced only 2 keepers, the third session produced 5. For a couple hours of hard work, standing around microphones and trying it again and again, you have to have something to show for the effort.
Speaking from the point of view of music director, sometimes you just gotta apply some tough love! Members of the ensemble have to take responsibility for their music. Too many singers are along for the ride and are pushed and pulled by whatever happens in the next moment. Your ensemble will not rise to the top if your singers don't do their homework.
The list of keepers is lengthening and the dream is in sight. Now as we complete this aspect of the project, we have to begin thinking about all the other assets we need to develop - the CD cover, liner notes, photos and etc. There is still a bit of work ahead! Luckily, we have a great artist and designer in the group who has experience doing CD cover artwork.
Bob
Friday, November 14, 2008
Recording "Blue of a Kind"
I've taken Blue of a Kind into the studio to make our first CD. We've had 2 sessions so far at Chillhouse Studios. It's a marvelous experience working in the studio, one you'll never forget. Working with Eric at Chillhouse is really good because he's got such a great ear. He can mike the group in a way that you can analyze problems and make corrections, and he knows when a take basically works. With a couple of active ribbon mikes at hand, some great condensers and the iso booth, you can really rock.
What have we found out in the process? More than we want to know. We can sing in front of an audience, totally knock them out and give a full hour's entertainment before we wilt, but underneath there are guys improvising, slugging along and basically having a good time but they aren't drinking the same Koolaide the rest of us are. They are showing up for the big game with their shoes untied.
I stacked up songs for the first session that I thought we could nail pretty easily. The first session was quite successful. For the second session, I mixed comfort with some stretch, since I thought the guys would be better adjusted and would show "up ready to play", so we could cut some butter.
Let me say this: we're a medium-sized ensemble. There's room to hide.
It turns out maybe one sixth or one eighth of the group doesn't know their stuff, and now they are getting caught by their fellow singers. What seems to work in concert isn't cutting it when the harsher light of the studio is shone upon them. I'm not talking about the occasional flub - some guys are on a map all their own.
They fall into 2 basic categories. First, the guy has basically learned everything but is occasionally singing a line that is interesting but "off book". Maybe it's one individual in one song and another guy in another song. It might pull off the other singers, depending on the complexity of the song and whether they are near enough to hear. It creates muddiness and noise, but it isn't a total mess because it's so sporadic.
I've taken Blue of a Kind into the studio to make our first CD. We've had 2 sessions so far at Chillhouse Studios. It's a marvelous experience working in the studio, one you'll never forget. Working with Eric at Chillhouse is really good because he's got such a great ear. He can mike the group in a way that you can analyze problems and make corrections, and he knows when a take basically works. With a couple of active ribbon mikes at hand, some great condensers and the iso booth, you can really rock.
What have we found out in the process? More than we want to know. We can sing in front of an audience, totally knock them out and give a full hour's entertainment before we wilt, but underneath there are guys improvising, slugging along and basically having a good time but they aren't drinking the same Koolaide the rest of us are. They are showing up for the big game with their shoes untied.
I stacked up songs for the first session that I thought we could nail pretty easily. The first session was quite successful. For the second session, I mixed comfort with some stretch, since I thought the guys would be better adjusted and would show "up ready to play", so we could cut some butter.
Let me say this: we're a medium-sized ensemble. There's room to hide.
It turns out maybe one sixth or one eighth of the group doesn't know their stuff, and now they are getting caught by their fellow singers. What seems to work in concert isn't cutting it when the harsher light of the studio is shone upon them. I'm not talking about the occasional flub - some guys are on a map all their own.
They fall into 2 basic categories. First, the guy has basically learned everything but is occasionally singing a line that is interesting but "off book". Maybe it's one individual in one song and another guy in another song. It might pull off the other singers, depending on the complexity of the song and whether they are near enough to hear. It creates muddiness and noise, but it isn't a total mess because it's so sporadic.
Second category: the guy just has not learned his stuff and is singing pretty much whatever comes to mind, being pushed and pulled freely by whatever else is going on around him, touching here and there on the vocal line he is supposed to present.
The first category is more correctable, and probably does less overall harm since the deviations are musical, creative and episodic. The second category is just like the plague and sucks life out of every performance. It creates an undercurrent of noise that permeates every piece. You can't put a finger on it; it's just always there muddying things up, taking the edge off every effect the arranger intended or what the director is going for. Combine the two, and a very small fraction of the group is heading you directly towards your next "train wreck".
What to do? We're a volunteer group, a bunch of guys who do this for fun. So I repeat, what to do? We are achieving our goals in the field and we want to make a CD to sell that represents us at our finest. So?
It's tough. I have decided to serve everyone notice. They have 7 days to polish 4-5 pieces they should already know by rote. Come the next session, if their compadres don't think they have a song down pretty much solid on the first take, they will ask them to stand down and try on the next song. Maybe sitting in the control room with their songbook open will help. It's ugly, but it might work. Last week we recorded 5 songs and produced maybe two keepers. The glass may be almost half full, but it's no good. Next week, we have to do better. The guys have to show up "mentally hot".
The first category is more correctable, and probably does less overall harm since the deviations are musical, creative and episodic. The second category is just like the plague and sucks life out of every performance. It creates an undercurrent of noise that permeates every piece. You can't put a finger on it; it's just always there muddying things up, taking the edge off every effect the arranger intended or what the director is going for. Combine the two, and a very small fraction of the group is heading you directly towards your next "train wreck".
What to do? We're a volunteer group, a bunch of guys who do this for fun. So I repeat, what to do? We are achieving our goals in the field and we want to make a CD to sell that represents us at our finest. So?
It's tough. I have decided to serve everyone notice. They have 7 days to polish 4-5 pieces they should already know by rote. Come the next session, if their compadres don't think they have a song down pretty much solid on the first take, they will ask them to stand down and try on the next song. Maybe sitting in the control room with their songbook open will help. It's ugly, but it might work. Last week we recorded 5 songs and produced maybe two keepers. The glass may be almost half full, but it's no good. Next week, we have to do better. The guys have to show up "mentally hot".
Look forward to a really great CD from these guys. I know they have it in them and Eric will definitely help us bring it out.
Bob
Monday, July 7, 2008
The O's and B's Songbook Restoration Project
Recently I sent off dozens of songs for proofing and vetting to Baker's Dozen arrangers from their founding years. How exciting to begin getting responses from these guys! Lewis Girdler gave me a complete set of corrections. The man remembered every note of every song he arranged more than 50 years ago. Wow!
Dick Peaslee wrote me back and said he's working on it but he's a little backed up with current work. Why? Well, he's a major composer with a full plate. Check him out at http://www.dickpeaslee.com. Herb Payson wrote me that he's on the case, still plays jazz piano every day and fondly remembers his BD days. Pete Sipple is floored to see his work from 50 years ago and is working his way through it all.
What a thrill!! I could not locate some of the BD founders. I tried every means I could, and all I can say is that time may have taken its' toll. I am still trying to contact a few guys. We'll see where it leads.
Meanwhile, I am still engraving the O's and B's music and trying to turn over a few rocks to see what we can find. The Internet is a major asset finding early recordings of these tunes so I can piece together melodies from recordings these arrangers probably listened to. How does a song go? Well, this is how Doris Day sang it....
I've made contact with some Spizzwinks(?) about working through their songbook and I hope to hear more from them. Then there's the Alley Cats and the Duke's Men. Sadly, the Bachelors and the Jesters are gone.
Why can't the best of this music be revived, not as it was done in the past, but interpreted for the modern ear? Some of these songs have been revived by directors who knew how to treat the music for the modern audience. The result has always been stunning. I want to hear this music sung again in the new way, with impeccable voices and creative direction. The best of the best from 1940-1970 in the hands of a great artist.
Would it sum things up? Connect old and new? Create new bonds between young and old? Re-utter the core 20th century music we all love in a powerful way? I want to know.
Bob
Dick Peaslee wrote me back and said he's working on it but he's a little backed up with current work. Why? Well, he's a major composer with a full plate. Check him out at http://www.dickpeaslee.com. Herb Payson wrote me that he's on the case, still plays jazz piano every day and fondly remembers his BD days. Pete Sipple is floored to see his work from 50 years ago and is working his way through it all.
What a thrill!! I could not locate some of the BD founders. I tried every means I could, and all I can say is that time may have taken its' toll. I am still trying to contact a few guys. We'll see where it leads.
Meanwhile, I am still engraving the O's and B's music and trying to turn over a few rocks to see what we can find. The Internet is a major asset finding early recordings of these tunes so I can piece together melodies from recordings these arrangers probably listened to. How does a song go? Well, this is how Doris Day sang it....
I've made contact with some Spizzwinks(?) about working through their songbook and I hope to hear more from them. Then there's the Alley Cats and the Duke's Men. Sadly, the Bachelors and the Jesters are gone.
Why can't the best of this music be revived, not as it was done in the past, but interpreted for the modern ear? Some of these songs have been revived by directors who knew how to treat the music for the modern audience. The result has always been stunning. I want to hear this music sung again in the new way, with impeccable voices and creative direction. The best of the best from 1940-1970 in the hands of a great artist.
Would it sum things up? Connect old and new? Create new bonds between young and old? Re-utter the core 20th century music we all love in a powerful way? I want to know.
Bob
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Restoring the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus songbook
Back in 1972, I passed the Songbook of the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus to my successor. Said songbook was never seen again. Thirty-four years of music was lost in one fell swoop. Luckily, the group survived based on the music in members' personal songbooks. Also thanks to oral tradition and to a newbie who re-enscribed everything into a proper, new songbook.
Nonetheless, a TON of stuff was lost and some of it will probably never be recovered.
Over the last 35 years, the SOB alums have endeavored to recover the archives from members songbooks salted away in attics. The alums managed to recover several hundred songs and scanned them into the "archives". I've been engraving Whiffenpoof music the over the last year, and in my downtime, I dug into these archives. One of the pieces I was looking for in particular was "Lazy Bones", a Hoagy Carmichael tune I had sung with the group in 1970. It was there, but it was not the arrangement I remembered. This bothered me a little, but I guessed that maybe it had been rearranged and the more recent version was missing.
Oh, what a wealth of forgotten music I found! Many of the arrangers' names were familiar to me from engraving the Whiff's music. I began to troll through the archives by name and finding connections between arrangers until I found a group of musicians whose work clearly formed the core of the founding music from the early 40's and led right into the 50's and early 60's. None of this music had been sung for many years and some of it was quite extraordinary.
Many tunes were xeroxes of xeroxes and were severely compromised. I spent hours over many pages, with a magnifying glass and bright sunlight, looking for a pixel here or a blotch there, trying to interpret what the arranger was telling me and what the ravages of time had stolen from his expression. At some level of generations, xerox copies of sharps turn into something that looks like a star exploding. At the next generation or so, they turn into a few specs that might be a sharp, a flat, a natural or just a singers' pencil mark. Things break down.
As I engraved the music and listened to it on playback, it was as if I was passing through a time portal. These tunes came back to life to me as if from the dead. I could hardly wait to engrave the next tune to hear how some of these arrangers would interpret songs from Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Edith Piaf, Lennon & McCartney and so on. These were songs that defined the 20th Century, and these arrangements were by music majors aiming to become Whiffenpoofs. The music was stunning, and almost all of it had not been heard for 40 years. It was lying in forgotten archives and barely readable.
Then I began tracing the history, nailing down the names and dates, and trying to contact the arrangers to proof and vet my work. And I learned something I did not want to know. A large portion of this music was not ours. It belonged to a competitor.
I wrote to some of the arrangers, and they told me they had not been in the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, but rather in the Baker's Dozen. The S.O.B.'s had been founded in 1938 and the Baker's Dozen in 1947. Youngsters!!
Youngsters they may be, but the music is incredible. I had sung many arrangements from guys in this group in my tour as a Whiffenpoof. Some of their music is still sung by the Whiffs to this day. Lew Girdler, Dick Gregory, Herb Payson, Dick Peaslee, Pete Sipple: OMG these were the arrangers who defined a cappella singing at Yale!
How did this music get into the SOB archives? I have no idea. I distinctly remember seeing some of these pieces in the SOB songbook in 1971, in particular "Vermilion Hair" and "One Meat Ball". Years later they were collected from another member's songbook from the 60's, backing up my contention. My conclusion is they were stolen at some point, probably by a college roommate. I doubt the S.O.B.'s ever performed the stolen music, but apparently they did pass it on.
What to do now? I keep engraving and writing to the arrangers. This music is too good to let die. What is the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus missing? Well, about 98% of their music from 1938 - 1960. We will keep digging and hopefully finding.....
Bob
Nonetheless, a TON of stuff was lost and some of it will probably never be recovered.
Over the last 35 years, the SOB alums have endeavored to recover the archives from members songbooks salted away in attics. The alums managed to recover several hundred songs and scanned them into the "archives". I've been engraving Whiffenpoof music the over the last year, and in my downtime, I dug into these archives. One of the pieces I was looking for in particular was "Lazy Bones", a Hoagy Carmichael tune I had sung with the group in 1970. It was there, but it was not the arrangement I remembered. This bothered me a little, but I guessed that maybe it had been rearranged and the more recent version was missing.
Oh, what a wealth of forgotten music I found! Many of the arrangers' names were familiar to me from engraving the Whiff's music. I began to troll through the archives by name and finding connections between arrangers until I found a group of musicians whose work clearly formed the core of the founding music from the early 40's and led right into the 50's and early 60's. None of this music had been sung for many years and some of it was quite extraordinary.
Many tunes were xeroxes of xeroxes and were severely compromised. I spent hours over many pages, with a magnifying glass and bright sunlight, looking for a pixel here or a blotch there, trying to interpret what the arranger was telling me and what the ravages of time had stolen from his expression. At some level of generations, xerox copies of sharps turn into something that looks like a star exploding. At the next generation or so, they turn into a few specs that might be a sharp, a flat, a natural or just a singers' pencil mark. Things break down.
As I engraved the music and listened to it on playback, it was as if I was passing through a time portal. These tunes came back to life to me as if from the dead. I could hardly wait to engrave the next tune to hear how some of these arrangers would interpret songs from Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Edith Piaf, Lennon & McCartney and so on. These were songs that defined the 20th Century, and these arrangements were by music majors aiming to become Whiffenpoofs. The music was stunning, and almost all of it had not been heard for 40 years. It was lying in forgotten archives and barely readable.
Then I began tracing the history, nailing down the names and dates, and trying to contact the arrangers to proof and vet my work. And I learned something I did not want to know. A large portion of this music was not ours. It belonged to a competitor.
I wrote to some of the arrangers, and they told me they had not been in the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, but rather in the Baker's Dozen. The S.O.B.'s had been founded in 1938 and the Baker's Dozen in 1947. Youngsters!!
Youngsters they may be, but the music is incredible. I had sung many arrangements from guys in this group in my tour as a Whiffenpoof. Some of their music is still sung by the Whiffs to this day. Lew Girdler, Dick Gregory, Herb Payson, Dick Peaslee, Pete Sipple: OMG these were the arrangers who defined a cappella singing at Yale!
How did this music get into the SOB archives? I have no idea. I distinctly remember seeing some of these pieces in the SOB songbook in 1971, in particular "Vermilion Hair" and "One Meat Ball". Years later they were collected from another member's songbook from the 60's, backing up my contention. My conclusion is they were stolen at some point, probably by a college roommate. I doubt the S.O.B.'s ever performed the stolen music, but apparently they did pass it on.
What to do now? I keep engraving and writing to the arrangers. This music is too good to let die. What is the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus missing? Well, about 98% of their music from 1938 - 1960. We will keep digging and hopefully finding.....
Bob
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Who is BellaMafia?
Who is BellaMafia?
Pretty Organized Crime is one answer. BellaMafia is a women's a cappella group from Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine. The founding members are still in the group and the repertoire has been laboriously built over the past 2 years by some very talented musicians. If you haven't heard of this group yet, you will soon. They lay down some very well crafted tunes and the group is chock full of some impressive vocalists.
Eric and I recorded them on campus a couple weeks ago. They had reserved a space for us to work in, because they could not all make the trek to Boston to Chillhouse Studios. Actually, they had reserved two spaces and we scoped them out. We went with the Chapel, because the acoustics were wonderful for the singers, and the natural reverb was just about dead solid perfect.
In the weeks before we made the trip, BellaMafia had done their homework. As Eric set up the hardware in the Chapel I got to hear them warm up. They struck me like athletes ready to run the race and break a course record. They were just ready to go!
Over the next couple days, these beauties put in two 7 hour sessions to record their complete repertoire - 2 years of work they'd never sung all at once before. Up until this point, they had worked up 2-3 numbers at a time for a cappella festivals and competitions, but never performed a whole show themselves. When you're just getting started, this is the way it works. It's amazing the courage and fortitude it takes to bootstrap a full-fledged group. And these women have to make their grades, too! Bowdoin is a serious place.
For two days, we worked laying down the background singing with the vocal percusssion. Each song took about 30 minutes, what with several takes, monitoring the takes, making adjustments and trying to get the best overall performance. Every song got the right amount of attention, to good effect. Without the soloists, the architecture of the song was not always clear, so a whiteboard was sometimes used to sketch out the lyrical roadmap. A couple of times, a laptop on a stool with lyrics downloaded fresh off the 'Net and pasted into MS Word with a large font size was used. This could be scrolled as the song was sung by the woman who was perc'ing. Now that's multi-tasking!
Solo callbacks ended each day. Well, let's say the second shift began with solo callbacks. Every song had at least one solo and many had several solos and duets, some also had rap parts. There was serious work to do. Tirelessly, Eric worked with each singer helping them get their best performance without pushing them to exhaustion.
Two long days of work, all while preparing for final exams. Eric and I packed up the gear late on Sunday, after backing up the whole thing to external hard disk. The project can't help but be a success based on what we heard - mixing and mastering will definitely take it to the next level. Once the product is complete, if BellaMafia makes some samples available, I'll put some pointers to where you can have a listen.
One more thing I'll say about this group of women. Like all the groups I've met, they are diverse personalities, but closely bonded through the joy of singing together. They are a tribe. Something else about them I found remarkable and I mentioned it to Eric while driving back to Boston. Fourteen plus hours of hard work, lots of boredom and frustration, criticism from each other, from their leaders, from me and from Eric and we heard not even one snappy remark. Just lots of good hard work, laughs and a few catnaps in the pews.
Who is BellaMafia? They're a bunch of amazing young women. Once their CD is ready, you'll find out the rest of the answer.
Bob
Pretty Organized Crime is one answer. BellaMafia is a women's a cappella group from Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine. The founding members are still in the group and the repertoire has been laboriously built over the past 2 years by some very talented musicians. If you haven't heard of this group yet, you will soon. They lay down some very well crafted tunes and the group is chock full of some impressive vocalists.
Eric and I recorded them on campus a couple weeks ago. They had reserved a space for us to work in, because they could not all make the trek to Boston to Chillhouse Studios. Actually, they had reserved two spaces and we scoped them out. We went with the Chapel, because the acoustics were wonderful for the singers, and the natural reverb was just about dead solid perfect.
In the weeks before we made the trip, BellaMafia had done their homework. As Eric set up the hardware in the Chapel I got to hear them warm up. They struck me like athletes ready to run the race and break a course record. They were just ready to go!
Over the next couple days, these beauties put in two 7 hour sessions to record their complete repertoire - 2 years of work they'd never sung all at once before. Up until this point, they had worked up 2-3 numbers at a time for a cappella festivals and competitions, but never performed a whole show themselves. When you're just getting started, this is the way it works. It's amazing the courage and fortitude it takes to bootstrap a full-fledged group. And these women have to make their grades, too! Bowdoin is a serious place.
For two days, we worked laying down the background singing with the vocal percusssion. Each song took about 30 minutes, what with several takes, monitoring the takes, making adjustments and trying to get the best overall performance. Every song got the right amount of attention, to good effect. Without the soloists, the architecture of the song was not always clear, so a whiteboard was sometimes used to sketch out the lyrical roadmap. A couple of times, a laptop on a stool with lyrics downloaded fresh off the 'Net and pasted into MS Word with a large font size was used. This could be scrolled as the song was sung by the woman who was perc'ing. Now that's multi-tasking!
Solo callbacks ended each day. Well, let's say the second shift began with solo callbacks. Every song had at least one solo and many had several solos and duets, some also had rap parts. There was serious work to do. Tirelessly, Eric worked with each singer helping them get their best performance without pushing them to exhaustion.
Two long days of work, all while preparing for final exams. Eric and I packed up the gear late on Sunday, after backing up the whole thing to external hard disk. The project can't help but be a success based on what we heard - mixing and mastering will definitely take it to the next level. Once the product is complete, if BellaMafia makes some samples available, I'll put some pointers to where you can have a listen.
One more thing I'll say about this group of women. Like all the groups I've met, they are diverse personalities, but closely bonded through the joy of singing together. They are a tribe. Something else about them I found remarkable and I mentioned it to Eric while driving back to Boston. Fourteen plus hours of hard work, lots of boredom and frustration, criticism from each other, from their leaders, from me and from Eric and we heard not even one snappy remark. Just lots of good hard work, laughs and a few catnaps in the pews.
Who is BellaMafia? They're a bunch of amazing young women. Once their CD is ready, you'll find out the rest of the answer.
Bob
Visit us at http://www.acappellanation.com
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Finishing the Whiffenpoof Audio Restoration project
Well, the audio restoration project is completed. The Whiffenpoofs from 1973 wanted to create a CD to give to class members returning for a reunion. The group had long since lost the master tapes. Presumably, these were left on file at the studio in Wallingford, CT. Eventually, the studio figured they wouldn't hear from these guys and disposed of the archives. What was left to work from was a 33 1/3 LP record that had never been played. That seemed rather fortunate. How many people have a record they never played?
The original transfer took a little doing to get set up properly. There was some excess noise on side 1 on the left channel to worry about. This noise did not come from wear and tear, but rather from the original stamping process. After trying a couple of configurations, Eric found a way to record the LP that reduced the noise significantly and side 1 recorded very nicely.
As side 2 was transfering, we could hear a lot more noise over the monitors, and my heart began to sink. The layout of music for the 2 sides of the vinyl had put a lot of songs on the second side, and many of these songs carried more density of information overall then the songs on side 1. The result? A lot of data packed into tightly packed grooves. Worse still, the stamping process had done worse on this side, and there was a lot more noise in the left channel. The further we got into the transfer, the more the sound degraded. It was not awful, but it was far less optimal than we'd anticipated starting with a clean piece of virgin vinyl.
Clearly what we had was good enough for the singing group members to have as a memento, and was probably better than their well-worn copies from 1973. But to produce something of quality for the reunion class gift, we knew we had to go to the next level. We discussed with the University and got approval to remaster the audio.
Eric did some research, discussed the problem with other experts at the college where he teaches and located some fabulous software for restoring from vinyl. We took the raw transfer back into the studio, and tuned parameters on some of the most delicate songs to remove pops, hiss and crackle. The results were astounding! It was like sheer magic. This software could identify the chaff, remove it and put these more delicate songs back to a state so close to pristine, it was jaw-dropping. We ran the filters over the entire raw data and thought we were finished.
Then we spot-checked across the entire result. While the parameters we selected had worked like a dream on those delicate songs, the dense, rumbling pieces from side 2 where the grooves were jammed so tightly were not pretty. Although they were hiss, pop and crackle free, they were now distorted. Terms like "wow" and "flutter" come to mind. We found these pieces required special attention, a completely different set of parameters and some measure of compromise to find the right level where noise could be reduced measurably without distorting the vocal performance. We reduced thresholds on the filters by 50% and then another 50% and made several more passes over the data, giving us 4 versions the entire stream from which to select the best starting point for each song.
Then Eric worked by with each piece to fine-tune the compression and a light EQ, as well as removing some noises by hand to achieve a result that was unimaginable after the initial transfer. The master has been sent off for production and the result should be something worth adding to a collection of college a cappella recordings. The reunion group should be very happy, and we came in right on budget!
I hope to talk more about getting the artwork together as well as acquiring all the mechanical licenses, so we're nice and legal. I even got to speak with one of the composers, Fred Hellerman on the phone in the process! How cool is that?
~Bob
Saturday, March 15, 2008
We love what you do!
Fellow Singers!
Need someone who understands your recording, musical asset management
and preservation needs? How long has your group been in existence and
how log do you expect to be around? What problems do you see
threatening your survival?
I know something about these problems. I was assistant musical director
of the Whiffenpoofs at Yale, oldest collegiate a cappella group in the
US. We're preparing to celebrate out 100th anniversay in 2009.
I've sung on and mixed several studio recordings, performed and
directed hundreds of concerts all over the US, arranged dozens of songs
for men and mixed chorus, sang for Leonard Bernstein at Saunders
Theatre in Cambridge, declined to sing for Richard Nixon at the White
House, directed 3 choirs, have done field recordings for my own groups
and worked on restoring recordings from tape and vinyl.
There is nothing more challenging and fun than a cappella singing. It
gets you a lot of free dinners and you go to the best parties! And,
there are few things better than a great arrangement performed with
"magic".
Working on a recent audio restoration project, I connected with a top
Boston sound engineer. In the process, he rediscovered his love for a
cappella. We have a LOT to offer you!
Come visit us at www.acapellanation.com and see what we can offer you.
Special rates are available because we're looking to make new friends
in this exciting market. We love what you do!
If you don't see your URL on our site, send it to me and we'll add you
to our links page. People need to find you!!
Keep singing,
Bob Eggers: Assistant Director, Whiffenpoofs '73
Director, Yale Society of Orpheus and Bacchus '72
Musical Director, Blue of a Kind
Arranger, singer
Eric Welsh: Head Studio Engineer
Part-time Faculty, New England Institute of Art
Audio & Media Technology
Web: www.acappellanation.com
Email: acapellanation@gmail.com
Need someone who understands your recording, musical asset management
and preservation needs? How long has your group been in existence and
how log do you expect to be around? What problems do you see
threatening your survival?
I know something about these problems. I was assistant musical director
of the Whiffenpoofs at Yale, oldest collegiate a cappella group in the
US. We're preparing to celebrate out 100th anniversay in 2009.
I've sung on and mixed several studio recordings, performed and
directed hundreds of concerts all over the US, arranged dozens of songs
for men and mixed chorus, sang for Leonard Bernstein at Saunders
Theatre in Cambridge, declined to sing for Richard Nixon at the White
House, directed 3 choirs, have done field recordings for my own groups
and worked on restoring recordings from tape and vinyl.
There is nothing more challenging and fun than a cappella singing. It
gets you a lot of free dinners and you go to the best parties! And,
there are few things better than a great arrangement performed with
"magic".
Working on a recent audio restoration project, I connected with a top
Boston sound engineer. In the process, he rediscovered his love for a
cappella. We have a LOT to offer you!
Come visit us at www.acapellanation.com and see what we can offer you.
Special rates are available because we're looking to make new friends
in this exciting market. We love what you do!
If you don't see your URL on our site, send it to me and we'll add you
to our links page. People need to find you!!
Keep singing,
Bob Eggers: Assistant Director, Whiffenpoofs '73
Director, Yale Society of Orpheus and Bacchus '72
Musical Director, Blue of a Kind
Arranger, singer
Eric Welsh: Head Studio Engineer
Part-time Faculty, New England Institute of Art
Audio & Media Technology
Web: www.acappellanation.com
Email: acapellanation@gmail.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Welcome!
My rediscovered love for A Cappella music was apparent after working on a project for the Yale WhiffenPoofs recently. The amount of dedication and vocal work that goes into pulling off a successful live concert (or a studio recording) is very rewarding. The particular record was a compilation of studio and live recordings from the early 1970's. The quest for the original master tapes is "on" but who knows if they are in working condition. Tapes not stored in a nice cool, dry place can cause some serious repercussions. With the digital age now on us full tilt, recording to multitrack tape is not as popular as it once was. It sure does have it's own unique sound and I still like to use 2 inch tape when the project calls for it. There is a process called baking where in order to get a single pass at restoring older master tapes that have been exposed to heat (or sun) you actually "bake" tapes in an oven and after the one pass, the tapes may turn into scrap city, but hopefully this is not the case for most recordings out there in storage and this is part of the reason for starting A Cappella Nation. We need to protect and archive our history in the audio world for future generations to appreciate. There are engineers out there right now whom are trying to restore older recordings every single day and at the rate they are going and considering the amount of recordings that were made; it has become very difficult for them to keep up. We are here to help and offer a bunch of great services. For those interested in our Recording/Audio Production studio, you can visit it at Chill House Studios
Thanks and feel free to contribute posts,
Eric
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