Banff, Week 5/6

We have had our first serious snowfall here.  A calming force in the midst of a couple of busy weeks.  After a weekend in Calgary recording a great jazz set at the Beatniq with my friend LJ for the CBC, we returned to Banff to work on a recording of a composition for Oboe and Crystal Glasses with Carmen Thierry.  I played a wine glass.  It felt like years of annoying people at restaurants with plate percussion and wine glass rubbing had finally had finally paid off.  I was meant for this!

The previous week brought many musical ideas as our guest faculty was bassist Roberto Occhipinti and pianist Hilario Duran.  Roberto produces records from the musician/arranger standpoint, which is refreshing for me.  I was able to study with him, and with Hilario who worked on Cuban bass lines with me.  The same week, we made a 5.1 surround sound recording of the indy band, Wooden Sky, with Josh Tidsbury, an engineer for CTV.

The weekend brought another great Friday evening concert in Rolston Hall, which was set up Halloween style, with a carved pumpkin, and microphones mounted on a skeleton.  There were fireworks going off in the distance as a trio for piano, viola, and clarinet was performed.  After the concert, we had the funkiest halloween party ever, with plenty of James Brown.  I was the protagonist of "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob," one of the greatest films of all time.  You can see me in my Shabbat's finest, moving a piano and nearly tripping on my payot.  

This week is quite busy as well as we have 2 audio faculty guiding us - Judith Sherman, an amazing classical producer, and Mark Willshire, who works with music for film.  On Thursday we will record the Turtle Boy Trio of Montreal.  Today I had a great lesson with Henk Guittart, who has me working hard on my bowing technique.  I am looking forward to Zeke's coffee tomorrow morning!

Banff, Week 4

The challah at Canadian thanksgiving was great (baked at altitude), as was the turkey (with bacon on top!), veg, whiskey, stuffin, and the company.  The only difference between American and Canadian thanksgiving is that instead of watching football, you watch "Uncle Buck."  

This week I was able to further delve into some of my own projects, including a surround sound mix of the Subatomic Particles, mixing a record for Adam KinnyKBlaze Kinner, and rehearsing a Dragonnetti duo for Bass and Cello with my friend Belinda.  My copy of the score for Astor Piazzolla's "Kicho," is lost in the mail, so I am transcribing it off of a recording, and working on an ensemble arrangement.  I am also working on a transcription and arrangement of Don Salvador's Tema Pro Gaguinho. 

This week we had a guest clinic and a performance by the Don Thompson Quartet out of Toronto.  Wednesday morning we had a lesson with our program director, Theresa Leanord, about production.  Thursday was full of listening and playing.  At the Friday concert in Rolston Hall we recorded pieces for piano and clarinet, two flute solos, and a composition for piano and pre-recorded samples.  Saturday, I gave a bass lesson to the student who lent me her bass for last weekend's schnabble.  It felt great to teach again.  

This week we have guest faculty for recording and for music.  I am excited to study bass with Roberto Occhipinti and cuban music with Hilario Duran.  

This is the Co-Op

Banff, Week 3

They say that aboriginal folk of this area did not inhabit Banff because it gave off such intense energy. Perhaps this explains the vivid dreams, feelings of euphoria, and the general good vibrations I feel from this place and the people in it. Perhaps not - do these things need explanation? Part of me also feels like I am imposing, and humans are not meant to be here.  The coyote calls emerging from higher up the mountain, and the majestic elk sitting at the stream remind me I am only a visitor.

This week has blessed me with a plethora of wonderful musical projects. The saturday night informal "cabaret" concert in the chamber music studio gave us the opportunity to throw together many diverse ensembles. I played 2 Astor Piazzolla tangos - Lunfardo with flute, piano, and bass, and Milonga del Angel for piano, flute, clarinet, cello, and bass. Then there were some jazz combos including a performance by the Turtle Boy Trio, and a quartet with vocalist Adi Braun. Our program coordinator, Geoff, hooked me up with a real double bass from a local high school. It is great for arco, and not so much for pizzicato, so I used my travel bass (which is good for pizzicato and not arco) for some of the jazz pieces.

To listen to us play Astor Piazzolla's Milonga Del Angel, I posted an mp3 here:

Milonga Del Angel at Banff

Instrumentation: Elspeth Poole (cello), Rosy Choi (piano), Kasia Marczak (clarinet), Elisse Kleiner (flute), JKL (bass). Recorded and mixed by Will Howie.

They have asked me to create podcasts for the music program here. I take recordings from Banff concerts, and present them with photos and text. I will post a link when they are up. Other than that, I did not have a heavy work week, so I have started some of my individual projects that I hope to polish while I am here. I am going to edit, mix, and master the trio from the SLCC residency this summer, and I am writing string arrangements for MacGregor Burns' EP.

This week our guest faculty was Florian Camerer, who is a surround sound expert from Austrian Broadcast. He showed us microphone techniques for recording in surround sound, story telling using sourround sound, and played some amazing mixes of many types of music. My 

two favorites were a Bach Chorale, and a Prince tune. This inspired in me to work on a surround sound remix of the Ben Frock and the Subatomic Particles recording I made in Baltimore last year. I think that the way we miked the session will translate very well in surround. The problem with surround is that nobody listens that way. If only everybody could hear what true surround is like to experience - you are enveloped. It is like swimming.

Friday night, the Turtle Boy Jazz Trio played at the Salt Lick in Banff. It was very strange to be here listening to some very well performed original instrumental music, and feel like I am somewhere on the east coast. It started snowing outside, and I was immediately brought back to the Canadian Rockies. Today is Sunday, and I am kicking it yet again. Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving, and the audio slaves are having a big feast in the co-op. Geoff is cooking a large turkey, and I will bake some bread.  I have much to be thankful for.

Banff, Week 2

After recording a Friday night concert in Rolston Hall at the Banff Centre, my colleague Keith and I were walking back to the Co-Op when we ran into three elk. Two large males were on the left side of the road, and a female was munching some grass on the right. We thought it would be wise avoid the path between them, so we took the long way around through the park. The road from recording a concert at Peabody to my apartment in Baltimore was perhaps as treacherous, but for far different reasons.

 I played a session with saxophonist Curtis MacDonald of NYC, and drummer Adam Milller of the Turtle Boy Jazz Trio from Montreal. It is a small world. As I hang more with these musicians, we realize how many people we know in common.

It was a fun session, and liberating to play with people again. We played some Monk (Evidence), Wayne Shorter (Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum), Duke Ellington (Isfahan), and a Curtis original.  I took his bass line to my studio, and it took me some practice to get it through my ears and under my fingers.

Thursday night I recorded a concert of The St. Lawrence String Quartet. Their ensemble sounded like a single organism. The addition to the classic quartet of a guest cello and viola rounded out the sound and added a nice texture to the low end. We used spaced omnis, hung above the stage, B&K 4007.

Friday night I recorded a Duo for violin and cello by Edmund Shulhoff performed by two of the members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Scott St. John, and Christopher Costanza. This was followed by a dynamic Stockhausen piece for solo piano performed by Luciane Cardassi. After intermission, the two first performers were joined by pianist Inju Oh, to perform Dvoraks' Piano trio in f minor.  Dress rehearsal was helpful for planning how to change the position of the mics between the first two pieces - it was the only change that occurred while the audience was waiting for a performance to start.  We used spaced omni's as or main mic array, Schoepps H2. The cello spot was a TLM 103, and piano spot was the Neumann stereo SM69 (which we had some trouble with as the splitter box kept farting out). The wine and pizza reception after the concert was crucial.

Saturday morning there was a Music&Sound department-wide floor hockey game. It was great to see a bunch of world class musicians get together and try to play a competitive sport. I was able to sprint for about eight minutes, and then I felt like hurling, so I decided to play goalie for the rest of the game.

I spent the rest of my day getting my energy together, and then at night I went with some musicians to the Banff Hot Springs. A natural hot-tub fed by the mountain. They have old fashioned bathing suits for rent, one of which my friend Jon decided to wear.  The night would have been complete if he had a monocle and a tobacco pipe. I will definitely return to this spot after it snows.

Now it is Sunday, and I am taking it easy. I plan to do some listening and some playing. Late last night I watched the replay of the Palin-Biden debate. Since I arrived here, I have been able to phase out politics completely from my thoughts. Watching this debate was disappointing, because neither candidate was very direct, and both had so much canned material that it didn't seem like they were in the same room together at all.