Gary Baldassari, Incorporated Magi audio engineer, instructing Full Sail interns on microphones

Teachers and students

 
The tagline for Inkwatu is “Delights, near and far.” Less poetically put, that simply means that this blog is about things that I find delightful: people, places, things, food…and also the good I see some people do. One such instance is the training of young engineers in acoustic jazz since 1989 by the seasoned professionals of Incorporated Magi. This training is a free benefit that these pros offer at any festival where they have been engaged to provide sound. They’ve been doing this in places such as Pori, Finland; Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina; and, of course, the USA. They do it to keep intact the knowledge of how to provide audio for acoustic jazz.
 
Last year was the First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party and it was covered by Inkwatu: see Arbors Records. That post covered the event itself with a few asides about jazz in Florida and different kinds of jazz record labels and musicians that part part of the local scene. But, this year, for an Inkwatu post on the Second Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party, the post theme is a little different. It’s a look behind the scenes of the event, especially the teaching by a group of dedicated professionals of hands-on skills to the “next generation” of audio pros.

Gary Faller, audio engineer, with Full Sail intern

Audio engineer, Mike Morgan, instructing Full Sail intern

Dan Czernecki, audio engineer and an alumnus of Full Sail, instructing Full Sail interns

Microphones

At the heart of any sound installation are the microphones. It is through that point in a long chain of electronic processes that the sound becomes an electronic signal. If the microphone is bad (or even inappropriate for the situation), the entire rest of the chain (amplification, recording, etc.) will be bad. The art of the microphone is a skill acquired from long experience and knowledge.

Gary Baldassari with two revolutionary microphones: Grado Holographic Recording Instrument (the sphere on the left) and the HMP-1 Scalar microphone (the stick mike on the right)

Baldassari showing different microphone heads	Baldassari installing piano microphone
DPA 4041 Tube microphone inside piano	close-up of HMP-1 Scalar microphone

The recording room

What the audience heard at the Arbors event was a mix that’s done in the actual hall, intended for the audience in the hall (as well as a subordinate mix that’s onstage, just for the benefit of the musicians). That mix was engineered this year by Gary Faller (pictured above) with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working a number of sessions in the old Roy Disney Post Group studios on the back lot of Disney in Orlando.

In addition to the mixing of the sounds from the stage for the audience at the Arbors event, a documentary recording is made, backstage, in a recording room well isolated from the sounds in the performance room. The Full Sail interns learned what goes into that step as well. An important aspect of this craft is the extensive documentation which must be made at every moment of the recording. The producer, faced with countless hours of recordings, relies upon this documentation. (Think of all those unlabeled cassettes in your junk drawer at home–imagine that times 100!) Engineer, Dan Czernecki (owner of Classical Recording Service, 96 N Lake Ave., Troy, NY 12180-6704 — serving the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metro Area), with whom I’ve produced at least one recording, is a master of documentation and a producer’s delight. Mike Morgan, who also worked the recording room, is an outstanding opera tenor as well as an audio engineer.

Mike Morgan & Dan Czernecki instructing interns in recording room

A very special piano

A real treat for me, as a pianist, was getting to meet the creator, Justin Elliot (www.classicpianoshoppe.com), of very special piano accessories. Mr. Elliot originally intended his unique piano legs and music rack (see photo) as mere decorative touches. He soon discovered, as did the artists who now demand his piano, that these touches very positively affect the actual sound of the piano. The Yamaha pianos for the event were provided by Steve Trawford of Piano Distributors of Sarasota, but Mr. Elliot fitted one of the pianos for the event with his special accessories. I really like the way it makes the piano sound. He was also the piano technician for the event, carefully shading the quality of sound to work properly with the acoustics of the room, the performance style of the artist, and the kind of music being played. There’s a lot more to being a piano technician than just tuning the piano!

Justin Elliot with Yamaha piano fitted with his accessories

Musicians relaxing

 
It was a personal treat to get to see the great musicians backstage relaxing, practicing, and trading stories. Just the pianists at the event were an impressive list: Dick Hyman, Bernd Lhotzky, Louis Mazetier, Rossano Sportiello, Jeff Barnhart, Chris Hopkins, Norm Kubrin, Ehud Asherie, Tom McDermott, and Mike Lipskin. There were musicians from Israel, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and Holland. If you’ve not been to an Arbors event, and you like classic jazz, visit the Arbors Records website (www.arborsrecords.com/) and get ticket for next year’s event when they’re available and/or buy some recordings.

pianists Mike Lipskin, left; Louis Mazetier seated; Ehud Asherie, right

Hanging theater lights

The Full Sail students also learned about and assisted with the hanging of lights. Lights and sound are often part of the same production company and they affect each other electronically. The lighting system for the Arbors event was provided by Atlas Production. The folks who hang lights are a lot braver than I am. Not only do they work with real, dangerous electricity (not just electronics), but they do it up in the air!

It’s a joy to see pros teaching the youngsters who will be the pros in the days to come. The apprentice concept is time honored. I’m glad to see the tradition so enthusiastically continued by Incorporated Magi.

Bruce Blackman of Atlas Production finding a hang point for the light bar

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FIRST ANNUAL ARBORS RECORDS INVITATIONAL JAZZ PARTY

Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph backstage at the Arbors Records First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach. There’s a lot of jazz in Florida and a lot here in the Tampa Bay Area. One of the biggest supporters of jazz in the area is a niche recording label, Arbors Records.

Arbors Records specializes in classic jazz. So, what is “classic jazz”? That’s tough to answer because it’s not even possible to define “jazz.” But, everyone knows it when they hear it. I would suggest that a workable definition of classic jazz is jazz up until the early 1940s, or pre-bebop (pre-Charlie Parker, pre-John Coltrane, pre-Miles Davis, pre-Ornet Coleman, pre-Dizzy Gillespie). You might also use this more descriptive definition of “classic jazz” from the Classic Jazz Society of Toronto.

The opportunity to shoot backstage at First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party was made possible by the invitation of a good friend and professional colleague of many years, Gary Baldassari. I first made Gary’s acquaintance when working the NFL Super Bowl pregame show as its music director during the 1990s. Gary was the audio specialist and audio engineer for Best Productions, for whom we both worked, that produced the shows. Baldassari worked for many years for Walt Disney productions and is the author of numerous technical articles on recording techniques. He is a frequent audio engineer for the Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland, and has long been associated with Arbors Records, recording many of their albums and running sound for their various events such as their famous jazz cruises and their classic jazz festivals.

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GARY BALDASSARI MIXING AT ARBORS RECORDS JAZZ PARTY

According to the Arbors Records website:

“Arbors Records was founded by Rachel and Mat Domber in 1989 to record and preserve the classic styles of jazz. It originated because of their desire to record their friend, the outstanding reedman, singer and composer, Rick Fay, who had been in the music business for over 40 years mostly as a performer at the Disney parks in California and Florida, but had never previously recorded.”

I’d had the good fortune working with Rick Fay on one of the NFL Super Bowl pregame shows I was the music director for. It was for one of the New Orleans shows and Mr. Fay did played our soulful clarinet intro of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” leading into “The Saints Go Marching In” for a beautiful, archetypical classic jazz recording I still cherish. It was Mr. Baldassari who introduced me to Mr. Fay and secured his services for this recording.

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OVERHEAD CLOSEUP PROJECTIONS AT ARBORS FESTIVAL

Continuing from their About Us page:

“Since the release of their first recording, Rick Fay’s Hot Five: Live at Lone Pine, in 1990, Arbors Records through the summer of 2002, has put out almost 160 CDs…Another 30 to 40 CDs have been recorded but are still in production…Arbors Records is also the producer of the acclaimed March of Jazz weekend jazz parties, held in Florida the third weekend in March…Arbors Records is also a sponsor of the Suncoast Dixieland Jazz Classic, in Clearwater Beach, Florida. In addition, Mat Domber is a board member of the American Federation of Jazz Societies and a co-founder of the Statesmen of Jazz, a touring ensemble group of senior musicians who perform at jazz events and give clinics in the schools…Starting with the original dixieland recordings by various Rick Fay groups, the label now embraces traditional jazz and contemporary classic jazz and the swing styles of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and beyond. But regardless of style, all of the recordings have in common a love of melody, improvisation and swing.”

This event–The First Annual Arbors Records Invitational Piano Jazz Party–was beautiful music. I got to hear the most astounding two-piano performance by a pair of European artists, Louis Mazetier (Paris) and Bernd Lhotzky (Munich). I adore good two-piano classic jazz work. Many a night have I listened to the Marian McPartland show on NPR. What was always so unbelievable to me was that her wonderful series of guest and she would, completely extemporaneously, perform together on two pianos. It’s much easier to imagine one piano and a single line instrument, such as saxophone or clarinet, doing this successfully…but two-pianos!? There are so many notes on a piano and it is so easy to get in each other’s way, to step on each other’s musical toes. The challenge is to not create acoustic mayhem.

Mazetier and Lhotzky are even all the more amazing because they are both premier “stride piano” experts. “Stride piano” is early classic jazz in which the left hand of the piano player is constantly jumping huge distances to play, with just that one hand, a very melodic bass part as well as an inner chordal accompaniment. Add to that a florid melodic invention on top with the other hand and one pianist manages to sound like three musicians! So, put together two famous stride piano musicians and you’ve got the effect of six musicians with just two people. Exciting barely covers it. One’s body twitches and bobs continuously. It’s impossible to hold still.

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LOUIS MAZETIER and BERND LHOTZKY

According to Hot House Florida, the Arbors Records Second Annual Invitational International Piano Party will be January 15th, 16th and 17th, 2010. They say:

“The all event price is $250.00 per person. (No individual event tickets will be sold) Seating is limited to 200 people at 20 tables of ten. A 10% discount will be given for 10 reserving together. Seating will be arranged in order of reservations.

“The Sheraton Sand Key Resort is located at 1160 Gulf Boulevard, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Telephone: 1-727-595-1611, FAX; 1-727-563-6004: TOLL FREE: 1-800-456-7263. A limited number of hotel rooms are available at the special rate of $199.00 per night, single or double occupancy, plus tax. Please make your hotel reservations directly with the hotel and mention Arbors Records Invitational.

“Arbors Records is located at 2189 Cleveland Street, Suite 225, Clearwater, FL 33765. Phone: 1-727-466-0432; FAX: 1-272-466-0432; TOLL FREE: 1-800-299-1930. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and personal checks accepted.”

You can order CDs directly from Arbors Records or from a variety of their distributors such as Webster Records Jazz by Mail. An excellent article on Arbors Records is this all about jazz article from 2004. The Arbors Records website has an excellent page of jazz links that is very informative.

Hot House Florida, out of Palm Beach Florida, is a blog associated with Hot House Artists that “provides insight into select local and national jazz, Latin and blues artists that will be performing in our area.”

Another classic jazz local classic jazz resource is Puppy Jazz Distribution, out of Sarasota. One of the distributors who carries Arbors Records, Puppy Jazz specializes in classic jazz and hard to find labels. They have a free newsletter available by email or online.

For more information on coming Arbors Records events, such as the 2009 Jazz Cruise and The Second Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party, be sure to visit the Arbors Records website or contact them by email, snail-mail, or phone.

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ARBORS JAZZ PARTY at the SHERATON SAND KEY