Recording - August 2012 - 62

drummer playing the music more intuitively, regardless of whether their performance had been on a basic track or overdubbed. For some of the tunes, Jason would come in, lay down two or three takes, I’d choose one and that would be perfect! I don’t like overbearing producers and I don’t like to be one. But sometimes this music was really challenging to interpret; despite Jason’s deeply intuitive, instinctive musicianship and his effervescent creativity, there were a few tunes for which it was deceptively difficult to find the right approach. On these problem tunes, Jason and I, and if Jeffrey was present the three of us, would talk about different approaches and Jason would figure out a different one that I’d record, then we’d pick that apart and try something different, and so on. Except in those cases where I was happy with a single take, after Jason left, I’d composite a take from the numerous takes he had recorded.

be open to playing in an ensemble with pedal steel... Thankfully he was! Just as it was with Jason, there were tunes that were easier than other tunes. John R. would come to my studio, we’d track a few takes, and if I felt we needed to explore further, we would. With John R.’s incredible skill and patience, we would always find what I was looking for. At least with respect to the first five tunes we recorded, after John R. would leave a session, I’d composite his piano tracks and then step back and see how the tracks were coming along. If there had been areas that I had left open for steel improvisation, I’d overdub those. I’d also offer Jeffrey the chance to revisit his part once the drums and piano were in. At that time I wrote “Grapple With The Apple”, “Running With Big Dogs” and “En Noir Et Blanc”, and as I was writing these tunes, Jeffrey brought to the table “Highways Remembered” and a sketch for “Been Here Soon”. Jeffrey and I had talked about wanting to co-write, and “Been Here Soon” was our first foray into that territory. After writing “Grapple With The Apple”, “Running With Big Dogs” and “En Noir Et Blanc”, but before I brought the tunes to the players, I embarked on charting the new tunes. I quickly realized that my analysis and charting skills weren’t really up to the task. I asked Rich Kuhns to help me create the charts, and it turned out that he really liked the tunes. I decided to ask Rich to play on a few tunes that seemed to me to be a good fit for his style, and tunes he’d enjoy playing: “Been Here Soon”, “En Noir Et Blanc”, and “Highways Remembered”. He overdubbed “En Noir Et Blanc” and “Highways Remembered” at my studio, and he did “Been Here Soon” at his place on Digital Performer. Using the tried-and-true method of aligning track bounces to a fixed, mutually agreed upon starting point, going between Pro Tools and Performer worked flawlessly.

The Making of quartet

Photos by Bruce Kaphan

Workflow—the piano My studio isn’t big enough for a grand piano, so I don’t have one. I am so thrilled at the existence of Synthogy’s Ivory II! It’s the first sampled piano I’ve worked with that sounds acceptable enough to my ear that I am able to relax when I hear it; I can forget it’s a fake piano. All piano on BKQ was recorded in MIDI and voiced on the Ivory II German Grand. When duo turned quartet, in my mind, there were two piano players I knew whose sensibilities and jazz chops made them my preferred candidates for the chair; eventually both of them would participate on this album. I chose to ask John R. Burr to tackle the first five previously-duo tunes because of his long-standing association with Allison Brown. I figured if John R. was open to playing with a banjo-led band, he might
62
RECORDING August 2012

The gear: Drums—per Jason Lewis I played a 4-piece Gretsch kit, 14" x 18" kick, 8" x 12" rack tom, 14" x 14" floor tom, 5" x 14" snare drum; on a few tunes this was supplemented by a 16" x 16" Yamaha Recording Custom floor tom. I also used a Gretsch New Classic 5" x 14" chrome-over-brass limited-edition snare drum and Yamaha Recording custom series 6.5" x 14" snare drum on different sessions. Cymbals: mostly a 22" and a 20" K Zildjian Constantinople, an old K Zildjian from the ’50s, a 22" Dream Cymbal with rivets and at the last session I was also using a 22" Agop Istanbul. The drum recording signal chain was as follows: kick beater head: Sennheiser e602/Brent Averill repackaged vintage Neve 1272 kick front head: vintage Sony C37P/ Brent Averill repackaged vintage Neve 1272 snare top: AKG C414EB (CK-12 capsule)/ Brent Averill repackaged vintage API 312 snare port: vintage Shure SM54/Brent Averill repackaged vintage API 312 hat: either Neumann KM184 or vintage Neumann KM54a/Avalon VT737SP floor tom: Neumann TLM 103/Brent Averill repackaged vintage Neve 1272 rack tom: Neumann TLM103/Brent Averill repackaged vintage Neve 1272 cymbals left: vintage AKG C61/Summit Audio TPA-200B cymbals right: vintage AKG C61/Summit Audio TPA-200B drums overhead mono: either vintage AKG C12 or DPA IMK4061/ Fearn VT-2/vintage UREI 1176 drums distant, wide spaced pair: Royer R-121/Brent Averill repackaged vintage API 312

Recording - August 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2012