Well, dear readers, we finished the second day of recording And the World Goes Round. It wasn’t quite as intense as the first day, but some of the music was much harder and took more time than it should have. One learns lessons on every album and the lesson here was I should have stuck to my guns about the musicians – I wanted my regular players and I wanted them specifically because they are not only brilliant musicians but they are STUDIO musicians who understand the vibe and who can read music instantly and play it. For example, on Sandy Bainum’s last album, we had thirty-four players all in the same room. Not a one of them had seen one note of the charts before arriving. We would run down the chart once, then record and we always had it within two takes. As nice and talented as our players on this recording are, they were not used to the studio vibe and that was very problematic. We had two rehearsals with them and it still was problematic. And in the end, you just start having to move along to insure you get everything you’ll need, which means you live with stuff you would rather not live with, because you’re out of time. In the middle or recording an interminable nine-minute dance number called Shoes, I just said to the executive producers and our musical director, who is their son, that we were probably going to have to have a pick-up session in about three weeks and I’m sure we will, this time with musicians of my own choosing. But first, John Adams and I will put it all together and work as much magic as we can and then I’ll know exactly what bits have to be redone. Because we have really good separation, I think all the rhythm members (piano, bass, drums) are good enough to stand as is, which means we’ll most likely just bring in the trumpet, trombone and reed players and redo what we need to. It won’t be easy because none of this was done with a click track, but we’ll send them mp3s prior to the recording. We all just want the album to be the best it can be, and I don’t like to settle for less than that. And our cast is just too good to not have the best surrounding them.
We never really got behind during the day, and I do think we finally got everything in the can. Jason came back to do another take of Mr. Cellophane, although his initial take was great. We didn’t have Christiane with us, just Brent, Jason, Kyra and Kristin. The musical director’s folks provided lunch both days, both lunches from Porto’s, and they also had bagels and cream cheese, popcorn, drinks, and potato chips – and Saturday we even had homemade latkes. When I wasn’t in my get it done mode, we were quite the funsters in the booth, and my favorite of my running gags yesterday had to do with a comment I made about a tangerine and my engineer. I won’t elaborate further, but it was really funny and eventually everyone was saying it. That’s one of the things I do best as a producer, even when I’m in terse mode, I keep things light and funny – and let me tell you, that’s an important part of the job. At one point, I discovered a huge jar of peanuts in the shell, and I’m afraid I ate quite a few of those little puppies. But all I really had to eat was one bagel and the Porto’s sandwich, and their sandwiches are really thin and small. We wrapped the session at seven-thirty. I was surprised to see it was raining when I left. Well, an LA rain – a few drops and I don’t think it probably lasted more than a couple of hours. I had a Diet Coke can (unopened) in the car – as I was driving up Wilcox, two complete morons ran right in front of my car – if I wasn’t an alert driver and a good driver I would have probably killed them. They just got out of the way in time and I was able to stop anyway, and when I honked at them the moron guy flipped me off. What a complete and utter jerk. The Diet Coke can flew off the seat to the floor, and I heard a noise emanating from it, and I picked it up and somehow it got punctured with a little hole and Diet Coke was spraying everywhere – and I was heading onto the freeway and there was nowhere to throw it – as soon as I was on the onramp I opened the passenger window and tossed it straight out and into the shrubbery to the right of the onramp.
When I got home, I had to get a towel and wipe down the interior of the car. So annoying and all due to two people with no brains in their heads. I hadn’t been able to even write one line before leaving in the morning, although I did do a tiny bit of futzing and finessing. But after I got home and I relaxed for fifteen minutes, I wrote over five pages, so that was good. That took up most of the rest of the evening. Before I get to today, here are two actual photographs taken in the studio, the first on Saturday, the second yesterday. In this first photograph, from left to right we have Kyra Da Costa, Jason Graae, Christiane Noll, li’l ol’ me, Kristin Towers Rowles (granddaughter of Kathryn Grayson), musical director, Joshua Eli Kranz, and Brent Barrett.
And in this photograph, which I LOVE, we have left to right, Brent, Jason, and li’l ol’ me.
Today, I shall futz and finesse, write new pages, do a little banking, write, hopefully pick up some packages, write, definitely do a jog, write, and then do a sound check and our show. I will, of course, have a full report.
The rest of the week is writing and more writing until I am finished, which I’m hoping will be on Friday, although depending on my pace, could be sooner. I will not be taking telephonic calls or discussing anything – it’s either writing or relaxing for me. Then there’s a book fair on Friday night and Saturday, I go to our show on Saturday night and then a dinner, and I think I’m seeing a show on Sunday night at the Musical Theatre Guild.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, bank, jog, hopefully pick up packages, write, have a sound check and do a show. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite nuts? Mine are peanuts and cashews and almonds, oh my. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall greet the day and write, whilst thinking of the tangerine running gag.