Well, dear readers, I spent seven hours yesterday with John Adams, comping the Kay Cole vocals. While it is a painstaking and occasionally frustrating process, due to my being an extreme perfectionist, exacting, and even maniacal, insisting that what we end up with is all of a piece, it is, for me, a wonderful part of any recording I do. Some comp sessions take two or three days, some go more quickly, as this did. I ended up doing less takes with Kay than I normally do – usually she did the take live with John Boswell at the piano. Sometimes I would be happy with the piano track and sometimes we’d do two or three to get the piano track we all thought was perfect. Once we had that, only then did I begin to give whatever notes I had to Kay. Then we would invariably do another one or two takes, and only occasionally a third full take, knowing I was pretty much discounting the live take. Once we had two takes we all liked, then we punched in any small fixes I wanted on those two takes. Sometimes I’d do one verse on a separate take, or even a line or two.
And so we began, with me listening to the first vocal take after the live one. I do little comp sheets as I go, writing down the take I like for each line – sometimes we go with one take for many, many lines and verses, sometimes I switch takes more frequently – all I’m looking for is the most truthful reading, the most interesting musical reading in terms of vocal tone and interpretation of the actual notes, and whatever makes the intention of each lyric the most clear. Of course, all that is subjective, but I have learned from the very first album I did, to trust my instincts and ears. John is also very good about offering his opinions or solutions if we’re having any difficulties. The funny thing about all this work is that when we’re finished and the singers hear it, they really do all think they did one great take, because that’s how seamlessly we do these comps. A few of them took quite some time to get just right (as I said, I am maniacal about this), but most went pretty quickly. For example, in my song Simply, there were two takes (and the live one, which wasn’t of much use, but we did use one line from it) – I ended up going with the first of them for about two-thirds of the song, just because it felt so honest and right to me. John and I kept commenting to each other how good it was coming out and what a terrific CD it’s going to make. Kay is in wonderful voice and when she goes to that very specific Kay sound, you know the one from At The Ballet, it just sends chills up your spine because the sound is so uniquely hers. She’s also a dream to work with in the studio because she really understands how to take any kind of note or comment I may throw at her (and believe me, I get pretty outré occasionally in my imagery, when I’m really looking for something very specific) and not only understand it and do it, but make it her own, which is, of course, what you want. The interplay between her and Boswell is amazing – I wanted this to be a duets album – not two singers, but singer and piano and that’s exactly what it is. I don’t always love piano/vocal albums because most are done because they’re vanity albums and that’s the cheapest way to go and that’s not an artistic way or approach. But when you have artists like Kay and Boswell then it IS an artistic approach and it’s the POINT. If we get the cover done in the next week, we’ll be announcing this before the end of the year and it will be our first release of 2017. Anyway, it was seven hours well spent and John and I had a really good time doing it.
He will now finesse the mixes and then send them to me – I’ll give him any notes via e-mail, he’ll make whatever adjustments, and then he and I will have one final listen at his place to make sure it’s all perfect. I will also send to Kay as soon as I have them, in case she’d like me to look at any specific lines, although I think she’s going to be VERY happy with it.
Prior to that, I’d gotten about six hours of sleep and then she of the Evil Eye arrived. I went and had some matzoh brei and fruit, knowing I wouldn’t be eating again until seven or later. I got back to the Valley about seven-thirty, went to Gelson’s, got four drummettes, about four ounces of pasta with meat sauce from their food bar, and two chicken tenders. The drummettes weren’t so hot and I stopped after three. The tenders were small but fine, and the pasta was good. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a DGA screener entitled A Monster Calls – I really had no interest in the title or in watching it, frankly, but I put it on and much to my surprise I really liked it quite a bit. The reviews have been mixed, which is amusing to me given the same reviewers have been falling all over themselves raving about utter crap. I thought the movie pretty much succeeded in doing everything it wanted to. No, the live-action direction isn’t brilliant, but it gets the job done, and the final fifteen minutes is very moving without being cloying. The only real misstep is that two-thirds of the way through the credits, the orchestral score, which is very good, stops and we get a completely inept and awful song – when will these people learn to stop doing that? I doubt they will and they completely debase their film with that sort of crass awfulness. The lead performance by the young boy is Oscar-worthy and in fact he should just win because he puts all these other “actors” who mumble their way through performances I just don’t understand, to shame. It’s a terrific performance. Sigourney Weaver is good as the kid’s grandmother and Felicity Jones is wonderful as his mother. Liam Neeson voices the “monster” very well. I can definitely recommend it.
After that, I listened to some piano concertos I’d uploaded, all very nice, even the “modern” one.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Once up, I shall relax, if the weather is okay I’ll jog, then at around two-thirty I’ll mosey on over to Dino’s Pizza and get a couple of extra-large pepperoni pies to take to the Haverty’s Christmas Partay. I’ll get there around three-thirty and I usually stay for an hour or two. After that, I’ll come home, watch something, and listen to music.
Tomorrow I’m figuring out which kids will be in the February Kritzerland show. There’s something else happening but I can’t really remember what – hopefully someone will remind me. Otherwise, next week is meetings and meals, hopefully a visit I need to do for some research purposes, and general winding down.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Jitterbug, for today is the birthday of beloved dear readers Ginny. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to beloved dear reader Ginny. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO BELOVED DEAR READER GINNY!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe do a jog, pick up some packages, pick up some pizzas, and attend a Christmas partay. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had fun and happy to have finished comping Kay.