James Morrison
January 19, 2012 in Videos
All I have to say is WOW. Great playing. Never heard of that instrument brand or James Morrison….but kudos on an excellent video and great playing.
Behind the scenes
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Just Dance – Lady Gaga (Revised)
April 22, 2011 in Sheet Music
Oops. I had an arrangement up, but it seems I didn’t transpose the trumpet parts. My bad. Here is a new revision that also has a Guitar and Vibes part and some other tweaks.
Just Dance for Jazz Band (1.1 MiB, 156 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file. – Original key of E
Just Dance for Jazz Band in F (1.0 MiB, 62 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file. – In the key of F
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So You Wanna Record A Big Band — Redux
March 15, 2010 in Articles
Back in October 2008 I did a post that estimated the cost of getting all the gear to have a recording rig for your big band. Now, lets take a look at if things have changed.
The original post I went with an Alesis HD24 which was $1600 then. Its the same price now. For preamps, I went with the PreSonus’s DigiMax D8 which were going for $450. Now they go for about $400. We need three of these to give us 24 tracks. For mics, I had two options. Option one was 13 Shure 57s with stands and cables. Then they were $124 each. Now they are $109. Lets keep it simple and stick with that option.
Case for the PreSonus preamps and the Alesis. Its still about the same, $200. And we will keep the same snakes, which are still the same price. We need three of them. $200 each.
Running total now is $5017. Before it was $5412. The only real price difference was the DigiMax D8s and the Shure Mics. We still need to add in drum set mics which haven’t changed in price ($400), and two Rode NT4s, one for the drum overhead and one for acoustic piano. They haven’t changed in price. $530 each. And two SKB mic cases, which haven’t changed in price either. $150 each. And you need a vocalist mic, a Shure 58, which is $99, was $109.
Final total…..$6876. A year and a half ago, it was $7277. The single biggest cost are the microphones. I went the Shure 57 route due to cost and their reliability, but there are alternatives out there that are cheaper. And there are alternatives that are more expensive. If money was NO OPTION, I would probably replace the 13 mics used for the horns with Sennheiser 421s. However, at $299 not including stand and cable, replacing the Shure 57s with these would about $3887 and that is NOT including cables and stands. However, the microphones are really THE thing to spend money on.
So, it is slightly cheaper to get the gear. This is for all new stuff too. If you are internet savvy, you could probably score most all of the gear off Ebay or Craigslist or you could get the scratch and dent deals or open boxed ones. This could lower the costs by hundreds of dollars.
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Mixing a Big Band CD – Part 1
February 2, 2010 in Articles
Back in August of 2007 and January of 2008, a Big Band that I play in recorded two live performances for a “Demo CD”. Well, in the 2 some years since we made the two recordings, the project has become a full-blown album that is currently playing on Jazz Radio stations and available on the iTunes store. This is the multipart story of how I mixed 8 of the 17 songs on the CD.
The original idea was that we wanted more gigs, and that a lot of people wanted to hear the band before booking it, so we needed a “Demo CD”. At the time we had live recordings that I was making using my Rode NT 4, but a lot of them suffered from crowd noise, wind noise, etc. We wanted something a little bit better. So, we hired someone to do a live recording of the band. Each person individually mic’d, etc, etc. The first concert was in August of 2007, part of a Jazz thing the area puts on (though I don’t think they did it this year…..darn economy). It was held at the Blackhawk Auto Museum.
If you have been to the museum, or look at the pictures…..it is a recording person’s nightmare. Marble floors, surfaces where things bounce off of (cars, pillars, people), plus crowd noise. The crowd was there for a night of socializing and stuff, and as the evening went on, the noise became louder and louder (more on that in later). Anyhow, we had the concert, I made a live recording using my gear, and listened to it. Lots of noise, people talking, eating, dropping glasses, etc. Lots of reverb from the room (more like a Batcave to me).
The mix engineer pretty much decided that the session wasn’t going to yield a lot of material. I think he looked at 3 tracks or so. The project pretty much sat in limbo until the next concert where the scene was totally different. An actual performing arts center. A quiet audience. Acoustic grand piano (the Blackhawk gig the piano player used a keyboard). Different lead alto. Different microphones. Pretty much totally the opposite of the first recording session.
In the interval between the two concerts, I won a contest. Yeah. It DOES happen to people. So, suddenly I had stuff that was like…..pro level. Stuff I didn’t now how to use (I was a Digital Performer person since…..forever). And in January of 2008, my trusty old PowerMac Quicksilver 2002 (or my hackintosh, since I upgraded it to dual processor, etc etc) died and I replaced it with a 2008 MacPro Dual Quad-Core. The stars were aligning. In I believe March of 2008 I got to go to a mixing session. I had mentioned to the engineer that I had recently come into a ProTools setup (M-Powered), and if I could maybe get the tracks to the first concert to mess around with to get my feet wet in ProTools and whatnot. He agreed, and during that session in March, I brought a portable drive with me, and he loaded up a blank session (with like 3 edits he did) that was the Blackhawk concert. Something like 18 tracks totaling over 20 gigs of data……
Part two (what I got…..what a mess!) Coming soon.
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Gordon Goodwin Holiday Concert
January 2, 2010 in Videos
Yamaha has two videos up of the Gordon Goodwin Phat band playing a holiday concert.
https://www.yamaha.com/thehub/default.html?CTID=5041999&CNTID=5042480
It is also in iTunes under Podcasts->Yamaha Wind Instrument Podcasts (there are lots of other good videos in there too)
Note: the two solo mics sucked. WTF. The rest of the mics were good, but shure 58s? Really? Should have stuck with sennheisers or something.
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Save The Last Dance For Me
April 15, 2009 in Sheet Music
This is a transcription/arrangement I did for a Big Band I play with. The original Michael Buble arrangement this is based off of has guitar and a string section. This arrangement has no guitar and the string parts are in various instrument sections. If you enjoy this and want to see more arrangements up here, please consider making a donation (look down on the left).
Big Band and Vocals…..Score, 5 saxes, 4 Trombones, 4 Trumpets, Piano, Bass and Drums. I’ll have an audio clip of us playing it at some point. Enjoy!
Save The Last Dance For Me (1.4 MiB, 268 hits)You do not have permission to download this file.
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So You Wanna Record A Big Band…..
October 29, 2008 in Articles
So, I’ve been working on this CD for a big band I play in. I have no idea how much it cost to get the person to record it, multitrack, and a couple of sessions. I’m thinking at least $6,000….if not more. So, say you have ProTools (or something similar) that can handle 30 tracks of audio. How much would it cost to get the equipment to do it yourself…..let’s figure it out……
Read the rest of this entry →
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Bob Florence Dies
May 15, 2008 in News
Legendary Big Band arranger, composer, pianist, and Finale user Bob Florence died today.
“From: ALEX ILES
Date: May 15, 2008 6:51:24 PM CDT
Subject: [Trombone-l] Bob Florence
I am very sad to report the passing of pianist, composer, arranger
and bandleader Bob Florence. He died this afternoon after a long
illness. He was a brilliant and dedicated musician who never stopped
searching for ways to express emotions through music.
Those who knew him and his music have lost a great friend.
Best wishes,
Alex Iles”
Bob was a great guy, and I had numerous emails back and forth with him about notation and what not. He was also one of my favorite big band arrangers, with tunes like BBC and Carmello’s By The Freeway. He will be missed.
UPDATE: All About Jazz has an article about Bob’s untimely passing.
UPDATERemoved some guy’s posts about Bob who was impersonating someone else. So, if some of the comments reference it, you know why.
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Altiverb
April 20, 2008 in Articles, Reviews
I have had the pleasure the last few week to work on mixing a big band that I play in. We recorded 20 something tracks at a concert, and I was able to obtain the Pro Tools session, and set off to salvage the recording session. We recorded twice, and supposedly the second session was better, so, they have been mixing that in the studio. However, the vocalist who performs with us did way better the first session. It was a good way to get your feet wet with Pro Tools, and the whole mixing thing. I’ve always wanted to do a big project like this.
After some cutting, balancing, EQing, etc, etc, I had a fairly good mix happening, but it really lacked something. That something was a good reverb. I was using D-Verb, Pro Tools reverb. Not really all the great. Ozone 3 has a great reverb that I have been using (LOVE Ozone 3) on stuff, but it didn’t seem to do the job. What they were using in the studio was Altiverb, an amazing convolution reverb program.
I’m not going to do an in depth review of it, but what I will say is that this program made everything sound better. The right space, and the right amount made all my mixes finally work and pass the test with various band members. It adds that quality to sound that……it is not easily put into works. It’s the gel, it’s the glue, it’s the stuff. The right reverb just makes it work, and Altiverb is that sort of reverb. True, it was a lot of money, but it makes everything sound better. Even midi mockups sound more realistic now.
Highly recommended. 9.5 out of 10. .5 deducted for the use of iLok, which I’m beginning to hate.
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Best Recorded Big Band Albums
March 24, 2008 in Articles
As frequent readers of Jazz-Sax.Com will know, I won a pretty awesome M-Audio package. I really did not have the “horse power” to use it until my G4 PowerMac decided to die. Followed by my G4 Cube (though that was probably more me messing around with it than it just dying on it’s own accord. IE: It was apart and being messed with). Anyhow, I invested in a new MacPro 2.88 Dual QuadCore computer. Whoa. Fast!
Anyhow, a big band I play in is in the process of recording a demo. We’ve had two concert recordings. The first, according to the engineer, didn’t come out so clean, and would require a lot of work. The second came out way better. I was able to obtain the ProTools session from the first recordings, and have been using ProTools M-Powered to clean it up and what not.
Now, the question is actually two questions. What is the best studio recording of a Big Band, and what is the best live recording of a big band? For the former, I’d have to say Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Albums are amazingly well done. For the latter, I think the one that sticks out in my mind is Frank Sinatra and Count Basie – Sinatra at the Sands.
Opinions?
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Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band Play-Along Series
February 16, 2006 in Reviews
This is pure gold. 10 songs, playing with the Gordon Goodwin band. The solos are written out. The chart is there. Everything. You get a small clip of the band playing the tune (full band), and then you get the band minus your part and the solos. It’s the actual recording. Hunting Wabbits, yes, it’s the same as the recording. If you listen hard, you can hear a very faint bleed in from the solos.
You need to get this. You need to get both the Alto and the Tenor versions as the written solos are not the same in both books (IE: the solo for Swingin for the Fences is in the Alto book, but not in the Tenor. The solo for Jazz Police is in the Tenor book, but not the Alto).
On a scale of 10, I give this series of books a 12. No, a 14. Hell, ok, 15. It’s good stuff. Very good stuff.
Update: 02/17 21:49 GMT by E :You can get the book via Aebersold, or J.W. Pepper
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Portable Recording Studio/Who Needs a Studio Anymore?
February 28, 2005 in Articles
One of the many bands that I am in was considering spending a lot of money to record a CD. But, there was a lack of clarity of what the CD would be for. Vanity project? Demo CD to get more gigs? Christmas CD?
After some discussion, I believe that, instead of plunking down $2-$3K or more on studio time, we are going to invest in Mackie’s new line of Onyx mixers.
So, instead of just using the mixer to do sound, we could record everything channel to hard drive and mix down at a later time. Supposedly the firewire output levels are independant of the slider levels (but not the gain levels). With good close micing, we could potentially have some excellent raw recordings that would just need a little mix down.
Am I wrong, or is this the ultimate Studio thing? Who needs a studio now?
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Cowboy Bebop – Tank!
February 25, 2004 in Sheet Music
I did an arrangement of the opening Theme to the cartoon “Cowboy Bebop” way back in 2002. I gave it to a couple of local high schools, and the DVC Night Jazz Band. It’s pretty damn close to the original theme. Take a listen.
I’m making this and one other Cowboy Bebop Arrangement available. If you want more, you’ll have to beg or put some money in my Paypal account 
. I have arrangements of Cat Blues and Black Coffee and a couple others nearly done.
These need Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 and need have an account and be logged in to view and print these.
- Tank! Parts (1.4 MiB, 5,993 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file. - Tank! Score (1.1 MiB, 4,063 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file.
Note: Comments have been disabled on this post due because people keep posting stupid things like the solo was done on a tenor, or “please email me it”.
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Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band – XXL
September 28, 2003 in Articles
Gordon Goodwin’s last album, Swingin’ For The Fences was really good. No, not good, excellent. Charts like Count Bubba and Samba Del Gringo was hot. Could he top himself with this release?
Yes. There are some awesome songs his latest album Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band – XXL. My favorites so far are The Jazz Police and Hunting Wabbits. Great arrangements and great songs. A Game Of Inches features Michael Brecker, and Thad Said No and Mozart 40th Symphony in Gm feature Eddie Daniels on Clarinet. Good stuff.
Missing from this album however is Dan Higgins. I suppose Eric Marienthal is an ok substitute. Hopefully Dan will be on the next album and help further set the bar high on this band and the music it makes!
10 out of 10 (just for Hunting Wabbits and The Jazz Police).
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