By 3pm we were ready to roll tape, starting with "Followthrough." Neither John nor I had heard any of the tunes Jerome had written for the sessions,…
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By early afternoon everything was in place, and everyone was warmed up enough that we could run a sound-check. Things sounded pretty good—the studio has a marvelously warm acoustic, and the right wires seemed to be connected to the right microphones. We adjourned for lunch while John remained behind to reroute cables, recheck channels, zero out any DC offset on the Manley A/D converter's outputs, and do some eleventh-hour worrying.
The Music
"Decision Point": Pulsing bass guitar sets the scene and occupies the core of this opening cooker, which juxtaposes two types of improvisatory play: loose-jointed multidimensional collective interaction over a relatively fixed bass "pedal point," and the weaving of lines through a progression of chords with walking bass. Each of the three soloists—Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Marty Ehrlich on alto sax, and Art Baron on trombone—joyfully explores the open musical terrain; Billy Drummond makes the drums dance throughout.
"Decision Point": Pulsing bass guitar sets the scene and occupies the core of this opening cooker, which juxtaposes two types of improvisatory play: loose-jointed multidimensional collective interaction over a relatively fixed bass "pedal point," and the weaving of lines through a progression of chords with walking bass. Each of the three soloists—Steve Nelson on vibraphone, Marty Ehrlich on alto sax, and Art Baron on trombone—joyfully explores the open musical terrain; Billy Drummond makes the drums dance throughout.
"Sway Low": I have the good fortune of working with…
Blue Heaven Studios
Mail-order retailer Acoustic Sounds—www.acousticsounds.com, (800) 716-3553—was founded by Chad Kassem in the early '80s to sell LPs and CDs. One thing led to another, and Chad got into reissuing his favorite recordings, as well as original blues recordings, on his Analogue Productions label. To help with this, he opened his own mastering facility, AcousTech, with LP pressing company Record Technology Inc. Then came Blue Heaven Studios.
Mail-order retailer Acoustic Sounds—www.acousticsounds.com, (800) 716-3553—was founded by Chad Kassem in the early '80s to sell LPs and CDs. One thing led to another, and Chad got into reissuing his favorite recordings, as well as original blues recordings, on his Analogue Productions label. To help with this, he opened his own mastering facility, AcousTech, with LP pressing company Record Technology Inc. Then came Blue Heaven Studios.
Chad acquired the First Christian Church in Salina, Kansas to use as offices and warehousing, but, struck by the beautiful…
Multitrack Madness
Recording Rendezvous, Stereophile's first nonclassical album at the deconsecrated downtown church Chad Kassem has transformed into Blue Heaven Studios was a challenge. It's a great-sounding space, but I was concerned that a purist microphone technique would result in balance problems with the particular ensemble Jerome Harris had chosen for his compositions. While the coincident-stereo microphone technique I've used for previous Stereophile classical recordings would faithfully capture the delicious acoustic of what everyone was starting to call the "First Church of…
Recording Rendezvous, Stereophile's first nonclassical album at the deconsecrated downtown church Chad Kassem has transformed into Blue Heaven Studios was a challenge. It's a great-sounding space, but I was concerned that a purist microphone technique would result in balance problems with the particular ensemble Jerome Harris had chosen for his compositions. While the coincident-stereo microphone technique I've used for previous Stereophile classical recordings would faithfully capture the delicious acoustic of what everyone was starting to call the "First Church of…
Accordingly, I prepared several four-channel submixes. The first featured the drums and bass guitar, with some digital equalization provided by a Z-Systems RDP-1. For the bass guitar, I mainly used the DI track, adding a bit of presence-region bite with the RDP-1. (While Jerome had liked the recorded sound of his bass, he wished for a bit more "woody" character to its sound.) I also experimented with some reverberation for his bass guitar solos. As well as the stereo drum tracks, I kept the spot snare drum track separate, to allow some flexibility in balancing the final drum sound.
Half…
To drive the Manley, the sax and trombone tracks were converted to analog by connecting the Sonic Solutions' optical digital output to a Wadia 27i D/A processor via a Sonic Frontiers UltraJitterbug. The Wadia had a sufficiently high balanced output voltage to drive the Manley fully into limiting, if that's what I wanted. The Manley's output was redigitized using a dCS 904D A/D converter running at 24-bit resolution, and to ensure word-clock synchronization, the dCS's reference clock input was driven by another of the Sonic Solutions' digital data outputs, this time dejittered by a Meridian…
The Musicians
Jerome Harris (Taylor acoustic bass guitar, composer, leader) is also an accomplished guitarist who has played with Sonny Rollins and, most recently, drummer Jack DeJohnette. He has recorded many records as a session musician and bandmember. Jerome Harris' albums as leader include Algorithms (Minor Music), In Passing (Muse), and his tribute to Eric Dolphy, Hidden in Plain View (New World/Countercurrents).
Jerome Harris (Taylor acoustic bass guitar, composer, leader) is also an accomplished guitarist who has played with Sonny Rollins and, most recently, drummer Jack DeJohnette. He has recorded many records as a session musician and bandmember. Jerome Harris' albums as leader include Algorithms (Minor Music), In Passing (Muse), and his tribute to Eric Dolphy, Hidden in Plain View (New World/Countercurrents).
For the Rendezvous sessions, Harris decided to concentrate on his acoustic bass guitar, a Taylor AB-1. "I've become fascinated by the instrument," he explained…
Rendezvous
Jerome Harris Quintet Plays Jazz / STPH013-2
Jerome Harris Quintet Plays Jazz / STPH013-2
Jerome Harris (acoustic bass guitar), Marty Ehrlich (alto sax), Arthur Baron (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibraphone), Billy Drummond (drums)
1. Decision Point 11:03
2. Sway Low 7:37
3. The Mooche 8:07
4. Cool Pursuit 7:03
5. Followthrough 9:12
6. Only Then 6:35
7. Hand By Hand 10:21
Total Playing Time: 60:30
All selections by Jerome Harris (Chocowinity Sounds), except "The Mooche," by Duke Ellington & Irving Mills, published by Duke Ellington Music. All selections are ASCAP.
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Gear List
Recording equipment: two Shure SM-81 ½" cardioid microphones (vibraphone); two Brüel & Kjaer 4006 ½" omnidirectional microphones (sax/trombone); two Brüel & Kjaer 4011 ½" cardioid microphones (main drum pickup); Shure Beta 57A dynamic cardioid microphone (snare drum); AKG D112 dynamic hypercardioid microphone (kick drum); AKG D190E dynamic cardioid (bass guitar cabinet); Cardas 300B, Canare, Beyerdynamic, and AudioQuest Lapis balanced microphone cables; Millennia Media HV-3B microphone preamplifiers (drums & vibes); Bryston BMP-2 microphone preamplifier (snare…
Recording equipment: two Shure SM-81 ½" cardioid microphones (vibraphone); two Brüel & Kjaer 4006 ½" omnidirectional microphones (sax/trombone); two Brüel & Kjaer 4011 ½" cardioid microphones (main drum pickup); Shure Beta 57A dynamic cardioid microphone (snare drum); AKG D112 dynamic hypercardioid microphone (kick drum); AKG D190E dynamic cardioid (bass guitar cabinet); Cardas 300B, Canare, Beyerdynamic, and AudioQuest Lapis balanced microphone cables; Millennia Media HV-3B microphone preamplifiers (drums & vibes); Bryston BMP-2 microphone preamplifier (snare…
I first met NHT co-founder Ken Kantor in 1975 when we were both undergraduates at MIT. Kantor was sponsoring an extracurricular class entitled "Musical Ideas." The concept was to stick a dozen or so musicians in a classroom for free improvisation and hope to create music à la Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. The result was a mess; although talented guitarist Kantor meant well, there was no common vision or consistency of musical talent. Nevertheless, I had a blast trying to simulate a tamboura drone with a Hohner Clavinet, phase shifter, and volume pedal.
I ran into Kantor at a Consumer…