Session Report: A SonataPalooza in PA

Summer is always a nice time of year, to me.  Kids are out of school, it’s prime beach time, and things just generally lighten up a little bit. It’s also the time for recording sessions!  Wait, what?!?

Jack and Craig Better get in a little warmup prior to kicking off the Sonata for 4-valve trumpet by David Loeb (Photo: Pierce Bounds)

I had the chance to record a super fun project in August involving my longtime friend and collaborator, Jack Sutte.  Jack plays trumpet in the Cleveland Orchestra, teaches at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Ohio, and performs with his brass trio, Factory Seconds.  Jack has a multi volume, multi year project ongoing called Sonatapalooza.  Sonatapalooza, besides being a funny word, is an apt description of the project Jack has set out to accomplish.  It is HUGE! He is working on recording ALL of the written sonata literature for trumpet and piano.  Folks, let me tell you, it’s a lot of sonatas!  

The control room - Robert and WIll look mildly concerned - I look like something is about to explode! Photo: Pierce Bounds

We convened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on the campus of Dickinson College for 3 days of recording at their lovely Rubendall Recital Hall.  Jack’s (and my) classmate from Juilliard, composer Robert Pound, is the head of the music department at Dickinson, and an experienced producer, so Robert manned the helm, while fantastic pianist Craig Ketter was Jack’s musical partner in navigating the sea of sonatas before us.  This “Palooza” volume featured music by American composers, including sonatas by David Loeb, Fisher Tull, and Anthony Plog.  Will Samson came up from DC for a day to assist with setup, mic placement, and just generally getting the sessions rolling.  

The Team (L to R): Chris Clark, Robert Pound, our young page turner, Craig Letter, Jack Sutte, Will Samson Photo: Pierce Bounds

Jack has already recorded a number of sonatas in Cleveland with long time Cleveland Orchestra engineer, Bruce Gigax, and even though we were in a different space this time, he wished to use some of the same mics that Bruce has used in his previous recordings that have worked so well.  Schoeps MK21s in an A/B pattern were used as the main pair, with a pair of MK22s on the piano for reinforcement as needed.  I elected to put up my AEA R88 as a closer main pair, more like a trumpet spot, to have some ribbon mic sound at our disposal in the final mix.  One other little treat was the celeste in the Tony Plog Sonata, mic’d with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040s from the back - quite a fun instrument to record.  The sound make me feel like it’s almost Christmas! (Think Nutcracker: Sugar Plum Fairy)  Finally, a single close mic (Beyerdynamic 930, I think) was at hand to add definition to the muted trumpet passages as needed.  

Will dials the set up in just right… gotta catch a few of those early trumpet reflections!

This was also my first time using an immersive microphone array in that I used a variation of the 2L cube created by Morten Lindberg, to capture additional mic channels for an ATMOS mix.  Besides the AB main pair, I added a center channel, rear surrounds, side mics in the form of a wide flank mic pair, and four height mics about 12” above the main array.  The idea is that you will hear a more spacious mix when you hear the album in Dolby ATMOS.  If you haven’t checked out Apple’s Spatial Audio selections on Apple Music, or immersive audio mixes on Tidal, then I suggest you do - it’s amazing! 

Great 3 days of recording with Stiletto Brass

I recently had a chance to record and produce for an outstanding brass quintet, Stiletto Brass. This ensemble has been around for quite a few years, and has been a consistent presence at international brass festivals and workshops. They have a previous album, featuring none other than Doc Severinsen on trumpet, and they contacted me this spring about putting a new album together this summer.

I simply love recording brass quintet. The ability to hear the sonic blend and resonance of a great brass ensemble, hearing the overtones produced when all the voices are in tune and balanced, is truly a special experience in the musical world. Stiletto Brass has the enviable trait of having 5 individuals who each have a stylish musical voice of their own, able to stand out as soloists, yet still come together to produce a beautiful, sonorous, and blended sound quality that fits the various styles they recorded perfectly.

Speaking of style, Stiletto Brass is able to play anything from jazz, to baroque, to modern music composed just for them, in a convincing way. It was a treat to hear a new work commissioned by the ensemble by Drew Bonner, as well as a jazz tune called Boy Meets Horn (nicknamed Girl Meets Horn by both the group and me), a baroque standard by William Boyce, and a piece by Andre Lafosse that I wasn’t familiar with called Suite Impromptu. Lafosse was professor of trombone at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1948 - 1960, and contributed some important works to the trombone, and brass quintet literature. The piece Stiletto found and recorded is an absolute delight.

For the recording, I covered all my bases and used two sets of main mics (omni and cardioid), plus my stereo ribbon mic to gather the sound in the room where we recorded. Flank mics to add width, and spot mics for any minute balance adjustment in post production rounded out the mic-ing plan. The chapel at Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church was a beautiful venue for us to record in for the three day session.

Oh, and did I mention that this ensemble is all WOMEN?!?! I figured you might guess that… ;) I have to say it is wonderful to see these musicians leading the way as brass players in a field that is starting to see greater numbers of women as professionals. I can only imagine the young girls who might be inspired to know that they can play trombone, tuba, horn, or trumpet, and that they have professional role models to hear and emulate. A discussion about the title of “Boy Meets Horn” needing some reworking for this recording just might have taken place… I can’t wait for you to hear it!

Release details will be forthcoming, and I will certainly make an announcement here when the finished recording is ready. I’m excited for you to hear and to get to know Stiletto Brass.

Stiletto Brass is Amy Gilreath and Susan Rider (trumpets), Rachel Hockenberry (horn), Natalie Mannix (trombone), Velvet Brown (tuba)

You may find their website HERE.

Their first album is HERE.

Happy faces when the producer says, “OK, that’s a wrap!!!”

I give thanks... for tape transfers! (Students of Neill Humfeld, you will want to read... ;)

I have many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  A wonderful, healthy family, colleagues that are the absolute best to work with, and a job that I love.  However, on the music front, one thing stands out to me this November that I didn’t see coming, even a month ago.

I have previously written about my teacher, Dr. Neill Humfeld, and his influence on me, and a little about his musicianship and teaching.  When Dr. Humfeld passed, my dad and I came into possession of a couple boxes of analog tape (the reel to reel kind) containing all kinds of recordings of Dr. H from many years of recitals and concerts.  It has been one of those things that  I look at and say, “man, we really gotta get that transferred so we can listen to it!”  I never knew what that entailed, or how you would even go about doing it, until recently...

Fast forward to the past year, where my own interest in audio, especially in producing and preserving live performances, has come into play.  This fall, coincidentally, I have been taking a course online through Berklee College of Music called Audio Mastering, taught by an expert engineer, Marc Dieter-Einstmann (check out Marc’s mastering studio HERE).  Mastering is the final step in the production process for any audio recording.  A recording gets made (live or in studio), and then gets mixed.  In the mixing stage, the mix engineer takes all the audio that was recorded (sometimes as many as 100 tracks or more), and essentially places all those voices in the stereo field (where you locate that sound when you hear the recording) and gives the recording it’s tonal shape, and many other musical variables that make a certain record sound unique.  In mastering, the engineer takes the fully mixed recording and puts the finishing touches on it.  These can be musical or tonal adjustments (maybe something the mix engineer missed or didn’t hear), technical corrections (bad edits, noise removal), and general quality control.  Finally, a mastering engineer will set the loudness level of the recording, and produce a “master” containing all the tracks of the album, in the correct order, and with great care to ensure there are no functional errors.  

To hear these performances come back to life, after over 50 years for some of them, is truly a delight.  To hear Dr. Humfeld’s sound, in performances I’ve never heard before, is truly something to be thankful for.  

So, what to do with these?  Well, after speaking with Dr. Humfeld’s daughter, Nancy Jo Humfeld, I would like to continue to transfer more of these recitals and create a “BEST OF” album of Dr. Humfeld’s recitals over the years.  On many of these tapes, he speaks at length to the audience about the music he performs, and many of the recordings reflect his warm sense of humor that many of us came to love from knowing him.  

Stay tuned, there is much more to come.  I plan to make this project a major focus of my 2019.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  May you all be blessed to love, make music, and enjoy the people in our lives that are important to us!