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! 

Summer, and a very personal recording project

29 year ago, I spent the first of 3 unforgettable summers at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan.  That summer, I met a young trumpet player that completely knocked me out with his positive attitude, musicianship, fearlessness, and friendship.  I seem to find large projects to take on in the summer, these days.  With my boys home from school, and many hours spent parenting, and learning how to be a better father and husband (and that is an ONGOING thing!), I have taken to the example set by an author whose book I read a couple of years ago, Jocko Willink, and I find myself getting up many mornings (not all, still working on it) at 0430 to get a couple of hours of work in before the house stirs itself awake and the needs of my young ones overtake my own.  

Many of you are very familiar with Valor Brass, and the work this fabulous group of musicians has done over the past 13 years.  Our recording, Inaugural, in 2014, really changed a lot of things in life for me.  It was the first time I had really been an integral part of a creative process to make something lasting, throughout every stage of the process.  Specifically, the process of recording an album, and seeing it through to completion, absolutely fascinated me.  Our audio engineer, Ed Kelly, really captured what I felt was the true essence of our quintet.  That was the beginning of my interest in recording, and my exploration of that art, and what I could bring to my own recordings.  Needless to say, I took to it with a lot of focus and motivation, and began looking for every way that I could learn more about it, and put my skills into practice.

This June that trumpet player, Jack Sutte, and I reunited in Cleveland, to record two complete etude books, written by a young composer in Texas, Nathan Ost.  Jack and I have remained in constant contact since that summer of 1988, rooming together at Curtis, and again in New York while we worked on our masters degrees at Juilliard.  Jack has spent the last 18 years as 2nd trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra, and continues to push the bounds of new music as a trumpet soloist and with his brass trio, Factory Seconds, in his spare time.  

The three days of recording we had in June were just fantastic.  Jack has the ability to get to the heart of a piece of music like few people I have ever known, and he showed up to the sessions ready to make music.  Juggling a tough week of work performing the complete West Side Story film score in evening concerts, we recorded, during the day, all 42 of Nathan’s etudes at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, where Jack is a faculty member.  I am very excited about the recording, and the fantastic musicianship it portrays.  I hope you’ll take a listen.  

Nathan Ost has written two collections of etudes that I have no doubt will become a well-used and familiar resource to trumpet players around the world.  Modeled after the characteristic studies of Arban, and lyrical studies of Bordogni, his Lyrical Studies and Characteristic Studies are a fresh and interesting musical approach to developing technical facility, but most of all, musicianship.  I am so glad I had the opportunity to put Jack’s playing to “tape” and give budding trumpet players a beautiful reference with which to explore these new compositions.  

Nathan has a great deal going on his website... If you buy either book in PDF delivery format, you receive the recordings of Jack playing all the etudes, for free!  Cheers!

As you may now suspect, producing personal, musical recordings is a passion of mine.  Check out clarkmediaproductions.com for more examples of what I’ve been up to lately.