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Dave Brubeck and others...


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I had lunch with another sound guy the other day and we were taking about some of the truely great musicians who have passed recently as well as some who really influenced music as we know it today.

This was the day after the great Dave Brubeck passed away, he was one of the greats of jazz and especially the more "modern" jazz. I was fortunate to work with him in a small 150ish seat club maybe 25 or even 30 years ago, when he sat down at the piano he transformed the room. He was already an older man at that time, but I was mesmerized by both his music and his playing. It was a solo gig (IIRC) that was somehow tied to the music departments of UC Davis and University of the Pacific (his alma mater) and it included lots of discussion in addition to his playing. Jazz bands world wide have played his material, but to hear him play it was awesome.

We also talked about the folk era, as both of us did quite a bit of this during the 80's and 90's (me with singer songwriter Kate Wolf and her band, who passed away over 25 years ago) and names of acts we had worked over the years... Mary Travers (of Peter Paul and Mary), Doc & Merle Watson, Dave Von Ronk, Utah Phillips, Kate Mcgarrigle, Jim Ringer, Norton Buffalo, all of these too have passed.

If you get the chance, hop on youtube and listen to some of these acts, they all shaped what we listen to today to some degree.

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Quote Originally Posted by Rbts

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Been Watching some Dave Brubeck. Kate Wolf = AWESOME.

 

Kate was my mostly steady sound gig untill she died. Unbelievable singer and songwriter. She had a great band too, Nina Gerber on lead gtr and mandolin, Ford James on bass, and a rotating bunch of other players depending on the gig. If you ever get a chance to hear Nina play, she has monster chops... a player's player in every sense of the word. Really nice folks too.
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Quote Originally Posted by stevemaude2

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Take 5 is one of my standard warmup songs when I practice my acoustic. I've always liked his stuff. He will be missed.

 

Warming up in 5/4 is an impressive feat IMO. I have serious trouble with 5/4 even when fully warmed up wink.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by agedhorse View Post
I had lunch with another sound guy the other day and we were taking about some of the truely great musicians who have passed recently as well as some who really influenced music as we know it today.

This was the day after the great Dave Brubeck passed away, he was one of the greats of jazz and especially the more "modern" jazz. I was fortunate to work with him in a small 150ish seat club maybe 25 or even 30 years ago, when he sat down at the piano he transformed the room. He was already an older man at that time, but I was mesmerized by both his music and his playing. It was a solo gig (IIRC) that was somehow tied to the music departments of UC Davis and University of the Pacific (his alma mater) and it included lots of discussion in addition to his playing. Jazz bands world wide have played his material, but to hear him play it was awesome.

We also talked about the folk era, as both of us did quite a bit of this during the 80's and 90's (me with singer songwriter Kate Wolf and her band, who passed away over 25 years ago) and names of acts we had worked over the years... Mary Travers (of Peter Paul and Mary), Doc & Merle Watson, Dave Von Ronk, Utah Phillips, Kate Mcgarrigle, Jim Ringer, Norton Buffalo, all of these too have passed.

If you get the chance, hop on youtube and listen to some of these acts, they all shaped what we listen to today to some degree.
I had the honor of doing sound at a couple bluegrass fests for Tom Paley from New Lost City Ramblers. Old time string band from 1958.
Amazing guy with a HUGE amount of stories! I even got to record the guy off the mix and it turned out amazing. He has a story for every song he does. The only guy
I ever met that had to have it quiet back stage whilst he tuned his strings with a tuning fork. He told me that the in the old days the guys in the folk fests would take a large amount of time to make sure all the strings were tuned perfectly.
He carried his old banjo, a 1927 Martin guitar, and a fiddle. He traveled by plane
from England, and rode on Grey Hound busses to bus stops, and someone had to go pick him up to bring him to festivals. Amazing..honestly.
He is on Youtube as well. He lived in Sweden for many years and knows a ton
of Swedish folk songs.
I have one of kind recordings of him.
I still love to listen to them once in a while.
I recorded off a Yamaha console to Sony DAT.
I used a Beta 58 on his vocal, and an AKG C1000 for his instument mic.
Simplicity is a beautiful thing in audio.
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Yes, the good 'ol days.

From what some folks think these days, it's amazing we were even able to pull our pants on in the morning without 3 latpots and a personal i-device or two.

In fact, there were recordings 50 years ago that stomp all over much of what's being produced today.

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Quote Originally Posted by agedhorse

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Kate was my mostly steady sound gig untill she died. Unbelievable singer and songwriter. She had a great band too, Nina Gerber on lead gtr and mandolin, Ford James on bass, and a rotating bunch of other players depending on the gig. If you ever get a chance to hear Nina play, she has monster chops... a player's player in every sense of the word. Really nice folks too.

 

Looking for the 'like" button.
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Quote Originally Posted by Craigv View Post
I dare say that most of what was produced until the age of digital will stomp most of what is produced today.
It certainly required a more complete set of playing chops, and the ability to play together as a cohesive unit. You couldn't just half ass it then go back and re-do essentially the entire product piece by piece.

I recall hearing a recorded piano part recently that was mindblowing. There was no way I could figure out how it was played... until I talked with the engineer. It was all programmed, and in some cases there were more than 10 fingers required. It was, in effect, unplayable. At some point, this becomes rediculous in the streatch of imagination. Not saying it wasn't well executed, but it kind of stopped being accessable music once it became impossible.
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Quote Originally Posted by agedhorse View Post
It certainly required a more complete set of playing chops, and the ability to play together as a cohesive unit. You couldn't just half ass it then go back and re-do essentially the entire product piece by piece.

I recall hearing a recorded piano part recently that was mindblowing. There was no way I could figure out how it was played... until I talked with the engineer. It was all programmed, and in some cases there were more than 10 fingers required. It was, in effect, unplayable. At some point, this becomes rediculous in the streatch of imagination. Not saying it wasn't well executed, but it kind of stopped being accessable music once it became impossible.
Once it became impossible!
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