Flat fives

Blue Note Fix is not the only group of musos who love this music. Post-bop is cool, bluesy but inventive, insinuating and easy to love. Think Sidewinder or Moanin' or Killer Joe or Stolen moments. This was the first outing of some mates who play as Blue Note Fix. They do it well, Hammond sound, calm choppy guitar, drums that know the essence of the tune and hold it, James up front on tenor with a deeply imbibed love of the style. No bass, but the organ works well for that, at least with that cloudy bass line with soft and gentle tonality. The Hammond in jazz is a style of its own. Peter plays a contemporary two-manual electronic Hammond sounding all the world like the original B3. Easy, laid back, chordal, arpeggiated, glissed. We joked Glissando man, but how can a bass player raise up a laugh when his instrument is relegated! You recognise all these tunes, even if they are just blues and even when they are previously unheard. This music is like that: it all feels just so simple and right with the bewitching grooves and comely melodies. And the band carried it off with relaxed persuasion. That's Blue Note for you. Every hot tune is very cool. The tunes? Chicken shack, Mellow mood, Blues walk, Killer Joe, I remember Clifford. More absolute common markers like All blues, Song for my father, and the insistent groove machine Mercy mercy mercy. All great tunes in their inevitability and simplicity and I can only share the love of this era. Blue Note remains a label for the ages. I understand the craving.

Blue Note Fix are James Hoogstad (tenor), Tyson Jones (guitar), Peter Kirkup (organ) and Jamal Salem (drums).

Infidel-ity?

Just why the studio is called Infidel, I don’t know, but Duncan Lowe obviously does a good job, so what’s in a name?

Over the weekend, my commercial jazz cum disco/pop band, Stolen Moments cum Crisp cum Kitsch in Synch, went into Infidel Studios at Queanbeyan to record a demo CD. It was a solid day’s work, especially for Duncan who engineered, mixed and finally mastered. We managed 9 tracks with a few extra layers for harmonies, Hammonds, percussion and the like, although it took us a few extra hours to finish all the mixing and mastering. We’d gone into the studio hoping to record 6 tracks and put down two takes on each. In the end, we added three throwaways with a single take, and they were good enough given we were nicely warmed up by that stage. As for the twin takes, we generally found take 2 was the better one, given a reorientation to the tune from the first take. We found that first take often moved slightly in speed, then would settle to a tempo, and this would be the right tempo that defined the second take. It was surprising how just a few clicks on the metronome made so much difference to the feel.

Everyone was in good form on the Saturday. We played the takes with headphones and well isolated instruments. My bass amp was in a separate room and miked with a speaker (a speaker is really only a mic in reverse). I’d read about the technique, and Duncan says he likes it for the high-end roll-off on bass. It certainly ended up sounding good. Nicky was singing in the master suite for the guide track, and James ended up isolated in the kitchen, but we could all hear each other well enough given individual headphone mixes. I found it was not at all difficult to work through headphones, given decent settings for headphone levels. I finished my part early, so could then relax. We selected takes, did a few minor digital fixes. Then a few hours to record the vocals and layer harmonies, percussion and extra keyboards. Duncan had used a few tube pre-amps and compressors during the tracking, especially for vocals, and had been riding the sliders. But his ear and gear came particularly into play with the mix, where he was busily EQ-ing and patching in various outboard toys: more pre-amps, compressors, delays and a deft touch of reverb. He finished mixing final tracks on Monday night, then a little mastering and we had a decent 30minutes of demo.

Infidel seems to record plenty of local rock and indie-folk acts (of which there’s a strong local scene), but he’s also done some jazz and funk styles (Casual Projects recorded a CD there). Our session was just one-day to record a demo CD, but he does longer projects, albums and the like, and will often work with other studios, especially for the mystical mastering stage for CDs due for release. He’s obviously proud of his analogue gear and 2” multi-track tape recorder, although his digital work seems bloody good to my ears. He can also record on location. He did a great job, worked hard and our band was excited with the results as they appeared. It’s been a great experience, hard work but fun, and we get something a little more permanent out of it. And it sounds bloody good.

Stolen Moments comprises Nicky King (vocals), James Hoogstad (tenor sax), Peter Kirkup (keyboards), Mick Schow (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass). We recorded at Infidel Studios, Queanbeyan, with Duncan Lowe producing.

BTW, this is CJBlog post no. 300. Still going pretty strongly and heading towards 500. Wish me luck.

Gone to the shops

My pop/disco band mostly plays private gigs so it’s missed a write-up, but today three of us played for a Coles promotional gig at Jamison Centre. It’s was busy and noisy, but we played standards, passed around tons of solos, the kids enjoyed the clowns and we had a good time. James plays a very cool, sweet and laid-back tenor (think Stan Getz) with solos to make the fairer sex melt. Peter is a wonderfully capable and experienced keyboardist. I love the way the various sounds pop up in the disco setting: organ or piano or synth or clav or whatever. In this context, he played piano, and he’s always solid and reliable and often adventurous. I got plenty of solos too, and we had some good, solid latins and walks happening, and that’s always satisfying. So, lots of fun, a slightly unusual (and busy and noisy) venue and with the earliest start I remember.

Crisp is now renamed as Stolen Moments, or Kitsch in Synch for the more playful gigs. The trio comprised James Hoogstad (tenor), Peter Kirkup (piano) and Eric Pozza (bass).

To the dancefloor

My other band is Crisp. Crisp is a five-piece jazz cum kitsch/pop/disco band which plays weddings, corporate events and the like. It’s been around a good while, but I’ve recently joined. It’s a bunch of capable musicians with considerable experience fronted by a singer with a nice turn of spirit, so the music is tight and the outings are enjoyable. And this is just accentuated by the pop/disco tunes that go down so well on the dancefloor. Crisp played last week at the National Museum. Nothing special about that, but it was memorable for some other reasons.

Firstly, because an engaging, amusing, but deadly serious character was speaking: Patch Adams. Patch Adams is an “American medical doctor, social activist, citizen diplomat, professional clown, performer, and author ... he believes the health of an individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world” (Wikipedia, 23 May 2008). He’s also a celebrity to a broader community since Robin Williams, the US comedian, starred in a film about him. At first sight, he was a mature, moustachioed and pony-tailed bloke in colourful clothing. I noted a quick wit and non-conformist streak when he was introduced. He quipped that he’d been at Parliament during the day and that the government had given an apology but he’d given the country back. As is my celebrity-ignoring and film-avoiding way, I vaguely knew the name but nothing more. The band only caught the last few minutes of his talk, but it was serious and heartfelt and impressive. Visiting someone else’s world (a family at a wedding, a doctor’s community, or whatever) is an aspect of performing bands that I love. My favourite story of this type involved playing for Rupert Murdoch at his Cavan property near Canberra many years back, but I’ve told that story before on CJ.

Secondly, our normal pianist was travelling, so I got to play with John Black, now a high school music teacher, and for many years a piano teacher at the Jazz School. Of course, he knew the charts including the pop tunes, he could read with aplomb, and his solos were both expressive and tastefully understated. There’s great pleasure in playing with musos who’ve had this level of experience. My first Crisp gig had Mark Sutton sitting in for a wedding and this was similarly satisfying.

More on Crisp when we do a public gig, but here’s the membership: Nicky King (vocals), James Hoogstad (tenor), Peter Kirkup (piano), Mick Schow (drums), Eric Pozza (bass). John Black (piano) sat in for this performance.

Patch Adams on Wikipedia