A few nights ago on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, I met with Henning Stumm of Tierra Records and John Zych of Earth Tone Music Productions to have a preproduction meeting regarding the recording of my next CD project.It was really an exciting meeting for all parties because it has been quite a bit of time since the release of my debut album "Front and Center", and both Tierra Records and Earth Tone Music Productions (the studio where I recorded my first album) had been anxiously awaiting the announcement of when I would be setting the wheels in motion for the next album project.
The thing is, it was actually in my contract with Tierra Records that I was suppose to record my second album no later than 2008, two years after the release of my first album. But with the birth of my daughter and then some outside issues that came up, I simply didn't have the time to write any new material. Realizing this, Tierra Records generously gave me an extension on the deadline for me to begin my sophomore effort with them. Needless to say, with nearly four years having gone by since the release of my debut, I've been more than anxious to get things going myself!
That now brings us back to the meeting that the three of us had at Earth Tone Music Productions.
Much of the meeting concerned some technical and logistical issues that we will face because of how we plan to record this album. By that I mean, instead of doing the actual tracking (recording) at the Earth Tone Music Productions studio in Brooklyn, we will be moving the studio to a different location all together. Essentially, instead of bringing Moses to the mountain, we will be bringing the mountain to Moses! The reason for this is a bit involved.
My first album was recorded without the benefit of having a real piano at our disposal. Nobody has ever really noticed this because John Zyche and Henning Stumm (who came on board the project during mixdown) did such a wonderful job at disguising the sound of the keyboard we used to make it sound as close to a real acoustic piano as possible. However, this time around things are a lot different. This time I will actually have all of the guys in my quartet available for the recording. That includes the incredible pianist Kenny MacKenzie, who couldn't make the sessions for the first album. Since Kenny is going so far as to fly up all the way from Florida to make this session, I wanted to do the right thing and have a real piano for him to play on. Plus, there just isn't anything like having a real piano. I really want to get a little bit more of an authentic "jazz sound" to this new album, without making it sound too different in character from the first one.
So anyway, back to why we are making the studio mobile.
Because John Zych doesn't have a real acoustic piano at his new location in Brooklyn, and because I don't want to do the project with any other engineer, I need to find a location that has a baby grand piano that we could use. I have come up with at least one place that will more than likely make their facilities available to me, but I don't want to publicly mention it yet until I know for sure that I have it...don't want to jinx the project before it even really gets off the ground!
In short, a whole nest of wires, microphones, computers, and a bunch of other stuff will need to be moved to this location in a very quick and efficient manner, because we will only have a maximum of 12 hours to complete the tracking of the entire album! Setting up the mobile studio in the new location alone could take upwards of 2 or 3 hours, and that's not even considering the 2 hours it will probably take to get the recording levels right. I'm praying that we will have access to the potential location before the actual start time of the recording so that we can at least set the studio up before the guys in my quartet arrive for the session.
That is just a hint of some of the technical challenges that are ahead of us in seeing this project through!
All in all, the meeting was definitely productive and we managed to iron out a lot of things. This includes the actual date for the recording, which will be May 23rd. Until then, and the eventual release of the album, you will be with me every step of the way through the posts I will be continuing to put up on this blog!
Written by Shenole Latimer
