Painstaking Process, Part Seven

The biggest hurdles have been overcome: Friday night at Bay Records we recorded the gospel choir for Angelitos Negros and a new horn arrangement for Goddess of War. Saturday we recorded Ron Stallings's tenor sax solo for Angelitos Negros and added vocals from Ron (a 20-year Huey Louis and the News veteran) and Sandy Cressman (an accomplished singer of Brazilian jazz) to Agua de Beber/Aguas de Marco.

The gospel choir was difficult to find, but I finally contacted a friend at the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and this woman Patricia Bahia, whom I knew from Jazzcamp, responded. I still remember the theme from Star Trek wafting through the woods in Santa Cruz when she sang it as a lark during one of the performances--but she's also an accomplished R&B songwriter about to make the leap to living in LA. She made it very easy for me by suggesting that the quartet she sings with, One Voice, do the date. Even easier was the fact that they were rehearsing the night before the recording, so I came over and we learned the parts. Friday night, we added two more people and had seven total in our choir: Sandy, Ron, Patricia, Vernon Staggers, Kimiko Joy (a kooky and wonderful soprano who may hit it big someday), Helen Bernard Gray and myself.

We got to the studio and shut ourselves in a spare room with a caliope (it was all they had) and started rehearsing more. I made an executive decision to cut out 16 bars that were quite difficult (I still hadn't learned them myself, even though as usual I recorded myself singing all four parts on my multitrack recorder at home so that I could hear the result on a real voice instead of a synth). It was reassuring later to see that the modulation I decided we shouldn't try to sing over was tricky for the sax and guitar soloists too--I always think I'm inadequate when in fact some of this stuff is damn hard.

Then we got in the studio and started recording. To achieve the effect of a choir, we all stepped back from our taped spots on the floor and sang the same parts again. An even better approach would have been to switch parts and positions, but we weren't solid enough on all the parts to do that. When Gary played back the first doubled choir and we all listened in the headphones, it almost brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful. For a moment, I felt a spark of pride that these people were here because of the vision I had of how this song should go.

When we were done, everyone was punchy and happy that we'd achieved it--Wayne's parts were not simple--and we'd done it with passion as well. I just love working with singers--they're such vocal (of course), vibrant, fun people.

So now all that remains is for me to re-sing the lead of Angelitos Negros. And then more editing. Then mixing! Yay!