Painstaking Process, Part Five

What day is it? Oh yes, it's Friday. So, we were in the studio Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and will be back today, but without Wayne. Wednesday we did the lead and background vocals for Her Ways Wander, an original of mine. Wow, that sounds good. Very sweet and pretty, which contrasts the subject matter somewhat. I just love doing background vocals like this one, where I pretend to be someone else and do a breathy voice. It sounds really good and different, though Wayne said if we added any more it was going to start sounding very L.A. (Los Angeles). Have to remember to revisit the bell pads in this when we get to mixing. They're borderline cheesy.

I practiced feverishly Tuesday and it paid off: I spent hours toying with an Arabic scale for the outro to Ave Rara, and came up with something really good that Wayne did not want to alter!

We also finished the pregones for Habanera and recorded a four-part background vocal outro. "Is this starting to sound like Bohemian Rhapsody yet?" I asked Wayne. "Give me time, we'll get there," he joked.

Yesterday I made the mistake of starting with very harsh vocals for Goddess of War, which nearly fried my voice. However, I backed off as soon as I felt the strain and we switched gears and did background vocals for Ave Rara. It was nice to be able to read that, as Wayne had printed out sheet music for all the harmony lines. I had also practiced to a CD he'd made, so at least I had the top line somewhat memorized.

Painstaking Process, Part IV

Tonight I was supposed to go with my friend Emily, a singer/journalist just like moi, to go see famed investigator Bob Woodward at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. Instead I practiced for tomorrow's studio session. Sorry, Emily! You'll have to tell me how it went. In the meantime, check out her gorgeous new website.

Yesterday we spent 6.5 hours in the studio. Got most of the vocal done on Habanera, the Carmen aria I'm redoing salsa-style. I'm not sure I'm content with the vocal on the first verse. In my neverending battle with colds, I'm now at a steady state with a slightly hoarse speaking voice but pretty good singing voice--in fact, I was able to hit a high C at the end of the song. Not that we're doing this opera style, but at the coda there's a tiny homage to that world nestled in with the horns--not too exposed.

I also managed to get a lead vocal done on the medley of Agua de Beber/Aguas de Marco. Listening to it now, I'm happy with it. At the time it was hard to do because Wayne had left and Gary was not giving me much feedback. He says he can't feel the emotion of a song if it's not in English. I thought that was exaggerating things a bit. But he managed to at least indicate if things seemed in tune and if the vocal quality from punch to punch was matching. This tune is going to need a lot to turn it into something special--right now it's nice, but skeletal. The plan, throughout this record, is to have a lot more ensemble and a capella vocals. But that also involves organization and rehearsal so I'm not going to worry about that this week. The bigger issue, along those lines, is putting together the gospel choir for one of my tunes. I've been told six women and six men would be enough to give a full sound, but we need them to be crack sight readers, given the way Wayne writes. I also want them to have that old-school Oakland gospel sound.

So, the good news is, we now have six out of 11 tunes with a final lead vocal recorded (though I still might tweak some of them)! I also now have rough vocals on all the tunes (this was a costly setback in that I was not able to record them with the band cutting basics because I had lost my voice). Progress...

Published in SD Times

Here is my latest article, recently published in Software Development Times. Yes, I crossed over and am now freelancing for my former professional rival. My fellow layoffee, Laurie, world's greatest copyeditor, now works for them too!

The Sharpest Tools in the Shed
Agile developers find index cards, sticky notes can be as valuable as expensive tool suites in maintaining flexibility

Google the words “agile tools” and you’ll scroll through nary a non-IT-related hit. From open-source options to start-ups and consultancies to longstanding ISVs rebranding themselves as agile, the software tool market has assiduously noted the power of agility in the eyes of its consumers.

Painstaking Process, Part Troix

Yesterday we spent 9 hours in the studio, from noon till 10 pm (the guys got a one-hour lunch break, I got a pick-up-the-kid-and-nurse-the-baby break). We worked on El Cantante. As usual, Gary and I spent about an hour recording it. We had just been punching line-by-line in when Wayne arrived and questioned my rhythm on the first verse.

"You sound like you're skating over the groove. You're not locked in with the band," he observed. I knew that, but thought I had been fixing it via the punches. So we went back to the top and started working on hitting the rhythm better. He suggested I not listen to the clave so much and that we turn up the congas and their 16th-note pattern in my mix. But then he criticized some of my lines for being crossed with the 3-2 clave. We spent time fixing those lines. Then he suggested that another line I thought should be fixed to be more rhythmic flowed more naturally, like a rumbera would sing it. Just goes to show that I am never right! The doctor is in!

Nah, I'm just kidding and am glad he's there to make everything better. It's just that making everything better is very hard work. After two hours, I was exhausted. At least I'm getting wise to the fact that you can't go on singing when your energy starts to flag. I left to pick up Sebastian from school and take him to the babysitter/extended family member and when I came back I was thinking things would not improve as I was still tired (though I had eaten something, at least). Thankfully, I was wrong. My voice was really warm and everything started feeling really great. We got through the whole song and even had energy to go back to the top and hit that verse where the rhythm had been elusive.

"Where was this girl when we started?" Wayne said. "That's the attitude we're looking for!"

At about 6 Edgardo and Orlando showed up and we began working on the coros for two songs. Wayne came up with 4-part harmonies on the spot. Again, I was reassured to see it wasn't any easier for them to sing exactly what Wayne wanted than it was for me.

There was a funny part on Habanera, which I do in French and Spanish. At the end, there's a coro I wrote, "Ven a mi jaula dorada... te aguarda." It means "Step into my gilded cage... it awaits you." Orlando wondered aloud what "aguarda" meant--and he's a fluent Cuban Spanish-speaker.

"It means 'wait,'" I said.

"What's that, Old Spanish or something?" Orlando said.

"No, and actually my husband came up with it and I know he doesn't speak Old Spanish--more like de la calle. The other option is to say 'te espera,' but I like how 'te aguarda' sounds better," I said.

We agreed to stick with aguarda, but as Orlando went back into the sound booth he sang, R&B style, "Ven a mi jaula dorada ... te aguarda -- which means I wait for yooooouuuuu..." We were all cracking up over that one. I told him I have a real nose for a hit: "Just watch, Orlando--all the kids on the street are gonna be singing 'te aguarda'" when I'm through!"

Yep, when I'm through converting an 1875 aria by Bizet into an acoustic pilón/salsa French-Spanish hybrid with a recitative at the beginning--the world will bow to our mass market appeal!!!!

Last Night's Gig

Whew, that was quite a lineup at the Daniel Pearl benefit concert I played last night. Eight acts plus speeches, and amazingly it ran without any hitches. Pianist Stephanie Ozer and I were last (headliners, so to speak), but before us a group called Clockwork played. A five-voice a capella group with one woman, they have a gorgeous, smooth blend and great diversity. Though they started with humor, they ended with a somber version of How Can I Keep From Singing, a piece I first heard Eva Cassidy do and frequently perform myself at Grace Cathedral.

That served as a sort of palate cleanser for us, and it ended up dovetailing perfectly with the quiet pieces we played, including a gem Stephanie picked out: History of Us by the Indigo Girls. Goes to show, you never know when magic will strike.

LinkedIn + MySpace = NextCat?

I have a profile on LinkedIn for my editorial/writing work, and one on MySpace for my music. Now, just in case I wanted to knock myself out, I could go join NextCat, which focuses exclusively on the entertainment industry. I'll have to check it out and see what they think they've got that can beat MySpace.

Over the years, I've come across many of these social networks--the Well, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Orkut, Friendster. What makes them successful (or not)? First, the technology has to be idiot-proof, without being clinical or constricting. After that, there's just one thing: People. You ain't got people, you ain't got nothing. My theory is, predicting where people will congregate is like predicting migration patterns. Many factors come into it, but some of it is just chance.

Oh yeah, there's something else: Individuality. "Content executives" in every medium seem to forget that viewers/readers/surfers/listeners are attracted to things that are interesting. Many may not agree with me, but when what's offered is too formulaic, people turn away.

Painstaking Process, Part Deux

We're still struggling with how to make the vocal on my tune Goddess of War sound right. I wrote this weird melody and have worried about the chorus being powerful enough for some time. So yesterday in the studio Wayne started putting me through the paces.

"Who is this person singing? Is it the Goddess of War?"

"No, it's me, a person who once admired the Goddess but no longer does."

"How do you want to sing this? All light and pretty and melodic? That doesn't match the music."

"No, I know it doesn't."

"OK, sing this as another character. Don't sing it as Alexa."

I think for awhile.

"There's a voice I do for Sebastian called Stinky. I could do that." I'm joking.

"Do something that's not you."

I try singing through clenched teeth, which is how I did the spoken-word portion of this song.

"OK, now sing it like Bob Dylan."

"What? I don't think I can do Bob Dylan. I haven't listened to enough of him."

"Think of Lay Lady Lay. That was him at his best."

I do a silly imitation of a groaning Dylan half speaking, half singing. At the end of the take, I crack up.

"You laugh, but that's closer than you think. We're getting somewhere. Now how would Chaka Khan sing it?"

"Oh jeez, I don't know. I wish I knew how she'd do it."

Ultimately we settled on a different way of phrasing the chorus that reminds me of that "I'm too sexy for my shirt" song. Then we ran the verses through a plug-in that creates an octave double of the vocal, since it's too low for me to sing an octave down. That sounds malevolent enough. Wayne also pointed out ways my phrasing works against the funk feel.

"I don't think I'm ready to abandon my melody. I wanted it to be unusual."

"OK, you don't have to if you get the rhythm right. Don't worry, when we're done it will be African, funk, anti-war, intelligent, everything."

Hope he's right.

Studio Update: The Painstaking Process

Yesterday's session at Gary's small studio was the first where my voice was at 95% capacity. And actually, once I was really warm in the afternoon I felt no limits at all. The first thing I tackled was the lead vocal to Calling You.

Prior to that, Gary had spent many hours (I'm afraid to check exactly how many) tuning the a capella background vocals on Calling You. This is not because the singers were bad, just that we hadn't rehearsed. It's frustrating how my producer and engineer are almost always right about everything. And I knew a week ago when we were laying down those vocals that I was probably wasting money on some level due to that disorganization. However, the bass line was excellent (I'd managed to get the chart to Bryan beforehand), and Kenny Washington's solo is breathtaking.

Wayne's point (correct as usual) had been that doing this via overdubbing (with me singing the top two female parts, Kenny singing the tenor and baritone, and Bryan Dyer singing the bass as he did on my last record) was going to result in something that lacked natural phrasing and breaths of a rehearsed live session. But it wasn't a complete wreck--far from it, in fact, now that it's tuned. Gary has a sign above his computer that reads "Stop me before I tune again"--but in his hands the tools help create something uber-musical, I think. Of course, this is technology that didn't exist when, say, Take 6 recorded their stuff 20 years ago. Back then, it was just a million punches until you got it right. These days, we do about 6-10 and then we give up and fix it in Pro Tools. Some of us do, anyway.

Wayne arrived in the afternoon as I was just beginning to sing the lead to Ave Rara, which, like Calling You, I have performed frequently on gigs. I finished the first take and hesitantly asked him what he thought. There's always that moment of silence where I wonder if he's going to shred it or praise it. Generally he's light on obvious praise, though sometimes I glean some by the comparisons he'll make ("That was like Sarah Vaughn" is not a bad one). He doesn't say anything right away so I suggest we do another take since I heard some pitch and phrasing things I want to change.

"Wait. Don't you want to sit down and listen to what you just did?"

"I already know there're things I want to do better."

"I've been listening to your roughs, and I noticed some things you consistently do. You always do the same turn," he says, singing it. Damn, he's right. I never noticed it.

"Also, your characters are reversed. The character singing the second half of the song is completely different from the first one. Who are you in this song?"

I have no idea what he's talking about. Eventually, via our usual game of 20 questions, I understand what he means: Sing lighter without rounded Sarah Vaughn tones, enunciate, deliver the first line in tune (though I argue and he agrees that Brazilians always sing slightly flat and Mexicans sing slightly sharp). We start recording and punching a phrase at a time, though it's going better than it sometimes does.

When we finish, it really sounds great. The phrasing, the choice of notes, the placement of the voice, everything is better than I've ever sung it. And here's the hard part: I feel a bit of, I don't know what emotion, frustration I guess, that I didn't think of these things myself. But I realized last night that I've only had one other serious professional mentor like Wayne (my first editor, 10 years ago). It can be a tricky relationship. But right now, listening to the mixes of what we recorded yesterday, I can hear how lucky I am to have it.