In this blog, I examine a real-life example of recording some original music with a band I was in a few years ago. We had a very limited budget, so to see how we did it, read on….
In 2018, I was fortunate to be a member of “Dig We Must”, an original Melbourne-based jazz funk band, as we began recording our second independent album. As with many self-financed projects, we begged and borrowed microphones and other equipment, setting up all together in our trombonist’s lounge room. We used a mic each for trombone and saxophone, while keyboards and bass used a direct line in to the digital interface. Drum kit had top and bottom mics on snare, three mics on the toms, two overhead mics, and one inside the (heavily muffled) kick drum. As you can see in the picture below, we scrounged some acoustic baffling to cut down on reflected sound and dry out the drum kit a little. Our saxophonist is a technical whiz, so he supplied his laptop (utilising Logic audio), digital interface, monitors and sundry other hardware.
Pearl Reference Series drums, Zildjian Cymbals and (L) Stanton Moore pandeiro
The song featured here, “NOLA Roller”, had previously been rehearsed and ‘played in’ on regular gigs in jazz clubs in Melbourne.
The transcription supplied below has been previously published in the Australian drumming magazine “Drumscene”, Jan/Feb/Mar 2020 (above).
“NOLA Roller” (R.Schmidli), available on album “Buried Treasure” by Dig We Must (https://digwemust.bandcamp.com/album/buried-treasure)
Listen on Spotify or
OK, that’s how the final version turned out, but now let me explain how it ended up this way….
Song composer/bandleader Roger Schmidli initially provided a chart (see below) for the first rehearsal, which during the workshopping process underwent quite a few changes – hence you can see my scribbled annotations. I was given plenty of leeway to develop my part, bringing my own approach to the table. Roger’s inspiration for this style was his trip to visit New Orleans, enjoying the ‘Dirty Dozen’-style brass bands there.
Tracking was done live, with bass, drums, keyboards, trombone and saxophone. No click track was needed, although during mixing we did adjust the timing slightly of a few phrases, not in a quest for perfection, but rather a better sense of the band playing tutti phrases together. We preferred this approach for its ability to capture a group vibe. Paddy McMullin’s trumpet solo, along with my percussion overdubs, were recorded later. During post-production, any horn solo’s which needed ‘scrubbing up’ (as there was some spill of drums into the horn microphones) were re-done, along with adding my percussion part. Mixing was by Roger Schmidli, Greg Clarkson and myself.
I had been inspired by seeing Stanton Moore (pic below) at the annual Australian Ultimate Drummers Weekend, so at home I came up with my own Australian version of the timeless New Orleans feel, utilising a reverse paradiddle combination (leading with LH) between the Stanton Moore Tambour on my left, and snare drum. Then I added a New Orleans right foot/left foot ‘ostinato’, including a tambourine jingle ring on the hi-hat. At Letter ‘D’ on the chart (a quasi-chorus) I incorporated the written accents within a modified version of the ‘verse’ groove.
As Stanton has shown, you can have a lot of fun trying all sorts of mixed sticking over this New Orleans foot pattern, moving around the entire kit. If any readers are interested in playing around with the groove, try to keep it a bit loose (or greasy, as the natives say), and put some accents and buzzes in to keep it musical. Have fun!
Thanks to bandmates Roger Schmidli – trombone, Greg Clarkson – saxophones, Kim May – bass, Jarrah Whyte – keyboards, and guest Paddy McMullin – trumpet.
