It’s post-holidays deep winter. We finally snow got some snow, followed by a pretty good cold spell, solidly below freezing the last few days. Gonna get down in the teens tomorrow. At least the snow makes the sunshine alot brighter. We’re starting to think about when we can go skiing.<\/p>\n
There has been no jazz rehearsal in a month. The studio has been closed due to the pandemic surge. This week they’re reopening, with new distancing and mask protocols. But now our drummer has covid and needs to isolate for a week. On the upside, I’ve gone from practicing piano twice a week to four times a week. It’s a amazing what extra boost that gives to the finger dexterity and muscle memory, not to mention being able to explore different material and ideas.<\/p>\n
I’m still waiting for my new record Bluezebub to come back from the CD manufacturing and to work it’s way thru the system to appear on iTunes and Spotify. I’ve played the record for a few friends and the all like the songs and the playing, but have commented in particular at how good the mixes sound. At first I was thinking maybe this was a left-handed compliment, even if well intentioned. After all an album is supposed to sound good, that’s just table stakes. But I did put a good deal of care into the dynamic compression as well as the mix itself. The mastering FX chain is different than my previous records. I sought to make it much more dynamic than a modern pop record, but much hotter and more saturated than a classic jazz record without loosing any of the tone. I guess I pulled it off.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile I dusted off my in-progress rock record. I have three completed songs from before I switched my focus to Bluezebub. One, The Story Lies sounds great as-is, but I’ve made updates to the other two.<\/p>\n
Why Not Zed? has a new bari sax part to replace the tenor sax, since I liked the bari so much on Bluezebub. Now it sounds way hipper, darker and heavier, sort of a Morphine vibe.<\/p>\n
Who Speaks on Your Behalf sounded a bit to sweet, even though I had some buzzy synths and fuzztone bass in there. So I added an electric guitar part with lots of thick distortion (preset #18 on my Vox box). Just the right touch. I was inspired after meeting Mike, the guitar player on the original Cheshire Cat track, at a King Crimson concert last fall. I had originally eschewed guitars on my arrangement, bringing in synths and saxes to fill out the sound. But then thought of an approach to guitar that I could play and would work with the song, focusing on contrasting staccato and sustained rhythmic figures.<\/p>\n
I’m getting more confident writing and arranging guitar parts, exploring different sounds and feels. So in contrast the the jazz record, which has no guitar at all, I’m gonna try and get guitar on every track of the new rock album. The next couple songs I’m putting down are gonna be based on rhythm guitar rather than piano as the spine. One thing watching Get Back made me realize is I can do pretty much anything on guitar that John can. It’s not so hard if you don’t try and get too complicated.<\/p>\n
Anyway, here are the new mixes. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
https:\/\/zingman.com\/music\/mp3\/bzvr\/WhyNotZed24.mp3<\/a><\/p>\n