School to the Stage

Re: Defending Jazz From George Foreman's Fighting Words

I saw a great video yesterday from the TED talks by Benjamin Zander. His talk is on Classical music, but his points drove home for me when thinking of the way people view jazz music, and the way jazz musicians portray themselves. Mr. Zander states that the real reason people aren’t getting classical music is not because they are tone deaf (he says no one is tone deaf, I agree), and it is not because they “just don’t get it.” People aren’t getting it because the musicians aren’t really giving it to them. He says that somewhere along the line they saw a very uninspired performance, or simply heard their child’s orchestra up until he/she quit playing in the 8th grade, and decided that classical music simply isn’t for them.

I personally believe that jazz music, especially some of the more modern electronic and rock infused jazz, is just as accessible to the non jazz listen/player as any other style of music.

I tend to think of my brother, who never really had any interest in playing music or listening to classical/jazz. After being in school for a few years, I brought him and my father to the Jazz Showcase in Chicago to see Benny Golson and Curtis Fuller and they walked out totally stunned. After just one show, these never-listened-to-jazz-before guys understood that the band was playing a melody, and then they were improvising. They were able to sense emotion in the playing, and they could hear a story. It helps too that Benny loves to tell stories about growing up with Coltrane. They went to ONE inspired show and it made believers of them. Their issue was that they spent (my brother at least) their entire lives hearing me practice the trumpet, and never really hearing the music the way is should be heard.

After the show at the Showcase we went to a jam session at Andy’s Jazz Club where I sat in for most of the night. Afterward, my brother looked at me in a daze and said “Man, I had no idea jazz was this much fun. I had no I idea that you were good!” Their perception of what jazz is was based on my playing along with Aebersold CDs in high school.

So I guess my point is the same as Mr. Zander’s in that I believe jazz is for everyone. The misguided views of the people at Fox News stretch far beyond their taste in music. I just hope people still try and hear the music for themselves. As for our good buddy George Foreman, well, what can I say? I certainly wouldn’t want to get punched in the face by that guy, so I’ll just leave it at that.

here is the link for the TED talk I mentioned above: http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Here is the link for the original blog post on which this was written: http://bit.ly/2yG6Sz

School to the Stage: In The Studio

Considering that I have really only been “in the studio” a handful of times for major projects, I am not going to pretend to be an expert on working in the studio environment. I will, however try and give you an idea of what it was like for me to be in the studio recording my music using my own money.

The Details

I chose to record at signaturetone studio in Richfield, MN. Signaturetone is an up and coming studio that up until a few weeks ago had done mostly work recording rock and metal bands. I happen to know one of the engineers personally, and that he is a jazz bass player, which set my mind at ease a bit on whether they were going to be able to get the sounds that I was looking for.

The hourly was the cheapest that I could find in MN, and the gear was among some of the best. They even let me come in and test out different trumpet sounds before I decided if I wanted to go with them for the session. (not standard protocol, so don’t expect that kind of generosity where ever you decide to record).

We mapped out one full day for recording with an “emergency” day a few days later, and then one full day for mixing. It was ambitious to say the least. By the time we were all set up and ready to record we had only 6 hours or so to lay the music down, including a break for lunch. We recorded everything live and in one room. I would suggest, especially for brass players, to break it up a little more than I did if possible. By the end of the session I was very tired and my sound began to spread a bit due to my fatigue.

We recorded 11 of my tunes in about 6 hours. The saxophone player had never seen the music before the session (Ive had some “issues” keeping sax players around :) Luckily I found the right guy to come in and play (Brandon Wozniak) because he absolutely killed it.

Sounds

I found when searching for a place to record you should be looking for a place where you will feel comfortable for an extended period of time, and an engineer who you feel comfortable being completely open and blunt with. After all, this is your music, and you shouldn’t leave with a disc you don’t like after spending thousands of hours/dollars on your work.

Being a horn player, it is especially important that you find someone who understands the ins and outs of recording your instrument. Unfortunately, recording engineers are undereducated in this department because the majority of work they have is recording guitars and vocals. Find someone who knows how to make you sound great, even when your chops aren’t feeling great. After 8 hours of heavy recording, you’ll know what I mean.

Money/Marketing: A Brief Look

In order to help pay for this project, I did several things before getting in the studio to get my check book ready:

1) I offered (am still offering) pre-orders of my upcoming album. In order to promote the pre-orders I used Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, and other outlets for social networking. Most of all, I played shows.

2) The best way to raise awareness about your upcoming album, and gain a loyal following, is to play shows. I have been lucky enough to be a part of my wife’s band (www.janajazz.com) for a very long time and have gained quite a following and email list from the amount of gigs that we have played over the last 4 years. Just one or two emails to Jana’s email list about what the rest of the band has been up to and some money starts to come in. I also played a pretty high profile gig with my quintet (see: School to the Stage: Playing the Dakota) which helped my local image a bit.

3) I offered packages that people could purchase that would get them more than just music (i.e. lessons, coffee dates, hair cuts, you name it). I have found that this works much better when people are actually interested in you and what you do, but I gave it a shot anyway. I did get a few people who purchased the lower packages ($100-$200). My hope is that in the future I will have people who want to purchase the larger packages ($1000-$5000). I got the idea from www.artistshare.com if you are interested in checking out what I mean by all this.

Mixing the Music

I found during the mixing process that I am really not as critical of sounds that I hear as I should be. The key to getting this right was inviting others from the band and musician friends of mine to come out and take a listen. The musicians in the band, specifically Zacc Harris were a huge help in figuring out what sounds worked and what sounds didn’t. I think Zacc has been in the studio a million times, so having someone like that who knows what to listen for is a huge asset.

Mixing took longer than I thought it would. I think it varies too, depending on the engineer, but in general I would say you should map out a little more time for mixing than you originally thought necessary. After our full day of mixing, Tucker (my engineer) and I went back in and mixed for another 5 or 6 hours (which as I understand it, still isn’t much time for mixing).

As I said earlier, make sure your engineer is someone you feel comfortable being open and blunt around. It is during the mixing process that this becomes most important. There will be times when you disagree with the engineer and may need to put your foot down. It is your disk, and should sound the way you want it to sound. Be very critical of everything, you are putting a disk out there for the world to hear with all the praises and criticisms that come along with that. It should sound the very best it can possibly sound before letting anyone hear it. And with today’s technology, there is really no excuse for a poor sounding recording.

Finally

I you would like to hear some of the tracks from the album, or download my free online bonus track you can visit here and here. To purchase, visit my website at www.adammeckler.com/for_dad. The album will also be available on Itunes and Cdbaby.com midway through September. My official CD release party will be held at the Dakota Jazz Club on October 2nd from 11:30p-1:30a. Please join us!

School to the Stage: Playing the Dakota

I’ve seen Nicholas Payton, Roy Hardgrove (3 times), John Scoffield, Christian Scott, the SFJC, Joshua Redman, and many others including tons of great local musicians at the Dakota. Naturally, the thought that I was going to be playing from the same stage, one of the most reputable in the Midwest, was a bit daunting. Not to mention this was my first real performance as a composing improvisor in the Cities. I had to make sure that both my band and I were ready to play this show to the best of our ability.

Unfortunately, playing with some of the best small group musicians in this area can be a cause for some trouble when you are looking to put together some rehearsals. Getting guys to agree to play in the band in the first place, actually wasn’t all that difficult. It seems there aren’t a ton of trumpeters in the Cities doing what I’m doing. Few enough for Zacc to say “yeah man, I love playing with trumpet players, and don’t get to very often.” I guess the fates were really on my side for putting this band together. I was able to get the final instrumentation of guys together for one rehearsal before the gig. We hit each tune for maybe 10 minutes, some for less, and then moved on for the sake of getting everyone out of there in a couple of hours. Needless to say, there’s a reason why they call these guys “pros” because the really killed it.

After getting past the nervousness of standing on the same stage as so many of the greats, and being judged by the same audience, I was able to come out of my shell and play like I am used to playing.

The gig was fun, and lots of people came out to check out the band. I feel blessed that I could make the strides that I consider to be the most important when getting out in to a new scene. (ie playing with the right guys at the right venues). I feel honored to play with guys that have been in the Cities for so many years, playing all the stages and turning heads. If it weren’t for them, this whole thing wouldn’t have been possible.

And now to the studio. In a week’s time I will be in the studio with my quintet recording my debut album in hopes that I will turn some heads in the Cities as well. The album is going to be a tribute to my father, Rick Meckler. After his passing last February, I have written a lot of music to commemorate his life; music that represents my emotions at the time of learning of the heart attack, and the events that followed. I feel it is important for me to lay this music down now, when the emotions are still so fresh. My hope is that the listener can be touched by my music, and feel some of what I have been going through for the last 6 months.

That being said, I am very excited to see what comes of the session. I will post some music from my Dakota gig on this site as soon as I have posted this blog entry. The rest will be posted at my website www.adammeckler.com.

Hopefully I’ll have reason to write many more posts about playing at the Dakota in the future. Right now, I’m just happy that I can be playing the music that I love for people who want to listen.