Capturing Magic (working without a net)
In the way old days…recording groups had to record together “live” sometimes on just one microphone. If someone made a mistake the group had to start over again. You might imagine that the level of musicianship (the barre) was much higher because if you were a drummer on a session and you dropped your stick in the middle of a magic take, they might excuse you from recording with them again. Forever.
Along with the thrill of the danger, because there is a thrill in the danger, existed an unidentifiable energy between the musicians, maybe akin to sailors in a storm relying on each other for their very lives.
This is “live” recording, something that rarely happens in recording studios today for a variety of reasons with maybe the biggest one having to do with control of the sound. You can individually edit over every aspect of the music until it’s perfect (or you think it’s perfect).
This might be what I detest most about modern technology’s role in music recording. Perfect records sound like s#$t to me and I excuse them from my memory subconsciously, even when I want to enjoy them.
The “magic” of the music is in the “live” and is better served when it’s made that way.
“Intro” was recorded with all 3 of us in one room doing it live.
There are no edits.
I’m proud of the groups performance and that we were able to pull it off.
We captured the magic.
Jazz jamming before covid
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Ok, so then what?
The music world is constantly divided between the past and the future with covers, tributes, nostalgia acts being past derivatives and pretty much anything else falling into the future.
How do we weigh tomorrows sound against what we heard yesterday, especially when yesterdays sounds are what brought us here today?
I recorded and played a lot of music like this for people over covid.
Here’s a sample: