Breaking Down the Walls - Composers and Performers Collaborate

So, it's Tuesday evening and I'm pretty tired.  I should be in bed, but it's Pancake Day and I just had to pop around my friend's for some sweet fillings.  Being in university full-time seems quite odd, especially as I'm usually only in on a Tuesday and Wednesday for a couple of hours most weeks – and this is a week in which I'm finalising an arrangement for a Jonathan   concert at All Souls Langham Place.  I spent a total of ten hours composing music yesterday, and something similar so far today.

But all is well, as the creative process has been entirely worth it.  We've been inspired by a set of songs written for string quartet by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet: a batch of pieces inspired by the so-called 'Juliet Letters', which are relatively poppy and conservative in style.  No sul pont. or any extramusical effects here – more a crossover between a batch of Haydn and Mozart quartets and a poppy arrangement for a rock artist.  Their originality, however, is in the use of the string quartet as a sole accompaniment to such a unique artist as Costello.  His (at times almost Dylanesque) voice provides part of that crossover magic, making its case for blending with its 300-year-old backline.  And while the pieces seem so conservative at first glance, their poetical beauty and melodic effortlessness provoke me to surrender and just enjoy such a fine batch of songs.

For me, part of the challenge of this project is that whole barrier that exists in western culture between the composer and the performer – traditionally, the composer writes and the performer plays the piece, but Colab, our conservatoire's new and daring annual collaboration project, knocks down the wall and puts the performer at the heart of the compositional process.  This makes my job all the more difficult – in this context, surely my job becomes much less important.  Fears of simply being forced to transcribe ideas for five days loom in my mind.

It was not to be.  Today, we started penning some ideas down.  Words were scribbled on the whiteboard from a Metro newspaper, rhythms strewn across some manuscript paper, chords being tried out before being notated in Sibelius, and a barrage of experimental 'cello effects trying to imitate the sounds of a Docklands Light Railway train with great success.

The compositional process, so far, has been exhilarating.  It is completely understandable why great composers such as Benjamin Britten, spent so much time with instrumentalists and singers while writing his pieces.  He wanted to understand every facet of each instruments' timbal, lyrical, and technical facility.  It's the meeting of each other's knowledge that really provides a great melting pot of compositional ideas.  I threw up an idea for a syncopated train-like rhythm which I suggested we move across the quartet from the 'cello up to the first violin, and before I knew it, chords were being tried out, automatically falling into an A sus chord using mainly open strings col legno.  One of the string players suggested starting off slowly and speeding up just like a train would, and another suggested the 'cello make a 'doors opening' Tube sound.  The meeting of of all our different experiences and knowledge was beginning to create a strong batch of ideas.

So far, I have learned that this is essential to modern composition – performers should be encouraged to explore their compositional abilities much more, and composers and performers should collaborate much more frequently than they generally do, especially in a conservatoire context, as these relationships tend to form the professional relationships which provide the foundation of our careers – but more than that, they provide the basis of creative connections which will inspire new and great music for the next generation of music-lovers.  I can't wait to see what we produce by the end of this week, and further down the road, I am looking forward to writing much more with performers rather than just for them.

2013 Goals

Well, I haven't written on here in a while, but I'm doing that naff short-lived thing, of making a goal to write more in 2013 on the 1st of January, only to relapse and not write on the 2nd of January …  But here I am, nonetheless.  I've partly been inspired by my composer-friend Caitlin Rawley, whose blog post points out an assortment of goals for the coming year.  I kind of like her 2012 bullet-point style blog post for goals for the year, but I'm sure I'll end up failing to meet most of them.  Oh well, worth a try!  'Aim for the moon, and if you miss, you'll be among the stars': isn't that a famous saying?

MUSIC

• My 'five a day'.  Four hours of composing and one hour of piano a day.  That seems about right.  Let the Pareto principle come into play.  I'm always spreading myself too thin by doing allsorts of different things, and it's about time I knuckle down and focus on two things: composing and pianoing (not a word, but has a nice 'ring' (in the laizzes vibrer sense, obviously) to it).  This may seem lots to some people and little to others – but doing this every day is the key, not just doing ten hours on one day a week …  
• Finish writing a musical with my lyricist and librettist friend Adrian and try our best to get it performed, published, storm the West End, get a film made, release the soundtrack, make a couple of million or two (am I already being unrealistic … ?).  
• Aim to have ten compositions performed in or outside of music college.  I figure that this might be quite ambitious, but this could be a solo piano piece or a string quartet, rather than just a large chamber ensemble.  I'm going to aim for ten and see what happens …  
• Pass my piano diploma.  I really need to do this.  I'm hoping to learn all the pieces to a good standard, put on a piano solo recital, and then take the exam.  Hopefully it will help if I need to get any peripatetic teaching work, and also, it just gives me a goal to practice for.  
• Make an album.  No stuffy contemporary-classical stuff.  Something that people want to listen to.  Either something with a bit of a groove, or some relaxing solo piano stuff.  Just something low budget but good fun.  
• Write more regularly on this Blogger page so that I can write down some more of my more ridiculous musicings.  

LIFESTYLE

• Seven-and-a-half hours sleep and no more.  Just as it says on the tin.  I've read that I don't need any more than this, so why should I sleep any more than this?  It's fairly ridiculous and lazy not to.  I'm sure I'll see my productivity increase if I stick to this.  
• Move to north London.  I'm sure there's a gang after me in south London – I've had paint thrown at me.  No.  More.  Paint.  
• Bake more.  I'm going to bake twelve recipes across the year.  
• Eat less junk food.  I am such a tray-baker.  Throw some oven-cooked food in a baking tray, bang it in the oven, and I'm done.  Eugh!  This has to end.  Time to cook some GOOD food.  Let's start small: twelve good main course meals to be made from a good recipe book throughout the year.  

THINKING OF OTHERS

• E-mail/text/call people back.  I'm sure lots of people have this problem, where they read something sent by someone and don't respond.  I go through bouts of dealing with this, and then other times when I completely fail.  I need to get a system in place to deal with this, e.g. flagging read e-mails that I need to respond to etc.  I will get this right one day …  I promise …  
• Give more, take less.  I have great friends that give so much.  It's time to give more and be there more for others.  It could mean baking a cake when a friend invites me around their house or something similar.  Just making a bit more effort.  
• Don't get complacent with family.  It's so easy to take from parents and not give back, and the same goes for other family members too.  I just hope that the point above will apply to the way I treat family too. 
• Hands-on charity.  I'm becoming increasingly fed-up of bureaucratic charities which waste my money on calling me back to ask for more.  I want to do some more hands-on charity.  I'm thinking of making my charitable goal for 2013 of spending £100 on food to give to the homeless on the streets of London, and perhaps encouraging a friend to join me.  Knowing me, I'll end up in a hospital somewhere, penniless, clutching to a pile of Big Issues.  

Ta-da!  I think that's enough for now.  I've also posted a blog post on my church music blog page, which has some interesting thoughts on how I can develop music in the church I work at as Director of Music.  I'm looking forward to 2013 – and I'm looking forward to it even more now that I've got some things to look forward to striving towards.  Have a very happy new year!  

Sax Saturday: Brecker Licks

Oh, the cheese! I can't help but alliterate. It's just far too tempting. Anyway, I felt I should blog about the saxophone. I've been doing far more practicing lately, partly down to a new year's resolution to practice an hour-a-day. While I haven't actually lived up to it, well I'm kind of there, but need to make up about eighteen hours …. I'm in that deluded frame of mind where I'm convinced that I'll make up these odd hours when I have a spare minute. We'll see.

Today, I wanted to share a batch of Michael Brecker licks that I found on Steve Neff's web site. He's posted a PDF of forty trademark ideas that the late great saxophonist played. Brecker had such a distinctive sound, being inspired by rock guitarists as much as some of his R&B sax contemporaries. Hendrix-like squawks play as pivotal a role in his improvisation as arpeggiated chords and pentatonic patterns. Anyway, have a look at the web site and let me know how you get on – these are equally useful for guitarists and other instruments. http://www.neffmusic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/09/40-Brecker-Licks1.pdf

On another note, I was surprised this week while reading about Stan Getz by what Coltrane said about him: 'Let’s face it—we’d all sound like that if we could.'. I find this remarkable considering that Coltrane has such an amazing and distinctive tone. I mean, he basically led the way for tenor saxophone playing for the second half of the twentieth century. Brecker would had learned his solos by rote. Getz does have such a superb sound though - and it would be poor to simply associate him with those Jobim tracks that most people think of when they hear his name. He has such a clear, effortless sound that I really need to hear more of.

The Commerce of Magic: Music Production (Part Three)

Brace yourself for the final thirty minutes which I've summed up in this final blog post. Here goes …

Green Cross Code: Stop, Look, Listen
Getting the perfect take requires patience, but it helps if you're watching and listening to the takes. Some musicians might make a face or are noticeably disappointed with the way they've played. This might inform you of what they want to be re-recorded. Snyder says, however, that if you were happy with the take, sometimes you need to calm the player's worries and say, 'That was great, it was full of energy, we don't need to do that again' (my paraphrase … ).

Art and Commerce
'You always have to balance the idea of art and commerce.'. Snyder stresses the importance, as producer, of both making sure that the album is musically authentic while ensuring that it pleases the 'suits' and brings in some cash.

On Recording Etta James (Topical!)
He recounts his tale of recording Etta James in six hours because of a piano that wasn't up to the job – he canceled a day of recording in order to sort the piano out, putting pressure on the next day's schedule. The album was James's first jazzy album after years of soul: Mystery Lady, which is an album of slow Billie Holiday ballads.

Finally, the Traits of a Good Producer
You have to have a love for it, for the music, and its history.
You have to have a respect for the outcome and an understanding of the impact of the record on people that you will never meet.
A whole bag of other things: humility, patience, musicality, business, an ability to make sure something gets finished, a great attention to detail …

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow I'll be posting some sax-related stuff.

The Commerce of Magic: Music Production (Part Two)

Here's part two of my notes from Jonathan Snyder's monologue on music production.

Working With People You Haven't Worked With Before
While the musicians are setting up, find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and then the first chance you hear something played well, complement them, but whatever you do, 'Don't fake it!'

This may be hard to take for some musicians, but because music production is a business: 'Occasionally, you have to replace somebody. Your obligation is to the result, not necessarily the musician'. I guess this counts as much outside of the studio as in: Miles Davis being a pretty ruthless example.

The Necessity of the Producer
'It's hard to be the artist and the audience at the same time'. The producer also works as a bridge between the 'suits'—the record company execs—-and the musicians, who more often than not, don't speak the same language. He quotes G. K. Chesterton, 'Art is limitation. The essence of every picture is the frame.', joking that musicians just want to play, sing, and write, so it's his job to add the frame and to focus the musician's performance.

Biggest Problems for Young Musicians in the Studio
Lack of preparation. It doesn't all 'just happen' in the studio. He sounds like a killjoy at this point, but he's bound to be right: 'Party after your work ... !'

Getting Started as a Producer
'You need to have a goal and a plan to achieve that goal. It's not good enough to just say "I want to do this." … Go to a band and say, "I really like what you did and stay with that band, go and see them more often, and talk to them more openly … For a band to be successful they need to have some kind of analysis of what they do to break it down into its component parts, to figure out what defines excellence in every aspect of it and how do you get there.'

On What Motivates Jazzmen
'I've seen jazz musicians of the first rank play better when a pretty girl sits down … I guess guys will be guys. So there's no telling what's going to motivate people …'. So, if you have Pro Tools but no pretty girl, it seems like you're not going to be very successful.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting the final instalment on this producer's tips and advice.

The Commerce of Magic: Music Production (Part One)

One of my muso mates, Ashley, sent a few friends and I a video by a guy called John Snyder earlier this week. He's a monotonous talker in tone, but much more interesting in content. He's a producer who's had the opportunity to produce some of the greatest jazz artists around along with some more well-known names such as Stevie Wonder. It's quite long at over an hour and I'm sure many of you don't have the time to spare to listen to this muso's advice, so I thought I'd sum up some of the key points for those that are interested over three articles, this being the first.

'I see something to do and I just go do it.'
Having trained in law after college, he sent out almost a hundred letters to entertainment law firms in New York - as well as one to a record producer. He got a reply and was asked to go and meet him in New York, so he jumped up north and went to meet this record producer. What's important at this point, although he doesn't really stress it in the video, is that he knows the producer's back catalogue better than the producer himself. He says that he reminded him of stuff that he'd recorded a while back and forgotten about. This kind of in-depth knowledge of the people we want to work with in the industry is crucial. Not only does it give us insight into what our prospective employers or collaborators have done, but what they are likely to do in the future. It is no coincidence that when asked who he would have signed if he was working for him, he answers with three names, two of which the producer was signing at that actual moment. He employed him there and then. This is no mere coincidence: this was a healthy guess based on a thorough understanding of the producer's work up until then.

'The Producer is the First Audience'

He talks at length about what the producer is expected to do, and stresses the need to be responsive to the performer. In one scenario, for example, Dave Brubeck turns to him and asks, 'How was that?'. While most of us are trembling in our boots as we imagine ourselves in his shoes, the producer really needs to 'think and feel at the same time' and have an answer. The role is both creative and practical: you need to think about the logistics of arranging sessions and costing them, while thinking about the music itself. He says to ask the question: 'If you don't get goosebumps, then what?'

'The Psychology of Producing'
Some artists have egos—Paul Simon apparently one of them—and the producer has to know how to deal with them. 'The process is important. It's necessary to create this environment of comfort and security. ... How the artist feels is very important to the result.'. Performers are responsive to an audience, so a sterile atmosphere in the studio is counter-productive - the producer and engineers are the audience in this context and need to be on board with the musicians.

If something's in the way of creativity, he has this advice: 'Always be aware of what it is that you're doing, and so I say to the musicians if we're having a problem: "You know, isn't it interesting, we woke up this morning and nothing existed and we go to bed tonight and five songs ... exist on tape, any one of which has the potential for affecting people's lives in a positive way, if not changing the world ... We have all felt it."'

Please return tomorrow for the second part of three articles on this producers' life and advice. If you'd like to watch the video click here.

At Last

So, those of you who are reading this most probably realised that I was joking about the dubstep. Those who aren't reading this probably thought I was serious ...

It's Valentine's Day, the day each year when my mailbox gets clogged up with love letters and poems from my many admirers from across the UK. I love you all too. The song that I would most want to play on a day like today is 'At Last' by Etta James, which is pretty fitting after her death a couple of weeks ago. My best memory of the song is from it being played over one of the happiest scenes from Pleasantville, in which Tobey Maguire and his girlfriend travel towards 'Lover's Lane' while the previously Oz-like black and white cinematography disappears to reveal their car wading through a scattering of pink blossoms. There's something nostalgic and innocent about both the music and this utopian American dream that in reality wasn't true. After all, James's life was a troubled one, albeit a profoundly creative one.

Aside from their powerful orchestral arrangements there is something profoundly powerful about songs such as 'At Last' and Sam Cooke's 'A Change is Gonna Come'. Both strike powerful first notes (both ascend from dominant to tonic - a powerful vocal jump in a high vocal register) and set the tone from the outset. Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) in her Radio Six Plalyist this week says of Cooke's number, 'when he hits that note ... it seems so desperate and hopeful and triumphant and sad all at once ... And it's absolutely perfect'. I couldn't put it better myself. Happy Valentine's Day, and happy listening.