INTRO CONTACTS QUOTES RECORDINGS DIARY LINKS
TAILGATE RAMBLE
sound samples available soon !
It could be said that preparing to make a new CD is a bit like swotting for your O-levels (well that's what they were called in my day). In the weeks leading up to the examinations you need to learn your subject, run through your notes, commit your formulae to memory, and test yourself repeatedly until you feel good and ready. In this way you give yourself the best possible chance of success on the big day.
As a band we too had prepared ourselves as best we could for the recording session, having incorporated the targeted tunes into our regular repertoire, and having played them repeatedly until they were honed, if not exactly to perfection, at least to an acceptable standard.
But there is always the unexpected ("sod's law" some people call it), and two weeks before our studio date our drummer was lured away by the bright lights to play cabaret, backing, amongst others, Lulu. And to think I always liked Lulu! This left me, as band leader, with three basic options, postpone the recording session and go back to first base, engage another drummer - tricky, or do the recording without one.
Faint heart never won fair lady, as they say, so trusting to fortune I opted to record as a drummerless five piece, firmly believing that we were strong enough to carry it off. I am glad we did.
There is a lightness and swing in the ensemble that the band does not always achieve with drums and there is an absence of "white noise", the term recording engineers use to describe the extraneous surplus sounds that a drum kit makes over and above the actual desired percussions - those unwanted resonances and reverberations that endure and fill up all the spaces.
Whilst it is already decided that the band will not continue as a five piece, nevertheless this recording makes a pleasant excursion from the norm. A walk on the wild side? Not really, more a tiptoe through the tulips !Roger Marks Feb '99
TRACKS MUSICIANS
1 My Blue Heaven Roger Marks (tmb/ldr) 2 Cradle Song John Shillito (tmp/vocs) 3 Tailgate Ramble Ken Rennison (ten/alto/sop/clt) 4 Mood Indigo John Whitlock (bjo/gtr) 5 A Love Song Of Long Ago Bob Jarvis (e.bs) 6 Cielito Lindo 7 When I Grow Too Old To Dream 8 Helter Skelter 9 Fine And Mellow 10 Smiles 11 Wooden Heart 12 Marie 13 Besame Mucho 14 Original Dixieland Onestep
Tailgate Ramble - Roger Marks Armada Jazz Band - RSCD690
Recorded at Hilton Magic Studios, Ipplepen, Devon.
Recorded and produced by Raymer Sound (+44 (0)1823-662160)
back to "RECORDINGS"
INTRO CONTACTS QUOTES DIARY LINKS