I have to presume that each room is different from another room - when speaking about the sound. That is fascinating. Lun*na, with her band Les Sewing Sisters, when she plays in a club she mostly has a sound person to check out the room's acoustics, etc. I imagine all big touring bands/artists have a sound person who tours with the artist. But for the independent artist, doing club shows, it must be a difficult process. As well as being difficult for the sound person in that room.
I love this. I love the term "musicking," and frequently think of myself as a "musicker," rather than a "musician" -- I hope I can live up to it, reading more about this definition of it.
I'm curious now about that club, and will have to look into it, not being a "Bostoner".
It's surprising to me that so many musicians must not understand how the venue they're playing in can affect how they present their music, but so many people in general, not just artists/musicians, are just completely un-self-aware, it seems. Not self-aware, and not aware of how their own actions affect others in their immediate and not-so-immediate surroundings. "People be dum," as I regularly mumble to myself, and I know I can be just as dum at times too -- I at least try to be *that* self-aware!
First we are united in Dada invocation, now in "musicking," since almost not a week goes by that I do not cite it as part of the local-music pursuits and community practice. Cheers and kudos!
I can think of a number of parallels, of varying relevance, from the world of jazz. The Modern Jazz Quartet, for one, had remarkable "internal" dynamics. They were always listening to one another's "live" sound on stage. (You never saw any of them complain that they couldn't hear the piano in their monitors.) One of the MJQ players (can't remember which) said that when the band encountered a noisy audience they would keep playing softer and softer until the audience shut up.... Throughout the '70s, in response to rock, acoustic jazz bassist adopted a variety of pickups, plugging directly into the instrument. Wynton Marsalis's record-producing brother Defeayo called this "dreaded direct-to-bass" and avoided it in his recordings. Wynton typically grouped the horn players in his septets around a single mike. Bassist Christian McBride told me that on a gig with Wynton once, he blew out his amp in soundcheck and told Wynton he'd have to find a replacement amp. "Don't use one," Wynton advised. McBride was taken aback, but apparently it worked out fine. I think Marsalis's approach accounts for why so many jazz bassists these days prefer to put a mike near the F hole rather than plug in. I think that approach to acoustic sound was of a piece with Marsalis's stage "gestures," right down the the suits he required all his players to wear.... On a different note, I remember that saxophonist Stan Getz (whose bands had been a progenitor for "jazz-rock"), late in his career would always play one encore number unamplified. "No microphones" he would shout to the soundman, more to make a point with the audience, I think, than with the soundman.
I have to presume that each room is different from another room - when speaking about the sound. That is fascinating. Lun*na, with her band Les Sewing Sisters, when she plays in a club she mostly has a sound person to check out the room's acoustics, etc. I imagine all big touring bands/artists have a sound person who tours with the artist. But for the independent artist, doing club shows, it must be a difficult process. As well as being difficult for the sound person in that room.
I love this. I love the term "musicking," and frequently think of myself as a "musicker," rather than a "musician" -- I hope I can live up to it, reading more about this definition of it.
I'm curious now about that club, and will have to look into it, not being a "Bostoner".
It's surprising to me that so many musicians must not understand how the venue they're playing in can affect how they present their music, but so many people in general, not just artists/musicians, are just completely un-self-aware, it seems. Not self-aware, and not aware of how their own actions affect others in their immediate and not-so-immediate surroundings. "People be dum," as I regularly mumble to myself, and I know I can be just as dum at times too -- I at least try to be *that* self-aware!
Thank you for this post!
First we are united in Dada invocation, now in "musicking," since almost not a week goes by that I do not cite it as part of the local-music pursuits and community practice. Cheers and kudos!
I can think of a number of parallels, of varying relevance, from the world of jazz. The Modern Jazz Quartet, for one, had remarkable "internal" dynamics. They were always listening to one another's "live" sound on stage. (You never saw any of them complain that they couldn't hear the piano in their monitors.) One of the MJQ players (can't remember which) said that when the band encountered a noisy audience they would keep playing softer and softer until the audience shut up.... Throughout the '70s, in response to rock, acoustic jazz bassist adopted a variety of pickups, plugging directly into the instrument. Wynton Marsalis's record-producing brother Defeayo called this "dreaded direct-to-bass" and avoided it in his recordings. Wynton typically grouped the horn players in his septets around a single mike. Bassist Christian McBride told me that on a gig with Wynton once, he blew out his amp in soundcheck and told Wynton he'd have to find a replacement amp. "Don't use one," Wynton advised. McBride was taken aback, but apparently it worked out fine. I think Marsalis's approach accounts for why so many jazz bassists these days prefer to put a mike near the F hole rather than plug in. I think that approach to acoustic sound was of a piece with Marsalis's stage "gestures," right down the the suits he required all his players to wear.... On a different note, I remember that saxophonist Stan Getz (whose bands had been a progenitor for "jazz-rock"), late in his career would always play one encore number unamplified. "No microphones" he would shout to the soundman, more to make a point with the audience, I think, than with the soundman.
right on!