Producing "Grapefruit Moon - the songs of Tom Waits"

[Dan G]

Around the time my good buddy, Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg asked me to produce and engineer "Grapefruit Moon, the Songs of Tom Waits," I had been listening to "Sinatra's Swingin' Sessions," which was recorded some time around 1960. I was fascinated by that album. I remember thinking,"How can this sound so good when the technology was so limited compared to what we have today?" The album cover features a photo taken at the session, and you can clearly see the way Nelson Riddle's orchestra was positioned in the studio, and even the types and positioning of mics. When you listen, you hear every instrument in the stereo field exactly as you see them in the photograph. And the overall sonic quality is so natural and open. It's recording 101: proper positioning of the proper mic for the job, a clean, simple signal path, and letting the musicians balance themselves and, well . . . PLAY!

In the pop music idiom, the producer usually plays a strong role in shaping the sound of a record. In fact, the recording studio has become another musical instrument, where the producer can shape, and reshape a sound, sometimes to the extent that it bears little or no resemblance to the original performance. In my opinion, jazz should be approached differently. When you have great songs, great orchestrations by a talented arranger like LaBamba, a soulful and adventurous singer like Southside Johnny, and great musicians, the producer's job should be to encourage the musicians to forget the studio technology that they've become accustomed to depending on - my job was to use my skills to capture the music that the arranger and the musicians were producing.

The 12 songs on "Grapefruit Moon - the songs of Tom Waits" were recorded over 4 sessions. The first two sessions were at Jon BonJovi's Carriage House, a wonderful studio - and Jon was a gracious host, (thank you). The other 2 sessions were at the legendary Avatar studio C in NYC. Each of the sessions was preceded by 2 or 3 rehearsals. Our basic unit was a 'traditional' 17-piece jazz big band, i.e. 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 woodwinds, piano, bass, guitar, and drums. Woodwinds most often were configured as 2 alto saxes, 2 tenor saxes, and baritone sax. But the sax players often doubled on clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, and soprano, per LaBamba's arrangement. Every effort was made to position the players and Johnny in the studio as they would be heard in the final mix, and to record the performances live.

There were struggles in getting the musicians and the arranger, who grew up with modern recording techniques, to embrace this old school approach. The 'simpler' way was, in many respects, harder for all of us. But in the end, everyone associated with the project agrees that the recordings and the performances are something special, both sonically and musically. I hope you will agree, too!

Dan Gralick

Producer

personnel: Southside Johnny (vocal, harmonica), Tom Waits (guest vocalist), LaBamba (orchestrations, conductor), Frank Elmo (alto, soprano, flute), Baron Raymonde (alto, flute), Erik Lawrence (alto, flute), Jack Bashkow (alto, flute, bass clarinet), Jerry Vivino (tenor, flute, alto flute, clarinet), Sam Bortka (tenor, flute, clarinet), Timmy Cappello (tenor, soprano), Eddie Manion (baritone sax, flute, clarinet), Brian Pastor (trombone), Nathan Mayland (trombone), Matt Bilyk (bass trombone), Jeff Bush (trombone), Ben Williams (trombone), Clarence Banks (trombone), Art Baron (trombone), Jonathan Shubert (bass trombone), Aaron Johnson (bass trombone), Marcus Rojas (tuba), Howard Johnson (tuba), Mark Pender (trumpet), Chris Anderson (trumpet), Mike Spengler (trumpet), John Barry (trumpet), Stu Satalof (trumpet), Scott Healy (piano, harpsichord), Michael Mancini (piano), Glenn Alexander (guitars, mandolin, dobro), Mike Merritt (bass), Shawn Pelton (drums, percussion), Ray Marchica (drums), Jeff Kazee (hammond B3), John Ballesteros (percussion), Sue Hadjapoulos (bongos), Sean Grissom (cello), Charlie Giordano (accordions), Bobby Bandiera (additional guitar).

Edited August 24, 2008 by Dan G

[RDK]

You'll probably get shit for posting here, but being a huge Waits fan this is interesting to me. When will this be released, and on what label?

[7/4]

I took a lesson from Glenn Alexander maybe 20 years ago.

[Dan G]

You'll probably get shit for posting here, but being a huge Waits fan this is interesting to me. When will this be released, and on what label?

I came to the project as a jazz fan, not a Tom Waits or Southside Johnny fan. But "My Favorite Things" was not written to be a jazz tune - Coltrane made it so. LaBamba has turned this music into jazz with his incredibly deep interpretations of Tom Waits' music. Liked your Hoagy Carmichael quote by the way - but Hoagy never heard the destruction that ProTools can cause.

[Dan G]

You'll probably get shit for posting here, but being a huge Waits fan this is interesting to me. When will this be released, and on what label?

Sorry, man - missed the second part - the CD will be released on Sept. 2, on Leroy Records. Also, Johnny and the band are scheduled to appear on the Conan O'Brien show on 9/18. There will be some concerts in the NYC area, probably in October, and we're hoping for some west coast appearances with T.W.

[GregN]

I am very intrigued by this one...

I dig what you are saying about capturing actual performance rather than merely constructed one.

Also a Waits fan.

[jostber]

I was at the 2 Barcelona concerts with Tom Waits in July. Great shows! Would like to hear this one.

[Newk]

Amazon has sound samples of this. I'm gonna pick it up!

[Dan G]

Amazon has sound samples of this. I'm gonna pick it up!

Please let me know what you think. I'd appreciate hearing your comments.

[Jim Alfredson]

Dan, thanks for posting this. I agree with you that certain types of music should be captured as close to "live" as possible. The concept of the studio as an instrument is always worth exploring, but oftentimes the availability and ease of use of the tools acts as a crutch to support poor performances that are later "fixed in the mix".

Jazz, being an improvisational music that relies of the interaction of the musicians more-so than maybe any other genre, is especially hampered by the current studio trends of extreme isolation, close mic'ing, micro-editing, pitch-correction, automation, etc. That's not to say those tools cannot be used, but as with everything the key is moderation.

I also know what you mean firsthand by the reluctance of modern day musicians to accept the limitations of working in an "old school" way. The last organissimo CD "Groovadelphia" was tracked in my home studio, which is simply my basement, with 7' ceilings. We chose to play all in the same room, no isolation, balancing ourselves as much as possible. It was hard to do. Each one of us at one point said out loud, "Man, I wish we were in the real studio, so we could fix these mistakes instead of replaying this tune over and over again." One tune especially kicked our butts.

But it was worth it. The resulting sound, though maybe not as pristine as that from a modern studio, nevertheless has a vibe and energy to it that you just cannot get from everyone in seperate rooms doing multiple overdubs of their solos.

Again, thanks for posting and I will definitely check out the release.

[Dan G]

Dan, thanks for posting this. I agree with you that certain types of music should be captured as close to "live" as possible. The concept of the studio as an instrument is always worth exploring, but oftentimes the availability and ease of use of the tools acts as a crutch to support poor performances that are later "fixed in the mix".

Jazz, being an improvisational music that relies of the interaction of the musicians more-so than maybe any other genre, is especially hampered by the current studio trends of extreme isolation, close mic'ing, micro-editing, pitch-correction, automation, etc. That's not to say those tools cannot be used, but as with everything the key is moderation.

I also know what you mean firsthand by the reluctance of modern day musicians to accept the limitations of working in an "old school" way. The last organissimo CD "Groovadelphia" was tracked in my home studio, which is simply my basement, with 7' ceilings. We chose to play all in the same room, no isolation, balancing ourselves as much as possible. It was hard to do. Each one of us at one point said out loud, "Man, I wish we were in the real studio, so we could fix these mistakes instead of replaying this tune over and over again." One tune especially kicked our butts.

But it was worth it. The resulting sound, though maybe not as pristine as that from a modern studio, nevertheless has a vibe and energy to it that you just cannot get from everyone in seperate rooms doing multiple overdubs of their solos.

Again, thanks for posting and I will definitely check out the release.

Jim, Thanks for providing a forum. "Groovadelphia" is a great name. What inspired it? I grew up listening to the Philly sound, and started my engineering career doing live sound at the Uptown Theater (Philly's answer to The Apollo) for artists like Joe Tex, The Delphonics, The Manhattans, Harold Melvin, Linda Jones, etc. Also used to sneak in to Pep's (under age) on S. Broad Street to hear Miles, Coltrane, Diz, Austin Cromer. Philly used to be a real jazz town back in the 60s - I guess that can be said for a lot of American cities. Ah, those were the days. But as Bob Dylan said: "Ya better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone . . ."

[Man with the Golden Arm]

To think that both "Small Change" and "I Don't Want to Go Home" were released 32 years back. Man I'm getting old ... those lps sit in a milk crate somewhere.

My allegiances then went more to SS as his live trips to Cleveland were many and caught him nearly every chance I could. The project seems like one of his devotion. Nice to hear his voice still strong as ever on the samples.

Good luck with it all DanG. esp with the competition from Ms Johansen.(do I smell a touring duet?) You got quite a crew of chops in that line up! Must have been fun!!

LaBamba,LaBamba,LaBamba...

[Jim Alfredson]

Jim, Thanks for providing a forum. "Groovadelphia" is a great name. What inspired it? I grew up listening to the Philly sound, and started my engineering career doing live sound at the Uptown Theater (Philly's answer to The Apollo) for artists like Joe Tex, The Delphonics, The Manhattans, Harold Melvin, Linda Jones, etc. Also used to sneak in to Pep's (under age) on S. Broad Street to hear Miles, Coltrane, Diz, Austin Cromer. Philly used to be a real jazz town back in the 60s - I guess that can be said for a lot of American cities. Ah, those were the days. But as Bob Dylan said: "Ya better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone . . ."

I love the Philly R&B sound as well and Philly is/was the jazz organ capital of the world. For some reason, the majority of well-known jazz organists came from that area.

My wife did her undergrad in Philly and always told me how great the city is. I fell in love with Philly when organissimo played there in 2005.

[Dan G]

Jim, Thanks for providing a forum. "Groovadelphia" is a great name. What inspired it? I grew up listening to the Philly sound, and started my engineering career doing live sound at the Uptown Theater (Philly's answer to The Apollo) for artists like Joe Tex, The Delphonics, The Manhattans, Harold Melvin, Linda Jones, etc. Also used to sneak in to Pep's (under age) on S. Broad Street to hear Miles, Coltrane, Diz, Austin Cromer. Philly used to be a real jazz town back in the 60s - I guess that can be said for a lot of American cities. Ah, those were the days. But as Bob Dylan said: "Ya better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone . . ."

I love the Philly R&B sound as well and Philly is/was the jazz organ capital of the world. For some reason, the majority of well-known jazz organists came from that area.

My wife did her undergrad in Philly and always told me how great the city is. I fell in love with Philly when organissimo played there in 2005.

I didn't realize that Philly was so connected to jazz organ. I do remember that in Atlantic City (which is where a lot of Philadelphians went for vacation - or to hear live music, or to find hookers) there was a music strip, where on any summer night you could find at least 3 or 4 organ trios - most typically B3, sax & drums, or B3, guitar & drums. I was too young to go in, but it was intoxicating to walk down that street - I would hang out in front of those places until I got chased away. There I go romanticizing the past again (forgive me, Bob Dylan). Hey, Jim - do you ever play in the Tampa Bay area, or in NYC? If so, please put me on your mailing list.

[7/4]

Hey, Jim - do you ever play in the Tampa Bay area, or in NYC?

They played in NYC once a few years ago.

If so, please put me on your mailing list.

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