Recording at Capitol Studios

Since I arrived in Los Angeles, I have mostly performed music. I haven't spent much time in the studio since Cheap & Sunny was released in April. Anyway, in the past couple of weeks I have done a few sessions. Each have been pretty darn awesome so far from recording with the Facets, the Watts Ensemble (new tracks are up) and with Tommy Rickard at Red Hill Studio (eng. Rich McCulley). But for several reasons, tonight's session might be a tough one to beat in a while, I am thinking.

So, tonight, I went to Hollywood and Vine to the historic Capitol Tower, home of Capitol Records and the place where some of the most amazing contemporary music has been recorded by such artists as The Beach Boys (thanks Seb), Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Judy Garland, to name a few.

Anyway, so, I ventured over for a recording session. I had no pass and had to do nothing at the gate but say whom I was there to record with and the gates floated open, and I entered the little back parking lot. I unloaded my upright bass and headed to the building where a security guard had me sign in and gave me a stick on badge, but I am pretty sure it is either magnetic or has a microchip in it because it feels more like a hospital arm band than one of those "Hello, My Name is" badges.

Anyway, I was a little overcome with emotions as I guided my bass down the hall, past large black and white photos of sessions that took place some 50 years ago. It was magical and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, full of wonderment.

The session itself was painless and fairly simple in the end. But when I arrived in front of my black music stand, I continued to wonder what it is we were going to play. I calmly asked my fellow bassists and one said, "I don't know", the other said, "scales, or something like that." I relaxed and then noticed that some of the smaller strings were having a mild moment of desperation because there weren't enough music stands in their section. At that exact moment, the conductor stepped up to the podium which was raised a bit and surrounded by gigantic boom stands. He announced that no stands would be needed tonight (I let out a silent sigh of relief) and that we were going to celebrate birthdays for whomever has one in the next couple weeks. We found one person in the orchestra to play to and the maestro counted off. As he was counting off he was bombarded with musicians shouting, "What key?"

After Happy Birthday, the conductor announced we would play the patriotic tune he would hum to us. It was the Star Spangled Banner. Again, he quickly counted off without noting the key, and again, we frantically shouted for more information. He announced proudly, "F, starting on C" and seconds later, we were improvising perhaps our nation's most well known song.

I played the hell out of that tune that night and was having a ball because I love to play by ear. However, when we finished, I realized that we had just done something that many classical musicians don't do much of. We improvised. In classical settings, we are accustomed to having notes on a page, right in front of us, with very few exceptions. It was a treat to me, I was weaving in and out of harmonies, jumping octaves, playing little fills. I could hear every note coming out of my instrument, and felt each one floating into the microphone. This was merely a sound check for the booth, but it was pure fun for me.

After our little warm up, we learned that we were doing variations of bowed notes in order to capture samples for an electronic library of sounds for composer Nick Phoenix. The three basses stood around a very old looking Neumann microphone that had one of those big metal emblems soldered to it that read Capitol Records, very cool. And as you can see in the photos, the wiring on the mic is definitely not something you find at your local music store these days. I would venture to guess that the value of that one microphone is more than all the microphones combined in many home studio. And it sure was pretty too.

During our break, I got to venture into the control booth where they had a Neve console and many preamps, a huge mixing board, a fruit bowl, and huge windows looking out onto the big room. I got to hear some play backs and I thought they sounded incredible, better than I'd remembered it sounding live.

After our break, we came back and played through a few more sequences, and that was it. I was so interested in my surroundings that I forgot to get water or coffee (you know that's serious) during the break. I was just trying to take it all in because I knew my trip there would not be as long as I would like. And if any of you have ever been with me on a beach, you might know that I like to search for and look at shells, fossils, rocks, etc. for hours and hours. In fact, people have just dropped me off in the past, then scooped me up if more than two meals have passed before I request a pick up. Tonight was no exception, I think I could have stayed a week if they'd let me...

Well, I am just elated from tonight's adventure, and it may take an act of herbal tea to get this brain shut down tonight. It was absolutely incredible, just to be there. It was like visiting the Montmartre, where Dali, Picasso and Van Gogh once had studios. It is a piece of our history, a very rich piece of our American history. And I cannot believe that I just got to visit that place, and actually do a recording there. Wow!

-Good night, and pass me a bottle of sleep if you've got an extra.