We just did a session for composer Steve
Kusaba for his monumental Opera.
The first session for this large work included Vinnie Colaiuta on
drums, Abraham Laboriel Sr. on bass, Mitch Forman on piano and keys,
Mike Miller on Guitar and Billy Hulting (me) on vibes. Troy King and I
produced the
session. Andy Waterman engineered the session at Umbrella Media.
Steve's Opera could be described as a
pop opera with very compositional elements and a strong tie to
classical music. Watching these
musicians work together to create the tracks was, not only a lot of
fun, but really showed their expertise in the studio.
Mitch
had to play piano parts that, at times, bordered on concerto difficulty
while all of Mike's guitar parts were written out classical guitar
pieces. Okay - not all of them -
there were some spots where the guys could groove and add their
personal signatures to the music.
At
the session we determined the written bass parts may be better suited
to being played on cello so with little guidance other than his ears and
the experience of doing a million recordings, Abraham came up with
parts that made the music come alive, add exactly what was needed, and
bore his personal mucical mark.
And then there is Vinnie - it was
truly magic to watch him rehearse a piece of music and create a part
especially where there were almost no specific charted-out parts for him
to play. He listens and
remembers so well that after the first take he already knows what
everyone else was playing and came up with parts that really set up and
drive the music. I had never
worked with Vinnie in the studio and it was a joy to watch.
We're working on another article
about recording full rhythm sections for recordings in which we'll have
a few audio examples showing how we got from the demo to the finished
tracks.
Steve, the
composer, was great to work with and very excited so I'm sure we'll be
doing more with him. He already
has some ideas in the works and we are getting to booking these
sessions. I had the chance to
meet him in Salt Lake City recently while I was on tour. We'll keep you
posted.
