kudzurunner
2603 posts
Jul 19, 2011
11:12 AM
|
I've finished tracking the 11 cuts that I'll be putting on a new solo-ish album, to be released late fall. I'm still working the one-man band groove--9 out of 11 cuts were tracked that way--but I'm also moving in some new directions.
The album is evenly divided between blues and non blues. There are two originals; one is a blues, albeit with a slightly non-standard structure, the other is a non blues (a jazzy adaptation of "Old McDonald Had a Farm" that is a playful look at bestiality in Mississippi and Arkansas).
It's evenly divided between instrumentals (5) and songs with vocals (6).
My recent passion for contemporary/smooth jazz instrumentals is reflected in Chris Botti's "Why Not," Rick Braun's "Green Tomatoes," and the slightly retro "Sanford and Son" theme, updated by Brian Bromberg.
Only two of the 11 tracks will actually consist of the Gussow OMB with nothing else added. All the other tracks will have overdubs.
The single biggest surprise--for me as well as you, I suspect--is that I'm playing rhythm guitar on 8 of the tracks. No lead at all, but a range of rhythm styles centered on jazzy blues, deep Mississippi blues, and funk.
I'm using custom/upgraded harps on a handful of songs--Joe Spiers's C and high G, and a Hohner crossover in F (awesome harp) and A.
As a goad to non-overblowers, I do "The Alley Cat" on Joe's high G harp and nail every overblow hard, loud, and in tune. Descending as well as ascending. I decided that the silliness about "tinny," "squeaky," and "out of tune" overblows had gone on long enough and deserved to be put to rest, once and for all. Joe's harp--a Stage 1--is awesome. I took delivery a year and a half ago and had barely played it once--until I was sitting at my desk thinking about material for the album and said, "Hey, I wonder if I can play "The Alley Cat" on that sickeningly high harp?" I pulled it out and sure enough: solid gold. On the album, it's amped way up. You can hear the pressure behind my notes when I pause to gasp at the end of each phrase. But the notes themselves hold tight, and I even put vibrato on sustained overblows--again, two things that have not been part of my toolkit until now. It's good to have young guns around. Makes an old guy work harder.
Here's a link so you can download a 15-second sample of what I'm talking about.
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/142776259-gussow-alley-cat-sample-mp3
Last Edited by on Jul 19, 2011 11:26 AM
|
