I wrote my first major term paper in 6th grade and titled it, "The History of Jazz." So working with the Side Street Strutters on their new CD was very nostalgic for me. As a budding young musician, I was totally...well, totally jazzed to learn how the music traveled up the Mississippi River soaking up African, European and quintessential American flavors along the way. How it evolved and mutated as riverboat musicians influenced local music scenes in Memphis, St. Louis and finally Chicago.
On this CD, like ambassadors from the future connecting America with its musical past, the Strutters take their fans on a journey that is entertaining, educational and delivers a virtuosic showcase of the last 100 years of American music.
Recording this CD, I kept wondering what W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke would have thought of a recording session in today's digital world of samples, copy and paste, loops and auto tune?
Believe it or not, I think they would have felt completely at home at the Strutter's session.
Oh, we didn't ask the musicians to gather around a huge gramophone horn, or - as often happened in the 20's - for the drummer to play on a box because real drums would cause the stylus to skip out of its groove. Bix might have questioned having more than one mic on the drums or the piano being mic'd in stereo.
"What's stereo, man?"
But in almost every other way we recorded just like Louis did on hundreds of recordings - straight ahead, live, no overdubs. Like the founding fathers of the recording industry, the Strutter's secret sauce is musicianship - honed and perfected with thousands of live appearances. My job in the studio was to get technology out of the way and capture this incredible band much as if they were recording at RCA studios in the 1930's.
From 6th grade until now, I continue to be attracted to the history of American Music. On all the CDs I produce and engineer, I try to bring to the project the appropriate technology and recording environment that will deliver the best musical results. This is especially important as we travel back to Bourbon Street and the roots of America's indigenous art form.
