The Yamaha New Jazz Sessions 2010!

After receiving their scholarship and the fantastic opportunity to play in Westminster in front of the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group the next stage in the fabulous Yamaha Jazz scholarship programme is the opportunity to record a professional track which will be included on the Yamaha New Jazz Sessions CD mounted on the Christmas Double Issue of Jazzwise magazine.

So on the 16th August, Ian Frankland took the opportunity to visit Astar Studios in Heywood, Lancashire where one of this year’s scholars, Andrew Linham was recording his track with his quartet. This is the very studio where one of last year’s scholars Kit Downes, chose to record his own album after his experiences here recording the 2009 Yamaha New Jazz Sessions CD. His album has now been nominated for a mercury prize, so great testament to the work done here by Andy Ross.

This is my first time in a professional recording studio so the whole experience was a learning curve for me. Firstly the vast amounts of equipment, microphones and miles of wires and cables required to record a small ensemble. Every single part of the studio including the walls and ceiling has been specifically designed to allow for the maximum control of the sound possible. The walls contain panels lines with Hessian to absorb the sound, alongside panels covered with precisely drilled holes in order to diffuse the sound. All with the purpose of getting the cleanest driest sound possible, allowing the producer the maximum amount of control and flexibility when editing and mixing.

The first stage is obviously getting the band set up in position before sound checking. One of the tricky things about recording Jazz Andy tells me, is that jazz musicians always like to play together closely in a group. This is due to the free nature of jazz performance and improvisation, where players interact and bounce ideas off each other. This means that players cannot be separated into rooms to lay down their track on their own, which of course makes the whole recording process more complicated. Each musician is positioned behind an individual Perspex screen to enable the microphones to pick up their own individual sound without interference from the other players. Then various materials and padding are used to deaden things like the piano and amplifiers to get the cleanest sound possible. This makes the mixing process easier down the line.

And so to the microphones themselves. A staggering number of mics are being used today:

• Piano x 5 mics
• Bass x 4 mics
• Drums x 8 mics
• Sax x 2 mics – including a clip-on mic so that the position remains the same regardless of how much the player is moving!

Then to the control room for the sound check to begin. The purpose is to get all the levels sorted, check the microphones are in the right positions to get the most accurate sound possible, get all the instruments separated, get a good headphone mix for the players, check the instruments (such as drums) are all in tune and check all the screens are in the correct position to isolate the sound as much as possible.

The first thing I noticed was how quiet the control room was – like stepping from a noisy rehearsal room into a library. Once the music started, I was amazed at the clarity of the sound coming into the room. To the untrained ear (i.e., mine) it sounded ready to go straight onto CD, but I know that the guys at the studio have many hours of work ahead of them yet!

Once everything is ready and they’ve had a run-through, they start by doing a couple of takes, followed by the opportunity for the band to listen to the track to check whether their happy, they can then re-record a number of times until they’re completely happy. Ultimately the scholar (in this case Andrew Linham) will have the final say on whether he’s happy and which version of the track to use on the CD.

It’s recorded with a flat response and then once the musicians have left the mixing and editing process begins. This includes adding E.Q. effects and editing out any noise which may have been picked up from the musicians microphones when they’re not playing to make the track as clean as possible. This process obviously uses the latest in recording technology but is still completely reliant on the musical expertise and trained ear of the engineers.

Today’s recording took around 5 hours to lay down a track around 6 minutes in length.
Although the musicians have now done their bit, the work has only really just started for the studio. Andy and his team are clearly all very dedicated perfectionists who don’t just rely on technology but have a lot of in-depth musical skill and knowledge themselves.
They will now spend anything from a full day to on occasion more than 2 full days working on the final edit and mix of just one track.

This entire process has taken place over the last fortnight for 6 separate bands, all of whom are performing with this year’s Yamaha Jazz Scholars. The vast number of hours of work coupled with three guest tracks from established jazz musicians go to make up this year’s Yamaha New Jazz sessions CD. Make sure you keep an eye out for it in the December/January Christmas double issue of Jazzwise magazine!