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Statler Blvd. Studios has much to crow about! Jef Reynolds, the CBG
("Chief Big Guy") and I have just completed work on a second album with
Eastlawn Records label head RJ Spangler. You Know I Can't Refuse: The
Bill Heid Sessions features some of Detroit's finest musicians,
including Keith Kaminski of the Motor City Horns (who helped with the mixing) and Johnnie Bassett, and was recorded at
Aashrum Studio in Ortonville and our homebase in St. Clair Shores.
My job, one I hope to perform more in the future, was to design the
cover. This is my third album cover for people other than myself, and
my second for Eastlawn Records. I must admit to a love affair with
Photoshop CS3, and eventually I will get CS4 and love it just as much
if not more. The final product was placed in my hands on Sunday, and
it looks as good as I'd anticipated. I'd received some positive
feedback earlier in the week, so I was looking forward to seeing it for
myself. There's still nothing like the finished product to prove that
you've arrived.
Jef's always been meticulous about sound. As an engineer for 30 years,
he has developed an incredible sense of aural perfection, and it shows
in his process. He works like an alchemist, mixing levels with filters
and plates, augmenting this, changing that, all in the quest to produce
audio gold. Countless mixes were tested in as many environments as
possible to make sure that it always sounded the way it should: full,
vibrant, balanced and resonant. He even asked to borrow my phone - to
download a mix onto my SD card and play it through my phone's speakers!
This is our third album together, and we're pretty happy with the
results. Like so much of our lives, however, it was a collaborative
effort. Jef and I share a lot of the creative process wherever
possible, bouncing ideas off each other and testing throughout. Does
this text color look good? Does this compression scheme work with the
guitar? He let me tear through his record collection for ideas (a
common habit of mine), and I loaned him my ears.
For legacy projects of this type, we like to invoke as much of a
"classic" feel as we can. When I'm hunting for ideas, I go to enormous
coffee table books with very large illustrations and many examples of
period art and advertising. If you're looking for Christmas presents
for me, you can't go wrong with those. For this album, I looked at
mostly mid 1950's album covers, as much of the music featured on the
Bill Heid Sessions was originally recorded during this time. Jef
listened to period recordings and researched some of the recording
techniques used during the original sessions. Together, we tried to
present the warmth and brightness of a 1950's album as recorded and
released at Chess or Blue Note.
Want to see and hear the results for yourself? The CD release party
will be held at the Cadieux Café in Detroit on Sunday, September 27th
at 9:30 PM. Bring an empty stomach and a lot of friends for this
not-to-be-missed event.
Albums that Jef and I worked on together:
KT Lowe, The Basics (2006)
Alberta Adams, Detroit is My Home (2008)
Faruq Z. Bey, Rev. Robert Jones and ML Liebler, Gasoline: The Legacy Sessions (2009)
Black Hat, Phases of the Sun (2009)
RJ Spangler's Blue Four, You Know I Can't Refuse: The Bill Heid Sessions (2009)
9:38 PM
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