The Accidentals

Last night Christmas and the Holiday season came to NYC in the form of The Accidentals and Julia Wade.  The WFM Listening Room produced its fifth concert in its experimental laboratory.  What has evolved is a dedicated audience coming back again and again to hear good and great music simply presented.

We’re most happy to say that the experiment works.  Two standing ovations last night – the first for The Accidentals and the second for MS Wade – proved that people don’t need all the hoopla that often accompanies the musical performances of the 21^st century.  What they really want is just good music with inspired performances.

And that’s just what they got last night.  On top of which lay the froth of Christmas cheer presented in touching, sacred, wacky and delightful fashion.

The Accidentals performed a ten-song set that ran the gamut from French Classical to 40s Doo Wop.  They rang in Christmas and Hanukkah with all their bells ringing and all their harmonies close and tight.  This award-winning a capella group has been chiming in Christmas for New Yorkers for about a decade now and last night was Version 2010.

The audience ooo’d and aaah’d and chortled appropriately throughout as they spun their magic.  My own personal fav last night was Jim Vincent’s personal and hauntingly sad arrangement of Handle’s Joy To The World.  Masterfully arranged for 8 voices and beautifully sung!

Julia Wade then took over the stage with songs from her newly released CD, Every Day, and threw in a few Christmas songs to boot.  What more can I say about this lady?  Having now seen her 5^th show and written about each one, I’m running out of superlatives.  I can only say that I’ll miss her for the next few months as she begins to prepare her follow-up album.

In her finale Ms Wade once again lifted the evening to its rightful climax as she and the The Accidentals closed the affair with Julia’s powerful rendition of The Coming, a medley of O Come Emanuel and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus from her CD of several years ago entitled, Story For The Ages.

A happy and inspired audience left last night taking home with them a heady dose of Holiday spirit and a satisfied stomach of Christmas cookies.

December 16^th, 8:00 ends the 2010 series with Billy Joel sideman Kevin Osborne kicking off the first of a series of evenings with New York favorite Jenny Burton.  That show is selling out as we speak.  Get your reservations immediately.  This is one you don’t want to miss.

You’ve been warned!

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In it, he took issue with some of the sounds on the CD and asked a number of pertinent questions that I found enjoyable to answer.

Here it is, Letter from David Ring, reprinted excerpts with my responses.

On Jul 31, 2009, at 12:35 AM, David Ring wrote:

Dear Peter,
There is some wonderful music here. I will definitely be buying the CD. In the meantime I’d like to give you some feedback on my web experience of this music. I jack the sound through my stereo boom box rather than use headphones. He also later admitted that, “I didn’t mention that (my) boom box is practically an antique with two cassette tape decks.”

Hi David,
You are an astute listener. Thanks so much for your feedback. Your questions are quite valid and I will do my best to explain the answers.

Overall the issue is this: Most of these songs were recorded in the late 80s and early 90s when the whole sampling technology was just a baby. Hard drive space and processing power and the limitations of technology then made many of these samples today sound a little ‘cheap’ and basically somewhat unrealistic. Sampling technology has really only come of age in the past 5 years.

So perhaps some might say comparisons are odious and some others might say that this CD sounds “Retro” – the one a complaint, the other a compliment.

Unfortunately, with these sounds and these tracks, with most of the songs all I had remaining were the stereo mixes – the multi tracks long since disappearing into oblivion or the technology around them hopelessly out of date.  So with some songs I actually added today’s strings and mixed them subtly in where I could – like on “You’re Leaving Me”.

Other songs I could only resurrect and re-master. Now see below for specifics:

You mention you listen on your boom box. A boom box will make things tinnier because the main purpose of their speakers is loudness rather than fidelity. The songs will sound a lot better on better speakers, but of course that’s true with all music. But in your case, an older boom box “that is practically an antique” is a severe judge of practically any music. Cheaper speakers produce a “cheaper” sound.

On the other hand, it’s what you’re used to. We are each different human beings and I suspect we each hear things differently from one another. How we each hear things is definitely not an exact science because we each listen to different things as we listen to music – some like more bass, some less – some people listen to the lyrics, some don’t, etc.

On the Katherine Hepburn song it seemed that the mix/balance was off with the instrumental track(s) competing a bit too strongly with the voice track(s).

Ah yes, in those days Jenny was a dance music artist. Dance music engineers always mixed vocals down and drums and bass up, burying the singers so that the people dancing in the clubs and discos could really feel the beat.

If I were able to re-mix the multi-track today, I too would bring Ms Burton up in the mix. I guess I could say dig into the track and enjoy it for what it is – or get up and dance to it.

This song was produced for Jenny’s second album on Atlantic Records and then not released because the folks at Atlantic felt that since Jenny was an African-American artist, she shouldn’t have a heroine who was a white woman. Duh.

In those days people were a bit more confused about racism. Still I love the song, what it says, what it stands for and as a special tribute to a great star.

It is difficult to describe this next impression, but the “electronic effects” sound great in some songs and just don’t seem to work as well in others. Here are two examples: In “I Wanna Stay” there is a sound that seems like a pig snorting, which is probably made by running a stick across a ribbed surface… this is surprising and works! I really like this touch despite the unflattering sound comparison.

One night while emptying the dishwasher I grabbed two glasses with one hand by their rims to pull them out of the washer. They each had heavy glass bottoms which bounced together when I pulled the glasses out resulting in this percussive sound. I said, “Hey, that sounds pretty cool!” So the next day I took the two glasses down to my studio and spent an hour or so sampling the sound. Thai’s what you hear on the recording.

In contrast the reverb keyboard effects on “There is You” seem “gimmicky” and distract from Jenny’s wonderful voice. It seems especially troubling coming after four really great songs which endear this collection to me.

Again, I agree, and that’s why ultimately I moved the song to a later position in the CD. Sonically it was a bit harsh for me because the sample technology just wasn’t up to today’s 24 bit quality. Go back 30 more years and listen to some old 45s or even some 78s – a world of difference. But I loved the song and I loved what Jenny brought to it. It didn’t need to sit on the shelf any longer. Put on your disco clothes and give it a listen.

So, I ask, is there possibly a technical difference in the way the songs sound when presented on a manufactured CD that would make the resulting sound better than on these Webcast samples?

Well… yes. Remember that a CD is a 16 bit aiff file and better quality than the MP3 that you hear on the site and, in fact, download. I used to hate MP3s. They were nowhere near the quality of 16 bit aiff files. They have, however, gotten much better in the last year or so.

Why do we use them then? All of the Web does. Because they download quickly – you don’t have to wait. People have no patience on the Internet. They expect things instantly and will not wait around for nuttin’. Play a sample on the site. It plays immediately when you click it. If the sample were an aiff file, you’d have to wait while it loaded to hear it.

Kids don’t seem to mind these days. Unfortunately they drive the music business. Perhaps they are not such discerning listeners. I prefer CDs.  iPods play only MP3s. I don’t own an iPod for that reason. Actually I prefer what I hear in my studio which is 24 bit .wav files, but today’s technology won’t allow me to get that to you.

Take heart however, at least we’re not downgrading from 1/2″ 30 ips tape to cassette anymore. That was a real bummer. The loss of fidelity from the studio to the consumer back then was frightening and always disappointing.

(The reverb thing is more a matter of an arrangement choice and personal taste than a technical problem.)

I think in those days people were a little reverb happy. Digital reverbs had come of age and were overused. I too, find that on several of the songs the reverb is much more than I would use today, but you know what they say about reverb… “You can always add reverb, but nobody’s ever come up with a devise that can take it away once it’s mixed in.”

Today many pop producers have gone the opposite direction and mix extremely dry – no reverb.  Occasionally I like the sound, but most of the time, I don’t. I prefer the more natural sound of a good, sparingly used reverb.

My motto concerning reverb is: If you can hear the reverb, it’s too much.What you want to hear is the voice or instrument in a chosen space.

You are the tech guru and can tell me if my sound system may need tweaking or that somewhere along the line there is some sort of signal distortion or degradation.

There should be no signal distortion. There is none on any of the songs. If you’re hearing it, it’s your system, not my mastered mix. If you’re hearing distortion, turn your system down. It means your speakers or your amp isn’t good enough to handle things at that volume.

No offense, but if you’re listening on an ancient boom box and you’re trying to be a discerning listener, it’s time to break down and get yourself a good set of powered speakers.

As to degradation, see above.

I have downloaded other songs in the past and those seemed to be all right. I don’t know why there should be or seem to be a difference this time around.

Very simple, really. My sampling technology is so much better today. I’m very fortunate to own the best in the world and have spent nearly a half a million dollars to get it that way. You’re hearing a lot of late 80s early 90s technology, that’s all. Go back and listen to a great Miles Davis CD. It would sound a lot better if produced today and it’s all acoustic. It’s just the changing times you’re hearing, my friend.

{At this point I think I’d rather pay up for the CD than do the download and burn approach. Should I be persuaded otherwise?}

I think you’d be somewhat happier with a CD. You seem to me to be a discerning listener. I’m not, however, saying that the CD will solve all your problems over an MP3, but for a discerning listener, yes, the CD will sound better because it captures more of the overtones. This gives the music more fidelity.

In summary,  Jenny Burton’s CD Released captures the spirit of the past, the power of a great artist singing in her prime. Technology has come a long way since then. Much of the CD has been brought up to today’s high sonic digital standards. My masterer, Phil Klum, and I worked very hard to get this CD up to today’s sonic standards. In 90% of the cases I believe we were successful. The rest reminds us of how far we’ve come.

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I believe her voice echoing over the seeming chaos has been, and continues to be a most healing effect to this city just as it has soothed and healed me. This particular CD is most profound. I would like to thank Julia again and again and again.

Thanks! Asante sana Julia!”
(signed) Joseph.

How can this be? A CD sung entirely in Spanish finds its way to Kenya, Africa and moves and inspires this gentle man, Joseph, who speaks not a word of Spanish.

What is it about music that touches the heart, fires the imagination, brings us closer to God, reconnects us with our spiritual selves?

Daniel J. Levitin, in his best selling book, This Is Your Brain On Music says, “The eardrum is simply a membrane that is stretched across tissue and bone. It is the gateway to hearing. Virtually all of your impressions of the auditory world comes from the way in which it wiggles back and forth in response to air molecules hitting it (depending on the volume or amplitude of the sound) and on how fast they’re vibrating (related to what we call pitch).

But there is nothing in the molecules that tells the eardrum where they came from, or which ones are associated with which object. Sound is transmitted through the air by molecules vibrating at certain frequencies. These molecules bombard the eardrum, causing it to wiggle in and out depending on how hard they hit it.”

He goes on to ask, “How does the brain figure out, from this disorganized mixture of molecules beating against a membrane, what is out there in the world? In particular, how does it do this with music?” He explains that music travels through the air not as “music” but as these vibrations, and as these vibrations bounce off the eardrum, our brains perceive these vibrations as music – violins, drums, trumpets. The subtle organization of these musical notes form melodies and harmonies symbolically striking emotional chords in us all and fire the imagination.

Our friend, Joseph, from Africa hears the vibrations and feels the passion of commitment in Ms. (Julia) Wade’s voice. He senses the warmth of her resolve and hears the intent of her words, even though he understands not a word of the language. It’s human being to human being with the barriers of language broken down into pure sound. It is on these sound waves that the inspiration travels and is magically supported so that through this incredible communication of music the inspiration of Ms. Wade is passed on to Joseph.

Upon reading this thankyou, I watched Ms. Wade break down and weep with joy and realized that the inspiration had come full circle – from Ms. Wade to Joseph and then back again to Ms. Wade. And so the goodness of inspiration goes on and on in its eternality of spiritual communication unlimited by the material barriers of language, distance, time and space – finding its way from receptive mind to receptive mind.

I pose these questions to our readership – listeners, musicians, performers: What is it about music that fires the mind and releases the soul? The original definition and derivation of the word “inspire” is “to breathe life into”. Why does music seem to breathe life into our lives? What really happens here in this ancient process of communication?

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For more information about Watchfire Music and their artists,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com.
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