That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

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Part IV: I Like the Way You Play: The Jazz Musician
In the beginning, a few large record companies had the only professional studios,
but by the 1950s, all sorts of individuals could set up a recording space
and experiment with new ways of capturing music. Today, there are old
schoolers who like to record the old-fashioned way and techies who produce
amazing recordings using laptop computers as their “studios.” For budding
jazz musicians and fans, it’s useful to know how recording has evolved, and I
give you some highlights in the following sections. Some of the best jazz was
recorded with equipment that was primitive by today’s standards — yet those
recordings sound surprisingly good.
Les Paul: A recording wizard
Known as the Wizard of Waukesha (Wisconsin), Les Paul was born in 1915
and built his first recording machine in 1929 at the age of 14. Through his
experiments with equipment and recording techniques, he pioneered many
elements that became standard in recording all types of music, including jazz:
� Sound-on-sound: Layering one musical part over another, originally on
one strip of tape. This method allowed Paul to create the sound of several
guitars by himself. Originally, Paul accomplished this by using two
tape machines: one to play back what was already recorded, the other to
record that music plus a new part he would add. By going back and forth
between machines, he could continue to add parts.
� Overdubbing: Mixing newly recorded material with previously recorded
material. Sometimes a musician overdubs a new part in place of an original
part that doesn’t work or contains a mistake.
� Reverb effects: Imitating the echo (or sense of depth) that rooms add
on music.
� Multi-tracking: Recording several different musical instruments or parts,
each as a separate part that can be customized and combined with other
parts. Multi-track recorders have expanded from two to four to thirtytwo
and more tracks, meaning that each instrument or section in a big
band recording can be individually adjusted. With each instrument or
section on a different track, the volume and sound of each can be
adjusted to suit the whole.
Paul first tried sound-on-sound in 1934 on a platter machine (a predecessor
to the tape recorder that translated sound waves into grooves on a platter,
which later become known as a record). In the ’40s, Paul saw a German tape
recorder, and with some help from singer Bing Crosby, who wanted to record
his own music, convinced Ampex (an electronics company) to manufacture
50 recorders. Paul’s own personal machine had an extra recording head that
allowed him to experiment with recording multiple parts.