Tonight at 7:30pm, a new recording project by Chicago a cappella will take its first steps in the studio. We don't have a title for the new release, but the album will be a "Holidays a cappella" compilation of the best from our popular December concerts. Jim Ginsburg of Cedille Records will be in the booth as executive producer, and our music director Patrick Sinozich will be leading the sessions. We don't have a conductor, so the ensemble will be self-led as we are on stage.
The recording will take place at a secret location, because we don't want people knocking on the doors; we need our concentration. Recording is hard work! There are sessions this month and next, and we anticipate a fall 2008 release. Watch this page for more on the recording and editing process, and thanks to Cedille Records for taking us on for a second CD release on that fabulous label.
Every performing endeavor has its demands on the performers' energies. Recording sessions are a totally different experience for the performer than concerts are -- at least that is my experience. The energy needed is focused, intense, and sort of like getting ready to go to the airport and then board a plane -- "hurry up and wait," as I used to explain to my daughter. Concerts are more gradual, if they're well planned, with more of a natural rise and fall.
Because of the energy demands they create, recording sessions pose a particular sort of "programming" problem. I don't mean what to put on the album; that is done well in advance of the sessions. (Jim Ginsburg has to sign off on every selection if it's a Cedille Record!) Rather, I mean the ordering of what pieces get recorded on which session, and in what order on each day of recording. We might get through anywhere from four to six pieces in a three-hour session, and it's never exactly certain which pieces will present us with "issues" and which will be a breeze. One can only predict based on reasonable probabilities and prior work with that song and those singers; that's all you have to work with in the planning; but sometimes what seems like the easiest piece to perform ends up being a bear in the recording session.
Despite the physical and energetic demands of recording, there are not only rewards of a job well done, but those occasional minor miracles where a piece takes brand-new life in the middle of a recording session. I'll never forget the sense during our Forestier CD sessions in 1998 that the heavens finally opened up, after a dark night of the soul. The first day of recording had been tough, grueling, somewhat humorless (it didn't help that the church's radiators acted up almost all night). Midway through the second morning we recorded the "Credo" of the "Missa Baises moy," and I remember the exhilaration in the booth when I got to hear what we had just recorded, about three minutes of one section all in one take--it had never sounded so good before. I said to Susan Schober, "You have to hear this--it's amazing!" The look on her face was ecstatic; we knew we had nailed it. At that moment I knew the project was a winner, more than I had ever suspected in the planning phase. So if you're feeling generous, send some good vibes to Chicago a cappella for some of that sort of grace during this round of recording sessions.
More to come as this new project progresses. Have a good week.
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