"Deep in a Dream" mp3

deep in a dream.mp3


Ok kids.

This is the next tune up for the Chet Baker Project. It's called "Deep In A Dream"

This is, incidentally, the title of Chet's exhaustive if not exhausting biography by James Gavin, the same guy who wrote the 2009 Lena Horne biography entitled: Stormy Weather, the Life of Lena Horne

It's NOT on the album "It could happen to you" for those of you sick and tired of that one. If you are one of these folks, tsk tsk tsk.
We're no longer going steady. I'm giving your ring back right now.

In the spirit of experimentation, which this entire project most certainly smells like to me, i decided to change things up a bit and try recording keys first instead of drums.

I thought, what the heck, this is not an up-tempo number; i should be able to stay on top of the changes well enough to deliver a serviceable track using only a clic.

Hmmm. Yeah.
Turns out not.

I tried but the clic (remember that this infernal yet indispensable tool, if you don't happen to have access to drum loops, is an electronic metronome that sounds like, well....CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK and maybe,
Click click click CLACK, Click click click CLACK to emphasize the beat sequence.
Annoying and musically violent.

So i went back to my original technique, that of laying down a VSTi drum track using a Clic as metronomic (is that a word?) reference.

Well this worked fine UNTIL i laid down a keys track.
Cuz this is when i discovered that i hadn't drawn out the drum track long enough. And the result was that i ran out of drum track during my fucking chord changes track. Shit. it's always something man.
Hey wait a minute. Now THIS would be an acronym i could get behind. an acronym for 'it's always something man'

what would that be...IASM...hmmmm.
Naw, that still sucks.

ANd besides, that would go against the bylaws of my yet-to-be-formed political action committee:

People for an Acronym-Free Earth or PAFE. Yeah!

Rock on PAFE!!!

Yeah so anyway, i really need to figure out how to make a drum loop so i can just plug it in to my tracks. But maybe by not having one, it is somehow more organic.
Organic Virtual Instruments?
Oh dear.

SO what i came away with during the process of recording "Deep in a Dream" is that it behooves me to keep the tracks as long as possible. To make as long a pass at a track as possible.

In other words, record a part over the entire form of the tune instead of just running 16 bars of something, copying it and pasting it along the entire track. The less carved up the tracks are, the less hassle when arranging the tune.

This becomes wildly apparent in situations where the parts i've recorded have been punched in and sliced up and moved around over segments of tracks that do not always correspond to full measures and phrases.

Man that there is hair-pulling, feet stomping elementary school style, i tell you what...

The tracks themselves, the musical aspects i mean, are getting better. Little by little i'm able to stay in tune with my voice for longer periods. Sometimes i can play entire tracks without screwing up every other measure.

A few times i've actually thought it sounded pretty good. these days i am satisfied with my efforts.

in fact, there is one thing that is happening fairly regularly that to tell you the truth, has me baffled.

when i sing sometimes, a note will hit me just right and i'll puddle up. i know it sounds wacky but there it is. i almost have to stop. i feel like i have to sometimes. but i never do. i swallow hard and try to make the next note. i don't understand but then, what makes me think i would?

I'm paying attention to the phenomenon though and i'll let you know if i start going through handkerchiefs by the dozens.


That said, another part of this whole crazy thing, the practice aspect of this project is grinding its way closer to fruition. At some point I'll be able to dial up any of these Chet tunes and use them to practice solos on horn, piano, voice, spoons, didgeridoo, washboard....

Ahhhhh... washboard.

Nothing like thumping on a hundred-year-old laundry aid to get the blood moving. warms the cockles of a dyed-in-the-wool jazz hound, pioneer style.

Yepper