[Dixielandjazz] FW: John Cage!

[Jim Kashishian]

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/04/john_cage_on_a_.html ,
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I went to this site out of curiosity & saw/heard what I more or less
expected.  Although someone canted that Bill Gunter would have a few words
to say, and while Bill may be quite an expert in the "strange noises"
department, it is I who have had the experiences to speak up on this
subject.

During one year (1992...when Madrid was Cultural City of Europe, if I recall
correctly), I mixed & mastered 22 CD's of "Contemporary" music, which
included, amongst others, the renouned composer Christopher Halffter.  I
have probably worked on about 40 albums of this type of music.  

The question arises always "are these people pulling our collective leg?"
In my experiences, they are very serious about what they do.  Judging if
they are serious musicians would have to be on a one by one basis, and would
be dificult.  However, they are very serious about what they do.  When
musician/singers are used, they tend to be of a very high caliber.  Time
spent in the studio putting the finished recording together (my part!) is on
average about 35 hours per album.....  That's serious studio time!

I have actually put together compositions on my digital editor, by recording
in the bits & pieces required, then following the score...which indicated by
the seconds, minutes, and even part of seconds, when each item should
sound....placing that particular sound into the "musical lineup".  Echoes,
different levels (volume), distancing the sound by overuse of reverb, etc.,
all came into play. I believe I received some sort of credit on the CD as to
having "performed" the pieces electronically.  

A lot of what we did was done with proper musical instruments or voices,
though, and those performing were trained musicians & singers.  Some also
included breaking of glass, murmuring in the background, screeching,
crashing sounds, church bells, strange banging on the piano keyboard & other
parts of the piano, etc.  However, it was all done following a score (which
normally includes proper musical notes, plus maybe drawings of the various
sounds which need to occur at specific moments). 

I always breathed a sigh as the occassional melody would shine through
(never lasts more than several bars, it seems!), which brought a smile to
the face of the producer/orchestra director I worked with.  He knew I was
more into melodies!  We got along well as I respected what he was
doing/trying to do, and he respected my preference for what I play.

Jim