Big Band Mystery Track 1 "Don't Be That way"

Another unreleased unknown live recording I made decades ago when I worked for Evelyn and Jesse Stone and the musical community they connected me to.

I tell ya as a live sound engineer it was quite the adjustment from rock n' roll bands to big bands! I had to relearn things and do things differently big time.

One change I had to make was in dropping the kick drum mic, or in jazz and big band they call it the bass drum. Mic'ing it for concerts and recordings is a huge mistake since it just does not sound right. So I dropped it and began using more overhead mics and things smoothed out.

Another thing I changed was the mics I used on the drums. Electret condensor mics sound great, but they just sounded too crisp for jazz and big band. Rolling them off some helped, but the easiest change I could make was in switching over to dynamic mics as overheads and now I had more of a subdued drum sound not as crisp and more in line with classic old jazz and big band recordings.

One of the things lacking in a recording like this are effects. Since I was a freelance sound engineer I walked in with the musicians. We all used whatever sound systems were provided for us so we had to take what we got and make the most of it. Effects were a luxury.

One thing to listen for in this track is the massive saxophone section. It was powerful! As I recall there was at least a half dozen saxophones of all different sizes all playing in tandem. In this recording you can hear the valves on the instruments opening and closing. You can hear musicians talking among themselves. Then it jumps out and gets ya.

Since I did not have enough mics and mixer channels I kind of had to chase instruments around trying to lift them out because some of these players just wanted to hang their toes over the front edge of the stage and blow their horn without regard to microphones and sound system. Just blow that horn man! Really a fun time working with a bunch of cats twice my age.

The rhythm section here was top notch. Wish I could name these guys Charlie and Ed! ooops. Turn this up loud and rock the house with it.