Jazz for aficionados

I mean, David Benoit is literally the sound of the weather channel. But something has to be elevator music, right? We can’t just stand there awkwardly in silence. It’s important we have music that’s so inoffensive while also not evoking any sort of emotion to take some of the awkwardness away. Except in Vegas, where it should only be Dean Martin on every elevator. 

My current obsession, btw, is Renaud Garcia-Fons Trio. In particular Arcoluz. 

Funny, I’ve been around musicians of just about every persuasion for about fifty years and I have never met any “elevator musicians”....no room for the drums 😊.

I won’t comment on someone else’s characterization of a music. It’s not my characterization and it’s all too loaded. Instead, I will take a stab at characterizing, by way of description, how many of CTI’s recordings, including Salt Song, were made. This is significant because the method used results in some of the qualities that I hear in the music and which are the reason that I am very mixed (pun) about that kind of musical aesthetic:

Stanley and rhythm section arrive at the studio. The drums are not in an elevator 😊, but are in a soundproof booth separate from the other rhythm section players. Chances are that the bass, piano and guitar (maybe) are in the main room. Stanley may also be in a separate soundproof room. There is very little physical connection between the players. They listen to each other via the sound fed to each of their cans (headphones) by the recording engineer after that sound is EQ’ed and balanced per the producer’s (Creed Taylor’s) tastes and musical vision; not the ambient sound in the room. The balance and EQ settings have to be altered as the sessions progress since different rhythm section players are used on different tunes. After a quick run through, or two, of each tune (remember, they are not a working band), they do a take; or two, or three. Taylor decides which take is the best, but he thinks that the piano (or, whatever) solo could be better. He brings Richard Tee back in to overdub a new solo over the previously recorded rhythm track. Then, Airto is brought back in to add and overdub more percussion “toys” to his previously recorded percussion track. The layers of sweetening start being added.

Later that evening the string section arrives and they all are situated in the same room with the possible exception of the added acoustic bass. They don their cans and, conducted by Deodato, they overdub their parts over the rhythm section and solo saxophone (maybe) parts recorded earlier that day. Parts in a string arrangement that was farmed out to an orchestrator that will never set foot in that studio and may or may not get credit for the arrangement; depending on how big the name was (Quincy would get credit). It’s very possible that they will play to a mechanical “click track” that is heard superimposed over the music track. If the woodwinds were not recorded at the same time as the strings, they may play and overdub their parts after the strings are finished.

That night, while thinking about the work produced that day, Taylor decides that a little vocals sweetening is just what two of the tunes need. Makes some calls and the vocals are recorded the following day. He had also decided that on one of the tunes the tenor solo should follow the guitar solo, not the other way around. So....you guessed it, Stanley and Eric Gale overdub new solos the following day over the previously recorded tracks. Result? Good solos, but the give and take and musical interaction that happens when all the musicians play together is not there to the same degree. But, at least the order of solos is the way the producer wants it.

During playback for final mix down later that week Taylor notices that the violins are not perfectly in tune with Richard Tee’s piano. What to do? Can’t bring all those string players back in; too expensive. No problem, just add a healthy dose of reverb to the string track...fixes everything. Hides the problem and is just a little more still of the distinctive reverb heavy CTI sound.

While not my favorite work by Turrentine by a long shot, still pleasantly funky and fun listening if not particularly inspired. Then, there’s that tenor sound!

While there are a number of other "world class" musicians, Acman and Frogman only hear Stanley Turrentine, and Mr. Mayor hears elevator music.

All of that puts me in another musical universe, and I like it.