[JEGG]

My Plush story:

Quite a few years ago, several trusted colleagues (and myself) were receiving CD's from a music publisher oriented towards what we do. These were simply phenomenal recordings. And these things were coming from a damned music publisher! This went on for a couple of years. Everytime they would arrive we would compare them with our favorite mostly European and usually British recordings, but included ECM label recordings and others. They were better than anything we had ever heard that was commercially released. The performers were equally amazing. What was going on here?

I couldn't stand it any more, and I had to find out WHO was making these recordings. So I called the publisher and went through a surprisingly long chain of real humans getting to the top. As I neared the top of the organization, people started getting noticeably defensive. They thought I was out after their trade secrets. Nobody would spill, but I finally got through to the head honcho-who had clearly heard that someone was asking questions. After some hesitant silences and some uttered questions, the guy figured out I was not a competitor and spilled the beans.

Well, it was Plush. So I called him up and asked him how he got these sounds. Some of you might not think of Plush as self deprecating or humble (now!!!), but he was (is?), and blamed all of the results on the room. After that he was quite generous with specific techniques and mic's.

I didn't meet Plush until quite a few years later I moved to Chi Town. Plush has made some fine, fine, fine, choral recordings. And lots of others, too.