Francisco Mela live at the Blue Note Jazz Club.

[Remoteness]

Here's another chance to check us out at the Blue Note in NYC.

Who wants to come down to the Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC today Tuesday, the set-up and record day or Wednesday, the record and strike day?

We're recording Half Note Recording artist Francisco Mela Group with "The Bread Mobile."

Any takers? The shows are at 8:00PM and 10:30PM each night. As I said, set-up is today starting at 11AM with a 3PM sound check.

Come on by if you're interested.

It should be a blast!

[Remoteness]

These guys are awesome.

IMHO, they're some of the best young jazz cats hanging around NYC.

Francisco Mela, drums
Larry Grenadier, bass
Jason Moran, piano
Mark Turner, tenor saxophone
Lionel Loueke, guitar

No one seems to be interested in this and (IMO) that's too bad.

[leddy]

I know we're strangers, but after hearing the Latin Side Of Miles recording you did there, I would hop a plane in a New York minute to watch you work.

Life changes with small children running around my house now, though.

I so wish I could...

[Jungle Jazz]

Dang. Had I known this was going to be an option, I would have made the trip from the west coast, but it doesn't look like there's any way I could get there in time now. Next time?

[videoteque]

Yes, me too would love to go! But I live in Italy...

Thanks in any case, if you come to Italy I can... invite you for a pizza!!!

[freestyle tromb]

damn!!
i totally would have come if i'd read this.
i would seriously love to come on any jobs you've got around new york, especially jazz things. or classical. or rock. or whatever.

by the way, my name is eric; i'm a jazz trombonist, and i intern at the seaside lounge in brooklyn. graduated from the hartt school last year, and now i'm trying to make my way in the world of music. it would be a pleasure to be able to tag along some time, seriously!

[Remoteness]

All I can say is, read the forum and these threads a bit more.

Every now and then I invite folks to my live recording events.

In any event, if you see one of our trucks or rigs at a venue or location near by, stop in and say hello.

Gearslutz are always welcomed...

Well, at least until someone screws up and ruins it for everyone. tutt




The second night was slammin' -- The band was solid and it sounded awesome.

I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures, but maybe Thomas will consider posting the few he took during this two day gig.

[freestyle tromb]

sounds great, steve. i will definitely try to keep up a bit more. thanks!

[Remoteness]

Sweet!

Hey, if you're in town you can always look us up.

If we're not jammed, we can "jam."

[bishopthomas]

Another gig where I got fed. I'm starting to get used to this good eating with you, Steve. I'm glad you got your surprise calamari backup tonight. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's all I got.

This one is of your friendly moderator (and happens to be the owner/operator of the Bread Mobile) doing what comes naturally - perusing the menu.

[bishopthomas]

The first picture is of Kaz Noda reading over the track notes from the previous day. The second picture isn't just the view from the truck; it is also to show what I spent the afternoon doing on Tuesday - parking permits. It was my first experience obtaining film and parking permits at the Office of the Mayor and it was quite an interesting time.

[bishopthomas]

And here's the good stuff, but not too much of it because I didn't really take a lot of pictures. I didn't go inside to get some during the gig and by the time I got to taking these pictures there were already people inside eating and waiting for the show.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

Another gig where I got fed. I'm starting to get used to this good eating with you, Steve. I'm glad you got your surprise calamari backup tonight. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's all I got.

This one is of your friendly moderator (and happens to be the owner/operator of the Bread Mobile) doing what comes naturally - perusing the menu.

Ah yes, good eating is key.

Kaz and I truly conjured up that plate of calamari...
What a nice backup to our munchfest!

And, the menu was outstanding -- Good eats for sure!

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

The first picture is of Kaz Noda reading over the track notes from the previous day. The second picture isn't just the view from the truck; it is also to show what I spent the afternoon doing on Tuesday - parking permits. It was my first experience obtaining film and parking permits at the Office of the Mayor and it was quite an interesting time.

Keeping excellent notes keeps the post production on schedule.
You guys did a wonderful job since the laptop and printer was not available this time around.

Yeah, those film permit folks are something else. But, we got the "Key to the City" and learned what it took to obtain it too!

Originally Posted by bishopthomas

And here's the good stuff, but not too much of it because I didn't really take a lot of pictures. I didn't go inside to get some during the gig and by the time I got to taking these pictures there were already people inside eating and waiting for the show.

We used a Neumann M149 for my (over the right shoulder) drum kit spot mic.
TLM103s with my "Micro Gobos" were used for the (drummer's right) knee and snare mic positions.
I wanted the "knee" mic a bit further back (away from the knee) than normal since I wanted more toms and not a mono blend of the kit like I would use when only one mic is applicable for drums. ...Does that make sense?
An M88 was used for the bass drum and two M160s were used as overheads pointing straight down on the kit.
When you soloed the drum mics the isolation between each (drum) mic and the other instruments was fantastic...

You'd swear there were those wild (and crazy) Plexiglas gobos surrounding the kit.
Well, sort of -- you didn't get all that smearing (with your isolation) like you would with the Plexi-sanity shields.
Ask anyone that was in TBM if they heard what I just described.

We had six mics total on the drums.
Three on the bass and two on the open lid piano.
Tenor sax and EGTR had one mic each.
Seventeen mics were used which included three room mics and a talk/vocal mic.

[Remoteness]

I managed to take four pictures.
Here's three of them.

The first is a picture of Francisco Mela enjoying his kit.
Checkout the mic placements.

The next two are of the recorders we had on board TBM...

We used one of the Alesis HD24XRs and three of the DTRS machines for this session.

[MattJazz]

Steve,
I got your bump and will reply soon to the Latin thread.
I just got off tour and am recovering!(brought my kids with me!!!!!!)

Could you give me item name for those covers over the tom and snare mic?
Are they wind screens?
I love it. I have been thinking of doing just that to help cut down on cymbal.
Best picture of your drum set up I have seen. Very clear to see what you have been talking about with shoulder mic!
Thnx,
Matthew

[bishopthomas]

The micro gobos are Steve's own creation. It's a pop filter with foam and cardboard gaff taped to it.

[Remoteness]

Yep, Thomas is correct...

Many years ago, before I thought of the "Micro Gobo" idea, I worked with a rock drummer that played his cymbals way too loud and his toms super soft.
I thought there was nothing I could do about it.
I tried everything possible equipment wise.
I wasn't going to let that affect my situation and get the best of me so...
I thought for awhile and came up with the idea of placing small cardboard sheilds over the tom mics. I got this idea when I saw the multiple cases of used beer containers.
I Gaff taped the cut up carton shields and placed them over the MD409s.
I left a little air in between the mics and cardboard sheds.
It worked out smashingly.