Showing posts with label studio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label studio. Show all posts

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Hours . . .


. . . nearly perfect (Thanks to Jay Graboski, Dave Kelly, Bill Pratt & Harry Maben)


Store the hours
Hoard the wisdom
Take the years and just
Run like crazy

Party's only
What you make it
Make it into the
Best you can


The Hours
New OHO studio recording




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com pianogonzology

Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings


(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)


For all things "Gonzo Piano" please visit:
Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano on CD Baby.com
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano Website
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano You Tube Channel

For all things "OHO" please visit:
The OHO CD Baby.com Website
OHO Music Website
The 'More OHO Music' You Tube Website
The 'Original' OHO Music You Tube Website

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Sunday, December 11, 2016

Wanna . . .

. . . hear? . . .

December 9, 2016 @12:11PM
Ray, David & Jay off to The Bratt Studio this evening to work on David's "All There Is," an ambitious romp in 5/4 (chorus in 4/4). Years in the making, we inch closer to the finish line.

December 9, 2016 @ 10:57PM
The fruits of tonight's labor...



All There Is
by OHO by David Reeve, Jay Graboski & Ray Jozwiak(All Rights Reserved)




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube
Also, be sure to visit: www.rayjozwiak.com and www.ohomusic.com


Thursday, February 4, 2016

Works . . .


(from Jay Graboski at https://www.facebook.com/ohomusic/?fref=nf)
". . . So much in the works for the next OHO album: tomorrow into The Bratt studio to "fiddle about" with Ray's "3rd Hand Intelligence." In the queue are "Where Is How We Go" (lyrically based on the Guitar Craft aphorism: "Where we're going is how we get there"; "Plunge" (originally recorded by The Weaszels), David's "The One"...and new arrangements of "Your Luck Is Awake" (from "UP") and a 3/4 time version of "Lost & Found" from "Audition." These are in addition to the "Ahora!" suite, Ray's "Blood Brother" and other tunes that are in the process of revealing themselves. So many songs...so little time. . . "


Where Is How We Go
by Jay Graboski, in progress mix February 2016




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!

The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube

My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com



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Saturday, January 24, 2015

Whistling Dixie . . .

. . . we are NOT

. . . Jay and Bill were hard at work tuning the saxophone track for Slough of Despond, enhancement of which was the raison d'etre for the gathering.  As a damp, cold evening fell upon the small, neat Woodlawn neighborhood, a weather forecast for icy precipitation and a slight apprehension regarding its veracity were among my thoughts upon my arrival.  David appeared shortly thereafter and the work (fun?)/fun (work?) continued. Some subtle and some not-so-subtle revisions, such as adding a whistling melody to the first verse, were administered as we plough through the slough towards completion. . .

. . . we may have arrived!  Listen. . .



Slough of Despond

(by OHO,  Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak with added whistling by Bill & David and new tweaks, pulls, pushes, drags, tunings and other edits at Bill Pratt's Bratt Studio January 23, 2015.)



What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak.  Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com 


My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014  Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com



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Monday, January 12, 2015

Blue . . .

. . . Ball Road Studio . . . yes, it's real. . . 

(from Jay's post on OHO's Facebook page, Sunday, January 11, 2015)
Today Ray & I meet David at his Blue Ball Road Studio to sort through a number of saxophone tracks recorded some time ago at Bill Pratt's Bratt Studio in Woodlawn by Gene Meros. The aim is to comb through them, locate the best phrases and link them with integrity. The process is the elimination of those phrases that definitely will not be used, then by a further elimination, then by an even further elimination; then by placing this phrase in front of THAT one; and that one behind THIS one: viola! Another "hit."

And we did indeed spend a joyous three hours on that cool and beautiful sunny Sunday to accomplish what you can hear below.  One or two more tweaks back at Bratt Studios and we put this baby to bed.



Slough of Despond
(by OHO,  Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak and recording Technicians extraordinaire Bill Pratt and David Reeve)



What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak.  Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com 


My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014  Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Friday, December 12, 2014

Penned . . .

. . . by Jay (Graboski, of OHO) just before producing the aural jewel posted below . . . 



Back to The Bratt this AM to mix "P.G.F." (Paleolithic Goddess Figurine") into completion. Basic tracks recorded at Steve Carr's (OHO bassist, Mach III, 1985-2002) Hit & Run Studio in the mid 90's and recently overdubbed at David's Blue Ball Road recording facility, inspired oddly enough, by Cher's character in "The Witches of Eastwick," compelled as she was to mold clay into countless PGF's, necessarily forcing the manifestation of Mr. D (Jack Nicholson). Let the dance begin (again)! "Here is a principal mythological role of the feminine principle. She gives birth to us physically, but she is mother too of our second birth--our birth as spiritual entities. This is the basic meaning of the 'virgin birth' (Merry Christmas!), that our bodies are born naturally, but at a certain time there awakens in us our spiritual nature, which is the higher human nature...In this sphere of the mystery dimension the woman represents the awakener, the giver of birth in that sense." -Joseph Campbell

Paleolithic Goddess Figurine
by John P. Graboski, performed by OHO - Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak and the frequently unmentioned but NEVER unappreciated-Bill Pratt




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
http://www.ohomusic.com 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak.  Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com 


My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

Ray Jozwiak: 2014

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Unconventional . . .

Carlos Alomar and Nile Rodgers, former collaborators with David Bowie, recently commented on the latter's work habits during his creative heyday. “In order for him to stay up all night and finish the tasks at hand, it (cocaine) was a huge factor. Its function was to keep you alert, and that’s what he was doing. It did not stop his creativity at all.” Alomar admitted that it occasionally affected their concerts. If Bowie forgot a lyric, it fell to Alomar to pick up the lead vocal until Bowie could find his place in the song. Bowie gave up drugs in the late ’70s, but by then they had already done some permanent damage. Rodgers, the Chic mastermind who produced Bowie’s smash hit 1983 album, ‘Let’s Dance,’ said, “He told me there are years of his life that he doesn’t remember. He said, ‘I know that’s me singing, I know that’s my record and my picture, but I don’t remember writing the songs, I don’t remember going into the studio.’”

Bowie came to the public's attention in 1969 when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie challenged rock music conventions of his time and created the largest cult in popular culture. But in true creative fashion, Ziggy was only one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.

In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the hit album Young Americans, which Bowie himself characterized as "plastic soul". The radical shift in style initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. Low, "Heroes", and Lodger, the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums, all reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. In the late 1970s, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes", its parent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), and "Under Pressure", a 1981 collaboration with Queen. He then reached a new commercial peak in 1983 with Let's Dance, which yielded several hit singles. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with musical styles, including blue-eyed soul, industrial, adult contemporary, and jungle. Bowie's latest studio album The Next Day was released in March 2013.

(thanks to http://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-cocaine/?trackback=tsmclip and wikipedia.com)





What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

Ray Jozwiak: 2014

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Recording . . .

. . . is still fascinating to me. . . 


(from http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/recording-studio1.htm)
". . . Western Electric made electronic recording using microphones and amplifiers possible in 1925. Before that, performers in a music studio had to sit very close to the bell of a horn to record. This could mean crowding a large band or orchestra into a small space without a way to balance the volume produced by the various performers. Sound waves traveled through a membrane and onto a wax-coated disk.

Using the new technology, large groups could sit in their usual formations and sound volume could be modified, but larger halls were needed to produce the acoustics for a natural sound. Until the late 1940s, though, recordings could not be edited. That's because records continued to be produced by sending sound direct to disk and then creating a metal master to use in making copies [source: London: A Musical Gazetter].

That changed when the recording industry began using magnetic-coated sound recording tape. A German company, I.G. Farben, had improved the tape-coating process during the 1930s, but the tape didn't become available to the United States and other Allied nations until after World War II.

The arrival of multi-track recorders in the 1950s allowed studios to take cutting and mixing music a step further by taping and then combining separate tracks recorded at different times. The move to two-channel stereophonic sound in the late 1960s extended sound mixing even further by allowing studio engineers to experiment with effects like echo and reverb.

The 1970s saw long-playing disks (LPs) replaced by cassette tapes, which made music portable and offered technological advances like Dolby B noise reduction. However, the compact disc and digital tape recorder had superceded cassettes by the mid-1990s. The digital tape recorder allows studio tapes to be re-recorded onto digital tape, which is then used to burn master laser disks. From these, aluminum-coated plastic copies, or CDs, are made [source: History of Tape Recording].

The move to digital technology has extended beyond just tape production. Using digital devices and sometimes little more than a computer, musicians can easily and inexpensively combine composing, performing, recording and mixing functions. . . "



Slough of Despond
By OHO
(recorded at Blueball Studio, Stewartstown, PA)




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

Ray Jozwiak: 2014

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Thursday, February 13, 2014

An Entrepreneur. . .

. . . was opening a 'music studio' in our very own east Baltimore neighborhood (speaking of accordions).   (I always thought the term 'music studio' sounded impressive.  Sophisticated, cultured and exclusive.)  This studio was to be called the Maryland Accordion Institute.  (Talk about impressive, sophisticated, cultured and exclusive!)  The phone call was telemarketing for prospective clientele, namely wee sprites who were interested in learning to play that prince of all reed instruments, king of the Bohemian beer hall, and butt of many, many jokes - the accordion.  But, this was not the perception held by myself at the time.  Nor was it the perception held by many in a similar position at the time.  It was, quite honestly (and truly, unashamedly) an interesting and desirable proposition.  I was, indeed, VERY interested in learning to play the accordion.  DAMNED interested.  Those Sunday afternoons listening to Dad play his accordion, combined with my natural love of music, possibly even my lack of ambition and talent on the guitar, all united in my seven year old brain forming a profound hunger to learn to play the accordion.  As odd as it sounds, I did not regret at the time, nor do I now regret not pursuing the 'cool' -er musical path of playing the guitar.  It just never occurred to me that that's what I should have done.  And I never looked back.

You haven't lived . . . until you've heard forty seven accordionists playing HALLELUJAH I'M A BUM on a cold, Monday evening in November.  Kinda warms the cockles of your heart.  We used to have 'band practice', not as in a conventional 'band' of various compatible instruments rehearsing together for a performance, but a 'band' meaning a group, and 'practice' meaning just that.  And many of us most certainly needed practice. Theoretically, the concept had musical merit.  Playing with other music students promoted an understanding of time, tempo and dynamics, following a 'conductor' (of sorts) and taught cooperation, support, sympathy, patience, harmony, rhythm and accompaniment.

The configuration was four rows of metal, folding chairs of about 8 - 10 facing the conductor (an accordion teacher, most often Mr. Edward (Taylor) Krawcyk, whose back was to a row of assorted couches and chairs where the parents of the students sat to 'enjoy' the music of their progeny.  The protocol had the 'new' or less senior (accordion-wise) students in the first row, with students 'promoted' to the following rows as they progressed in skill, or sometimes when they merely 'hung in there' for a period, with or without really improving technically at all.  And the coup de gras for seriously dedicated students of the squeezebox, during each band practice, was the opportunity to perform a solo.  Only two rows of students were allowed to perform a  'solo' each week, simply because of the one-hour time limit of the weekly gathering.  The first two rows would offer solos one week, with only the 3rd and 4th rows the following week.  And Oh Boy, did I look forward to my time to 'shine' with a solo every other week.  This performance opportunity was not taken lightly, by myself at least, and much time and toil was taken in the selection, preparation and eventual performance of my bimonthly accordion solo. Yeah, that taste of public attention, appreciation, the thrill, the communication, the connection between performer and audience cannot be underestimated.  It's not ego.  It is a need.  Like a drug.  The accordion band practice refined my experience and perception of the performer/audience relationship.

After several years of accordion band practice sessions, which were really low-calibre concerts, I'm not quite sure what inspired or motivated me since nothing clear remains in my memory of the motivation, I wrote my first original composition. "You couldn't play the music so you made up your own,"  was one good-natured comment I received from the father of another accordion student at the conclusion of accordion practice on the night I chose to perform an original composition as my solo.  In fact, it was my very first original composition. The piece was entitled THE NEW YORK STRANGERS.  It was essentially, half blues and half folk song. It was not verse-chorus-verse-chorus, or verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus in structure.  It was first-part-second-part (repeat).  It had lyrics.  Very simple lyrics which I, unfortunately (and embarrassingly) do remember so will not repeat here.  It was inspired by. . . nothing in particular but the need to write an original composition.  Well, isn't that ENOUGH? The best part of the entire experience, and the finest nuance of the memory, is the look of pride on my very own father's face as I received congratulations from several listeners that evening.

There were times when I felt that I had ALWAYS taken accordion lessons.  Then there were times when I felt that I would never STOP taking them.  But through the twenty-twenty vision of hindsight, they were ten years well spent on lessons which exposed me, I can now say unwittingly, to a wealth of music theory.


Henry
©1997 Raymond M. Jozwiak
from 'Songs from Our Circle 4'




What do you think?
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My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

Ray Jozwiak: Black & White Then Back

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Brew . . .


(from www.wikipedia.com)
". . . Recording sessions took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio over the course of three days in August 1969. [Miles]Davis called the musicians to the recording studio on very short notice. A few pieces on Bitches Brew were rehearsed before the recording sessions, but at other times the musicians had little or no idea what they were to record. Once in the recording studio, the players were typically given only a few instructions: a tempo count, a few chords or a hint of melody, and suggestions as to mood or tone. Davis liked to work this way; he thought it forced musicians to pay close attention to one another, to their own performances, or to Davis's cues, which could change at any moment. On the quieter moments of "Bitches Brew", for example, Davis's voice is audible, giving instructions to the musicians: snapping his fingers to indicate tempo, or, in his distinctive whisper, saying, "Keep it tight" or telling individuals when to solo.

Davis composed most of the music on the album. The two important exceptions were the complex "Pharaoh's Dance" (composed by Joe Zawinul) and the ballad "Sanctuary" (composed by Wayne Shorter). The latter had been recorded as a fairly straightforward ballad early in 1968, but was given a radically different interpretation on Bitches Brew. It begins with Davis and Chick Corea improvising on the standard "I Fall in Love too Easily" before Davis plays the "Sanctuary" theme. Then, not unlike Davis's recording of Shorter's "Nefertiti" two years earlier, the horns repeat the melody over and over while the rhythm section builds up the intensity. The issued "Sanctuary" is actually two consecutive takes of the piece.

Despite his reputation as a "cool", melodic improviser, much of Davis's playing on this album is aggressive and explosive, often playing fast runs and venturing into the upper register of the trumpet. His closing solo on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Davis did not perform on the short piece "John McLaughlin". . . "






What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
Ray Jozwiak: Black & White Then Back

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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