Original Post by JPM:
In August of 2008, guitarist Dan Baraszu and I went in the studio for two days to record a live jazz duet Christmas CD. Today it has been released on Blue Canoe Records. It was honor to be able to record in an intimate setting with one of my favorite guitarist’s who happens to be a dear friend. At first I thought this would be an easy recording project, but the more I started working out the arrangement’s in pre-production, I knew it would be quite an undertaking. Recording in a duo setting (avoiding an over-produced CD) was a very eye opening experience. The stillness and nuance required in capturing a clean performance was ever more present. Every breath, string buzz, room noise, movement was amplified once we started adding compression and effects. In a sense, this was a very naked and bare recording with no other instruments to mask the inconsistencies of our performances (particularly drums). Capturing a great performance, minus all the ambient noises was probably the biggest hurdle we had to overcome.
Secondly, how many times have we heard the vast catalog of Christmas music from multiple artists over the years? Trying to re-arrange these “standard” tunes was in and of itself a challenge. The goal of course was to try and come up with something new or create a fresh unique approach to these classic songs. All in all, recording in this duo environment with Dan was a blast. I hope each of you will enjoy the CD as much as Dan and I had in performing/recording it.
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