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Indian Summer, 2004
There's no question that tablas are mega -cool. Skilled hands can coax from them endless sounds and rhythms, and no hands are more skilled than those at the end of Zakir Hussain's arms. I first worked with Zakir on a jazz show a few years ago, wherein he was playing with George Brooks, Mike Marshall and Kai Eckert. My recent work with Zakir, son of long time Ravi Shankar accompanist Alla Rakha, was for two concerts of North Indian classical music.
On Sept. 17, as part of the San Francisco World Music Festival, Zakir accompanied bansuri flute master G.S. Sachdev at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. The acoustic environment at Grace presents special challenges - whenever I go back I can still hear traces of the last show I did there echoing about the place - requiring the use of a distributed delay speaker system to keep the sound intelligible throughout the seating area.
The other event took place Nov. 20 at the San Jose Civic Auditorium under the auspices of the Ali Akbar College of Music, and presented Zakir with Alam A. Khan, son of Ali Akbar Khan, on sarod. The concert was originally to have featured Khansahib himself, but illness forced him to withdraw. The second half of the program featured Zakir accompanied by violinist Kala Ramnath. The arena-like nature of the Civic combined with a desire to keep things simple with speaker stacks on the stage suggested the use of a line array. Jim Case of TNT provided a V-DOSC system that quite lived up to its reputation, evenly projecting articulate sound around the room and providing dynamic range more than sufficient to let Zakir, serious, accomplished, keeper of musical traditions but also the rock star of Indian musicians, express himself with abandon.
Zakir is a part time resident of the Bay Area, and a video crew from San Francisco's KQED was there shooting a segment on him for their series about the local arts scene, "Spark". After I gave them an audio tie-in, they asked if they could shoot some B-roll footage of me. If you can catch the broadcast (December or January), watch for my right hand moving some faders which actually had nothing to do with the concert except reside on the same mixer.
Whilst on the subject of tablas, it is worth mentioning that I had the pleasure of working with my tabla-totin' friend Kukoo, who was playing in one of two ensembles assembled by the Nejad World Music Center to accompany Ballet Afsaneh, directed by the incredible Sharlyn Sawyer, in a Concert of Persian Music and Dance on Aug. 28th, at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose.
It is worth mentioning here that there are artists and performers from all over the world courageously bringing their art before the public here and abroad, in defiance of the political baggage which so obnoxiously comes between cultures and countries. I suggest that we dig the good that the world has to offer, check out shows and artworks, and scarf exotic cuisine.
What's Up? October 2004
Kimrea & Dreamdogs "Pre-Platinum" CD Released September 15th, 2004 to rave reviews! Recorded and mixed by Allen Lam. Recorded live at the Sweetwater.
" Allen did a fabulous job from start to finish. The recording went so smoothly. We got exactly what we wanted from him. The sound quality is excellent, drums, bass, guitars, vocals all rich and clear. The live energy really comes through. We are very happy with this CD." Go to www.kimrea.com to find out more!
What's Up? vol.2 September 2003
You can take me out of the Theatre, but you can't take the Theatre out of me. Back in the 80's or thereabouts I spent considerable time as sound designer for Oakland Ensemble Theatre and other Bay Area professional theatre companies, but I thought those times were way past. Not so, doubter. Last year I was called by the Magic Theatre as a consultant to sharpen up the sound reinforcement in their production of the rock musical BETTY RULES...........A GUY FROM ATLANTIC WANTS TO SIGN US. This fall I have signed on as engineer for the first full production of MY GYPSY, a new musical with lots'o'really good tunes written by Will Gordon. As I'm riding herd on 13 wireless omni mics pinned to the all-singing, all-dancing cast, you can bet I'm not bringing a book to any of the performances. As if mounting a new musical isn't enough fun, the company is bringing it to four venues in two months: The Lisser Theater on Oakland's Mills College campus (y'all remember the San Francisco Tape Music Center back at the dawn of the Electronic Music Age, don't you?), the Cowell Theater in S.F.'s Fort Mason, The Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley (across the street from Sweetwater - the more things change the more they stay the same), and the Del Valle Theater in Walnut Creek.
As I type these words I'm contemplating striking the Lisser tomorrow night and then going almost directly to my umpteenth year bringing sound to the Art Deco Society's Gatsby picnic, featuring the authentic period jazz of Don Neely's Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, stopping only briefly to don my new plus fours. The challenge here is to carry the music around Dunsmuir Gardens without calling enough attention to the amplification to remind the Art Deco era re-creators what year it really is.
Got a chance to mix Dame Cleo Laine and John Dankforth at the Spreckels Center for the Performing Arts in Rohnert Park. Oscar Hammerstein was right. Cleo and John and their band are such total pros that working with them was totally transparent and effortless. By far the hardest part was getting to Rohnert Park by way of a Cotati made virtually impassable by the Cotati Accordion Festival. There may be no coincidences, but how do you explain the fact that only the night before I had worked with Transylvanian avant garde accordion master and featured festival performer Guy Klucevsek. Furthermore, in November I'll be returning to Spreckels with the Festival of Harps. Coincidence or Conspiracy - you decide.
What about Kimrea and Dreamdogs? Thanks for asking. The live recording at Sweetwater went swimmingly, the rough mixes already sound like a record, bringing much toe-tapping to those who've gotten to hear them. Copies of the roughs are now in the hands of the musicians, who are busily taking notes if they know what's good for them.
Which reminds me: I'm offering low, low low introductory rates for location recording, on the gig or at your chateau or production complex, to good musicians with interesting projects whilst I increase my portfolio. Yes, I know..........you have multitrack software and a USB interface and your buddy has a $699 multitrack replete with CD-R burner. Nonetheless, hear the difference that someone who's spent a lifetime placing microphones and paying attention can make to your tracks. Even in 2003, you really can't fix it in the mix. You can reach me right here: allenears@allenlam.com
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