Of course, the Funk Bros. (who played on all the original Motown
recordings before the label relocated to LA) were some of Detroit's
finest jazz players. They would track for Motown during the day (for
which they were paid a flat rate of $10/song) and play in the jazz
clubs at night. This was before the days of isolation booths and
recordings built up one track at a time, let alone today's auto-tune
and groove quantization -- the band had to do it in one, and it it
had to sound balanced in the room. (Vocals were overdubbed later.)
Even 10-12 years ago, "The Temptations" was just a brand, bearing
little to no resemblance to the individuals that actually recorded
"Ain't Too Proud To Beg" and the rest. They're effectively a
Temptations "tribute" band, with all of the bad taste that entails.
- Darcy
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://secretsociety.typepad.com
Brooklyn, NY
On 28 Jun 2006, at 11:44 AM, Raymond Horton wrote:
The arms race is true in orchestras, but can be much more true in
live pop and jazz. ..
About ten or 12 years ago, the Tempataions did a pair of outdoor
concerts with us. They had synths doubling all the orchestra parts
at ffff, and sound guys would come back and tell us that we
couldn't be heard, so we needed to jam the mics in our bells and
play as loud as possible. The volume was deafening on stage. ..
One song (I think it might have been "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", but
I'm not sure) has a break in the middle with a trombone unison
sixth position C. It was pencilled in to double it down an octave,
and marked with as many f's as could fit on the page. We played
the octaves as loud as humanly possible, but, again, they were
doubling everything with hugely amplified keyboards (I take that as
a sign that they have played with orchestras they don't trust to
come in, or that they play the show without brass and don't want to
mess with playing any differently with or without - but can't they
adjust their own _volume_ when they have an orchestra so that the
orchestra can be heard?) ..
After the second show, I left to drive overnight up to Cleveland
for the trombone workshop. On the way up , I heard the original
recording of the above mentioned song on the radio. My jaw dropped
open - it sounded like chamber music by comparison - and the
trombone Cs were unison only, very small bore, and light. The
recording sounded like about 12 instruments, tops. (And no synths,
of course.)
..
Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist,
Louisville Orchestra
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