Back in the day, most audio enthusiasts were also keen constructors, valve amp kits, instructions for projects from Mullard, or circuits from Wireless World were put together on kitchen tables on rsiny Saturday afternoons throughout the UK. Speaker building was also popular. Drawings of Tannoy and Goodmans cabinets were available, and Kef produced Kefkits. For those who wanted to make music, the possibilities were somewhat limited but the Ferrograph enabled those who could sing and play guitar or piano, to record themselves at 7.5 ips. Vortexion and Brenell tape machines offered sound on sound, NAB reels and 15 ips, Reslo and Film Industry mics were hugely popular and devices such as the Grampian spring reverb unit were something to dream about.

In these digital days the DIY aspect seems to have all but disappeared and audio has become a sedentary pastime. But digital technology has given us all the possibility to make music. It is versatile and cheap. Every school and college has a studio, and while larger commercial studios have decreased in number, project studios have sprung up like mushrooms. Many people have bought themselves “Music Minus One� CD's, beg borrowed or stolen a trumpet, saxophone trombone or guitar and discovered talents they did not know they possessed.

I play in a big band. We have just released our third commercial CD. Besides a shared hobby in making music, we have players with all the skills required for commercial CD production, portrait photography, recording, editing, mixing and mastering, graphic design, liner notes, translation, copyright and legal, sales and marketing etc etc. We even have our own equipment to replicate and print CDs, so that the only thing we can not do in house is cut, fold and print the digipack sleeve, although we can deliver the artwork complete in the format the printer requires.

We use our CDs as project samplers, as a calling card if you like, when approaching promoters, Our latest recording, “IDA sings ELLA� commemorates the centenary of the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald, features the young and very talented Ida Boucht, who is in her final year at the Vocal Institute in Copenhagen. We have played the first two of six scheduled concerts. Both were sold out.

Many of the arrangements used in this project are transcriptions of originals written by the legendary Nelson Riddle. Some titles have a 24 piece string-section (classical students in their final year)in addition to the band. Modern string players are not accustomed to the playing techniques of the 40s and 50s. It has been an interesting learning experience for them.

“Bewitched� by Cole Porter (1939) is one of my favourite tunes from this project. Yours truly wrote the arrangement, co-produced and engineered the recording, overdubbed his part in the saxophone section and also tootled the tenor solo.

Here is an mp3.
Please Take a listen. Comments are welcome.

http://mosabackabigband.com/data/doc.../Bewitched.mp3


Best Regards


Iain