Phil Keaggy has long been one of my favourite guitarists. On YouTube you will find many, many clips of actual song performances or concerts. His creativity on guitar and in songwriting has blessed many for decades. Every once in a while I need a "Phil fix": to just watch some clips of his finger work. A master on both electric and acoustic guitars - even with only 9 fingers. Enjoy this song (Phil has always sounded a bit like Sir McCartney to me...)
Well, last night was a first: my first time taking the skills as an audio technician and making a memorable night for this local Christian music artist - Gina Milanese. We all had a good time to simply enjoy her music along with a backup band consisting of local musicians who did a fine job rounding out her sound.
I've never done a local pub scene before. Never done anything outside of a church before. It was Gina's first public performance as a solo artist and I wanted to make sure it sounded good for all the people who were paying to come last night. All those years of learning to plan and organize paid off. I made sure she had each set planned for the songs she was going to do, when the draws were going to be done, and so forth. We had a limited amount of time and I wanted to make sure it all flowed smoothly. The drummer (who is our church's main drummer and the one who offered my services for the evening) said it was the most organized gig he had ever played in - and he's done a lot of them. A big "Thank You" goes to Gina's manager, Cathy Yanko. She did all the room setup. Gina's husband, Neil, did a PowerPoint that ran throughout the evening.
Unfortunately for me, the sound board was a unit built into a wooden rack with all the amps and equalizers mounted under it located in the corner of the tiny platform. I had to sit in the corner against the wall so most of the people wouldn't see me. I had the bass amp blasting in my right ear and Gina's stage monitor blasting in my left ear. It began hurting after about half an hour. Thankfully, I did have a couple of opportunities to jump off the stage and listen from the rear of the room to see if my sound balancing was decent. It was all good. Glad I had found the owner's manual for the sound board to read up on how some of the effects worked. Added a bit of room reverb to make her voice and electronic piano sound a bit larger.
I actually did get paid and I got the evening's poster signed by her too! Can't wait to do another one!
It all started with doing the usual worship practice at church this morning...
Once the practice was done, it was mentioned there was going to be a recital this afternoon. It was organized by the daughter of the man who was instrumental in opening the door to getting the job I now have (he gave me his business card after a previous recital last fall). The woman was going to be there around 12:30pm to begin setting up for the recital — mostly music students of hers. When she came in, I began asking her what sort of set-up she wanted for microphones, monitors and so forth. I began asking pertinent questions about placement, types of music to be done and any additional music to be used. Some problems surfaced in playing the burned CD music. It meant it had to be played on the computer; a tricky proposition to juggle 4 music CDs on 2 machines with the sound board in between. When she mentioned her father was planning to run the sound board, I had grave reservations about his ability to run all of the sound equipment effectively — in such a way that the performers would not be afraid of what was going on and that their voices would be heard clearly. I offered to run the equipment; much to her relief. When he was told I would be doing sound, I reassured him that he could just sit back and enjoy the recital (which is kind of tough for a man who is very used to getting his “hands dirty” and helping out).
But the very best part of the whole recital was this young lady (couldn't be more than 22; looks a lot younger..) who was doing a jazz number entitled, The Girl in 14-G. We rehearsed the song a couple of times to ensure a decent mix for the monitors. She was just so innocent and down-to-earth and likeable and demure and charming and well...just so nice. Her name was Elana Laing.
But when it came to her song near the end of the recital — she just blew me away, and everyone else that was there . She has a stellar clear voice courtesy of years of operatic training, and is now turning her musical talents toward jazz music. I don't think I could say enough good things about her and I hope her MySpace spot changes soon from “unsigned” for a record label to “is now signed with (insert big name music company here)”. A renowned jazz pianist (see below) who was also at the recital was dumbfounded that this young lady hadn't done any serious CDs for release yet. Today was like being at the turning point of someone's career where they get launched from obscurity to fame — stay tuned! Check out her single on her MySpace area (or the other one) and make no bones about it: what you hear is exactly how she sings!
Now at the other end of the spectrum was a young teen lady, Corinna Griffiths, who sang One Bright Candle from the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. This gal had a speech impediment from what seemed to be neurological damage to one side of her face. The courage it took for her to sing this song in front of a crowd of parents, kids and peers was amazing. I almost cried when she finished .
A jazz pianist (who does tuning on the side — or maybe the other way 'round) by the name of John Sherwood did a couple of numbers on our church's baby grand — just before running off to Toronto to open for a jazz festival.
. She has a stellar clear voice courtesy of years of operatic training, and is now turning her musical talents toward jazz music. I don't think I could say enough good things about her and I hope her MySpace spot changes soon from “unsigned” for a record label to “is now signed with (insert big name music company here)”. A renowned jazz pianist (see below) who was also at the recital was dumbfounded that this young lady hadn't done any serious CDs for release yet. Today was like being at the turning point of someone's career where they get launched from obscurity to fame — stay tuned!
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WIDGETIZE