My exciting week

Pictures:Guitarist Wayne Bosch and percussionist Tony Paco.

For those of you who aren’t connected to me via Facebook, I’d like to share with you what’s been happening in the last 7 days.

On Tuesday 18 January, exactly a week ago, I went into a studio close to where I live, and recorded one of my original songs. It was Little River Studio, owned by Ghalik Jacobs, and the song I chose to record was “I’m So Happy Today”, a samba I wrote in 2005. Originally it was going to be just guitar and voice, with Wayne Bosch, but on the day I was introduced to percussionist Tony Paco, who ended up playing on the track, and what a difference he made!

I got to the studio just after 10am and left at about 6:30pm. In that time we’d recorded 4 vocal takes, a few guitar takes and a few percussion tracks. I had to ease myself into the situation, and get my head around the many possibilities inherent in recording. I’m used to performing my songs live with Wayne, and one gets used to hearing things sounding a certain way – either both of us play our guitars and I sing, or he plays and I sing. But in the studio we recorded one track with him playing chords and a second track with him playing fills and licks, as well as a short solo between verses. So cool! Once I’d made peace with the fact that it’s ok to have a slightly different sound on a CD to a live performance, I relaxed into the process.

The first track Tony recorded was the shaker, and that immediately lifted the feel of the song. Then he did a conga track, which already made my heart dance, followed by a bongo track, which was the indisputable cherry on top. In fact, that song will never sound as good without that bright sparkly bongo sound. It’s festive, it’s happy, and it reminds me of Brazil! And, judging by feedback from people, it makes everyone want to dance!

I’ve always been curious about behind-the-scenes things, so I sat through some of the technical tweaking that Ghalik did after the other musicians had left, and I learnt a whole lot.

That evening, Ghalik e-mailed me the mp3 and I had a listen. Well, fussy Virgo that I am, I heard all kinds of things I wanted changed, and sent one of my anal e-mails to him, listing the changes, in point form! After some correspondence, he advised me to not only listen a few times, but to let as many people as possible listen and give me feedback. I e-mailed it to some close friends and waited for their feedback. I told him I was keen to put the track onto my Facebook wall, and he suggested I check out Soundcloud. On Thursday night, I uploaded my song onto www.soundcloud.com, and a whole new phase of my music journey began. I put the link onto Facebook and people started responding.

And then the momentum started rolling. My brother-in-law, Theo, does a bit of a guest slot on Heart Radio 104.9FM (in Cape Town) some Sunday nights, where he and another jazz lover take a selection of their private CDs to the studio and play their choice during Clarence Ford’s show. Well, right at the end of the show, they played my song!!!! 5 days after it had been recorded! And now, other exciting things are happening, about which I’ll write once plans have become reality.

I’m so glad I chose that particular song. I’d wanted to record a tongue-in-cheek, lazy blues I’d written in 2001, called “Joe”, but a very good friend, Zenariah, convinced me to do “I’m So Happy Today”, and what a good decision that was; the song is full of optimism and joy, excitement, hope and love; it’s a beginning-of-the-year song, but I think it will have resonance throughout the year. When I listen to it, it makes me smile, and I hope it has a similar effect on others.

Suffice it to say that I am VERY excited, and I am full of ideas about what to do next. The big dream is still to record and release a full album of my originals. That flame is burning more brightly today than ever before.

I feel incredibly blessed to have produced this recording with three fine people, each one a master of his craft, and to be surrounded by the love and support of my family and friends.

2011 – I am SO ready for you! What a great start!