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A year ago, my friend Woody Mankowski came up with an idea to transform some of our all-time favorite songs by creating fantasies inspired by their melodic content yet removed enough to not be considered "covers." This was the first collaboration, inspired by Harold Arlen's "Over The Rainbow." We call them "fantasies."
"No Place Like Home" was the first arrangement I did after buying my new piano last summer, and the arrangement is greatly influenced by the sound of that piano. It employs some of the types of chords I loved to play as a late-teen, and so it is also a journey home, musically. "Over The Rainbow" was my mother's favorite song.
I would love input regarding the balance between sax and piano. Please be honest. Recording and mixing the soprano saxophone is the most difficult thing I've encountered from an engineering point of view. Not only is it difficult to record, since the timbre of its registers differs widely, the sound comes out of the horn in drastically unique places depending on the note played. This mix strikes a balance (in my ears) between how it sound in speakers and in headphones. (Too often in speakers the sax is too loud and in headphones it is too soft, in comparison to the piano.) Let me know how you feel, and please let me know on what sort of system/phones you listened.
If you'd like to hear how it sounds with no sax at all, please check out the version I plan including on my upcoming release, "Song of Myself", a collection of reinterpreted covers. Draft tracks are posted here: Song of Myself. There are some other tracks on that page that you're welcome to listen to, as well.
My major collaboration with Woody Mankowski, previously, was the well-received "The Muller's Wheel," which many of you helped with by lending your ears during the mixing/mastering process. The resulting CD is on sale via iTunes (you can search for it there) and CDBaby: The Muller's Wheel. Here are some direct links to the MJ draft mixes, prior to being perfected for the release:
Seafood Gumbo Bop
Oasis On The Rocks
Saddle Shoe Sally
Lost In The West Village
The Müller's Wheel
Windowshade
Fusion of Minds
Struttin' Up Bourbon
River Runs Through Me
Other songs featuring Woody Mankowski:
Pilgrim of the Return
Final Words
A Promise
Dreams III
For more regarding "Song of Myself," please see the project page on my website: http://www.tobinmueller.com/solo/
Other tracks from "Song of Myself" shared on MacJams include:
Dignity (by Bob Dylan)
Blackbird (by Paul McCartney)
Frozen Man (by James Taylor)
Oh Danny Boy (traditional)
No Place Like Home (a duet: piano/soprano sax)
Before There Were Gods (with Michael Hedges)
"No Place Like Home" was the first arrangement I did after buying my new piano last summer, and the arrangement is greatly influenced by the sound of that piano. It employs some of the types of chords I loved to play as a late-teen, and so it is also a journey home, musically. "Over The Rainbow" was my mother's favorite song.
I would love input regarding the balance between sax and piano. Please be honest. Recording and mixing the soprano saxophone is the most difficult thing I've encountered from an engineering point of view. Not only is it difficult to record, since the timbre of its registers differs widely, the sound comes out of the horn in drastically unique places depending on the note played. This mix strikes a balance (in my ears) between how it sound in speakers and in headphones. (Too often in speakers the sax is too loud and in headphones it is too soft, in comparison to the piano.) Let me know how you feel, and please let me know on what sort of system/phones you listened.
If you'd like to hear how it sounds with no sax at all, please check out the version I plan including on my upcoming release, "Song of Myself", a collection of reinterpreted covers. Draft tracks are posted here: Song of Myself. There are some other tracks on that page that you're welcome to listen to, as well.
My major collaboration with Woody Mankowski, previously, was the well-received "The Muller's Wheel," which many of you helped with by lending your ears during the mixing/mastering process. The resulting CD is on sale via iTunes (you can search for it there) and CDBaby: The Muller's Wheel. Here are some direct links to the MJ draft mixes, prior to being perfected for the release:
Seafood Gumbo Bop
Oasis On The Rocks
Saddle Shoe Sally
Lost In The West Village
The Müller's Wheel
Windowshade
Fusion of Minds
Struttin' Up Bourbon
River Runs Through Me
Other songs featuring Woody Mankowski:
Pilgrim of the Return
Final Words
A Promise
Dreams III
For more regarding "Song of Myself," please see the project page on my website: http://www.tobinmueller.com/solo/
Other tracks from "Song of Myself" shared on MacJams include:
Dignity (by Bob Dylan)
Blackbird (by Paul McCartney)
Frozen Man (by James Taylor)
Oh Danny Boy (traditional)
No Place Like Home (a duet: piano/soprano sax)
Before There Were Gods (with Michael Hedges)
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Philip18
A beautiful interpretation. I'm listened on a set of Sennheiser PX 100-II headphones and thought the balance between piano and sax was fine. I think that balance depends a bit on whether it is your intention for the sax to be the lead and therefore out front or just for there to be interplay between the two, with levels about even. I certainly like what you've done with the tune. Recognisable but different. Impressive work, Tobin!