Gary Powell, Composer/Producer

by Gary Powell

As an alumnus of the University of California at Irvine, Ted Kryczko, VP of A&R Catalog Development at Walt Disney Records, has rekindled a close relationship with the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. As an distinguished alumnus, Ted offered a recent opportunity to the singers from its School of Performing Arts where they could be heard and critiqued by industry professionals. This studio session was a callback from an audition we held on the UC Irvine campus on November 17, 2007. In 2005, Ted and I offered a similar vocal workshop for singers at the “Buffalo Summer Institute in Media Writing and Production” in Buffalo, New York.

Most of these singers from UC Irvine had either never sung in a professional recording studio or had not performed as a soloist in a studio before. For this session Ted chose the studio Soundworks, which is owned by engineer and long time associate Jeff Sheridan. Soundworks, located in North Hollywood, is well-known for providing audio production services for a wide range of recordings for television, radio and music projects.

Just singing in the studio with headphones on and re-learning how to sing in tune in this unfamiliar environment is a major adjustment for any singer, but on this day, the singers were also challenged to learn a song in under fifteen minutes. Each singer was then given about thirty minutes to record the song with my vocal coaching set on speed-dial. I can attest that these vocal performers are being taught something wonderful at UC Irvine. I found each of them professional in their demeanor with an excellent set of ear-training skills as well. I was amazed at how comfortable these singers were in being coached at this level of detail while under pressure. Let’s hope we all will get to know these names as they move forward in their performing careers.

My special thanks to all of the UCI singers for a really fun day: Katie Horwitch, Mazie Wilson, Kristen Rude, Laura D’Andre, Melissa Dunham, Julia Goretsky, Zach Reiner-Harris, Ian Stuart, Ryan Farnsworth, Jeffrey Benson Parker and Kari Hall

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Filed by Gary Powell at 10:15 pm under Recording Session Notes
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by Gary Powell

• SIXTEEN “Tween” Pop Songs Produced
• TEN Vocal Jazz Songs Recorded and Mixed
• ONE Jazz Choir Piece Recorded and Mixed
• EIGHT “Tween” Pop Song Vocals Produced and Mixed
• ONE Spanish Song Written and Produced
• ONE Italian Song Orchestrated and Produced
• THIRTY-FOUR Movie Cues Composed and Mixed
• EIGHT Musical Storybook Cues Composed and Mixed
• ONE Pop Song Written and Produced
• Four Folk Rock Songs Produced
• TWO Christmas Songs Produced and Mixed
• FIFTEEN Poetry Music Cues Scored and Produced
• ONE Instructional DVD for Classical Guitar
• FOUR “In the Studio with Gary Powell” Shows Produced
• SEVEN Personal Appearances as a Speaker or in Facilitator in Vocal Workshops

January

Recorded ten songs for the Austin Vocal Group “Take 5” Album Project.

Composed and Produced eight one-minute underscore cues for a European audio release of “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

February

Presented private “In the Studio with Gary Powell” show featuring Craig Toungate for Wes Bishop’s birthday party.

Produced eight songs for Disney’s Karaoke Series,“Disney Girlz Rock”.

March

Delivered a speech to the Austin Downtown Rotary Club on the state of the music business.

Facilitated a Vocal Workshop for the theatrical singers at DeSales University with Director, Dennis Razze.

April

Brainstormed in a three day personal workshop with theatrical director, Alan Souza, for my major musical work of “Aristotle’s Prayer”.

Record two publishing demos for singer/songwriter, Faith Greve.

Wrote and recorded “Go Go Bananas” for Walt Disney Records’ new release “The Jungle is Jumpin’“.

Arranged and produced “Baloo”, a previously unreleased song from “The Jungle Book”, for “The Jungle is Jumpin’“.

May

Produced Rich Harney’s composition, “Jesus Lamb of God”, a Choral Recording.

Produced Helen Darling’s Publishing Demo for her song “Mistake”.

Arranged and recorded the string orchestra for the song “Se” from the movie Cinema Paradiso for singer Giovanni Giglini.

Arranged and produced two more publishing demos for singer/songwriter Faith Greve.

June

Hosted and produced an “In the Studio” concert, featuring Craig Toungate and Susan Lincoln, in Huntsville, Texas for my father’s 83rd birthday.

Recorded and produced eight songs for Disney Karaoke Series, “The Cheetah Girls 2″.

July

Recorded and produced the vocal tracks for “Disney’s Karaoke Series, Hannah Montana”.

Arranged, recorded and produced “Holly Jolly Christmas”, featuring Craig Toungate.

August

Rode motorcycles with Larry Seyer to Branson, Missouri for a week of meetings with performers and visits to venues.

September

Edited and archived audio and video recordings from my studio for singer Joe York’s Memorial Service at Austin’s Zilker Park.

Finished a year-long project producing the video for classical guitarist Philippe Bertaud, “Philippe Bertaud, On the Music of Hector Villa-Lobos”.

October

Began creative meetings with Glendalough Studios for their feature film “Guilty“.

Completed work scoring the poetry of John Lee (began recording in 2005) to be released in the Fall of 2008 under the title, “John Lee, Thunderstorm in Mentone”.

November

Spent six days in Los Angeles for pre-production, development, thematic and creative meetings with clients.

Wrote and recorded the theme song, “Obscura la Noche” for placement in Glendalough Studios’ movie “Guilty“.

Composed and recorded the original score for Glendalough Studios’ movie “Guilty“.

December

Mixed and delivered the score for the movie “Guilty“.

Finished and delivered the final mix of “Se” for singer Giovanni Giglini.

PICTURED AT RIGHT FROM THE TOP DOWN:
Gary Powell, Amy Person, Max & Jessie Powell, Vanessa Joy & Amy Person, Giovanni Giglini, Taylor Seyer, Alice Gerhart, Amy Person & Sae Minh & Peter Minh & Gary Powell, Larry Seyer, Dennis Razze, Faith Greve, Ted Kryczko, Paul Baker, Philippe Bertaud, Alison Acton & Helen Darling, Yakov Smirnoff, Take 5, Helen Darling, Gary Powell & Chris McGuiness, Alison Acton, Larry Seyer, David Wise, Susan Lincoln & Craig Toungate, Alicia Jones, Mike Mordecai, Max Powell, Luiz Coutinho, Joel Cowen, Ben Nippis, Lisa Minchich, Rich Harney, Gary Slechta, Mr. Marvin

View Gary Powell’s Profile on LinkedIn

(Please note that I do not represent the Walt Disney Company nor do I sell their recordings.
For more information please go directly to Walt Disney Records
or follow the links within my site for specific titles.)

Filed by Gary Powell at 11:41 am under Recording Session Notes
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Just entering the film festival season is Glendalough Studio’s first feature film Guilty.

As my first entree into the feature film scoring role, I found the process of musically interpreting the work of filmmaker Gabe Folse and his team intriguing. In my experience of scoring dozens of corporate communications videos, I was seldom asked to render emotions musically, even had I found any emotions to render. Gabe Folse’s movie is rich with layers of visual, scripted and acted emotions. Clearly, this is film was born from living the compromises of a closely examined life. This landscape of compromise and redemption is the place where music lives most naturally for me.

A modern film-noir, GUILTY is the story of a washed-up private investigator Frank Cord, who takes on a high profile murder case that leads him down a path of deception, reflection and a chance at redemption.

Tonight, December 11th, is Glendalough Studio’s first private screening of the film at Austin Studios. Best of luck to all of the many talented people involved.

Written, Produced and Directed by Gabriel Folse
Produced by Greg McCreight
Music Composed by Gary Powell

Filed by Gary Powell at 4:53 pm under Recording Session Notes
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by Gary Powell, Musical Arranger/Producer

The World Premier song “Baloo” is being released on Walt Disney Records this October 2, a mere 44 years after it was written. This very simple piano/vocal score was dated September 19, 1963 with the writing credits, “Lyrics by Bill Peat and Music by George Burns”. This song did not make the original cut for the “Jungle Book” movie. I’ll leave the full story about how and why to the Disney historians. As a musical arranger and producer, it was satisfying to bring this song to life in my studio.

Disney executive producer Ted Kryczko suggested a Louis Prima type of feel to match our earlier recording of “The Bare Necessities”. I accomplished this by first playing the piano part using Larry Seyer’s GigaPiano which comes packaged with GigaStudio3. Next I played in the tuba part with a sample from the SAM Solo Sessions Orchestral Brass Library and lastly added drums from Larry Seyer’s Acoustic Drum Library. Then the very same Larry Seyer of Many Talents played the shuffle banjo part on a vintage 1972 5-String Alvarez Silver Princess loaned to us by Austin psychotherapist Amy Person. You don’t really need that information, but it does make perfect sense for musicians who never see daylight that we have our own personal therapist on the property.

After playing the banjo part Larry Seyer says, “sounds like this piece needs a trumpet, clarinet and trombone.” Yep! Within twenty minutes I had all three players (pictured left) booked and scheduled. Saxman Paul Baker drove across Austin with his licorice stick immediately. The black-gloved trombone man, Mike Mordecai, was literally driving in front of my parents old house when I called. I don’t believe in synchronicity except when this kind of thing happens. Austin’s favorite improvisational trumpet man, Gary Slechta, followed Paul Baker and Mike Mordecai’s lead performing with plunger in hand the next day as if these guys played together all the time, which they do!

I broke with traditional recording techniques for recording these horn parts. Each player’s improvised part was recorded with a stereo pair of David Royer’s Mojave MA-200 cardiod tube microphones. For the clarinet I put one Mojave about a foot under the bell for the spittal sound and the second Mojave about a foot over the middle of the clarinet for the warmth of Paul’s playing. I followed suit with the same stereo miking technique for Gary Slechta’s trumpet. For Mike Mordecai’s trombone, I thought it might be fun to capture a left to right stereo image when he would naturally drop the bell of his trombone on a long slide out. Therefore, I miked the trombone with the pair of Mojaves directly on top of each other about four feet apart. This trombone stereo pair was panned hard left and right, which gave each the horn some natural imaging movement that I just loved in the mix. The clarinet bell microphone, which is more percussive, was panned hard left and the more mellow mid-instrument microphone was panned hard right. I reversed this panning choice for the trumpet to balance the left/right brightness in the mix.

A Disney favorite singer, Craig Toungate, who covered the new recording of Baloo’s vocal on “Bare Necessities” also came to put the icing on the cake.

Filed by Gary Powell at 3:02 am under Recording Session Notes
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by Gary Powell, Producer

“Jesus, Lamb of God” Rich Harney, Composer

Austin jazz pianist and composer Rich Harney has been gracious enough to give me permission to share his jazz choral piece, “Jesus, Lamb of God”, with you.

When recording choral ensembles, I prefer to let the music dictate or at least guide me to the appropriate recording technique. Budget, studio space, singer capabilities or even singer availability are all part of the equation. The singers, in relation to the music, must also be considered in choosing how to produce the recording session.

For Rich’s piece, I chose the choral recording method which creates the richest, most homogenous sound. It’s a nice way to produce chorale compositions because it “blurs the ears” from hearing individual parts. Because of the tight voicings of Rich’s piece, however, we also took special care to scale the size of individual voices and vibratos. As you will hear, we have created a wide and airy sound with only nine different singers. All but the lowest alto and basses sang multiple parts on multiple recording passes, which is another nice way to homogenize the sound and performance gestures. Career studio session singers all become fluent in these vocal gestures with the ability to create, take dictation, harmonize, read and change quickly all within the ensemble at hand.

Performance gestures include the initial transient (how each note begins), tone, vowel sounds, vibrato, envelope (how it all changes over time) and release.

The men and women were recorded separately and in a “mid-side” microphone configuration. Distances from the mics varied from four to six feet depending on the tone and volume within each singer’s tessitura.

WOMEN: Alicia Jones, Leslie Whiteley, Deborah Leigh, Dianne Donovan
MEN: John White, Rich Harney, David Stevens,
Bert Meisenbach, Gary Powell
PIANO: Rich Harney UPRIGHT BASS: Spencer Starnes
(Choir Recorded by Larry Seyer)

I have a multi-decade musical relationship with every singer except for Dianne Donovan who is new to my studio. Diane is an announcer and producer for KMFA, Austin’s classical radio station. Welcome, Diane, and thank you lending your vocal talents to Rich Harney’s piece. Also, I hope you will take special note of Spencer Starnes’ wonderful bass performance.

Filed by Gary Powell at 10:33 pm under Listening Posts, Recording Session Notes
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by Gary Powell, Austin Vocal Producer

Rich Harney is a small man by physical stature, but you’ll think again when when hearing him play piano.

RICH HARNEY PLAYS DEEP!

I have known Rich for a couple of decades just from both of us being in the Austin music scene. He knows I specialize in working with studio singers and studio choral recordings are a mainstay of my production business. I am honored that Rich sought me out for the recording of “Jesus, Lamb of God”, which is Rich’s new choral composition. The piece is haunting and healing largely from the beautiful colors drawn from Rich’s harmonic personal library.

You can hear pianists thinking as they play. Some are linear players always headed to the next line or melodic improvisation. I’m almost sure I can hear Rich Harney thinking vertically. He has a wonderful command of the jazz harmonic idiom and improvises in every vertical moment with great acumen and sense of sonority adventure. Wow, that was a mouthful and probably only made sense to music composition majors!

Rich composed his choral piece, “Jesus, Lamb of God”, with a piano accompaniment which we decided to record first. I have two Yamaha pianos. In the studio is a Yamaha C7 (7′4″) and in the screening room is a much more mellow Yamaha G5 (6′5′). The G5 was manufactured in Japan with a slightly different cabinet and design seemingly voiced for the classical pianist’s ear. Rich preferred the G5 for its softer tone.

Both Yamaha pianos are meticulously maintained by Brian Henselman, owner of Music Masters Piano Service here in Austin, Texas. I purchased the G5 from Brian who is a great source for people who are serious about locating the perfect instrument.

Click Piano Photo to Enlarge
When I want to record the G5, which is not in the studio proper, I record on my Apple G4 powerbook using MOTU’s Traveler interface with a pair of AT-4033’s at 24bit 44.1k . Rich gave an incredible performance which included a solo before recapping the main theme. A couple of takes for microphone placement and a couple of takes for creative decisions and we were done. Studios can certainly mask the marginal skills of musicians. This is mostly not true for the jazz community who do not hide behind technology and navel rings. Rich Harney, from among the best, is a very consistent and deliberate player and this piece proves it.

To prepare for the choir, I took Rich’s piano performance into the studio and built a click track from his rubato performance. I do this just in case we need a click for the singers, but also for good “housekeeping” which makes locating much faster during subseqeunt sessions. This kind of preparation makes for a much smoother and enjoyable session for our Austin studio vocalists.

I am proud to have been a part of this project. I’ll write about the choral recording session soon and introduce those singers.

Rich Harney gigs and records with Austin’s best. In 2003, Rich and saxophonist/flutist Alex Coke released “Soul Prayers”. Rich Harney has also recorded with jazz vocalist Beth Ullmann which you can find at “Heart Music”.

Filed by Gary Powell at 7:48 pm under Recording Session Notes
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