copy of blog I wrote for for www.newberryoperahousesoundaudio.blogspot.com

John, Jazz, & The Starlight Quartet

Just this past Sunday, September 13, 2009, we played host to an amazing Clarinetist and Flutist, Dr. John W. Wagner. He brought the Starlight Quartet with him for the first half of his show. The Starlight Quartet consisted of Paula Harshaw (First Violin), Tina Pulley (Second Violin), Charis Burger (Viola), and Bruce McLean (cello). I have to admit that it was a such a nice change of pace to see a very good string quartet. We get them from time to time here, but sometimes it just feels like they are few and far between. For their audio I decided that, with some discussion with the performers, in order to keep in line with classical tradition I wasn't going to mic the ensemble. Of course not using any instrument micing, from a technical standpoint, makes for a very easy work day. Our hall here is very intimate. From the lip of our stage to the back wall of hall is 75 feet. Acoustically, it doesn't take much sound reinforcement to get a very good, even, and balanced sound and sometimes the best decision to make in order to have good sound is to have no sound reinforcement at all. I did, however, set up two of our wireless mics on each side of the stage in order to accommodate the singing and announcements that were to be in the jazz portion of the second half of the show. The first half of the show consisted of the quartet playing:

Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo,

composed in 1919 by Igor Stravinsky

Third Piece, preferably for Clarinet in B-flat

and

Quintet in A Major for Clarinet and Sring Quartet, K.581

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozard

Allegro

Larghetto

Menuetto

Allegrettocon Variazioni

After Intermission Dr. Wagner brought out his Jazz Combo. The Combo consisted of Muisicians:
Millie Keefe Black (Vocalist)

Shawn Hair (Pianist)

Katie Justice (Electric Bassist)

Martin Gailes (Percussion)

Together these talented musicians took us on a forty-five minute journey through such tunes as:

I want to be Happy by Vincent Youmans

I Love You for Sentimental Reasons by William Best

Nice Work If You Can Get It by George Gershwin

and many others spanning a wide range of sub generas within the"jazz" idiom.

For this half of the show I used only 2 microphones. Again, to keep it as simple as possible. Remember my two wireless mics that I was using for announcements and singing vocals. Yep, those were the only two I used. Of course Mrs. Millie Black, was using one for her wonderful vocals and the other, when it was not being used for Dr. Wagner's tune intros, was being used for picking up the rest of the ensemble on stage. I thought of early days of recording when engineers would use only one mic with the band performing around it as inspiration for this mix. I must say it was fun to "get more" by using "less." In order to pic up enough of the ensemble with 1 microphone I had to push the gain and then of course lower it to it's original level for Dr. Wagner's speeches. To polish off of the mix, I added the slightest bit of reverb and a pinch of slap back delay. Of course whether or not/ how much of effects I used was depended on what I felt in that moment the tune and performance called for.

Overall the performance of Dr. John Wagner, his Jazz, and the Starlight Quartet was a great way to unofficially start our 2009/10 season. Many thanks to all of the people who came out to the free event.

Thanks, Peace, and Blessings,

~JAG